Terrorists will strangle us with our own bureaucracy

[Iason Ouabache]

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/07/terrorists-figure-ou.html

According to the FBI, terrorists have noticed that Americans will go crazy and attack themselves (shutting down public spaces and transit, evacuating busy areas, subjecting innocents to search, detention and questioning) if you leave a "suspicious" bag in a public place. This is thanks to programs like New York City's "See Something, Say Something," which generates thousands of calls about "suspicious activity" every year, not one of which has ever led to an actual terrorism arrest. Of course, leaving bags of water or socks is an errand that's a lot less risky than planting bombs.

[Remington]

Autoimmune disorders, ITT.

[AFK]

In a similar vein, I remember once someone postulating that a terrorist organization could royally mess up the economy here simply by planting either a fake or inactive nuclear device in one of the gazillion containers that arrive in our ports every day.  Because as it is now, they only search and screen a very small percentage of them.  If they were to come across a fake/inactive device, they would suddenly have to start screening and searching EVERY container.  This would grind shipping and cargo operations to a near halt, prices for everything would go up. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Well there was that plot in New York about a month ago which actually turned out to be something.
Interesting that they've taken it to the level of Mindfuck though.

[Elder Iptuous]

It has been a point of data in my mind regarding the overblown nature of the threat to the country from terrorists that this has not been a problem so far.

these guys aren't idiots.  if they wanted to simply bring the country to its knees, they would have done just this a loooong time ago.
that indicates to me that there is some danger from terrorists that want to make big splashes and dramatic messages, but not from a pragmatic get-the-job-done enemy.
in turn, an enemy that only makes dramatic gestures and messages makes me think of Emmanuel Goldstein....
of course, i'm paranoid....