Terrorist's Weapon Of Choice

Petrol bomb: The jet fuel in the planes that hit the World Trade Centre
released the energy of 1.8 kilotons of TNT

Why A Can Of Petrol Is More Dangerous Than A Dirty Bomb
-- Daily Mail

Intelligence experts reported recently that terrorist groups are taking advantage of the chaos in Pakistan to get radioactive material, and are hoping to use it to make a 'spectacular' attack on the West.

People fear they might explode such a weapon in London or another major city, kill hundreds, if not thousands, trigger widespread panic, and perhaps force an indefinite evacuation.

Much of this fear is unwarranted. Dirty bombs spread radioactivity, and that's bad - but true nuclear weapons, such as the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are much worse because of their enormous release of energy, the equivalent of 18,000 tons of TNT for Nagasaki alone.

Most of the deaths in these nuclear attacks came from blast and fire, and less than two per cent from lingering radioactivity.

Could terrorists make a true nuclear weapon completely on their own? Virtually all experts say no.

Read more ....

My Comment: A dirty bomb will have both an economic impact .... and a psychological one. Exploding a dirty bomb in the middle of New York City will not only result in a mass evacuation, but the loss of hundreds of billions .... if not a trillion dollars in loss economic activity, plummeting real estate values, and insurance claims. With the U.S. economic situation being what it is today .... such an attack would be devastating, crippling Wall Street and putting the world into a deep recession.

There may not be many dead people hanging around .... but the casualties will compriseterr the entire population of the United States.