Have you ever idly thought up a terrorist attack strategy?

[Basement Cat]

A couple of years before 9/11 I read a magazine article about some famous mystery writer who had consulted with the police or FBI because she wanted to make sure that her factual descriptions of criminals making bombs weren't 'how to' guides for making home-made bombs.

I was plotting a modern thriller and wanted my story to be as similarly realistic as I could manage, but in the course of brainstorming I suddenly realized I'd come up with a feasible strategy for making a biological attack. My idea was fairly new at the time, though I'm not endangering anyone now, but the gist of it partly involved using the anti-mosquito spraying trucks that prowl Houston and Galveston (where the story was placed) as a vector for releasing anthrax into the general populace.

NOTE: After 9/11 the FBI invited the general public to send in ideas for how terrorists might try to cause trouble in the U.S. and this idea ended up on their extended list. I didn't send it in, but bioweapons were near the top of peoples' worry list and it wasn't exactly that hard to come up with. What I'm NOT including here are a couple of bits of trivia on how to actually achieve such an real world attack (which was where my original idea really kicked in) because I won't go there. It's called being responsible.

So don't any of you either. Share what ideas you might have (or do) come up with but leave out any key points that would give any nutcase or real terrorist a 'How to' set of instructions.

 

[MammothBlade]

1. Break into CERN with an IBM 5100
2. Overload the circuit breakers and place volatile radioactive materials into the particle accelerator
3. Activate large hadron collider
4. Get the hell out of there

Like a professional.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Find bomb.
Place bomb somewhere full of people.
Get away from the blast.
BOOM!

I am a rather simple hypothetical terrorist.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

.....looking at this thread now, I feel like I've probably just been put on some FBI watch list.

 

[telocaster]

.....looking at this thread now, I feel like I've probably just been put on some FBI watch list.

Feelin the same vibe.

I sure hope none of these happen.

 

[Basement Cat]

.....looking at this thread now, I feel like I've probably just been put on some FBI watch list.

Feelin the same vibe.

I sure hope none of these happen.

Is this the feeling you're referring to?

xkcd: Packages

.
.
We're cool as long as we play by the rules.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

.....looking at this thread now, I feel like I've probably just been put on some FBI watch list.

Feelin the same vibe.

I sure hope none of these happen.

and this is the part where I say, if anybody from the FBI is reading this I just want them to know I don't have any of these thoughts and I love the my country and its laws and leaders. USA is the greatest country in the world.

 

[DugMachine]

I always thought that the way most school school shootings go down is stupid ass fuck. Like it's always during lunch or classes are actually going on so not everyone is together.

Why not a pep rally or some shit? Everyone is huddled together, spray into the crowd and when people try to run they'd be tripping all over each other in the bleachers (at least that's how it was at my high school) maybe toss a grenade into the stands.

FBI please don't arrest me I'm not thinking of doing this I just wondered why this never crosses crazy psycho's minds

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

OP, you sound just like that guy who keeps crashing my vegan potlucks.

No, I don't have plans, real or hypothetical, to kill anyone. Or damage property, or whatever.

Unless it's to sneak into Valve to play Half Life 3.

 

[Zhukov]

Yeah...

Me and some friends were having a mildly drunk conversation about this once. "So, if you were a terrorist..." kind of thing.

I came up with a plan loosely based on those Washington sniper attacks [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_sniper] back in 2002.

It was pretty fucked up. After I'd finished describing it everyone gave me odd looks and promptly changed the subject.

 

[Keoul]

Create a smoke bomb
Place claymores/mines at the front exit of the building
Throw in the smoke bombs
Watch the chaos

 

[Evil Smurf]

go to move theater as food van, sprinkle poison in the popcorn.

 

[EHKOS]

I don't do this with terrorist plots, I do this with banks. Nobody gets hurt and the payoff is more rewarding. Plus it's more difficult.

 

[Reaper195]

I've thought up a fair few 'anarchistic' plans. Hell, during school, I was always thinking of awesome ways to shoot up schools. But at 13, I didn't really realise how serious that threat can actually be., and how utterly serious people took that. So when I told a mate and a teacher overheard my plan...a near expulsion and a trip to a psychotherapist (OMG! It really is just psycho the rapist! Fuckin' Jimmy Carr was right!) later, everything went back to normal and all kinds of fantasy plans became a lot less public.

 

[thePyro_13]

Not terrorist attacks, but bank robbery's and the like. Games like Evil Genius, dungeon keeper and other management games, put an interest into security systems into my subconscious, both in the design and circumvention.

Lookin forward to prison architect BTW.

 

[Mr Binary]

Something with electronics, not explosives. People rely on their devices, and I'm pretty sure it'd be chaos if a masse network were to just drop. Hell, maybe even put some bath salts into the water supply and watch the madness ensue. I think if I were to plan something like this though, I'd go for something with a much higher pay-off than just lives as those aren't really worth taking in the first place.