Document Actions
Myths about Terror Weapons – A Provocative Article May 21, 2009, #195
Myths about Terror Weapons – A Provocative Article
By Dr Dave McIntyre, Director Integrative Center for Homeland Security, 21 May 2009
It is very hard to build good policies for homeland security if your starting assumptions are flawed. An excellent new article lays out seven false assumptions that bedevil our thinking about terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. I will tell you more if you will give me Just a Minute for Homeland Security.
I’m Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M.
In an article called “7 Deadly Myths About Weapons of Terror,” published in the June 2009 edition of NDIA Business and Technology Magazine, authors Sandra Erwin and Stew Magnuson challenge seven false assumptions that lead to wrong conclusions. [1] Here are their main points.
- Myth1: that our excellent US medical system is ready for a major disaster. In fact, although our medical care is excellent, it has little extra capacity for an emergency.
- Myth 2: that the best defense against biological challenges demands big budget technology. In fact, the best defense is probably a quick response with the right vaccines and medicines – and this is where we should concentrate.
- Myth 3: that it is easy to detect smuggled nuclear weapons as they enter US ports. Lots of materials give off low levels of radiation, and weapons can be shielded. So merely passing a ship or truck or plane by a detector will not tell us the contents.
- Myth 4: that the US would quickly retaliate if attacked with a nuclear weapon. Knowing who built and launched such a weapon would be difficult – we might never find the answer.
- Myth 5: that nuclear weapons are easy to build from information available in the internet. A big sophisticated bomb is not easy to design and assemble. So we are more likely to see a small yield radiation weapon.
- Myth 6: that liquefied natural gas ships and storage tanks make easy terrorist targets. It takes heat and pressure to generate a huge LNG explosion – not just a common explosive.
- Myth 7: that nerve gas is the aerosol terrorist weapon of choice. Commercial chemicals are easier to find and use, and our defenses ought to start there.
In some interesting ways, these ideas build on a point made several years ago by author Randy Larsen in his book Our Own Worst Enemy. [2] You can’t get right answers in homeland security policy if you start with wrong questions, and reason from wrong assumptions.
If you would like to hear the authors discuss these myths and the article themselves, join our next edition of Homeland Security , Inside Out on this radio station. Or look us up on line at http://homelandsecurity.tamu.edu .
This is Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M, inviting you to join us again next week on Just a Minute . . . for Homeland Security.
[1] Sandra I. Erwin and Stew Magnuson, “7 Deadly Myths About Weapons of Terror,” National Defense, June 2009, http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2009/June/Pages/7Deadly.aspx
[2] Randall J. Larsen, Our Own Worst Enemy: Asking the Right Questions about Security to Protect You, Your Family, and America, NY: Grand Central Publishing, 2007.