Do you think La Palma is a terrorist target?

[Dude12]

Do you think La Palma is a terrorist target?

[Bigsky770]

- - -Because the amount of explosive force it would take to cause this island to collapse which in turn would cause a "Tsunami", terrorists do not possess, additionally, outcome for this event to gratify the terrorist's agenda could not be insured. I would expect a terrorist to seek elsewhere, so-called 'soft' targets of opportunity before this.

Joe (Bigsky770)

[VegasRonin]

I agree with Joe, plus I wouldn't give them that much credit, to attempt something that would probably require a highly educated individual with the knowledge to pull it off.

[MacRasta]

Got to agree with both of you, I don't think that terrorists will blow up La Palma. I think, that if they had a device to do that much destruction, they would use if for something else, I think they would prefer a "direct hit".
I can imagine that such devices don't grow on trees, so why use it on something you can't possibly calculate the outcome for.

I think a greater possibility is in biological attack, such as in drinking water.

Cheers, Mac

[playmaker88]

I would think that Yellowstone would be a more viable option. Since the break up of the former Soviet Union, it is a well known fact that materials such as weapon grade plutonium has exchanged hands on the East European black market. It is only a matter of time before a nuclear device is used in a terrorist attack.
Terrorists have no morals and an attack on Yellowstone would put the whole world at risk, even their own nations and people. They just don't care and that's what makes them so dangerous. Yes, they could just walk into Washington DC and let it go but I'm sure security is much higher in Washington than in Yellowstone. Saying that they would just rather be sure than try something that might work in Yellowstone is of no consequence, what are the visitor numbers for the park?
If they don't cause the big one, they still get the locals and tourists, they'll probably feel that is worth the try.

[AngelTV]

I disagree with you Joe and Ronin. I feel the island is definitely a soft target. Granted agricutural sabotage (sp?) and services (water,power) are probably more easier but these can be covered up and kept quiet with no reference to terrorism. Hence no real effect. La Palma is structurally made up of Lava walls containing saturated water in the permeable material between. Water like this doesn´t need much explosives as water cannot be compressed and there acts as an additional force. Now we are starting to get into conspiracies here so possible change of thread. Nuclear devices, as from the Kurst Incident (mini nuclear torpedos) may have gone missing. Saddam´s son seeing his way to the regime leadership through his father´s cancer may have been involved with terrorist. 40 billion trade deal with Russia before the war was very convenient. Can you trust Putin? Ex KGB? Or maybe hardliners in the military. The soviet incident of a second lost submarine being towed with nuclear material and the lost of a handful of crew could be construde as a diplomatic message that if the Soviets wanted to, they could have given nuclear material away in this way. Nice one but there is a difference between raw material and a ready made nuclear device. Will it happen? Not now because the war has stoppped any chance of above proposed scenario and the handing over of Saddams´s two sons (huge gunfight my ass) already deceased. Was an attempt by the Baathist Party to redeem themselves and save Saddam´s arse. Will Saddam face trail? Highly unlikely. There are too many secrets that need to remain secret. Liasons that are embarrassing and truth that as Jack would say ¨you can´t handle¨. Saddam will die of natural causes (cancer) long before he faces trail. The pages of the chapter will end and we will all get back to watching baseball and eating hotdogs. Terrorist groups will be allowed to cause minor incursions into our lifestyle becuase it suits the powers to be to keep you in need of defence forces. And finally, in the future Bagdad and the Middle East will be free of an oppressive religious state and finally have the freedom to dictate their own lives, use their natural resorce (admittedly through US Companies) and the final houses of monarchal power will give way to freedom.
I think it could have been done a whole lot better. Yes there was peaceful solutions. Then again, I don´t run the show.

[VegasRonin]

La Palma is structurally made up of Lava walls containing saturated water in the permeable material between. Water like this doesn´t need much explosives as water cannot be compressed and there acts as an additional force.

yeah but, I don't think terrorist would chance a "Maybe" catastrophic deed. Not when they could blow a nuke in NY, LA, or even in Vegas, and be sure of Mass Destruction.

[AngelTV]

You are right Ronin. Chances are slim. My thoughts are that an operation within the US is also highly risky to the terrorist. Again, with upped surveillence the odds are they would get caught and nothing would be reported. La Palma is off shore and unless the US has it under watch it is easy too get to from Morocco. If it doesn´t come off and no tidal wave is produced then it would still make news in the possible threat. This would lead to the world wondering about spots like Yellowstone and so on. The ¨fear¨factor is more important then the reality of a tidal wave wiping out the east coast.I for one don´t think it will happen as they must be watching La Palma by now. Just in case.

[DarkAce]

I'm with Mac on the biological attacks. Load up on an highly lethal and contagious (possibly airbourne) virus, and set it loose during a major event where thousands gather. How one sets it off can be left to the imagination I guess.
I'd think the best way for a terrorist to effectively pull a biological attack would be to infect one's self and go to the airport. This way it's very crowded and people travelling to every which country. Everyone becomes infected and it spreads rather quickly. Mission accomplished 12 Monkeys style:P

[MacRasta]

The ¨fear¨factor is more important then the reality of a tidal wave wiping out the east coast.

I think that's already happened, on 9/11, and tha
ey killed a lot of people over there. I'm not so sure if they had such a high bodycount in mind (Al-Qaeda, that is), I think that's the La Palma situation you're talking about, and it already happened.

So now it can come from anywhere and at anytime. And after their first succes, I don't think they will go for less.

MacMess

[AngelTV]

Macrasta, I agree that the 9/11 thing had the 'fear' factor but not to the extent that a massive incident like LP might have. Let's hope the guys are on to it and are protecting the island.

[dutchie]

I don't think terrorists will hit LP. In comparison to hitting other targets with a far greater level of certainty of "succes" LP is a hard target. Nuking a large city with a small bomb is much easier.

[Marcopolo]

By the will of Allah it will be done. But first we'll get Yellowstone, and all the heathen pigs will flee to the East Coast thinking they are safe from the volcano. Then by Allah's divine will (and a little help from the Russians, Pakisatanis, N Koreans and Chinese) the La Palma island will fall into the sea, and that will assure the final destruction of the Great Satan.
For the CIA agent reading this, I was just kidding. The notion seems so ridiculous to me that I feel I can joke about it without being taken seriously. Even with a nuke, I don't think they have the technical skill to pull this off. In fact, the relativiely advanced scinece of the western world does not even know if such a stunt would work. Has the possibility even been studied?

[stewey]

The size of an explosion needed for La Palma to collapse would probably blow the island in itself up.

I wouldn't worry about it.

[blahblahblah]

Some perspective:

Mount Saint Helens was a 7 megaton blast.

Krakatoa, the last major island collapse to cause a massive tsunami, was approximately 100 megatons.

Whether or not it would be possible to trigger a volcano with a nuclear bomb is not known, but for some perspective "Tsar Bomba," the largest weapon ever built and tested, in 1961 by the Soviets, was theoretically capable of 100 megatons of explosive power. That would be enough to literarly vaporize the entire state of Maryland in a single fireball. After Tsar Bomba, however, the military concentrated on a strategy of many smaller weapons.

If terrorists had the kind of weapon needed to cause a collapse of La Palma, there are more efficient ways of using it than trying to start a tidal wave. An explosion along the East Coast (there are no hard targets for nuclear weapons) and tens of millions of people would die instantly, and possibly hundreds of millions over the long term. La Palma would be a relatively humane target.

[Electric T-Bird]

Uhm, sorry but why are we even asking "Do you think La Palma is a terrorist target?"? Its an island, not a building.

:amaz:

[VegasRonin]

Uhm, sorry but why are we even asking "Do you think La Palma is a terrorist target?"? Its an island, not a building.

Welcomt to The Forums ETB. Now read the Thread then ask yourself the same question.

[Electric T-Bird]

Welcomt to The Forums ETB. Now read the Thread then ask yourself the same question.

Thank You. I have read the thread and find myself asking the same question, what is motivating the question?

Thanks.

[Thor]

La Palma is no more of a target than I am. This would be ludicrous and a joke. There are many other targets much more likely than La Palma, including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York to name just a few. If terrorists hit something major, it will be something big, like Las Vegas, just to make a show...

[MacRasta]

Thank You. I have read the thread and find myself asking the same question, what is motivating the question?

Thanks.

Hello T-Bird,

You should ask that question to Dude12.

Yo guys, (and gals ofcourse) I just thought of something....

Last time I saw a documentary of LP island, they showed a tunnel going 2K into this mountain. Now, If you put a guy, in the name of AllAh, at the end of this tunnel, with a powerful explosive device, .........you just might pull it off...Brrrrrrr

My reasoning behind this is pretty simple : they seem having no trouble at all to find people to blow themselves up, So what's one more or less..??

MacHatma G.

[dutchie]

Mac, are we talking the same island here?!? I visited La Palma on three separate occasions (all being 3 week holidays...) and I have never heard of a tunnel going 2 kilometers into any mountain, except for the traffic tunnel that runs through the north of the large mountainridge. This is many kilometers away from the sliding piece of the island. This tunnel connects the east of the island with the west.

Weird detail: this tunnel almost always separates two completely different weatherzones. When you enter the tunnel in rain and mist, you're bound to exit in bright sunshine and vice versa.

[MacRasta]

Yes mi frend, we do talk about the same island.

I saw this in a docu, geologist have made an entrance into the mountainrange to study the movement of this part of the island. It goes 2K deep into the mountainrange, and you clearly see the slates they talk about, and you clearly see the water dripping off the ceiling (in between the water-resistant slates that is). In their opinion, when the water, trapped between those slates, heats up, the slates will be forced outwards due to the expanding steam. This would make the island (or this part of it) collapse.

If one could generate enough heat at the end off this tunnel, it just might work.

Now I doubt if this tunnel is open to everyone, my guess is that it's only used by local geologists.

But this tunnel exists, and is in La Palma Island.

MacHotSpot

[MacRasta]

Weird detail: this tunnel almost always separates two completely different weatherzones. When you enter the tunnel in rain and mist, you're bound to exit in bright sunshine and vice versa.

Weird coincidence : When I was a young boy (you know, the time animals still could talk..) I did a 2-day backpack trail from Austria to Italy over a mountain range (dunno the name anymore) In Austria, no cloud in the sky, but on the top of this mountain, looking donw at Italy, we saw some 3-400 meters below a big fat dark-gray blanket of storm clouds. I can tell you, that's pretty weird, we are used to see them all year in frog's perspective, don't we Dutchie, this only time, I saw it in bird's perspective. Pretty cool, man!

Le Greetz,

MacRasta

[Balaso]

Nah, terrorist won't take the time to blow up an island when they can make a direct attack on an american metropolis.

[Donsun]

Do you think La Palma is a terrorist target?

This is about the most farfetched idea i have ever heard and theres been alot on here. You have a better chance of Osama knocking on your door.