{"id":9592,"date":"2006-05-30T07:14:47","date_gmt":"2006-05-30T14:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/05\/30\/terror-in-hollywood-america.html"},"modified":"2006-05-30T07:14:47","modified_gmt":"2006-05-30T14:14:47","slug":"terror_in_holly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/05\/30\/terror_in_holly.html","title":{"rendered":"Terror in Hollywood<\/s> America!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruce Schneier has been soliciting Hollywood-style terror attack ideas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For a while now, I have been writing about our penchant for “movie-plot threats”: terrorist fears based on very specific attack scenarios. Terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists exploding baby carriages in subways, terrorists filling school buses with explosives — these are all movie-plot threats. They’re good for scaring people, but it’s just silly to build national security policy around them.<\/p>\n

But if we’re going to worry about unlikely attacks, why can’t they be exciting and innovative ones? If Americans are going to be scared, shouldn’t they be scared of things that are really scary? “Blowing up the Super Bowl” is a movie plot to be sure, but it’s not a very good movie. Let’s kick this up a notch.<\/p>\n

It is in this spirit I announce the (possibly First) Movie-Plot Threat Contest. Entrants are invited to submit the most unlikely, yet still plausible, terrorist attack scenarios they can come up with.<\/p>\n

Your goal: cause terror. Make the American people notice. Inflict lasting damage on the U.S. economy. Change the political landscape, or the culture. The more grandiose the goal, the better. Assume an attacker profile on the order of 9\/11: 20 to 30 unskilled people, and about $500,000 with which to buy skills, equipment, etc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sounds grotesque, perhaps, but there’s method in the madness.<\/p>\n

The purpose of this contest is absurd humor, but I hope it also makes a point. Terrorism is a real threat, but we’re not any safer through security measures that require us to correctly guess what the terrorists are going to do next.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s actually some amazingly plausible suggestions made, and it makes fascinating, if disturbing, reading. Nothing that a bunch of folks over beers couldn’t come up with, so I don’t feel like he’s “giving the terrorists ideas,” but enough that, short of putting armed guards every 50 yards along every street and road, it’s difficult to imagine stopping them all.<\/p>\n

And trying to stop each big ticket “movie plot” item is a mook’s game<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The problem with movie plot security is that it only works if we guess right. If we spend billions defending our subways, and the terrorists bomb a bus, we’ve wasted our money. To be sure, defending the subways makes commuting safer. But focusing on subways also has the effect of shifting attacks toward less-defended targets, and the result is that we’re no safer overall.<\/p>\n

Terrorists don’t care if they blow up subways, buses, stadiums, theaters, restaurants, nightclubs, schools, churches, crowded markets or busy intersections. Reasonable arguments can be made that some targets are more attractive than others: airplanes because a small bomb can result in the death of everyone aboard, monuments because of their national significance, national events because of television coverage, and transportation because most people commute daily. But the United States is a big country; we can’t defend everything. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What, then, is the answer?<\/p>\n

We need to defend against the broad threat of terrorism, not against specific movie plots. Security is most effective when it doesn’t make arbitrary assumptions about the next terrorist act. We need to spend more money on intelligence and investigation: identifying the terrorists themselves, cutting off their funding, and stopping them regardless of what their plans are. We need to spend more money on emergency response: lessening the impact of a terrorist attack, regardless of what it is. And we need to face the geopolitical consequences of our foreign policy and how it helps or hinders terrorism.<\/p>\n

These vague things are less visible, and don’t make for good political grandstanding. But they will make us safer. Throwing money at this year’s movie plot threat won’t. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow. Sounds almost … reasonable.<\/p>\n

Posted via AutoDave.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bruce Schneier has been soliciting Hollywood-style terror attack ideas. For a while now, I have been writing about our penchant for “movie-plot threats”: terrorist fears based on very specific attack…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeland-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10142,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/24\/how_about_a_rea.html","url_meta":{"origin":9592,"position":0},"title":"How about a real War on Terror?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 24-Aug-06 3:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As in ... not giving in to Terror (and, in so doing, not giving in to the Terrorists) The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/terror.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8371,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/03\/david_hill_inte.html","url_meta":{"origin":9592,"position":1},"title":"David Hill, International Man of Mystery? 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The conclusion: Exactly two things have...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33201,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/16\/terrorists-fail-when-you-fail-to-be-terrorized.html","url_meta":{"origin":9592,"position":2},"title":"Terrorists fail when you fail to be terrorized","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Apr-13 7:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"This, from Bruce Schneier:'Terrorism, even the terrorism of radical Islamists and right-wing extremists and lone actors all put together, is not an \"existential threat\" against our nation. Even the events of 9\/11, as horrific as they were, didn't do existential damage to our nation. Our society is more robust than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41457,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/18\/wait-you-mean-you-actually-have-to-process-them.html","url_meta":{"origin":9592,"position":3},"title":"Wait, you mean you actually have to PROCESS them?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Mar-14 4:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Who'd have known. (Shakes head.)The general excuse for having rape kits go unprocessed is, \"Well, we don't have enough money\" and \"We only process the ones where we think there's a good chance of conviction.\"The former excuse, as noted, is bushwah. How many municipalities, even with partial grants, are busy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":160083,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2023\/06\/11\/movie-review-dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-2023.html","url_meta":{"origin":9592,"position":4},"title":"Movie Review: “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (2023)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Jun-23 11:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As a D&D player, I had a lot of fun. 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