Gassing Up NYC Apartments For Terror

Revelations that suspected terrorist Jose Padilla was going to use gas lines to bomb NYC apartment buildings are perfect for making New Yorkers and others go crazy with fear. While the feds are figuring out what Padilla's role as a terrorist and his ties to Al-Qaeda are, the Department of Justice does say that Padilla was asked to use buildings in New York, Washington or Florida as bombs. Thankfully, the Times talks to experts about why a plan of renting apartments, sealing them with gas, and then igniting them would not result in a building's collapse - mainly because buildings are too structurally sound. The co-author Why Buildings Fall Down: How Structures Fail, Matthys Levy, even says, "I think it's a nutty idea, frankly, an act of desperation. It's just not good from a technical point of view." Um, Mr. Levy, "nutty" and "act of desperation" aren't really a part of terrorists or other criminals' idea filtering process. In fact, Gothamist would venture to say terrorists like "nutty" and "desperate."

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By Jen Chung in News on June 2, 2004 9:19 AM

Comments [rss]

Nick D.

Can't we stop terrorism by stop being jerks and ticking off all the time bombs of the world. Great, he and many others know how to blow up things in the U.S. I think anbody who took highschool science knows how to put a match to something flammable. The Feds can't ever try to stop these guys from the get-go and do it without all the hooha in the media during and after the fact that it happened.

Are we being paid to look over our shoulders on the subway?! Oooh goody! Can I go back to being a straphanger freaked out of my mind by that one strange guy .. wait that strange girl, that one over there, or there...

oooh that guy looks creepy, wait that's my reflection. It's all too fear driven.

Richard

Why has anyone raised a stink abou the fact that Joseph Padilla is an American citizen and being held incommunicado by our government? I don't care how despicable a person's crimes are, everyone has basic rights under the law. Terrorist, pedofile, rapist, murderer, whatever -- everyone is due their day in court and proper representation by a lawyer.