From: dlv@bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM)
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 14:55:10 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Washington on the verge of being nuked?
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19980209174919.007b18a0@otc.net>
Message-ID: <8V9Nke9w165w@bwalk.dm.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



David Honig <honig@otc.net> writes:

> At 06:34 PM 2/9/98 EST, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote:
> >One can "disrupt" the water supply by just making a credible assertion that
> >it's been poisoned - but it won't kill nearly as many people as actual
> >poison (or virus/bacteria).
> >
>
> Psychops?

Yes, psyops (no ch) - the most venerable field of information warfare.

> That doesn't work when you have sufficient health-orgs and telecomm
> to get the word out that the water's ok.

By the same reasoning, a bomb threat won't get a building evacuated if
the authorities can check whether the bomb is there...

A psychopath like Guy Polis could just call a TV station and claim that
he put some poison in the water supply which would take a few days to
test for.

> Actually, a lot of people drink bottled water here :-) but
> the 10 million kilos of shit excreted by LA every day would
> build up pretty fast.

NYC is one of the few major cities where the tap water is good enough to
drink and actually tastes good.

> Electric power is probably as vunerable as waterways, despite
> conscious efforts to make the grid redundant.  Of course
> both are controlled by computers, as uncle sam is realizing.
> In LA, all it takes to create a looting riot is to cut electricity
> to the city's alarm systems...

One could use brute force and just blow up enough redundant towers...
Or short them with a kite. :-)

> Major freeway intersections are closed down 2-3 times a year in LA
> due to bomb threats, which are usually just threats -no bombs are found.
> You can snarl the roads very easily at the right time of day, since
> the roads' bandwidth is already exceeded and congestion persists after the
> clog is removed.

NYC has pretty good public transporation... I don't think a terrorist can
do a lot by screwing up the traffic.

I recall that there was a bunch of bomb threates at Salomon Brothers last
year, right after Guy Polis was fired from his contractor job.  Do you
suppose the psychotic pedophile did it?

---

Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM
Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps