If terrorists aquired nukes would they use them?

[Lancer]

Iranian/Syrian terrorists, Saudi terrorists, whoever. If they use nukes should we now announce that the parent country will reap the retaliation? Might that draw a line in the sand, stop them from using them?

Your undercover boys nuke us we turn your country into a radioactive wasteland.

I think it would be a good announcement for a lame duck pres. Tough stuff, new policy, protect the US. Hard to wage a jihad if you're dead. That sort of thing. Thoughts?

[Dis]

yes

[Fake Boris]

I think the bigger problem would be to find a way to detonate it in America.

[Ecthy]

If Lancer acquired a brain would he use it?

If [insert famous Poly virgin] acquired sex appeal would he use it

[Spec]

No, it would be just for show. Like a guy with a corvette.

Spec.

[Diadem]

Obviously they'd *try* to use them.

Question is if they will succeed. That won't be so easy. You can't just carry nukes in your hand baggage when flying

Nevertheless the US is quite big. I can not believe they check every inch of their border for nukes. So we can't really know if they'll succeed. Let's hope not.

Terrorists might choose a different target than the US as well. Great-Brittain is probably harder to reach than the US, because it's a true island, but most of mainland europa is too easy.

[Proteus_MST]

There is an interesting article in Spoektrum der wissenschaft (the german edition of scientific american)
where it is said that a wise move would be (if the terrorists have a rocket as a carrier system for the weapon) to detonate the weapon in orbit, thereby eleminating a lot of the satellites in Orbit as well as computer on the ground via EMP, and also making replacing the satellites hard or even impossible for about one year because of the high amount of radiation that will only slowly disappear.

As the western civilization is very dependant on satellites this would have a much greater effect than "just" detonating the bomb in some american city.

[Flubber]

I think you have to prevent the acquisition opr you need to know about it when it occurrs.

Once a group has a nuke I think it might be a little too easy to put it aboard a nondescript tramp freighter and sail it it into some major harbour.

I have to believe that measures have been taken to try to detect or prevent this type of action but I think it would be very hard to detect (unless radiation detectors are far better than I have been lead to believe) since a bomb could be below decks AND shielded

[Flubber]

AS to use-- some groups would use it immediately

As to retaliation, some terrorists hate their own government too-- Would you nuke Saudi Arabia or Egypt?

[Arrian]

I think it depends on the particular group. A-Q would certainly try. But what if a group like Hezbollah (terror org but also political party, militia... a quasi-state entity in a way) got one? I think they might try the blackmail route rather than just using it.

-Arrian

[Monk]

Re: If terrorists aquired nukes would they use them?

Originally posted by Lancer
Iranian/Syrian terrorists, Saudi terrorists, whoever. If they use nukes should we now announce that the parent country will reap the retaliation? Might that draw a line in the sand, stop them from using them?

Well, I guess it's possible to argue that any would-be terrorist might think twice before taking out New York if it would happen at the expense of his people.

The main problem is though, and this is completely disregarding the moral issue, if some Saudi that isn't easily discouraged goes ahead anyway, you have to obliterate Mecca, and good luck on fighting terrorism after that happens.

[Lancer]

Getting it in might not be as hard as some here think. Just shipping it in via container would likely do the trick.

Do nuke weapons emit radiation detectable by a device? Could their radioactivity reveal their existance right through a shipping container?

If Hezbollah nuked us that's the same as getting nuked by Iran, yes?

True, other terrorist groups would be more difficult to pin down with a state to hold responsible. If one of them got us we would have to pull a name out of a hat and nuke them.

Ecthy, I'll have you know I recieved a brain at birth and yes I do use it, as a counterbalance to my ass.

[LordShiva]

Re: If terrorists aquired nukes would they use them?

Originally posted by Lancer
Iranian/Syrian terrorists, Saudi terrorists, whoever. If they use nukes should we now announce that the parent country will reap the retaliation? Might that draw a line in the sand, stop them from using them?

I doubt it. The terrorist group that would use nukes (Al Qaeda) hates the governments of the region as much as they hate the infidels.

[MRT144]

how likely is it to get an intact bomb over here? id guess that any nuke made would not be of the highest quality and has a great chance of malfunction

[Whoha]

Re: Re: If terrorists aquired nukes would they use them?

Originally posted by Monk


Well, I guess it's possible to argue that any would-be terrorist might think twice before taking out New York if it would happen at the expense of his people.

The main problem is though, and this is completely disregarding the moral issue, if some Saudi that isn't easily discouraged goes ahead anyway, you have to obliterate Mecca, and good luck on fighting terrorism after that happens.

We'll pretty much have to plaster Mecca and every place that supports attacks against us or pretty much every muslim would have to say that Bin Laden is right, his interpretation of Islam is correct,etc. Why else and how else could he kill millions of Americans and not have a single one of his followers harmed? And at that point, good luck trying to fight terrorism.