Reader Response 05-05-10 Extremists

Earlier today Red Team a long time reader joined the discussion about free speech and the possible affects of bloggers like myself discussing potential terrorist targets and attach techniques. Red Team makes an important point: “An extremist that only figures out how to attack potential targets from a fairly brief article are not the ones we are particularly concerned about. While they are dangerous, their chances of success are very minimal.” I would like to add that the technique I briefly described in the original article would require a rather advanced piece of demolitions training to pull off successfully. Terrorists with the training to identify and employ that technique certainly don’t need me to tell them how to blow things up. The terrorists that would be likely to seize on a targeting suggestion found in a blog like this one are unlikely to have the skills necessary to execute that type of attack or access to the sophisticated explosives necessary. The purpose of those attack scenario blogs is not to provide a blueprint for an attack (and again, I deliberately leave out crucial details), but to help those without a military background to see how a successful attack could be executed. This, hopefully, will impress upon them the need for adequate security to protect the potential target. It might even point them towards the type security that would be effective at preventing this type of attack. Old Comments On a separate note: it is always interesting to see how far back readers will go in reading the postings on this blog. The article that started this discussion dates back to September of last year. One of the unexpected benefits of setting this blog up so that I must ‘approve’ each comment prior to posting, is that I get a chance to call everyone’s attention to all of these comments; even if the base post is months or even years old. So if you run across an old post that you think deserves comment, please feel free to do so. If it looks like something that either the readers or I would be interested in I’ll comment on the comment in a new posting. That will point everyone at your comment. Don’t worry about it being ‘too controversial’ or ‘too critical’ of my ideas; I like controversy and can live with critics. What I am interested in is an open exchange of ideas. Professional Links One last item, if you are a security professional, a vendor of security products or services, or just a person with a security related blog, you can feel free to append your link to your comments. Now, I won’t post simple link attractors; “I like your site, please visit mine at makemorecash.com”. But if you have a real comment about something on the site, I won’t have any problem about allowing a link to your security related site.