On Friday, September 21, 2001, at 09:02 AM, Declan McCullagh wrote:
I think I may take a brief away-from-DC trip...
From the London TImes
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20 2001
Weekend alert as FBI warns of new attack
BY DOMINIC KENNEDY AND DAMIAN WHITWORTH
AMERICA and the West are bracing themselves for another potential "Day of Infamy" this Saturday, when accomplices of the hijackers are suspected of having plotted new outrages.
If the growing street protests/riots in Pakistan (Pesawar, Karachi, Islamabad) trend toward a new ultra-Islamic, pro-Taliban government, I expect India to strike first. India cannot allow a nuclear state on its border with Taliban leanings. India will knock out Pakistan's nuclear capabilities if it can. A nuclear war between India and Pakistan will utterly dwarf recent events, will crash the Dow to 1000, and will have other profound consequences. Interestingly, there's been a run on potassium iodide capsules, gas masks, and guns. It may be that nothing happens, of course, but it shows what happens when people wait until the stampede starts to shop for supplies. (Yes, I still have my KI tablets, my other supplies. I never got a real gas mask, for fairly obvious reasons. The best defense is to avoid crowded areas. And at the slightest sign (on CNN, etc.) that people are showing up at hospitals in more-than-normal numbers, to stay indoors and not mingle with vectors. Good sources are Ken Alibek's "Biohazard," Laurie Garrett's "The Coming Plague," and Judith Miller's new "Germs.") --Tim May