By Dan Goodwin
President / Skyscraper Defense, Inc.
According to intelligence sources, the chances of America suffering another 9/11 level attack is not a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’. For several years we have been waging war against an enemy who numbers in the millions without being hit by a counter attack. Since we all know every action has an equal and opposite reaction, the question we should be asking is…
‘WHEN’ WILL THE NEXT ATTACK OCCUR?
Lance Armstrong, the great bicycle racer, never attacked when his opponents were ‘chomping at the bit’ during his seven-year reign in the Tour de France. Instead, he waited until his army of ‘domestiques’ wore the competition down before he made his move. Could terrorists be waiting to do the same? If you examine history, you’ll see that we have been precariously placed in a similar situation.
On December 7, 1941, the day that “will live in infamy”, a Japanese armada attacked American forces at Pearl Harbor, leaving more than 2400 Americans dead. If the United States had not been in a depression for several years, would the Japanese have attacked? Many believe the answer is no, saying the Japanese perceived an American weakness and went for it. It took a transformation that President Roosevelt called “The Arsenal of Democracy” for America to emerge victorious. Still, over 100,000 Americans died fighting in the Pacific theatre of World War II.
On February 26, 1993, just weeks after the Clinton administration took over, terrorists detonated a devastating car bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center. As with Pearl Harbor, our economy was faltering. Do you remember James Traficant’s March 17th speech to the House of Representatives? “Mr. Speaker, we are here now in chapter 11. Members of Congress are official trustees presiding over the greatest reorganization of any Bankrupt entity in world history, the U.S. Government. We are setting forth hopefully, a blueprint for our future. There are some who say it is a coroner’s report that will lead to our demise.”
On September 11th, 2001, terrorists plowed two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center, killing thousands. Again, the American economy was struggling. NASDAQ had hit an all time high of 5,048 on March 10, 2000, but by the time 9/11 came around more than half its value was gone. And, a new administration was in power.
Today, a new president sits in the White House while experts compare the economy with the Great Depression. If it’s true, that our enemies strike when we show weakness, now could be the time. Factor in two anniversaries that will occur in 2011 – ten years since 9/11; seventy since Pearl Harbor – and another attack in the near future seems a certainty.
THE PROBLEM
Since September 11, 2001, we have been obsessed with the threat of terrorism, believing the best defense is a strong offense and taking the fight to the terrorists. There is, however, a fatal flaw in this way of thinking. What happens if terrorists slip through the cracks and launch another attack? Will Homeland Security be capable of defending our many towering skyscrapers? Will our under-funded fire departments rise to the occasion, put out the fires, and rescue trapped people? They didn’t on 9/11. What has occurred that indicates ‘next time’ things will be different?
With unrest increasing with every car bomb and roadside device, the threat could not be more serious. Globally, there are nearly 100,000 skyscrapers, with more than 7,000 currently under construction. Earth’s ten largest cities have over 30,000 skyscrapers, 200 of which tower 750 feet or more. In twenty years, it is estimated that five billion people will live in cities. If that’s the case then, for the first time in our planet’s history, the population of cities will exceed that of the countryside. In other words, on any given day, millions of people will be inside skyscrapers and most are oblivious to the fact that skyscrapers can be…
HUMAN DEATH TRAPS!
We are not the only ones who learned from 9/11.
POTENTIAL THREATS
U.S. intelligence has warned that terrorists are planning to topple tall buildings with explosives. The FBI has gone so far as to ask property managers to report suspicious activity; however, they have refused to issue an advisory or an alert, claiming the information is “uncorroborated” and not specific to any city or region. However, on June 22nd of 2006, seven men were arrested for plotting to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower.
On November 27th of 2008, terrorists carried out a series of coordinated attacks across the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay), killing 101 people and injuring 287 more. At least seven high-profile locations in India’s financial capital suffered attacks, including two luxury hotels – the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi Trident.
On September 24th of 2009, a 19-year-old Jordanian was arrested on charges of plotting to bomb the 60-story Fountain Place office tower in Dallas, Texas.
So the threat is real. Nobody is debating this fact. It’s just matter of preparing for all of the imaginable worse case scenarios. Unfortunately, that may be easier said than done. It will require innovative, ‘out of the box’ thinking, something bureaucrats historically avoid. However, if we persist with protocols as old as the fire engine, we could soon find ourselves in a similar situation as we did on 9/11.
The time to act and prepare is now!
