Preparedness

In light of recent events the populace should brace itself for further attacks. It should have been evident before that the attacks of terrorists will continue and will not relent until the defeat of Political Islam. I have three scenarios which I consider likely to occur in the future.
1st the airport scenario.
The airport situation is different than many might suspect. In fact most people believe that the added security makes them safer rather than more vulnerable. It is true that it will be harder for terrorists to take planes over and kill massive amount of people with suicide missiles. The situation is not worsened in that respect. Rather the airport is unsecure. During busy cycles the people in airports are not on the other side of security rather they are in large lines huddled together in masses waiting to be herded through like cattle. This is when the people are most vulnerable.
The Checkpoints are not far from the loading and unloading areas. Though not likely it would be possible to drive a car bomb relatively close to the loading terminal area and set it off. The bomb would kill many around the outside and possible several on the inside depending on the size of the blast and the type of shrapnel added to the explosive.
Though, the more likely part of this scenario would be for the terrorists to wait until the people are at capacity and trying to get through the security checkpoint. At this point the terrorists would receive a signal from a scout within and then a van or larger vehicle containing several armed men would come to the unloading terminus and begin unloading with their weapons firing into the crowd. Because civilians are not trained to attack they will flee into the bottle neck at the checkpoints trying to get away from the shooters . This fight or flight mechanism will exacerbate the situation. The casualties will be small in comparison to 9/11 however the psychological damage of this approach will be devastating. It will demonstrate a complete inability to protect against such an attack. The attack could be a two part plan. Once into the airport the terrorists could continue through the airport killing civilians until they are able to take a plane. Though not very likely the terrorists could then take said plane and have themselves another “missile”. It is not likely the second part will occur as once it is known that the planes are hijacked and not taking orders from ground control policies put in place would more than likely cause it to be shot down from the sky. This is meant to be broad strokes to paint a picture of how they could pull this off.
2nd the biological scenario.
The West I’m afraid has yet to take the word of Baden Powell to heart. “Be prepared”. The old boy scout motto would serve us well in these skirmishes with the terrorists. It has long been known that terrorists have sought weapons of mass destruction. However for some reason people’s fears are on that of a nuclear bomb. Though this may be a frightening prospect for some it is nothing compared to a biological attack.
For years it has been known that small pox has not plagued our societies due to vaccinations. We have eradicated a very deadly disease. However aside from our military we do not give this vaccination to large parts of the populace as it is seen as unnecessary.
Being able to weaponize this particular disease would be devastating. We do not have stores of the vaccination large enough to treat a huge part of the populace that might be affected. Though I mentioned weaponizing this disease it could just be brought in and released into a ventilation shaft of a large office building, or even worse a school. Children tend to be less sanitary than adults and the disease would spread much quicker. Place this school in a city like LA or NYC and you have a recipe for sheer disaster.
In any city that is a transportation hub it would be unlikely that the disease would be seen prior to international travel. This disease could then spread to Europe, Asia and Africa very quickly. The death tolls could skyrocket depending upon how quickly the disease was noticed.
Any terrorist group claiming responsibility for this would then cause psychological concerns in the populace that if they can do this what else can they do?
3rd the suicide mission scenario
The third situation that I find most likely is based similarly off the Mumbai Massacre. The groups of individuals would be more numerous though and would strike in multiple parts of a city forcing first responders to spread themselves thin. This is the ideal part.
Prior though to any first responders even receiving notice of the attack the individuals would engage a jamming device. The device would block signal ranges for Cell Phone, GPS, International lines, blue tooth, wifi, and both 3G and 4G. These devices are readily available in many foreign countries. Though they would have to be smuggled in, it is obvious that this is not a hard thing to do as many Americans own these despite that they are illegal to make, purchase or sell with the United States.
With these devices turned on it will be a while before first responders can react since they probably will not know what is going on. More than likely part of the group will sever telecommunications lines or provide a Denial of Service attack on the main telecom companies in the area. Though, the latter is less likely.
This act would again be psychologically devastating leaving the populace wondering how they are being protected.
These situations are why civilians should be trained what to look for to help spot potential terrorists. It is evident that we were lucky this past weekend. Law enforcement did not find the bomb, a regular Joe did but only because the terrorist was sloppy. Luck is not something I would want to rely on in life especially given how many times I have won the lottery. Be vigilant! Put yourself in the mind of a terrorist and think what would they do and how can you help prevent it from happening. Knowing your enemy is the key to defeating you enemy.