At 04:37 AM 3/25/03 +0100, Lucky Green wrote: ...
If any terrorists had nukes, why have they not used them so far?
Suppose you only have one, it was really hard to get, and you're not sure how much of your US network has been turned, or at least placed under heavy surveilance? Maybe you wait until you are really sure you can succeed before you use it.
Alternatively, we have no way of knowing how often terrorists have tried to use nukes, but been stopped one way or another. Maybe the Russians sold them very convincing duds. Maybe the FBI caught them and disarmed the bombs before they went off.
And for a third alternative, it's quite possible (I don't know how likely) that one or more groups have smuggled nukes into the US, planted them in US cities, and offered proof to the US government, as a way of establishing a nuclear deterrent. (C.f. Ross Anderson's "Guy Fawkes Protocol.")
There are pretty obvious reasons why the US government might not announce either of the last two cases, and why the terrorist group of your choice wouldn't announce "we have a bomb" until they had the thing planted where they wanted it.
--Lucky
--John Kelsey, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
