Holocaust on the freeways

Freeways: the Next Terror Target
By Daniel G. Jennings
Many Americans will undoubtedly feel safe in light of the July 7 terror attacks in London because they don’t use mass transit. They shouldn’t feel safe because America has a soft target that is potentially far more vulnerable to attack than any rail system or bus, the freeways.
All a terrorist would have to do to kill large numbers of Americans and throw one of our major cities or an entire region into chaos would be to explode a car or truck bomb on a major freeway. Since a van, truck, trailer or station wagon could be filled with explosives and set off this could produce a powerful explosion, far more powerful than any bomb carried or planted by a pedestrian. On a crowded freeway that could kill and injure large numbers of people caught in the blast. Many more would be killed or injured in the chain reaction accidents created by the explosions, and even more by the explosions and fires generated by ruptured gas tanks. The result could be a fiery holocaust in the middle of rush hour that could claim countless lives.
This nightmare could be made worse by the fact that many freeways run past office buildings, hotels, apartment houses and other structures with lots of people in them. Imagine the havoc created by an explosion on the 101 freeway which goes right through Downtown LA. There are also many cities in the US, such as Chicago and Oakland, where subway, light rail and commuter trains run on tracks on the freeway right of way, sometimes in the median of the freeway. Imagine the body count if a bomb explodes on a crowded freeway at rush hour next to a track carrying two crowded commuter trains. The casualties from such an attack could rival those of Sept. 11, 2001.
If a really large truck - say a large trailer pulled by a semi tractor - were filled with explosives, it could produce a massive blast comparable to a small nuclear explosion. To make matters worse, a really nasty terrorist could cook up a dirty bomb by mixing a few pounds of radioactive isotopes or some other deadly poison into the bomb. This could make clean up and rescue efforts virtually impossible.
The scenario could be made worse by the use of flammable liquid or gas say propane, gasoline, or diesel fuel. There are lots of tanker trucks filled with these materials around American cities which could easily be stolen - perhaps by terrorists working as truck drivers. Or terrorists could simply steal or buy a residential propane tank and put it on the back of a truck. Such an explosion could create a firestorm that could devastate a city and kill and injure tens of thousands of people.
Terrorists might not even need to resort to suicide attack to deliver a freeway bomb. They could simply drive the bomb to a point on the freeway, get out, get into a second vehicle and ride away. The bomb would be set off by remote control using a cell phone, or by a timer activated when the car is stopped. Clever terrorists might even rig up a remote controlled vehicle with a mannequin in the front seat that would drive along with traffic then explode.
Several vehicle bombs set off in a metropolitan area’s freeway system could create too much damage and casualties for authorities to deal with. The attacks would shut down the freeways all over the country, and make Americans afraid to drive.
This gruesome possibility is not a far fetched one, car bombs, sometimes driven by suicide bombers, are the terrorists’ weapon of choice in Iraq. Terrorists used a propane truck to blow up a historic synagogue and kill large numbers of tourists on an island off the coast of Tunisia in 2002. Terrorists in London and Madrid have targeted commuters on trains and buses with bombs.
Terrorists looking to target America’s soft underbelly would quickly identify the freeways as the most vulnerable target for a bombing. After all it would be almost impossible to check every car for a bomb. To icing to the psychopaths’ cake, car or truck bomb would create a more powerful explosion and cause far more casualties than a bomb carried by one person generating more panic and bigger headlines for the bombers.
So perhaps it is time for our leaders to start preparing for the terrible reality of a car or truck bomb attack upon a U.S. freeway. A nightmare that could leave large numbers of Americans dead and injured.