Let's say you had the fastest super-computer the world has ever seen, and you were a villain who wanted to take over the World with it. How might your super-computer make that happen for you? [more inside]
posted by np312 on Dec 2, 2009 - 43 answers

What was said in trials of '2006 transatlantic aircraft plot' to overcome objections to how practical manufacturing explosives in flight is ? [more inside]
posted by southof40 on Sep 9, 2009 - 10 answers

Browsing today's newspapers here in Scotland it would seem that there is an anti-Scottish feeling pervading the whole of the USA after the compassionate release of the Pan-Am bomber last week. Question1: Am I right in thinking that this is the case, or is it just right wing neo-con nonsense eminating from the Fox News stable? Question2: If this anti-Scottish feeling does exist, how best can I explain that we the UK/US public have been sold a lie by our Governments and that this guy was merely a patsy? [more inside]
posted by cameronfromedinburgh on Aug 26, 2009 - 60 answers

Regarding the Lockerbie bomber, recently released and returned to Libya, where he was given a heroes welcome (in defiance of Obama's warning that such a homecoming would affect American/Libyan relations)....has anyone read an article, perhaps in the foreign press, explaining the feelings Libyans (the people, not the whacky regime) have for this guy?
posted by jimmyjimjim on Aug 23, 2009 - 21 answers

I am collecting examples of the “Ticking Time Bomb Scenario” in fiction, film/tv, and journalism. [more inside]
posted by Mngo on Apr 10, 2009 - 10 answers

Why is the Taliban not on the US or UK proscribed lists of terrorist organisations? [more inside]
posted by YouRebelScum on Mar 4, 2009 - 12 answers

So how vulnerable is the Internet to some sneaky worm attack that targets Windows? It looks like organised crime is running increasingly sophisticated malware attacks to control large numbers of clients, if I were a bad person I could imagine a smart, quiet rootkit or similar that infected many, many machines then went live and could be very disruptive. [more inside]
posted by bystander on Jan 23, 2009 - 14 answers

What are good (non-Alex Jonesy, please) documentaries, websites, and other resources that explore and explain al Qaeda, the Taliban, and all related matters? [more inside]
posted by Camofrog on Oct 6, 2008 - 20 answers

I'm going to be studying in Jerusalem next year, and I'd really like it if one of my friends could come and visit me. The only problem is her father - he is very resistant to the idea, and undoubtedly gets his concerns from the news - which we know has an awful tendency of sensationalizing things beyond recognition. I was hoping you guys could help me put something together that she could show her father, to hopefully help assuage some of his fears. I mean, we're not planning on road-tripping down to Gaza or anything! [more inside]
posted by howgenerica on May 24, 2008 - 10 answers

Have any literary theorists or critics, or professors of literature, written about literary terrorism? By literary terrorism, I mean the use of flash violence to shock subvert political or cultural structures. I will especially appreciate studies that explicitly analyze these techniques in comparison with concrete terroristic acts.
posted by limon on Nov 23, 2007 - 13 answers

After hearing this story on NPR this morning about the Harmony Database of al Qaeda correspondence, I began wondering what other public databases like this exist out there that are ripe for analysis and picking apart. I'm looking specifically for things like this related to the "War on Terrorism" and the Iraq War, but older stuff would be good too.
posted by proj on Oct 23, 2007 - 2 answers

What would happen to the financial markets if they were attacked by terrorists? [more inside]
posted by covert7 on Jun 15, 2007 - 23 answers

I am looking for the definitive book on the United States involvement in Central and South America. Can anyone recommend one -- or several, I suppose? [more inside]
posted by chunking express on May 16, 2007 - 14 answers

A year or two ago there was a news story about Israel awarding medals to several agents of their government for acts of terrorism against Egypt and the United States (in the 70s I think). Formerly they had been denounced by the Israelis as "rogue" agents or some such. Anyone have a link to the story?
posted by BrotherCaine on Jan 27, 2007 - 2 answers

How do I know if a company I want to buy stocks in funds terrorist groups? [more inside]
posted by spiderskull on Dec 27, 2006 - 8 answers

I am flying soon. I would like to bring a bottle of water to security, a nice plain Muji style bottle, with a custom label on it. What should be pasted on it for this lame, meaningless, nearly silent protest? What will not get me violated or detained, but will clearly state the idiocies of fear we are now enduring? Or is this horrible, this idea?
posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat on Sep 6, 2006 - 69 answers

Comfort my wife's fears. She has recently developed a phobia of flying and we are leaving on a flight on thursday. [more inside]
posted by Hands of Manos on Sep 5, 2006 - 36 answers

Why can't I take a book on a plane? [more inside]
posted by essexjan on Aug 11, 2006 - 28 answers

I have a 16 year old daughter traveling from Newark Airport to London Gatwick on Sunday ... [more inside]
posted by thinkpiece on Aug 10, 2006 - 17 answers

"It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means." [more inside]
posted by blim8183 on Jul 10, 2006 - 22 answers

Why aren't people who bomb or plan to bomb abortion clinics considered terrorists? [more inside]
posted by onepapertiger on Jun 14, 2006 - 30 answers

Flying Robot Planes? The analysts seem to think there is no good way to stop these things. Why isn't the government interested in using the wisdom of crowds to prevent terrorist attacks? [more inside]
posted by tweak on May 10, 2006 - 14 answers

Was what we were told about Flight 93 a myth? [more inside]
posted by brokekid on Feb 2, 2006 - 32 answers

I loved Hotel Rwanda. What particularly hooked me was the film's unflinching realism in showing civilization as it is slowly being encroached and oppressed by large-scale terrorism which casts a shadow of uncertainty and danger on even the most mundane routines of daily life -- a sort of real-life Night of the Living Dead. Other similar films are Salvador, Missing and The Killing Fields. I also enjoyed the recent The Constant Gardener. What else will I like? [more inside]
posted by gentle on Nov 15, 2005 - 30 answers

How many Al-Qaeda number twos are there? [more inside]
posted by Optimus Chyme on Oct 12, 2005 - 26 answers

Is it illegal in some places to deny the existence of terrorism or the severity of terrorist activity? If so, where? [more inside]
posted by troybob on Oct 4, 2005 - 5 answers

I need help finding a book that I read about 15 years ago. I think I checked it out of the Illinois State Univerity library. It may have also been found in boing boing or some other ezine. I don't know the author or the title. It was possibly a farcical or possibly a practical guide to domestic terrorism. It listed the practicalities of hitting domestic targets and what havoc it would wreak.
posted by indigo4963 on Sep 8, 2005 - 10 answers

What is Osama bin Laden's legal status? [more inside]
posted by biffa on Aug 24, 2005 - 11 answers

I often get called to appear on the nightly news whenever they need a guy to talk about computers, the internet or blogging. This time, it's a piece about "how terrorists use the net to organize and plan attacks" to be aired in a series for the week leading up to 9/11. In my segment, I will use my Google-fu to demonstrate how easy or hard it is to dig up maps and blueprints, especially for "sensitive" places. I'm trying to make sure the facts get out there, but I also want to do my bit to counter any scaremongering. My question: Can anyone point to sites or articles that discuss whether or not such publicly-available maps, diagrams and blueprints are a real security risk?
posted by AccordionGuy on Aug 18, 2005 - 13 answers

On September 17, 2003 Spanish über-judge Baltasar Garzón issued a 700-page indictment of the "Madrid cell" of al Qaeda for its support role in the 9/11 attacks. Is this document online anywhere? Has it ever been translated?
posted by dhartung on Jul 15, 2005 - 3 answers

NotSoHumbleDilettanteBlogosphereOpinionsFilter: So, at noon today, Blair called out the attacks for disrupting the G8 agenda today, namely Africa. What, if any can be speculated, effect might this have on proceedings in the G8?
posted by Jongo on Jul 7, 2005 - 3 answers

If you ran a city, what would you do, in a practical and local sense, to help protect your city from terrorist attacks?
posted by pracowity on Jul 7, 2005 - 13 answers

A question for all police, medical, fire, or other emergency professionals: what rules of thumb should everybody know in case they are present at a terrorist attack or other emergency? [more inside]
posted by yankeefog on Jul 7, 2005 - 14 answers

Help me convince a Republican that Racial Profiling is Not Good (tm). [more inside]
posted by odinsdream on Jun 10, 2005 - 33 answers

The show "24" has taken a lot of heat lately, mentioned recently in this Mefi thread and it got me to wondering.... [more inside]
posted by TeamBilly on Mar 1, 2005 - 12 answers

Why hasn't Al Qaeda perpetrated an attack on U.S. soil since 9/11?
posted by gwint on Jan 12, 2005 - 47 answers

Terrorists destroy the sun.... How long does humanity survive??? (the inside... there's more???) [more inside]
posted by John Kenneth Fisher on Dec 22, 2004 - 32 answers

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about Jonathan "Keith" Idema. The guy who was sentenced to 10 years in Afghanistan for running a prison and anti-terror group supposedly outside of US and Afghan control. I've read the BBC stuff that's out there. Does anyone have any other information about this guy? I heard he went to jail for fraud in the US. Also, he had a documentary filmmaker named Ed Carballlo with him. I'm interested in learning more about him as well... Anyone? [more inside]
posted by Shanachie on Nov 23, 2004 - 4 answers

What are the best middle-brow / high-brow "think-pieces" you've read on the topics of: the macropolitical consequences of 9/11; relations between the West and "the rest" after 9/11; and how "we" (whoever "we" may be) think of "ourselves" after 9/11? [more inside]
posted by stonerose on Oct 19, 2004 - 6 answers

Where were you on 9/11? How did you find out what was happening and what do you remember about that day? [more inside]
posted by caddis on Sep 11, 2004 - 65 answers

Terrorism Question: I've heard repeatedly in the news and read in several news articles that terrorists are plotting against the United States in hopes of influencing the Presidential election. What does this mean, and how to they expect to influence it? [More Inside] [more inside]
posted by banished on Aug 8, 2004 - 39 answers

So I've just come back from a meeting with a US Senator, and during the conversation, he went to great lengths to defend the US Patriot Act ... [more inside]
posted by silusGROK on Jun 30, 2004 - 18 answers

Do we negotiate with terrorists? [more inside]
posted by MrAnonymous on Jun 18, 2004 - 8 answers