Posted by Katherine Long
A new report out today by the World Markets Research Centre "ranks the US as the country with the fourth-highest risk of terrorism. Another September 11-style attack in the US is highly likely."
Colombia, Israel and Pakistan are in first, second and third place, respectively. (Those seem like no-brainers.)
Just who is this group? WMRC is a private company based in London that analyzes market conditions and key events around the world to help companies "assess risk, make informed decisions and seize business opportunities in their domestic and foreign markets." It's owned by Joe Kasputys, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Insight group of companies.
If they were following Slate's logic, terrorists would do well to avoid messing with the electrical grid.
Fred Kaplan argues that the east coast power blackout demonstrates that a major disruption of the power grid by would-be terrorists would be an ineffective way to strike terror in the heart of America.
"Certainly the blackout dramatizes the fragility of our overloaded, archaic, unevenly managed electrical-transmission system. But it also reveals the system's -- and society's -- resilience.
"We have had, in one swoop, the largest blackout in U.S. history, wiping out electrical power for some 50 million people, including much of the Northeast corridor and the core of the nation's financial network. And yet, less than 24 hours later, most (though by no means all) of the power has been restored. Financial markets were scantly affected, if at all. In New York City, just one person died (of a heart attack, after walking down many flights of stairs in a Midtown skyscraper); the police recorded just three cases of looting, all minor; by Thursday evening, planes were flying in to the area's airports.
"...None of this is to warrant complacency, either about the electrical grid's ability to supply enough continuous power or about its security from terrorists and pranksters...
"If anything, it offers reassurance that society is more durable than many scenarios about terrorism suppose."
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