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Pentagon scare?

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by jkaras

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Ok, I dont want to beat this dead horse like the news has all day yesterday over the iddiot pilots who flew into the no fly zone, but I have to know. Do you think they went over board on the scare tactics? The media that is. I do find it interesting that they have an established protocol to knock anything out of the sky to maximize safety, but duh, of course they do. If you are that stupid to fly into a known no fly zone like they did then hello scrap metal. The only point that the reporters made that was valid was how did a slow little Cessna get so close in the first place once it got near or breached the no fly zone? They also made the point that if all the terrorist had to do was fly close to evacuate the Pentagon then detonate a dirty bomb in the crowd because they all got evacuated in one place it would be easy for a suicide bomber to inflict heavy casualties. Man these are some wierd times.

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by amcol

Considering I live within walking distance and work three miles from the Pentagon, personally speaking I'm perfectly happy to have anybody and everybody overreact in any way to all threats, perceived or real.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, however. The evacuation plan for the Pentagon is a little more complicated than everyone simply milling around in one place. There are three major highways that pass right by the building, and although traffic is pretty bad most of the time under normal circumstances the entire area could be cleared within about 30 minutes.

by jkaras

But is the meeting area for the officials segregated from other people? Meaning everyone evacs to area X and a terrorist with a bomb mingles into the crowd or near enough to detonate and cause severe loss of life is all that I am saying. To do the most amount of damage alla cell would have to do is get someone to fly in a Cessna near the fly zone to enable an evac. It would be a very effective setup, unfortunately.

by amcol

While there are plenty of uniformed personnel in the Pentagon, in the middle of a crowd of thousands of people it's impossible to tell the chiefs from the Indians.

Also, it's highly unlikely this would work at an installation like the Pentagon since access to the grounds around the building is very highly restricted. The only way to get there is via footbridges over the highways that are manned by armed guards. I can't imagine anyone being able to smuggle any kind of device anywhere near where people would congregate in an evac situation.

The scenario you describe would more likely work in any major metropolitan business area with a heavy population, so it's nothing to worry about with specific reference to the Pentagon.

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