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Source: Reuters -
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Wandering the aisles of the local supermarket, I picked up a can of minestrone soup to add to my collection. At present I have 11 such cans of soups and stews, including some rather suspect Dinty Moore chicken stew that, the date stamp informs me, ceased to be at its best in June last year.
Along with the survival pack that TVNZ has given me as hand luggage should there ever be a son of Hurricane Katrina, and 24 bottles of water that I can only assume are past their best (do you sense a theme developing here?) and lie mouldering in the back of my secondary cupboard, these tins are my preparation for 9/11 part two.
Now I don't know if Al Qaeda is like Hollywood, but I certainly hope so. Let's face it, their attempts at a sequel have been less than spectacular. A guy with exploding gruts on Christmas Day, and before him, Najibullah Zazi, the jihadist coward who planned to incinerate subways in New York to commemorate the eighth anniversary of September 11.
Zazi's was a particularly malevolent plot, but one that must have appealed to the cash-strapped and desperate Al Qaeda. The ABC's Pierre Thomas, speaking on the World News, noted that the terrorist group is becoming increasingly eager to make a successful attack in the US. While keeping jobs might be the most important thing to most Americans, the country, and - in particular - New York remains a terrorist target.
Hence Najibullah Zazi's plan to murder civilians . More generally, hence also Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and his Christmas present that didn't open.
Taking the six line down from Spanish Harlem, I was reflecting on how Zazi might achieve his aim, the maximum casualties amongst those whose crime is to be a resident, and want to go someplace. It's difficult to convey the sense of enclosure that you feel in a subway. You're in a train riding tunnels below the earth. Difficult to explain also that momentary panic when you see a large package left "unattended", as per the warnings that sound on the trains about suspicious items. It might be rubbish, or Death.
You don't want to freak out. You want to look cool, maybe just sort of lightly kick the thing onto the platform at the next stop. Or perhaps change cars. How the mind wanders. Assuming you do survive, how do you get out? You're still underground.
But there's danger up there also. A dirty bomb in midtown, perhaps. A chemical attack. Some little surprise being cooked up at the Indian Point nuclear power station along the Hudson River, though the population density (certainly not the 60,000 people per square mile of New York) wouldn't justify the effort.
You start doing equations like that, living here. Most New Yorkers have some kind of vague plan as to what they would do if something "went down" as they say. It amounts to this: The Other Guy Should Be Worried.
I'm glad Zazi pleaded guilty, but I assume he's not the last in a line. I'll probably buy another can tomorrow to replace that rotten chicken stew. I won't stop worrying, but assuming I do survive the next big, or biggish (given the way they've been going) attack, there's no point in living through 9/11 part two, only to perish from self-administered food poisoning.
Read more of Tim Wilson's blogs.
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