Word: bomb
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...reason is a popular recognition of the method's efficiency. Something like $1,000 buys a smart bomb that goes where the Israelis are, knows when to abort a mission and is far harder to spot than a booby-trapped briefcase. Notes Israeli Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau: "A suicide bomber is a two-legged missile. Once it's launched, it's very difficult to intercept...
...with high profiles but low casualties--was dangerously misguided. "It is increasingly clear," she wrote in her 1999 book, The Ultimate Terrorists, "that not all terrorists feel that way." In the book, which begins with a scenario in which the Empire State Building is destroyed by a homemade nuclear bomb, she coined the term macro-terrorism to describe terrorist acts that result in mass casualties. On Sept. 11 macroterrorism became a reality...
...likeliest source of most radioactive booty is Russia and the surrounding states, and the material they have to offer comes in two varieties. Top-quality, weapons-grade material is the only kind that can used to build a true nuclear-fission bomb, and is both hard to obtain and harder to turn into an explosive. But lower-grade radioactive rubbish is also dangerous. It can be fashioned into a so-called dirty bomb: a conventional explosive packed with waste that spreads radiation in all directions...
...prevent the problem is to dose the body with potassium iodide, which saturates the gland and prevents the nastier form of the stuff from being absorbed. It's simple--but of limited value. First, little if any iodine is given off by a so-called dirty bomb--radioactive waste wrapped around a conventional explosive--which is the device a terrorist would be most likely to manage. Second, even if radioactive iodine were present, potassium iodide would protect only against thyroid cancer--which is not the sole cancer risk...
...there are other, more straightforward ways to reduce the danger from a nuclear or radioactive device. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the three variables that determine the impact of radiation have not changed since the cold war: time, distance and shielding. After a nuclear device or dirty bomb goes off, survivors should quickly move away from ground zero and return home or to a safe place indoors--trying to stay uphill or upwind on the way. Once there, they should shower, change clothes and put all items worn outdoors in a sealed plastic bag. Pets should be brought...