[iwar] The overuse of the WMD term and the profound misimpression it leaves

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-09-14 23:17:58


Return-Path: <sentto-279987-1920-1000534679-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com>
Delivered-To: fc@all.net
Received: from 204.181.12.215 by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.1.0) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Fri, 14 Sep 2001 23:20:10 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (qmail 25128 invoked by uid 510); 15 Sep 2001 06:18:19 -0000
Received: from n14.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.64) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 15 Sep 2001 06:18:19 -0000
X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-1920-1000534679-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com
Received: from [10.1.4.53] by jk.egroups.com with NNFMP; 15 Sep 2001 06:17:59 -0000
X-Sender: fc@big.all.net
X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com
Received: (EGP: mail-7_3_2_2); 15 Sep 2001 06:17:58 -0000
Received: (qmail 12488 invoked from network); 15 Sep 2001 06:17:58 -0000
Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by l7.egroups.com with QMQP; 15 Sep 2001 06:17:58 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO big.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta2 with SMTP; 15 Sep 2001 06:17:58 -0000
Received: (from fc@localhost) by big.all.net (8.9.3/8.7.3) id XAA00958 for iwar@onelist.com; Fri, 14 Sep 2001 23:17:58 -0700
Message-Id: <200109150617.XAA00958@big.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
X-Mailer: don't even ask
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL1]
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 23:17:58 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [iwar] The overuse of the WMD term and the profound misimpression it leaves
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

The media and those who communicate with and through it have been using
the term "Weapon of Mass Destruction" (or sometimes disruption) to
describe the crashing of jet airliners into a few buildings.  This is a
very misleading description and one that should be clarified with some
haste.  While I am not an expert on the subject, I feel that I can lend
some clarity.

According to:
	http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/Usa/Weapons/Wpngall.html

A strategic nuclear weapon (the B53 Mod-1) has a yield that is the
equivalent of 9 million tons of TNT.

By contrast, according to:
	http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/PAO/PAIS/HTML/FS-013-DFRC.html

The 747s designed to ferry the space shuttle from place to place has a
maximum fuel capacity of 316,307 lbs of jet fuel.

According to:
	http://www.ior.com.au/ecflist.html

Aviation gasoline yields 49.6 Billion Joules per tonne.
	(Uranium yields 560,000 Billion Joules per tonne - of course Hydrogen
	bombs are used for real punch, but I digress.)

Maximum jet fuel in a 747 is 316,307 lbs = 158 tonnes = 7,836.8 Billion Joules

According to:
	http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/Numbers/Math/Mathematical_Thinking/jeep_to_estimate.htm

Exploding a ton of TNT liberates about 4 Billion Joules.

Therefore a 9 megaton atomic bomb releases 36,000,000 billion Joules

That's about 4,594 times as much energy from a single atomic bomb as
from the worst case single airline crash.  And that's not one of those
big Russian nuclear bombs that comes in at 5 times as much explosive
power.  And that ignores radiation effects, electromagnetic pulse
effects, etc.

In summary, these attacks with airplanes are nothing like weapons of
mass destruction. You might want to look at:
	http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuke_war.htm
They talk about a 1 Megaton nuclear weapon.

FC
--This communication is confidential to the parties it is intended to serve--
Fred Cohen		Fred Cohen & Associates.........tel/fax:925-454-0171
fc@all.net		The University of New Haven.....http://www.unhca.com/
http://all.net/		Sandia National Laboratories....tel:925-294-2087


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Secure your servers with 128-bit SSL encryption! Grab your copy of VeriSign's FREE Guide, "Securing Your Web
site for Business" and learn all about serious security. Get it Now!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/r0k.gC/oT7CAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-09-29 21:08:43 PDT