Terrorists Settings Fires in the Forests?

I was at the Reno, NV airport last night to pick my mom up. To kill time, I walked around, up and down stairs etc. On my second trip outside to the curbside dropoff area, I noticed a couple guys up on the top of the three story parking garage, looked like Airport Security. I noticed that they noticed me. I'm sure I looked pretty bad with my gray beard. In all the 90 minutes I was there, I saw probably 8-10 different officers, plus, one Airport Security SUV making a few trips out on the tarmac. What do they need that for?
Duane

Meth manufacturers.

Besides, we've defeated al Qaeda. Gotta be true, 'cause our Prez announced it. From Afghanistan, yet. Personally, I think it's to justify ever more intrusive domestic surveillance measures and a long term presence in Afghanistan.

There are so many ways to commit acts of terror it boggles the mind. It doesnt have to be on a large scale either. Terror is terror, because you dont know when or where to expect it, and it is disruptive (or supposed to be).

The only reason we havent had more, is the terrorists simply arent capable of executing anything. Anyone could drive a car into a crowd of people and kill 20 people, its just not as sensational as setting off an explosive. And apparently the terrorists arent that eager to get the virgins

^^ Yep

You can be a honors high school student that blows up a soda bottle dry ice bomb and get brought up for terrorism charges. It's happened. Of course what people think is terrorism and what the government thinks is terrorism doesn't overlap completely.

The goal of terrorism is to scare people enough to achieve a political goal. Does anybody in his right mind think a forest fire or a shooting will change the way a country of 300 million people operates?

Now I will say that that might work in other countries. Take that fire in Russia that was fed by drained peat bogs.

This is just funny. There's a better chance of an alcohol stove starting a forest fire than a terrorist.

After this gets out, it's going to be a great time to be a nature-loving Arab in the USA.

The Japanese tried it during WWll. Fail, too wet. Everything old is new again.

I think it might be drier now….

…and I think bark beetles might be Al Qaida agents.

Some of the Japanese launched incendiary balloons were successful, but they didn't know it because US newspapers agreed to not report the fires. So the Japanese stopped with the incendiary balloons.

We, on the other hand, stopped our incendiary bat program when we burned down one of our own hangers.

"After this gets out, it's going to be a great time to be a nature-loving Arab in the USA."

That's what I thought too.

I don't know, seems like we are pretty good at starting fires ourselves. Of all kinds.

"After this gets out, it's going to be a great time to be a nature-loving Arab in the USA."

That's what I thought too.

Seems to me that folks intent on profiling might want to read history … where they'd discover that the overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil have been promulgated by (gasp) White Males.

I avoid looking in mirrors due to the risk of scaring myself! Good thing that hanging out here has caused me to leave the mirror home when backpacking;-)

"Meth manufacturers.

Besides, we've defeated al Qaeda. Gotta be true, 'cause our Prez announced it. From Afghanistan, yet. Personally, I think it's to justify ever more intrusive domestic surveillance measures and a long term presence in Afghanistan"

spot on, not to mention this new generation of outdoor/commercial pot growers. Both slices of the industry are rapidly growing in the number of "producers", next to impossible to ignore in my area

There are lots more tourists than terrorists. When they're in the woods or camping they always have campfires and they are NOT careful.

Any person or organization who seriously advocates using timed explosives to do something so simple is about as fearsome as college students building bottle bombs.

No kidding. I just watched a youtube video of some guys camping summer of 2011 at Thousand Island Lake in the High Sierra, with a nice campfire. Man, that campfire looked nice —but the whole area is a No Fire Zone and even in the wettest summer for years, was a freakin' tinderbox. If that had gone sideways, it could have been really, really bad.

One of the worst fires in San Diego, and California, history was started by a fat stoner that was "lost" a mile from the car and "lit a signal fire" during Santa Ana winds (dry, fast winds). If he'd just screamed "Jabba Jabba Jihad!" instead of, "Dude, I'm lost. Can I have a Twinkie?", it would have been one of the largest terrorist events in American history.

By the way, the stoner claimed to be a "hunter". Baloney, but he and his other stoner buddy did have .22's or something (and dope and…a lighter). I'm more worried about domestic "outdoor enthusiasts" than I am terrorists. Trees and bunnies don't send the message the haters are after.

They don't even have to do the deed. Just talk about it and they produce fear and probably
more rules and laws enacted. They sure have leveraged 9/11.

"They don't even have to do the deed. Just talk about it and they produce fear…

Indeed – look at the knuckleheads who set the booby-traps. How many hikers, and especially their families, took a bit of pause after hearing about them?