Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Seven: War and Terrorism 81The Germans expect to produce the ‘Armbrust’ in large quantities.” 103 A newprojectile that can be fired from the U.S. M-79 grenade launcher (many ofwhich have reportedly been stolen) “is capable of penetrating two inches ofarmor plate and igniting any fuel behind it.” 104 A more conventional rocketpropelledgrenade was used in the 15 September 1981 Heidelberg attempt toassassinate General Kroesen, U.S. Army Commander in Europe. Another hasbeen used to blow up an oil depot in Azerbaijan. 105•Poison gas. In April 1975, terrorists stole three quarts of mustard gas fromGerman Army bunkers; several cities, including Stuttgart and Bonn, werethreatened with a gas attack. 106 The “Alphabet Bomber” threatened in 1974 to“destroy the entire personnel of Capitol Hill” with two tons of sarin nerve gas,and had in fact assembled all but one of the ingredients needed to make it. 107A letter bomb containing a vial of nerve gas has reportedly been interceptedin the United States. 108 Viennese police in 1975 arrested German entrepreneursfor conspiring to sell tabun nerve gas in the Middle East. 109 They hadalready made a quart of it—a mere whiff of which would cause unconsciousnessin five seconds and death within five minutes—and packed it into bottles,capsules, and spray cans. 110 Methods of making such substances have beenpublished, and some highly toxic nerve gas analogues are commercially availablein bulk as organophosphorous insecticides. An inhaled lethal dose ofsarin nerve gas to a normally respiring adult is about a thirty-thousandth ofan ounce. VX nerve gas, whose method of preparation has also been printed,is ten times this toxic by inhalation and three hundred times as toxic by contact.111 It can be made by a “moderately competent organic chemist, with limitedlaboratory facilities” and willingness to take risks. 112 Nonlethal incapacitatinggases like Mace ® are also widely available. A U.S. Army black-hat teamreportedly demonstrated in 1969 and 1970 that a gas attack on the Capitoland White House air-conditioning systems could readily have killed everyoneinside, including the President, the Congress, and most of their staffs. 113 Thesecurity precautions taken at these buildings are presumably more stringentthan at most energy facilities.• Explosives, including breaching, shaped, platter, airblast, and fuel-air detonationcharges. These are readily available at a wide range of sophistication, rangingfrom plastic explosive and specialized cutting and penetration jets to thecrude seventeen-hundred-pound truckload of fertilizer/fuel-oil explosive whichdestroyed the Army Mathematics Research Center at the University ofWisconsin in 1970. 114 (Such a charge at ten yards’ range produces overpressuresof the order of one hundred fifty pounds per square inch—six times the levelwhich severely damages reinforced concrete.) Many tons of commercial explosivesare stolen every year, 115 and probably over a million Americans are