Testing the response?

One of the ways skilled attackers can get through security is to probe the defenses and see what the response is. Once they know the response they can plan an attack with a high probability of success. I wonder if that is what happened here:

A suspicious package found outside an eastern Minnesota high school Wednesday contained an incendiary device, the school district’s superintendent said.

Princeton schools Superintendent Rick Lahn said he learned that in a meeting with Police Chief Brian Payne on Wednesday afternoon.

“He said it was some kind of incendiary device, but it’s being investigated now and they’re taking a look at it,” Lahn told The Associated Press. “And he couldn’t give me details. He just said it was very suspicious and it contained some explosive material. I don’t think it was a large device, but I really don’t know what kind of damage it could have done.”

The package, which Lahn said was discovered by a custodian outside the school, was one of three found in Princeton on Wednesday morning.

Officials gave the all-clear late Wednesday morning after law enforcement officers and explosive-sniffing dogs combed the town of about 4,500 people about 50 miles north of Minneapolis.

“The entire town was searched for suspicious devices with negative results,” Schmidt said.

Along with the Princeton Police Department and ATF, agencies joining the investigation included the FBI, the St. Paul and Crow Wing County bomb squads, the Sherburne and Mille Lacs County sheriff’s departments, and postal inspectors, Schmidt said.

Interesting. They searched the entire town. This pulled police from multiple jurisdictions into the response. This probably left weak spots in other areas with increased response times and feeble responses had an attack occurred in these other locations.

I hope it was just some kid wanting to another day to study for a test rather than someone with serious intent in harming people.

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5 thoughts on “Testing the response?

  1. That was interesting, thanks for the heads up.

    This pulled police from multiple jurisdictions into the response

    This really caught my attention. Given that criminals are very opportunistic, it is just another reason to make sure I’m carrying every day. Even if the problem isn’t in our city, our police response may be less than normal.

    Of course, I’m just a paranoid who is bitterly clinging to my guns…what do I know.

  2. I am getting concerned. There have been numerous arrests and some without good evidence. Some premature. Why now? Does AQ thinks Obama is weak? Or does DOJ want to get credit now to offset Obama’s preceived weakness?

    Unlike Bush’s DOJ many of these issues are being taken seriously in the public LEO response.
    Search a town of 4500 is a pretty serious response.

    I guess that we have to accept that there will be an attack soon. The type is unknown. It could be a Mumbai, but I do not fear that since we have a different response than Indians do. Our police forces are used to criminal gangs and shootouts. For that matter the public is pretty good at responding to that with all the CCW holders.

    If I had the job of guessing, I would pick one that had the most emotional response. Kids are a good target. But we have gotten used to kids shooting up schools. I think the better targets would be subways. Hit the commuters in NYC and there will be panic.
    Lone guys may target Jewish Centers since that has the religous aspect.

    All these attempts seem to be domestic wannabes and they do not have the infrastructure of AQ.

    Chances of success for the terrorist may be lower,but even a idiot can get a body count.
    We better start watching more carefully for strange behavior and ready to react even if we are wrong.

    I am glad that FBI and LEO are reacting seriously.

    I sure hope that none of these are pretexts for Martial Law in order to create a crisis. But I think that the left may be opportunist but not create the crisis only take advantage.

    Naw, that is just paranoia. But we do have to watch for the terrorist wannabes since they want to get their shot at glory.

  3. Considering they found three similar boxes in various places, I don’t think sweeping a town of 4500 is out of line at all. They might have found other boxes in doing that.

  4. A book of matches is an “incendiary device”. What are we really talking here?

  5. >Interesting. They searched the entire town. This pulled police from multiple jurisdictions into the response. This probably left weak spots in other areas with increased response times and feeble responses had an attack occurred in these other locations.< Interesting indeed. Several greater Boston cities were hit with a spate of bank robberies over the past spring / summer. The MO was to call in a bomb threat at a supermarket or other large public place and then rob the bank across town. It took the local constabulary and FBI about the 4th time to get a clue. It seems to me that the bad actors are learning to take advantage of the current climate of hyper-sensitivity to any perceived threat, and the LE reaction that causes that shift of resources into a corner on the opposite side of the board.

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