f VITAL: IF BIN LADEN PLANS "THE BIG ONE" YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON THIS! at Stephenson blogs on homeland security 2.0 et al.

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VITAL: IF BIN LADEN PLANS “THE BIG ONE” YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON THIS!

By WDavidStephenson | November 11, 2008

Get your attention with that subtle headline?

Apologies in advance for “shouting.” It’s just because OUR LIVES MAY DEPEND ON WHAT I’M ABOUT TO SAY. Also apologies in advance for the snippy tone of some of this: I’m just fed up with official stupidity and myopia about the issues that I’ve devoted my life to for the past seven years — stupidity and myopia that puts all of us at increased risk and denies them the eyes and ears of concerned and empowered individuals.

OK, folks, I know that I haven’t been seen in these parts much in recent months: between my work on transparency and my near-total switch to micro-blogging on Twitter, you’ve seen little from me on homeland security and emergency planning.

In part, frankly, it’s due to the near total distain within the Bush DHS (with a few noteworthy exceptions: you guys know who you are, and I’m eternally grateful for your support..) for empowering the general public to play a critical role via Web 2.0 apps and, more important, the Web 2.0 ethos of collaboration (if you’re interested, here’s my theoretical summa on the issue). All you have to do is look at Ready.gov, which has certainly improved over the years but remains clueless about Web 2.0 (oh yeah, DHS may not get it about Web 2.0, but the bad guys do: the Army fears that al Qaeda may use our beloved Twitter to communicate about attacks).

For all our sakes, let’s hope the Obama Administration gets with the program: its general technological sophistication certainly gives one hope that will be the case.

Meanwhile, back to the urgency of this post.

It hasn’t gotten the media play it deserves, but bin Laden is reportedly planning an attack on the US that would “far outdo” 9/11!

“…a former senior Yemeni al-Qaeda operative said, the terrorist organisation has entered a ‘positive phase’, reinforcing specific training camps around the world that will lead the next ‘wave of action’ against the West.

The warning, on the front page of an Arabic newspaper published in London, Al-Quds Al-Arabi - and reported widely in the major Italian papers - quotes a person described as being ‘very close to al-Qaeda’ in Yemen.

The paper is edited by Abdel al-Bari Atwan, who is said to have been the last journalist to interview bin Laden, in 1996.

Bin Laden is himself closely following preparations for an attack against the US and aims to ‘change the face of world politics and economics’, (my emphasis) the report says.”

Put aside for a minute the utter insanity and tone-deafness bin Laden is showing by contemplating a huge attack in wake of election of The Most Popular Person in the Entire World (I’d imagine it would take President Obama about 10 minutes to put together a Coalition of the Eager that would roughly contain the entire UN membership to obliterate bin Laden once and for all!!!).

If he does launch such an attack, this would be the ultimate test of what I’ve been preaching since 9/11: that the advent of increasingly sophisticated networked portable personal communication devices and Web 2.0 apps to capitalize on them mean that you and I will play a major role in preparation and response for an attack, WHETHER OR NOT OFFICIALS WANT US TO (and, as I’ve chronicled since then, that’s just what has happened during Katrina, the San Diego wildfires, and this year’s hurricanes).

Here’s what you need to do (what I need to do is a quick update on new apps and devices that give even more options for ad hoc emergency communications, so mail to tag: e-mail me your suggestions on additions, and check back frequently!):

One final request: three years ago I created a highly-praised series of data bases for smartphones and PDAs, which allowed you to find detailed info. about what to do after a disaster in only 3 clicks. That way, if you lost all communications ability, as long as one person in a group had the application on their smartphone or PDA, s/he would be able to help others respond, and thereby lessen the burden on first responders.

In all modesty, it was a fantastic service, and I always hope that some agency or foundation would pay me to expand and maintain it and to make it available for free to everyone (that would certainly be an indication that government got it about Web 2.0, eh?). However, no one did, and the modest sales of the subscription version didn’t warrant me maintaining it on your own.

If I had a contract in the next week, I could bring it up to date within a month, and, I hope, also port it to iPhones. Given how pervasive smartphones and iPhones are today, an updated, free to download “Terrorism Survival Planner” could and should be a critical part of a comprehensive terrorism and disaster preparation and response program.

Please contact anyone you know who could pony the modest amount of money it would take to make it worth my while (despite what my wife thinks, I’m not a 501c3…)  and I’ll spring into action.

PS. Please pass this on: we’re all in this together!:

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