For the record, I believe that the gov't has already done this with Hollywood screenwriters and producers on different terrorist scenarios after 9/11. So open dialogue is always good, but I think that if they're being genuine about wanting this to be a public service for terror fighters, they'd not show the comments that peope post and just forward them onto law enforcement agencies, otherwise it comes off as just another publicity seeking blog which might just wind up giving terrorists some new ideas. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292689,00.html
That's about the stupidest idea imaginable -- even for the New York Times. But, if I were a terrorist, I'd say blow up the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and the Denver Post at the same time (East Coast, Left Coast, the South and Middle America). What could get you more publicity than that?
Why? This presumes that the terrorists somehow aren't smart enough to figure out their own ideas on how to terrorize and need the help of freaking bloggers to do it. Similarly, I don't think it's terribly valuable because it assumes law enforcement needs the help of freaking bloggers to come up with terror scenarios. It's the same logic that gets people to say "we need to fight terrorists in Iraq so we don't have to fight them here!" As though Al Queda is dumb enough to choose a battlefield that is better for the US just for the hell of it. If they wanted to fight us here instead of Iraq, they could. If they are fighting us there, they probably figure it's a better strategy for them.
If I were a terrorist I would forget about the major cities. I would go for heartland, and small town malls. That would truly strike terror into the people because they would know it could happen anywhere, not just major cities, at major events and landmarks.
I think terrorism would be more effective at terrorizing a people if the terrorists would hit individual targets randomly. The DC sniper created more terror in the populace than any of the high body count attacks.
Its an interesting idea and one that I wouldn't dismiss as it leverages the collective mind of many people versus only a few. No matter how much info that people at the NSA have there is still a limited amount of people there and they are limited by their training and their environment. By opening it up though you get a whole range of fresh ideas that the NSA and others in the intelligence agencies might never have considered. There are still some big drawbacks though with the biggest one of having to wade through so many ideas and how to prioritize them. While there is a danger of terrorists reading an idea that helps them that is certainly a risks but that is balanced by the benefit of also having ideas that help us combat terrorism.
