Rather, many of them behaved as though they did in order to avoid the plausible threat of extreme physical abuse.

And if it's negotiated away, can it still be claimed that the Soviet Union poses a plausible threat to invade Western Europe?

No plausible threat yet exists that would justify a major effort to develop and deploy space-based weapons.

But the striking thing about the Pentagon list is how far its planners had to stretch to come up with any plausible threats.

What is more, they argue that Washington regulators already have sufficient power to cope with any plausible threat.

It was a plausible threat.

The operation against the mech was a success, in the sense that a plausible threat to the ship was removed.

But we face far more plausible threats than terrorists cutting across Lake Michigan in small boats.

The money could be better spent addressing more plausible threats like climate change and infectious disease.

General Powell has criticized Defense Secretary Les Aspin for trying to match American forces to plausible threats.