I voted on the Chinese. Hawkins HAS to be a mole, probably Russian (although given the ham hand of plot crafting in Hollyweird he might be a member of the Hezbollah for all we know), as for Jake's passport being flagged, criminal activity can get it flagged, as well as maybe (GASP!) someone in the beauracracy made a mistake. (Sits down and fans myself to offset the shock of saying a gov't makes mistakes.)
I discounted any terror organization being behind this, simply put: Not enough resources. I figure a nuke plot would take a decade to plan and prepare for and that is a LONG time w/o Intell finding SOMETHING out.
Plus there has been rumours of 'suitcase bombs' in either theory or practice in several inventories, again mostly referenced in the realm of Nuke capable nations.
Then there was that retalitory strike. One really doesn't think that we'd waste ICBMs on a terrorist enemy due to the colateral damage to non-involved targets plus the fact that no terror organization is that centralized to be truly harmed by a strike like that.
Then you ask "What about that report about the NYPD and the van?" Ever see the movie Telephon? Or the (in my case) probable use of WarPact Spec Ops forces to disable NATO in the event of WWIII in Europe?
Why the Chinese and not the Russians: Simply put, I think the russian military is unwilling to start WWIII, UNLESS there was a coup there and some (fanatic or crackpot) just launched the ICBMs. Besides, they rely a bit more on our economy than they can really afford to wreck it.
Mars. (I'll take this to mean ANY extraterrestrial aliens). We be so very screwed if ET wanted to hose us. Then there is the niggling little trouble of: Why the US? Why not All the World?
Civil War: Possible, but not enough information to support it.
Women: Depends on what time of the month it was... ROFLMAO! Sorry, bad joke.
Hint's it is IMHO, the Chinese: That news show was AIMED at the US.
The airdrop of "relief supplies".
The possibility that Hawkins is actually a Chinese agent and using the Russian sites as a cover, IN THE EVENT OF HIS BEING COMPROMISED.
The Chinese have a fairly robust economy and yet can handle the collapse of a western economy better than a western industrial economy as most of hina is still pretty much low tech.
Just my thoughts. I am waiting for more episodes to unravel the spaghetti dinner they have tossed at us.
DonP