Drudge - cancelled flight believed headed to attack Las Vegas

12/25/03 | Drudge

[salbam]

Developing

[hoosiermama]

Don't know what, but do know that the local authorities are keeping watch over our local river as it is a source of water for the community.

Was just trying to "think out of the box" Can germs, etc, be spread by tainting the water. Cholera uses water to spread. Any others?

[mindspy]

What about MTB in the fuel? Oh, that's right our water is already contaminated with MTBs thanks to the enviro wackos.

[uglybiker]

Finding Hoover Dam from an airliner would be harder than most people think. Then add the fact that the dam is in a stretch of canyon barely wide enough to fit an airliner to begin with, I doubt it would be a target.

Not with airplanes anyway. Much easier to find the strip.

[the invisib1e hand]

My father's theory is that the French are paying off AQ. and are therefore a source of income for them.

This may be plausible; Francois may be paying hush money to AQ, to prevent dirty little secrets from being revealed...the rush to forgive loans also had the feel of "Oh, sh*t!" to it.

[hoosiermama]

Stay safe folks, Merry Christmas! Goodnight!

[Mike Darancette]

Much easier to find the strip.

The Strip is about a mile from the airport and on the flight path.

[the invisib1e hand]

Was just trying to "think out of the box"

Don't know what could be more 'out of the box' than the Neverland/Jocko connection...you heard it here first!

[prairiebreeze]

Hoover Dam perhaps

Prairie

[pamlet]

Sure - Believe me I understand - it would stand out to me too if I wasn't so aware of it. I know it can be an issue with our offices, because at the end of the year, if the government closes an office and people are out of paid time off - then they have to take the day without pay.. this usually causes a complaint or two...

[Ex-Dem]

I think that with anything that could potentially be used to contaminate the water supply, it'd take a very substantial amount of the stuff. Plus, the chemicals added to the water supply to make it safe for consumption (i.e. chlorine) would further neutralize the contaminant.

[Route66]

I think there are a lot of bad things these people could do that they don't do. There are many ways to create fear, financial panic, and loss of life that would give them more bang for their buck and their efforts.

You and I can probably easily come up with lots of ideas that would, if implemented, produce even more devastating results than their choices, but the truth is they don't think like we do and they seem obsessed with certain methods and targets over others.

It's actually to our advantage in many ways that they have some predictability. The trick is to get inside their heads, and I believe we have had some good success thwarting attacks in the last 2 years because we are getting better all the time at doing just that.

Though they may someday just do the unexpected, it's harder than you might think for people like this to turn on a dime. As much as we are all made to pay a price for their maniacal rigidity, they are themselves also prisoners of it.

[CurlyDave]

if the guys didn't show up and had tickets, one can assume they likely are being hunted down.

This is my take on it also.

Whoever really knows whether the French blew it or the news story is just disinformation isn't telling. I get the feeling that Al Qaeda organization is pretty loose and a cell could act autonomously for quite a while. If we put out the story that they were let loose they might not be expected to try to contact anyone for many days out of fear of being tailed.

One way or another, I hope the 6 or 7 "suspects" have a hot time of it soon.

[Brad’s Gramma]

The day off didn't bother me because of the Christmas season, and the day of the week, I just didn't know that in order to do that, an Executive Order had to be issued.

[Kevin Curry]

Finding Hoover Dam from an airliner would be harder than most people think.

Enter the coordinates in a portable GPS. That's how they zeroed in on the Pentagon from Boston.

Las Vegas is an interesting target choice (for cultural and "big show" reasons), but it is not necessarily the best choice as judged from the standpoint of operational ease. Las Vegas is easy to see at nighttime. But it is about 40 minutes by air from Los Angeles. Air Force fighters would be scrambled immediately from both Nellis and Luke to quickly intercept an errant airliner.

I don't believe there is any doubt that we would shoot down an errant Air France airliner down under such circumstances. The wreckage would be scattered over sparsely populated desert, likely limiting the deaths to the passengers and crew of the airliner itself.

The terrorists would have a much better chance of bringing an airliner down on a target in Los Angeles itself.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Stay safe folks, Merry Christmas! Goodnight!

Roger that All. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Best Wishes to all. You're the Best!

[mhking]

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[Mo1]

The day off didn't bother me because of the Christmas season, and the day of the week, I just didn't know that in order to do that, an Executive Order had to be issued.

Same here .. but now that it was explained .. it does makes sense.

Guess I can put my tin hat away for the moment

[gg188]

The cockpit doors are now reinforced on all (I believe) commercial flights making it more difficult to gain entry into the flight deck-if #1 and #2 did not already stop them dead in their tracks.

I've always wondered: the terrorists in the passenger compartment announce they will start killing/maiming/torturing passengers one-at-a-time until the crew opens the cockpit door. Would the flight crew then open the door to stop the carnage? What would happen in this scenario? Terrorists killing passengers behind a locked cabin door would have just as devastating effect on the airline industry as crashing the plane, though no people or edifices on the ground would be impacted. The tales of what happened on this hypothetical flight would depress flying about the same as the images of the flights crashed into the WTC. If one of the main terrorist goals is to damage the economy---particularly the already financially-ailing airline industry, which was dealt a terrible blow in the aftermath of 9 11---killing helpless passengers in-flight while the ships' captains, ensconced on the flight deck, plod on---well, that would work for them just fine... ...Just a comment on cabin door locks.

[Finalapproach29er]

My father's theory is that the French are paying off AQ. and are therefore a source of income for them.


Strategy didn't work to good for Saudi Arabia. I look forward to the US going after France and Saudi Arabia in the future.

[f7Oshawn]

I always thought they should just come up with a way to spray some sleeping gas into the cabin to put everyone to sleep. Then the pilots could land the plane at the nearest airport without any worries.