Planes vulnerable to bombs built on board, ingredients hidden in daily objects: Experts

The Hindu News ^ | August 10, 2006 | Staff

[RunningWolf]

Good point, that was one of the tings I was not going to mention. There are literally thousands of points of access to tap some electrical current in an airplane.

Another method would be to build the battery into the buttons of a coat. I will wildly speculate that they might even figure out how to weave the explosive into a cloth appearing substance and wear it on the airplane, activate it with another substance and then detonate it.

W.

[tortoise]

At the same time, it seems odd to still give the passengers in first class metal knives.

No it doesn't seem odd -- who the hell is going to hijack a plane today with a table knife? People need to stop hyperventilating over inconsequentials and irrelevancies and realize that damn near anything can be turned into a lethal weapon and that life is never completely safe.

[spinestein]

[Would we be permitted to launch missile strikes in retaliation on any nation who's people took to the streets to cheer if this attempt had been successful?]




Permitted by whom?

The only permission the United States government needs to use our military is the permission of the voters. If the rest of the world disapproves because we choose to take preemptive action against terrorist groups, then all they can do is scream, and if we refuse to listen to it, then it's just irrelevant noise.

Unfortunately, the debate is still going on now among American voters as to whether Jihadists are a nuisance to be prosecuted as criminals on a case by case basis, or a problem on a much larger scale requiring overwhelming military force.

I think it's reasonable to assume that at least 10% of the Muslims in the world are the intolerant zealots and active supporters of the idea that it's virtuous to kill people who don't worship Allah properly, according to their particular vision of holy writ.

100 million Jihadists and their supporters can't be stopped from dragging the world back into the 13th century by arresting them and putting them in jail.

[spinestein]

[But, as we try to treat everyone equally in our anti-terrorist efforts, middle-eastern young adult males continue to be the bulk of the threat.]


But in the meantime, our policy is to make sure that for every "Arab looking" person who gets screened we also need to pat down one 96 year old great-grandmother, one blond-haired and blue-eyed woman, one 5 year old Japanese kid and then make sure we check in the diapers of at least one infant for box-cutters. Just so we can assure the PC gods among us that we're not being bigots by unfairly targeting people using racial profiling.

[spinestein]

It fairly easy for a small group of highly motivated people with a knowledge of basic physics and good machining skills to learn on the Internet how to make a nuclear weapon which can be concealed within a car.

It's a good thing fissionable materials are difficult to obtain.

Of greater concern to me is conventional explosives which any bozo could put together. Imagine the result of something like the Oklahoma City bomb set off by Tim McVeigh but one built by Jihadists and detonated outside the Superbowl or World Series, for example. Or Mardi Gras, Taste of Chicago, New Years Eve in Times Square, July 4th at the Capital, or any of countless places and occasions where tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans gather.

[metmom]

The tough part about keeping on top of terrorism is that it's not possible to think of all the conceivable things a warped and twisted mind can think of to do to hurt people. Often, it has to happen before you can be aware of it. I'm glad they caught this one.

[WmShirerAdmirer]

Was sorry to learn of your problem. Hope they will let you take the laptop aboard so you don't have to do that drive. Good luck and the same to your sisters.