Posted on 08/10/2006 11:48:06 AM PDT by WmShirerAdmirer
Planes vulnerable to bombs built on board, ingredients hidden in daily objects: Experts Dublin, Aug. 10 (AP): The next terrorist attacks on civilian aircraft could be carried out by passengers who hide their bomb ingredients in innocent-looking containers for talcum powder, baby formula or medicine bottles and assemble their weapon behind a locked restroom door, security experts warn.
The announcement on Thursday of a foiled terror plot aiming to blow up flights from London to the United States using explosives hidden in hand luggage pointed to a potential new chapter in the battle against airline terrorism: a world of hours-long security checks, visual inspections of prescription drugs, and bans on bringing liquids or laptops on board.
Several bomb-disposal experts and troubleshooters for airline security interviewed by The Associated Press said mobile phones, computers, wrist watches or anything else with a battery should be prohibited from flights.
Perhaps most chillingly, they warn that security staff at airports are not looking for the right things anymore _ and the change in tactics required is likely to overwhelm current security standards.
``That theater we see, of people taking off shoes, is not going to stop a suicide bomber. The terrorists have already sniffed out the weak spots and are adopting new tactics,'' said Irish security analyst Tom Clonan, who noted that security measures usually adapt to the last attack, not the next threat.
He said that a terrorist group will almost certainly try to blow up a plane with a bomb assembled on board unless security measures improved fundamentally.
Anti-terrorist authorities in Britain and the United States declined to describe the bomb design used by terrorists in the foiled plot _ whether they were primarily liquid or, more likely, contained liquids in a more complex ingredient list.
Whatever the case, experts predicted passengers may soon have to change their travel habits radically.
``Every businessman needs to have his laptop on a long-haul flight, and now you won't be able to. Even a battery-operated watch would provide enough power for a detonator. All you need is one shock,'' said Alan Hatcher, managing director of the International School for Security and Explosives Education in Salisbury, England.
Airlines have toyed with the idea of banning innocuous personal-care items from carry-on luggage following previous security scares, only to have the focus switch elsewhere because of the mammoth difficulty of enforcing tougher rules. Thursday's announcement dramatically raises the likelihood that security will come first no matter what the logistical hurdles.
The technology for the kind of liquid or crystallized explosives possibly involved in the thwarted terror plot is not new.
The threat first appeared in January 1995 in the Philippines, when police stumbled upon a suspected al-Qaida plot to target U.S.-bound, long-haul planes with bombs based on nitroglycerine carried on board in containers for contact-lens solution.
At that time, aviation authorities announced plans to ban aerosols, bottled gels and containers of liquids holding more than 30 milliliters on U.S. airliners departing Manila, an idea never properly enforced.
Even then, baby formula was excluded from the limits _ even though, in its powdered form, it could provide a good vehicle for masking crystallized explosives.
A decade later in Belfast, Northern Ireland, an Algerian man was convicted of possessing 25 computer disk drives detailing how to bring down an aircraft using, among other things, crystallized explosives hidden in a container of talcum powder.
During that trial an FBI explosives expert, Donald Sachtleben, testified he had built and successfully detonated three bombs based on the instructions found in the Algerian's home.
Despite this decade-old knowledge, security officials in Dublin and across Europe still permit passengers to carry on a wide range of receptacles without any visual inspection.
And the increasing probability that terrorists will try to strike with explosive components hidden in hand-luggage has been accompanied by a trend among discount airlines to encourage passengers to bring more carry-on baggage. In recent months Europe's market-leading airline, Irish budget carrier Ryanair, has imposed a mandatory charge on all check-in luggage; an Irish competitor, Aer Lingus, has announced plans to follow suit.
``I'm really surprised the Irish aviation authority hasn't stepped in to moderate this rush to hand luggage by airlines,'' said aviation expert Gerry Byrne. ``All our airport security has been geared towards baggage going into the hold. ... It will overwhelm security if the emphasis is suddenly switched to hand baggage.''
A British security expert, Steve Park, said the likely scenario would involve a two- or three-member terror team boarding the same flight, each carrying a different part of the bomb to be made. ``They could combine resources on the plane. That would be perfectly possible on a busy flight,'' he said.
Critical to conventional bombs is a power source to trigger a detonator. Clonan said cell phones could provide an ideal power-timer unit for a bomb.
``In midflight you could go into the toilet, attach the mobile phone to the explosives and, as the plane makes a final approach over a densely populated urban area, you detonate it,'' he said. To puncture an aircraft's fuselage would require an explosive charge ``half the size of a cigarette packet,'' he said.
Hatcher said ``liquid bombs'' were not the most likely explosive. He said it was far more likely that a terrorist cell would try to smuggle on board explosives in crystalline or powder form and to combine it with an acid-based compound.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff warned Thursday of precisely that threat: ``benign'' materials smuggled on board and mixed to create bomb. He said authorities were analyzing to see how to protect against such a threat.
Hatcher said terrorists might also construct an on-board incendiary bomb based on paraffin or petrol, which if ignited in the mid-Atlantic could destroy an aircraft before it could land.
None of these items, he noted, could be detected by a typical US$5 million (euro4 million) X-ray. Hands-on inspection was the only way to tell if a dark-plastic medicine vial really contains what it says on the label.
``You'll have to carry your prescription and prove to security that the medicine really is what it is. But for 20 million people a year going through Heathrow? How do you do that?'' Hatcher said, foreseeing a future airport arrivals hall with five-hour security checks.
And that scenario, he said, points to a future likely target for terrorists _ detonating bombs in an airport terminal, not on a plane.
``You can carry a bag into the center of an airport with thousands of people around you before you are ever screened. That, too, must change,'' he said
I'm glad the government is taking this seriously. Took them a decade to do so but better late than never......
Man alive... I'm not fond of flying and now this. Supposed to take a trip to Orlando in October, and DC in November.
It's becoming increasingly clear that a determined, intelligent group of people can probably come up with a way to bring down an airplane, regardless of TSA, etc.
Look more for the people, in addition to the tools.
Whaddaya think folks?
And France's airports have muslim-only prayer rooms. Nice place to go and prep (after clearing security) uninterrupted.
the money triangulation program was a wonderful tool. Probably nabbed these cretins. But the NY Times thought we have the RIGHT to know.
Nah. Better to ban inanimate objects. I mean, look how well gun control works.
5 hours waiting for a plane? Can I buy stock in Amtrack?
The days of large carry on bags may be coming to an end.
Anything bigger than a purse or briefcase may need to be checked in stowaway storage.
At the same time, it seems odd to still give the passengers in first class metal knives. Didn't the 911 hijackers ride up front?
Why not shut down the militant mosques enlisting jihadist armies?
A cartoon I saw after 9/11 depicted all the passengers strapped into their seats - in their birthday suits. Maybe we're approaching "fly nude." (Horrible thought, in the case of most of us!)
Of course, then I read on another thread that there is a possibility that they will be concealing things internally, so I guess even nude isn't good enough.
It's a bad idea. As a profile forms, the enemy switches tactics. They just need to get blond haired, blue-eyed Muslim converts to do their bidding. They are already doing this, in fact. Same with babies and the elderly. As soon as we stop checking any group of people, they will become the next carriers, victims of evil people who don't mind killing anyone to do their nefarious deeds.
nothing new, huh?
now how about all those liquids
on the beverage carts, right? ;)
We are going to have to be concerned about the employees who work for vendors that have access to the planes before the public boards. It will be the easiest way to get needed materials on board.
I've opted to drive when and where I can.
No rental car needed, no undue delays (my flight a couple weeks ago had a 3.5 hour delay and meant that I didn't arrive at my destination until 2am local time and 4am in my normal time). As it was cross country I didn't have much choice but for closer trips (~400 miles) I've been driving for years.
Boy, that is going to be hard to stop. There is enough power in the lights in the bathroom to trigger an explosive. A couple of wires and you can make a circuit. And guess what, you can use the headphones provided for entertainment as a source for the wire. So all you really need is a crystallized explosive like crystallized ether. 20 oz should be enough.
Heck with some explosives, you don't even need an electrical circuit to set it off. I strong blow can set off a lot of stuff.
Bump
Some joke that we'll all have to fly nude.
But it sounds like we're on the way to banning carry on items.
Flying is going to be too much of a hassle. You can't bring liquids on board. Not even bottled water. Are the airlines going to service you on board? The way they have cut back food and drink service recently, seems unlikely. That's why some have brought their own snacks and drinks on planes.
This may become unworkable. The terrorists are causing a lot of disruption even by having their plot discovered, whether they know that now or not.
So? Puncturing a hole in the fuselage won't bring down the plane or suck everybody out of it through "explosive decompression". Goldfinger was not a documentary.
There is a real threat, but boneheaded exaggerations like this don't contribute anything to addressing it.
How long can we live this way?
At somepoint it will be time to use our military power to it's full extent.
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