Lahore - Pakistan intelligence authorities have warned that the Taliban may hijack airplanes to carry out a terror strike similar to 9/11. Quoting from an intelligence report, a private television channel said that some detained Taliban operatives have revealed that their associates often use commercial airlines operating in the country to travel from place to another, and are on the look out to hijack the airliners to repeat the September 11, 2001 incident.
Intelligence agencies have also asked the concerned authorities to implement certain fundamental changes in the security procedures for commercial airliners to ensure safety of passengers and avoid any untoward incident, The Daily Times reports. Airplanes have become more susceptible to be used for terror strikes ever since the 9/11 incident when four commercial aircrafts of a US airliner were hijacked by Al-Qaeda and deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building in Washington.
http://www.aniin.com/v_Details.asp?StoryID=9724
Egypt nabs Palestinian-led terror cell
Jul 9, 2009
Egyptian authorities have arrested 25 al-Qaida-linked terrorists on suspicion of plotting attacks on oil pipelines and ships crossing the Suez Canal. The Egyptian Interior Ministry said the new cell was led by a Palestinian and included 24 Egyptians, mostly engineers and technicians. They planned to use mobile phones to detonate explosives against ships crossing the Canal, the statement said.
The group learned how to make car bombs through communicating with al-Qaida terrorists on jihadi Web sites, according to an Interior Ministry statement. The detainees confessed to funding their activities through contributions from Islamic charities abroad and in one case robbed a jewelry store and murdered its Coptic Christian owner.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443766207&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Thanks, O. I’ve noticed in the past year or so, (and we travel a lot with our business.) that airline security has been rather lax. I fear that they don’t remember 9/11. Just last month, on a trip to South America, I got through security with a bottle of water (a no-no) and they didn’t even make me turn on my laptop computer.(another no-no.).....just made me take off my shoes and expose my bunions for all to see! IMHO, TSA is a joke. Several years ago, the security was so tight that I almost started to enjoy the “pat-downs”.