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I hope you're right, but my pessimistic side says you're wrong.

Actually, in the late 80s, when I lived in Washington, I remember standing at various spots along the Potomac both above and below the bridges upstream from then-Washington National, and thinking to myself, "if I had an SA-7 (Soviet '70s shoulder-launched missile) right here, right now, that 727 would be a sitting duck." There is a fifteen-mile window along the so-called "river visual" approach to Reagan National's runway 18 or 19 (I forget which) where jetliners are within clear sight of the Potomac, with a number of parks on either side. Closer to the airport, the planes fly down the river with the Mall and monuments on their left and the tall buildings of Crystal City and Rosslyn, VA on their right. (The planes actually pass by well below the top of the Gannett/USA Today building.)

All it would take is one terrorist who didn't care much about getting caught, and a couple of minutes by himself to assemble the launcher. And then he could have a decent chance of bringing an airplane down, in a worst-case scenario, into Washington D.C. itself (if it veered left after being hit), onto the bridges where Air Florida 90 crashed in 1982, into packed office developments on the Virginia side, or at least into the river.

That approach is frightening enough to watch. The thought of Abdul Mohammed Sahib Skyhook down there with a Stinger makes it even worse.

}:-)4

Don't know if you've seen this thread yet:

British National nabbed for trying to smuggle missile into NYC

What you don't realise is that this was set up. An idiot was trolling for a missle, the authorities were notified and it was allowed to progress for two reasons; to catch all the perps involved, and to create a display for the media. Fact is that there have been attempts in the past to do the same thing, all our Stingers and similar missles have transponders built into them, they can track their whereabouts. I wouldn't be surprised if they now have a remote means to disable them like they do for handheld GPS units and for most of the sensitive computers in military use. As for foreign made SAM's, can't say about the transponders. But the mode of operation for the terrorists is low profile, they won't be looking to smuggle a missle, they are more likely to use the simplest means available to them. Imagine a SUV filled a dozen containers of gasoline. Would you questionan Arab man at the Home Depot/Walmart/Hardware store buying two 5 gal gas cans? A quick trip around town and he has all he needs and his cost is around $100. Be vigilent, expect the unexpected.