I think that is the relevant point. My guess is publicity. They are fixated on planes. Take the London (or Madrid) train bombings. Security is, if anything, more lax than the 80's/90's when the IRA used to threaten London. With the auto barriers now and driver only trains, carrying a backpack surely could not be easier. Just wander through a large London train station in rush hour. Yes there are police and some station staff, but one ticket and you're on a train, minimal security (that is actually there to ensure you've paid your fare rather than anything else). Yet have we really increased security on the railways?

So it's the planes they are after - have been for years. Would removing the security help? Maybe, but I think people would have to become de-sensitised to planes dropping out of the sky before it doesn't become news anymore. And I'd hate to think of us as de-sensitised to death on that sort of scale.

And besides they'd only turn to the next publicity generating scheme.

 

Blow yourself up on a train though & you'll take out yourself + just a few others in the same carraige ... on a plane it will drop from the sky & probably do some damage where it lands too.

TX.

 

Agreed, however it's not a question of pure numbers. It's publicity. Richard Reid killed no one, the bomb-in-underpants guy killed no one, but we know of those attempts. July 7th killed 57 (?), arguably less than hitting one passenger plane would cause, yet the amount of column inches that gets is (still) huge.

 

terrorism is more to with causing fear/disruption to maximum number of people, and recently is done by killing max number of people, hence secondry devices, that detonate on arrival of emergency services,

the mobile phone restirction isnt to do with terrorism, i thought it was to reduce passanger incovienance, listening to the guy sitting next to you on his phone for a 4 hour flight.

i like the idea of secirtiy being more focused on explosive liquids, and dangerous substances rather than an outright ban on all fluids over 100ml - hope that gets sorted asap

 

once the IRA started bombing the financial district in London -- it started to focus the mind of the establishment