The Zohan

BBC News - Detroit airliner incident 'was failed bomb attack'


I guess this will make plane travel slower agian with more checks...

Petem95

It was only going to be a matter of time until one of them tried again, and sadly it's only a matter of time until one blows another plane out the sky.

I expect this terrorist will just escape any charges, and end up coming back to the UK to a hero's welcome from a certain element of society, then he'll be trying this again in a few years

markr1963

Seeing as he was on the terrorist watch list one has to wonder how he got on the plane in the first place.

I wonder if Aus will change its mind regarding the relaxing of carry on restrictions on domestic flights in light of this.

LG John

As I walked through security at Gatwick last week and binned yet another perfectly good bottle of coke I turned to the wife and said, "These security measures are a total joke and a waste of time. If anyone really wanted to get liquid onto a plane they would just strap it to their leg or midrift in plastic baggies. Provided they don't set off the metal detectors and get a pat down they could get very reasonable quantities of liquid on board."

Here we are a week later and someone has done it because it was the most obvious and easiest thing to do. In short, the public have suffered the financial penalty of binning drinks, toothpaste, expensive aftershave, etc for years and for absolutely nothing IMHO.

I'm also a believer that the more you try to deny someone something the more you make it appealing/challenging to them. It's like flashing kids sweets and saying they can't have it. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the terrorism rate on planes would be no greater, or less, than it is now if they were simply a hop-on hop-off affair like a taxi or bus.

For a start there are many, many better ways to kill, maim and scare people. Anyone with an imagination and 5 free minutes can think of it.

Hint: live sporting event, 80k+ in stadium, strategically placed nail bombs. 1000's killed, 10,000's ripped to shreds, millions see bits of body fly onto the pitch live. Far greater statement that 9/11 and far, far, far easier to pull off.

Cliff Note: If someone really wants to be a terrorist it's not remotely hard to do so. In short, leave the fecking public alone to get on with it. Is it really so much to ask to get onto a plane with a bottle of coke that I'm drinking from in front of the security staff

Jaybird-UK

I think you missed the point he was trying to make.

LG John

I might be confusing you with someone else with a similar name but IIRC pretty much everything you've ever said to me on scoobynet is some sort of dig

Yes I know the rules and no I didn't expect them to make an exception, nor did I even ask, raise the point, or argue. We simply bought too much juice during the day and hadn't drunk it by the time we got to security. I opened the coke, took a few mouthfuls and threw it into the bin. A complete waste IMHO and totally pointless given how easy it is to get liquid onto a plane if you really wanted to.

LG John

Also, I didn't need to be asked to do this....I simply disposed of my liquids in the bins before approaching the staff.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

More of a statement than flying two massive planes into two massive buildings in one of the most important cities in the world ?

LG John

Statement, perhaps not.

In terms of witnessed carnage! Hell yeah! As horrific as watching 9/11 was you didn't see much more than the occassional body falling from a distance away. Imagine watching the FA cup final and suddenly legs, arms, eyeballs are raining down on the pitch

SVXNUT

Still not entirely convinced that this wasn't george and his cronies. After all the evidence that is available clearly points at the inside and not at O B Laden. Never anything concrete to prove a plane hit the Pentagon, or that WT towers were not a controlled demo, as anyone with structual engineering knowledge could see that they couldn't collapse that way.

Gets flame suit on.

Chip

Well something evidently did hit the Pentagon but it just didnt have any wings or a tail fin on it when it did.

Chip

The Zohan

And it appears the scumbag was studying in the UK
BBC News - Met Police search London flat in US plane attack probe

We really do let just anyone in, he was on a 'watchlist', WTF was he doing here in the UK???

dpb

Being watched ?

The Zohan

Makes you wonder, he travelled to the Netherlands, picked up the bomb (or made it himself) boarded a plane to the States and tried to detonate the bomb whilst on the plane. Not being watched that well i guess...

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Nah, that could be anyone

Petem95

He's probably got no family left in Nigeria, they're all here in the UK living on benefits. And I wish I was joking too

Something really needs to be done about this $hit.

The Dogs B******s

The same as all the others,,,,,,,,,,,,sponging

jods

Agreed - I believe the saying is "Fight Fire with Fire"

It's time to get "Fundemental" with these a-holes!

We need a drive to rid the streets of anyone proclaiming a hatred of the country they live in (Treason, I believe it was once called). We ALSO need a drive to rid the streets of anyone proclaiming / inciting hatred of other countries as this just whips up the frenzy.

This should be followed up by a massive investment in increasing budgets for Police, Border Control, Home Office Intelligence and, MOST importantly, military eradication of the problem at source.

The only problem with THAT is identifying WHAT the real root cause of the problem is!

All too easy to say "Nuke" Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea etc but that affects far to many innocent people who would happily live in peaceful co-existence with the rest of the world!

We need Global accord. Taskforces set up in every major Capital City made up of representitives from every major Capital City (All Dedicated to the eradication of Terrorism) Any country that disagrees to embrace the concept is cut off from global trade and MAY also be the focus of military force to remove the ruling party.

Not sure exactly how many Capital Cities there are in the world but I'm guessing around 200. So 200 taskforces of 200 people is 40,000 people.
Let's say that each of those posts averages out at costing £100K a year to fully fund. That works out at £4 billion a year (GLOBALLY) A drop in the ocean compared to the annual borrowing of the UK.

If there is an issue in an area that one or more taskforces determine to require forceful action the ALL taskforces are required to provide swift and resolute action to resolve the issue.

The above is a quick 15min idea on the back of a cigarette package - feel free to critique.

Jaybird-UK

Source: Father of suspect in foiled attack had relayed concerns to U.S. Embassy - CNN.com

Another slip through the net?

boxst

I always wondered why an airplane was the choice of terrorists. I guess it gets headlines without doing too much 'random' damage: If you kill too many supporters of your chosen religion / reason then you lose other followers.

Steve

Markus

I've always wondered why they don't just sit in a van under a flightpath and use a surface to air missile against a plane. Ok, so STA's aren't exactly commonplace, but I'm sure if you're some fundamentalist type nutter you'd be able to get your hands on a couple, perhaps off a dodgy russian geezer

It seems the TSA has/will be enacting a few more rules in regards to security. Air Canada had this info about the proposed changes, plus there is also this from The Washington Post.
This seems to apply to all flights into (and I think inside, ie; domestic flights) the USA. Looks like one item of carry on baggage. Tightened screening, thus adding more time, which will result in delays and missed connections. During the final hour of flight you must remain seated and will not be permitted access to carry on, nor have personal belongings or other items on your laps.

I don't see it mentioned there, but I have seen comments elsewhere they are also considering prohibiting the use of all personal electronic devices for the entire duration of the flight. Wether that applies to only domestic flights I'm not sure. If it's any international flight into the US then that'd be a bit of a pain, as it means no ipod usage, no laptop use, no keeping the kids occupied with their PSP or similar device. It's possible they might have common sense (yeah right, yanks and common sense) and have this only apply once inside US airspace, or possibly from countries bordering the US, ie; Canada, where you clear immigration before leaving and are thus, I think, technically "in" the US before boarding the plane.
Regardless, it's not good news for air travelers.

Face it America, the terrorists won. As the phrase denotes, they have instilled a state of fear and paranoia into you. All you're doing now is narking off the 99 percent of ordinary travelers into your country.

The Zohan

one reason is that it will cause wide spread disruption in air travel all over the world for some time. It will cause fear in those using air travel and no dout put some off air travel altogether for some time. It will also cause fear and mistrust of Muslims in general.

It is the ideal weapon for terrorists and is what terrorism is all about, fear, mistrust and disprution of peples lives

Jaybird-UK

Exactly! - people will still fly through necessity but they are cultivating a hatred towards decent innocent Muslim people.

The Zohan

Yup, mistrust and hatred, in turn some Muslims will look towards the more extremist elements, which they may never, ever have done before.

It is a win-win for the terrorists

David Lock

I would be happy to pay a few quid for an appropriate authority to investigate my background and endorse my passport accordingly. Give this a year, say, and there could be enough would be passengers to enable an airline to only offer seats on selected flights to "Approved Passengers". Not 100% foolproof of course but would hopefully mean that someone like this Nigerian screwball would never get approved considering he was on USA and UK '"dodgy" character lists.

dl

jods

DL - You could have something of an idea there!

The Zohan

Ah yes, 'identity cards', i bet no one will ever be able to forge or illegally produce them
In principle yes, no problem, reality is that 50-70% or airlines would fail (if air travel is restircited/stopped whilst implimenting the scheme) a lot fewer people would travel by air - terrorists win again.

So then the terrorists move to trains/undergrounds/ships and blow several up - world stops travelling - win-win terrorism.

To fight it you have to let it impact as little on the things you do and the choices you make and how you feel about other people - muslims - not all terrorist or supporters but i wonder how many non muslims have looked at a Muslim in a que at an airport/underground and wondered...

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Everytime I board a plane which I do about twice a month (kiss my carbon footprint; I've driven instead and it costs £400 more and took ten times longer ), this is my prime fear.

I hate flying anyway, be it the unforfotable seat which despite flying for 26 years have never found comfy, nor ergonomic, the disgusting food, tinny entertainment system, air stewardess ignorance, sitting next/infront/behind kids/fat/old people Entrusting my faith in outdated American engineering, or Anglo-French "innovation" and presuming the two experts in the cockpit aren't feejits.

So the the icing on the cake is the thought of a terrorist with semtex stuffed up his **** might try and kill us all. Wonderful.

I try and ignore it. BUt every now and again I see someone who looks well dodgy; One of the recent sightings was a smartish Iranian looking guy who looked **** scared his hands were visibly shaking. I guess in that instance he was just a nervous flyer, or maybe his bomb didn't go off. The other time was two scraggy looking north africans. They stuck out like a thumb, and looked more like refugees than legitimate travellers, I presume they were immigrants seeking a better life and would flush their passports during the flight to the UK, they were held up at UK boarder control, so that maybe partly true.

During such times I thought: If the ***** had their own airline..would you fly on it? Seemed a good idea until I realised I would still fly in fear because the ground workers in whatever country may sabotage the plane.....And thats where the next way in for an attack will be, infiltrate airport ground staff.

You can't escape it; just crack on and hope today isn't the day.

Martin2005

Outrageous

dpb

Nigerains are extremley cunning ,theyll exploit teh system including pretending to be from other african countries in crisis

You really shouldnt generalise