Terrorists Scouting Airplanes for New Attacks

[cardcounter0]

I don't think the airlines seach any passengers.

Airport security and Passenger Searches are handled by the TSA which is a government agency.

I don't think it matters anyways. I don't think a 9/11 scenario can happen again. It will be 4-5 hijackers versus 120 mad passengers. Aren't airline cockpit doors now hardened?

Doubt if passengers will sit quietly, or hijackers be invited into the cockpit with cooperative flight crew, in the future.

[MMMMMM]

Well, OK then, thanks for the minor correction: the TSA has that idiotic restriction in place, not the airlines themselves.

Hijackings may not be quite so easily accomplished, as you point out. However that doesn't mean terrorists can't/won't assemble a bomb or weapons from parts carried on by individual members of a team.

[ACPlayer]

I agree with the poster who says that the Admin is not focussing on AQ. The activities you mention are all at least third on the list of priorities at the admin (after reelection and iraq). Given that, the focus of the Admin on the AQ is very fuzzy at best.

If the focus had been on AQ, they would have realized that there strategy of going into iraq would create more AQ terrorists (as it did). Bush was so caught up in the crusade against Iraq that he lost sight of the real ball.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
However my point in this entire sub-thread was that the administration did not STOP focusing on al-Qaeda

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, they didn't STOP, but on a scale of 1-10 how hard have they been looking and focusing on AQ, now that they are in Iraq. 10 being the highest priority, and precisely where it should be.

They have easily wasted countless resources in Iraq, some of which could have been used in Afghanistan. [ QUOTE ]
Additionally, we maintain troops in Afghanistan

[/ QUOTE ] We may have maintained troops, but thats not good enough. In fact they probably could have used another 20,000 to 30,000 more troops there, instead they are in Iraq.

I will agree with you that they haven't stopped persuing AQ, but the war in Iraq has greatly lowered the effeciency and effectiveness of the pursuit, and I really don't see how that can be argued.

[MMMMMM]

"I agree with the poster who says that the Admin is not focussing on AQ. The activities you mention are all at least third on the list of priorities at the admin (after reelection and iraq). Given that, the focus of the Admin on the AQ is very fuzzy at best."

The U.S. government cannot focus on more than one or two things at once??? What a laughable presumption. That, dear ACPlayer, is one reason the U.S. government has various departments, agencies, deployments, etc.

"If the focus had been on AQ, they would have realized that there strategy of going into iraq would create more AQ terrorists (as it did)."

My take is that going into Iraq mostly just brought more of them out of the woodwork, so to speak. Better to kill them on foreign soil than face their attacks here. Al-Qaeda and their ilk realize what an awful blow democracy in the Middle East would be to their goals of Sharia and to
their eventual dream of restoration of the Caliphate.

[MMMMMM]

"I will agree with you that they haven't stopped persuing AQ, but the war in Iraq has greatly lowered the effeciency and effectiveness of the pursuit, and I really don't see how that can be argued."

That's not what I'm arguing. Since you mention it though, it ought to be rather hard for a layperson to ajudge just how much was diverted in the way of resources, since many of the methods used to fight al-Qaeda are not military, per se (though some are and necessarily so). So where you say "greatly lowered", I question the "greatly" part and perhaps you should too.

Also, it may be that if the democracy experiment in Iraq succeeds, we will have accomplished a great deal in terms of the larger war on terror and reforming the Middle East. If this can help lead to a freer, more democratic Middle East, that in itself may be the biggest victory we shall see in the war on terror in our lifetimes.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
it ought to be rather hard for a layperson to ajudge just how much was diverted in the way of resources,

[/ QUOTE ] well thats just redundant, so you can't really judge either, can you?

[ QUOTE ]
since many of the methods used to fight al-Qaeda are not military, per se (though some are and necessarily so).

[/ QUOTE ] Umm.. to fight AQ in Afghanistan, most of the methods are military.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
The U.S. government cannot focus on more than one or two things at once??? What a laughable presumption. That, dear ACPlayer, is one reason the U.S. government has various departments, agencies, deployments, etc.

[/ QUOTE ] Yes, Bureaucracy is very effecient.

[jcx]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think the airlines seach any passengers.

Airport security and Passenger Searches are handled by the TSA which is a government agency.

I don't think it matters anyways. I don't think a 9/11 scenario can happen again. It will be 4-5 hijackers versus 120 mad passengers. Aren't airline cockpit doors now hardened?

Doubt if passengers will sit quietly, or hijackers be invited into the cockpit with cooperative flight crew, in the future.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't necessarily think that a hijacking is what they have in mind. It seems more likely that several different passengers would try to slip materials past security that could then be assembled into a bomb in the airplanes' lavatory. It would likely be exploded a few minutes before the plane lands because the terrorists know it would then be above a populated area.

By the way, while you can't take weapons as such aboard a plane, this doesn't mean one can't fashion one rather quickly. On another website I picked up a cool tip: A rock hard bar soap (Like Lava) can be placed inside a tube sock, creating an instant weapon that can be used to bash someone's head in. A little Neandertal perhaps, but it will do in a pinch.

[MMMMMM]

The FBI is one organization that is devoting considerable resources to anti al-Qaeda efforts. I can't imagine the FBI's resources were seriously diverted into Iraq.