Posted on 12/28/2009 1:14:17 PM PST by tobyhill
I do not believe the bomber had the PETN ‘sewn into his underwear’. It is MUCH more likely he had secreted the device into his rectum encased in a condom before he got on the plane. Once on the plane, he went to the restroom before landing (this has been established), retrieved the device from his anal cavity and returned to his seat above the fuel tank. If he indeed did use this method, it would be a repeat of the technique Al Qaeda used last fall when attempting to assasinate a high ranking Saudi security person. The bomb was actually detonated while still inside the suicide bomber, which resulted in his death, but only minor injuries and a mess all over the security person.
Al Qaeda learned that you can get through just about ANY scanning with this method, it has been used by cocaine ‘mules’ for years and is very effective.
This is a partisan issue. The Obama administration has resurrected the Gorelick Wall and it has become all too obvious for all to see.
Metal Detectors detect, uh, METAL!
Explosives detectors detect, uh, EXPLOSIVES!..............
If they really wanted to stop transportation terrorism, they would be at the foot of the security force of EL AL learning from them. Instead of minority TSA 'officers' we'd see UZI-armed guards just begging you to eff up and do something....
Send the imbecile TSA cretins home and let us get back to business and pleasure and leave the potential threat to real professionals......Yeah, and this too.....when was the last time you ever, ever heard someone say they worked for TSA outside of an airport? Huh? You won't be cause they know they aren't worth a shit.
Exactly! The person who wrote that headline should have their journalism license pulled.................oh wait, there IS NO JOURNALISM LICENSE!...............yet................
get ready for cavity searches, the threat is genuine
I’d posted some links to older FR threads to back up the point but it got pulled (original poster didn’t like the complaints about x-ray body scans).
There was a bombing attempt in Saudi Arabia (I think) where a man crammed plastic up his rear and another case from England where flights were cancelled because of a plot where a woman had plastic explosives in her hoo hoo.
So it isn’t hypothetical.
Also mentioned TSA’s call for the need to examine saline bags in bras and the like.
One political problem (for liberals) is that scanners and detectors that can find more than explosives may “Violate Constitutional Rights”.
It works like this- a mule with bags of dope taped to his body is not a threat to the airplane, so an “administrative search” conducted by non-sworn people (not cops) that might find bags of dope, diamonds, and bundles of cash is unconstitutional.
Detecting a terrorist with a new way to set off a bomb without using metal or batteries IS a constitutional search.
But really, a bag of PETN, TNT, cocaine, heroin, RDX and so forth will ALL go through a magnetometer without a beep, and this has been a continuing problem. The shoe bomber’s device had no metal but required a match, so we are all banned from having matches and lighters on board.
A lot of the public talk about the whole-body scanners is about the detailed body view. ACLU and court documents bring up the other issues about detection of non-threat objects. Mules have been let go over constitutional issues on search legalities, some with significant masses of dope on them.
The chemical sensors and baggage wipers and the air puffer thing are all deliberately set so they won’t detect dope or money, just certain compounds including explosives.
Things are going to change. The whole body scanners that show your body shape under your clothes and zap you with either RF or Xray are going to be used much more frequently. Expect the ACLU to yell, as well as other groups, but we can’t allow people to walk on board with unidentified stuff any more.
I imagine that we’ll have Raman spectrometers and more GCMS at check-in to assure everyone that your bar of soap is soap, and that your clothes really are cotton-poly and not some new explosive trick.
The enemy is very clever and they will dream up techniques constantly, and test us until they get something that works.
We should be looking for people not weapons!
All passengers went through a ‘puffer/sniffer’ the last time I flew out of Denver 2 yrs. ago.
Has this been confirmed yet? I know that fellow passengers Kurt and Lori Haskell have said they thought the bomber didn't have a passport. Plus, in the several stories I've read about the Haskells, none of them mention whether they've officially reported this to law enforcement. It seems pretty obvious that the couple would, but for some reason the coverage I've seen/read doesn't specify this. Do you know?
“There was a bombing attempt in Saudi Arabia (I think) where a man crammed plastic up his rear”
And that was given a trial run in the USA, some guy had gum, foil, two rocks, wire, and other stuff in his rectum, caught by an airport magnetometer and then cavity search when he seemed very very nervous.
SHE BOMBER
Mirror ^ | 1-3-04 | Edwards, Smith, Knight
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1050985/posts
A BA flight to Washington was cancelled at the last minute yesterday after an intelligence tip-off that a woman suicide bomber planned to blow up the plane over the US capital.
It was the third day running that a major security scare had hit the afternoon Flight 223 service from Heathrow to Washington.
US security services told Scotland Yard the woman - almost certainly linked to al-Qaeda - intended to hide eight to 12 ounces of plastic explosive in her vagina. She would then go to the toilet during the Boeing 747 flight, remove the material and detonate a blast that would down the aircraft.
—
The ‘keister bomb’ is the newest terror threat
Kansas City Star ^ | 9/30/09 | Rick Montgomery
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2351472/posts?
A month ago in Saudi Arabia, a terrorist named Abdullah Hassan Tali’ al-Asiri reportedly walked past palace checkpoints with a small bomb inserted in a body cavity. Judging by the al-Qaida video featuring him proudly holding a device before committing the deed, it was about 3 inches long.
He wanted to blow up a Saudi prince but succeeded only in blowing off his own bottom half and destroying the floor, killing himself in the process.
His intended target, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and others in the room were largely unharmed. A Saudi news service quoted the prince saying, understatedly, “He surprised me by blowing himself up.”
—
Well, of course!
A gas chromatagraph nitrogen sniffer, on the other hand, will detect ALL high explosives. They use those detectors at all major airports in the US. I have been pulled out of line several times because junk I carry around has "nitrogen smells" associated with them. One got "sniffed" just because I assembled it on the same table I use for ammo reloading.
The explosive sniffers are very sensitive and very reliable. Only a few molecules are needed to trigger those sensors.
You are rational. Our stupid leaders are not.
No more, they were removed, IIRC because they were as effective as hope for, and required lots of maintenance.
Solution! Security cameras in hermetically sealed airplane restrooms - if they try something we just gas’em in situ. ;-)
“...because they were as effective...”
Duh, NOT as effective is what I meant to say!
That’s a man, baby!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.