Government Says Terrorists May Use Lasers

[Tab]

WASHINGTON - Terrorists may seek to down aircraft by shining powerful lasers into cockpits to blind pilots during landing approaches, federal officials are warning in a bulletin distributed nationwide.

The memo sent by the FBI and the Homeland Security Department says there is evidence that terrorists have explored using lasers as weapons, though there is no specific intelligence indicating al-Qaida or other groups might use lasers in the United States.

"Although lasers are not proven methods of attack like improvised explosive devices and hijackings, terrorist groups overseas have expressed interest in using these devices against human sight," the memo said.

"In certain circumstances, if laser weapons adversely affect the eyesight of both pilot and co-pilot during a non-instrument approach, there is a risk of airliner crash," the agencies said.

In September a pilot for Delta Air Lines reported an eye injury from a laser beam shone into the cockpit during a landing approach in Salt Lake City. The incident occurred about 5 miles from the airport. The plane landed safely.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041210/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terrorists_laser_beam

If so, I wonder if that Las Vegas pyramid thingie is run by terrorists?

[goddess40]

1. will they be mounted on the heads of sharks? nt

[The Doctor.]

18. "Gir... I'm going below to check on the Laser-weasle experiment..."

"Computer... Take me to the Weasles!"

[NuttyFluffers]

28. i love invader zim!

:evilgrin:

[Griffy]

64. THIS IT TOTAL CRAP more fear, less science

please.. a landing plane has it nose in the air.. where would a person be standing to shine a laser into the cockpit, there theres the co-pilot and the fact many modern planes can land themselves not to mention pilot this is a totally stupid threat.. now.. lets talk about stinger missle, that would work!

[slackmaster]

2. This week's "Weapon O' Choice"?

:argh:

[Ian David]

6. Government says Terrorists may use lasers against cats

[0rganism]

39. Perhaps it's time to mobilize the cats against the terrorists?

We can airdrop thousands of cats over northwest Pakistan, and all the evil Al Kaydas will pick up a cute fuzzy widdle kitty cat and instantly succumb to their devastating feline MIND CONTROL! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[laheina]

3. hmmm...

"In certain circumstances, if laser weapons adversely affect the eyesight of both pilot and co-pilot during a non-instrument approach, there is a risk of airliner crash," the agencies said."

gee, that seems like a lot of ifs.

Do commercial pilots often make non-instrument approaches?

[annabanana]

4. That means THEY are planning to use lasers.......

Haven't we broken the code yet? What they are about to do, they accuse their opponents of..

[dflprincess]

7. Did they test this on Wellstone's plane?

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

[lonestarnot]

15. I heard that they did get the pilot on the E ELECT BUSH plane downed in

a Florida lake.

[Judi Lynn]

43. I wondered that, myself.Surely did. Couldn't be detected,either. n/t

[consciousobjector]

5. Do these guys in Washington watch too much sci-fi?

:crazy:

[Ian David]

10. We are at the mercy of terrorist lasers

[Tab]

8. Maybe we should all buy mirrors n/t

[Skink]

12. They didn't get a lot mileage out of tommy Thompson...

Terror warning aren't what they used to be.:beer:

[arcos]

9. ban laser pointers and CD-ROM drives asap! n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. So could pilots wear

protective eyeglasses or could they put some type of protective (laser resistant?) film on the window of the cockpit?

[MADem]

46. How about landing using IFR

Like they can't find the few switches they need in the event of such an emergency....like the "terrists" could so precisely target the eyes of a guy in a 747...but get ALL of them, pilot, co, and engineer...and all the assholes deadheading enroute to their jobs who are lounging back in first or business.

Please...this is "BE VERY AFRAID" bullshit....AGAIN.

Not convinced.

OK, everyone run out now and buy plastic sheeting and duct tape.


They've not a shred of shame, have they???

But then, the goal is to keep us VERY AFRAID.

[LiberalFighter]

50. Maybe they practiced on arcade games for accuracy

[LiberalFighter]

49. Better yet... film on the cockpit window that reflects it back to source

[prolesunited]

13. What happened to the teddy bears

filled with explosives?

[The Doctor.]

14. Pardon my English... but that's the funniest shit I've heard this week...

The refraction from the cockpit glass alone would be enough to 'foil' such a plan.

Assuming the 'terrorists' have the technology to 'lock on' to the faces of the pilot and co-pilot in a plane moving at high-speeds, from a ground-based position, when the plane's nose is at an elevated attitude in relationship to the fuselage... The solution is a simple laser fuzzbuster.

Gee, maybe they'll use 'space lasers'... oh yeah - WE'RE the ones working on that...

Silliest thing I've heard - I rate the chance of success at 1 to 10 to the 8th.

[GAspnes]

32. thanks for a rational analysis

You're right on all points.

Add that you're aiming something 1/10th of an inch wide (or less) and trying to hit 4 1/8th" targets moving 250 mph from a distance of several miles. You'd have to be head-on or nearly, at the far end of the runway (or past it, outside the airport perimeter) to even have a chance.

Couldn't be done from the side, but I don't know offhand the subtended side- and up-angles that still afford entrance into all four pupils. The farther off-axis you are, the larger the proper motion of the targets and the more impossible the shot.

There are other problems, too. On a bright clear day (best conditions), pilots usually wear sunglasses on approach, per my brother who's a commercial airline pilot. He also says that they plan for such a contingency (co-pilot out of action, pilot gets a stroke or heart attack during approach) and commercial planes have auto-land features available at the push of a button, even by a suddenly blinded pilot.

He says the possibility is *extremely* remote. Worry about heat-seeking missiles instead.

[LiberalFighter]

52. OOOOOOHHHHHH they wouldn't use that type of laser

They need to use laser beams with a diameter of 12 inches

[GAspnes]

62. uh huh

enough equipment (generator, radar, antenna, optics, aiming platform) to fill a 60' trailer. Inconspicuous. And inexpensive!

[0rganism]

34. Yep. Only place to put a laser to hit a pilot's eye is inside the cockpit

If the terrorists were planning such an attack, it would practically have to be with preliminary sabotage -- in which case, why not just use plastique on a timer?

This laser thing is just a bullshit excuse for counter-terrorism agencies to budget for whatever unreasonable "techno" measures they want.

[soothsayer]

45. Ok, but there have been news stories about this already

having happened a few times. WTF?

[LiberalFighter]

51. But it's only 600 mph... less when they arrive and depart

[girl gone mad]

16. So, a few pilots report that..

they've had laser beams from an unknown source infiltrate their cocpits (probably part of a secret military experiment or a Pink Floyd concert), and the next thing you know it's a serious terrorist threat.

Predictable. They'll use anything they can to scare us.

[LiberalFighter]

53. Probably a UFO using their beam

[NYC]

17. May? Terrorists MAY use pinking shears.

May? We can make any kind of wild guesses we want.

[Kindigger]

19. Thank you for the earworm

Who did the song with "laserbeams" in it? John Prine? Arggghhhhhhh

[jsquared]

20. This may be a defense by the Administration for a space-based laser

program, based on nuclear power originally envisioned during Star Wars. Sen. Jay Rockefeller was just quoted as being very critically about highly dangerous and expensive space initiatives hidden in the recent budget bill. In a recent Washington Monthly blog, they speculate that this is space-based nuclear powered lasers. That may be why they're touting this threat now.

[Not a robought]

21. AAARM THE LASAAAR!!!!

[Kelvin Mace]

22. Why play with toys that may or

may not work.

Stick to the try and true method for bringing down an airliner on approach or take-off:

<img src="">

Punches through cockpits, pilots, engines, passengers, etc.

Easy to buy in America. Just pop down to your local gun show.

David Allen
www.thoughtcrimes.org

[Bucky]

23. To quote Charlie Rangel...

"Do you guys just make this stuff up?"

C'mon, some pissed off fundie loser of a high school drop out from Yemen who hates his father and is taking it out on society is gonna build a laser and shoot down jets from his loser camp out in the Sudan.

Look, we all agree these terrorists are dangerous. But there's nothing Grummon or McDonnel-Douglass is going to build that can stop terrorism. Brinks could stop them. Pinkerton could stop them. But Archer-Daniel-Midland could stop a hell of a lot more of them by feeding their countrymen and making the world hate Americans less. If you're gonna create a big whopping corporate welfare program to solve a world problem, at least grease down the right pig.

This "terrorists with lasers" shine-ola is nothing but a sales pitch for some fat cat contractor. Don't be fooled.

[Just Me]

47. My response: "Yes, Charlie,...they make shit up ALL THE TIME!!!"

Why? Well, we have arrived in the realm of psy-ops over the masses in order to control the masses such that we can achieve our ideological end no matter what the means to that end.

Of course, it's HARD WORK,...it's REALLY HARD WORK,...because of that gawd-damned cyber-space!!!

[Don Claybrook]

24. Pick me, pick me! I have a solution!

This may be very high tech and horribly expensive and at the very edge of our abilities, but...and bear with me here....I think we should immediately start research to develop......visors. You know, like in your car, but in an airplane. Maybe we could give Lockheed Martin a few hundred billion dollars to begin work on this.

[Boosterman]

30. heh

nice spoof. Sadly it would probably work but we will need massive and expensive testing to come up with a hi-tech equivalent.

[DS1]

40. BLU-BLOCKERS!! AS SEEN ON TV!!

Sorry for the yelling, I was in my Billy Mays mode :7

[soleft]

25. Maybe they caught that episode of Seinfeld

:shrug:

[NYC Liberal]

26. Oh, Fatherland Security says so?

I guess that means it MUST be true! Just like all those terror alerts were true! (Well, actually, the one right after the DNC was. Except they were 4 years late in reporting it, as two of the listed targets were the WTC and the Pentagon!)

By the way...anyone else notice there hasn't been a single terror alert since the election? Gee..funny, that!

[Zorra]

27. "Hyping Terror For Fun, Profit - And Power", by Thom Hartmann

What if there really was no need for much - or even most - of the Cold War? What if, in fact, the Cold War had been kept alive for two decades based on phony WMD threats?

What if, similarly, the War On Terror was largely a scam, and the administration was hyping it to seem larger-than-life? What if our "enemy" represented a real but relatively small threat posed by rogue and criminal groups well outside the mainstream of Islam? What if that hype was done largely to enhance the power, electability, and stature of George W. Bush and Tony Blair?

And what if the world was to discover the most shocking dimensions of these twin deceits - that the same men promulgated them in the 1970s and today?

It happened.

http://www.opednews.com/hartmann_120904_hyping_terror.htm

[Stinky The Clown]

29. I just finished posting to the story of possible seaborne terror

Where does this shit end? Stories of increasingly unlikely attack methods. Passengers all but strip searched to get on a fucking airplane. Briefcases going through xray machines and us going through metal detectors to enter our doctor's office building. Indignity heaped on inconvenience teamed with intrusiveness.

BOO!

The real terror will come from some other place. By a means far more mundane. Imagine a coordinated car bombing plan at a few "middle American" suburban shopping malls, all at the same time. No need for a lot of damage, or even killing. Just the fact that they're coordinated. Just to prove they can.

But no .... for that easy, obvious target we train mall rent-a-cops. But the big guys, the Halliburtons and Carlyle Groups of the world have whole think tanks thinking of more and more outlandish possibilities so we can all get scared into funding more and more programs, to spend more and more of our dollars. Dollars that should be going to keep our nation safe and secure .... like in our old age .... like when our kids are hurt and we have no insurance ....... like keeping a home for people who would otherwise be homeless.

Nah ... mall security would cost millions.

Anti Laser devices? We need 'em. Bad. By the way, that'll be $100 billion, please. See the cashier.

[Ian David]

31. Terrorists are using birds to attack our airplanes!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, through an interagency agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration, compiles a database of all reported bird/wildlife strikes to U.S. civil aircraft and to foreign carriers experiencing strikes in the USA. Over 38,000 strike reports from 1,300 airports have been compiled, 1990-2001 (about 5,900 strikes in 2000). The FAA estimates that this represents only about 20% of the strikes that have occurred.

You've got to read this to see just how dangerous these birds are.
http://www.birdstrike.org/commlink/top_ten.htm

We need to stop worrying about "terrorist lasers" and worry more about the damn birds.



I CAN PROVE THE LINK BETWEEN BIRDS ATTACKING AIRPLANES AND OSAMA BIN LADEN!!!

Here, ladies and gentlemen, is photographic proof.

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:


Exhibit C:



Any questions?





The following is a selected list of recent bird strikes to civil and military aircraft.
http://www.birdstrike.org/events/signif.htm

[0rganism]

37. When the terrorists start using mosquitos, we're doomed!

DOOMED, I tell you, DOOMED!

[w4rma]

33. Sounds like the Bush misadmin is looking into to buying tinfoil hats. (nt)

[Autobot77]

35. The most frightening thing about this is

Some people will actually believe this is for real.

[VegasWolf]

36. Wonder what chatter they were listening to? Maybe a translated

version of the old Jetsons?

[daleo]

38. Why not just hide in the wheel well with a bomb?

People (refugees, stowaways) seem to catch rides in airplane wheel wells quite frequently. Or put a bomb in the luggage. Most of it is never checked anyway.

[DeadManInc]

41. lasers

Do these fucking morons in Washington have random drug testing? Is all of this stupid shit for the red state conservative inbreds?

[daleo]

56. One could sit in a pub for a few hours and come up with 100 nutty ideas

They probably take long boozy lunches, and dream up absurd threats to spin to the press in the afternoon.

[The Sheik]

42. Seriously.

You'd think that when they start talking about lasers hitting pilots they're running out of ideas. Seriously.

[Malikshah]

44. OMG-- Flash!!! We need you! Ming the Merciless is

on a rampage.

*cues Queen music*

[The Zanti Regent]

48. So that's how they killed Wellstone!

...awful nice of them to show the modus operandi!

[truthisfreedom]

58. they should immediately exhume the pilot's body and check his retinas

for damage.

[alexisfree]

54. Maybe the Terrorist will demand "1 Million Dollars""

[alexisfree]

55. Not even WWN or National Enquire would write about this shit. They rather

WRITE: I had bigfoots baby in the trailor park while grandma watched.

[Autobot77]

60. It sounds like Homeland Security hired thier writers

Just to make up this shit.Next thing you know we'll be hearing that terrorists may be using bigfoot and/or the lochness monster to bomb the secret goverment base which is run by Elvis.

[rppper]

57. what next???...light sabres and photon torpedoes?

better yet, how about the beam emitting eyeball from "war of the worlds".....this sounds like an onion story gone horribly wrong....:eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[no_arbusto]

59. Laser Beams......

[Deja Q]

61. Lasers only work at a straight angle and are a thin beam

So Osama is now going to fly in his personal hoverjet, fly at an angle up above the pilot so he can try to blind the pilot? Trying from below won't work.

Using lasers as tools to blind in this manner is pretty far fetched. Even a giant mirror would have more effect. :eyes:

Airport tower? How are they going to break through to get into one of those, and even then what's the point?

There is none. This article is an utter joke.

[Algomas]

63. They have already used this propaganda...

I heard this on the 'news' right after 911 and here it pops up again. We are soooo scared....not!