Will the next terra attack be done with airplanes?

[thecrow]

How much money has been spent so we can be less safe on airplanes? Five years later and the cargo beneath our seats is only minimally scanned, and our ports are virtually wide open as well as many of them being under the control of other countries...

Does anyone think that is the tactic the terroristas will use?
Does anyone think that too much money is being spent on airplane security? Don't we have a better imagination than that?
......and are we using it?

I have a feeling that the next attack will be something completely different... something that we have yet to imagine.
This ha been on my mind lately and I wondered if anyone at DU has similar thoughts.
I don't ever want to hear Condi say "Oh, that memo...Who knew?" again.

Does anyone have a better plan than Smirky, who seems obsessed with the planes?
Enough with the plane already!!

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Airline security's been beefed up, but what about general aviation?

They can't have screeners at every FBO.:(

[lectrobyte]

17. Well yeah, but a Cessna flown into a building does so much less

damage? Remember the nutjob who flew into the whitehouse? The kid in Florida?

[Cooley Hurd]

20. A small business jet or turboprop full of fuel could do a lot of damage...

[liberal N proud]

2. Since Dubai now owns our ports, they could cruise a ship into

our harbors with a small nuclear device and decimate all of our cities at once.
But is the bu$h regime worried about the container ships that come through our ports? Just about as much as they were worried about Osama bin Laden before 9/11, and since for that matter.

[wakeme2008]

3. ships ... shit

how about semi-trucks from Mexico or Canada with a small dirty bomb. They could do Dallas as easy as NYC.

[liberal N proud]

4. yes in deed

And with the new super highway they have planned from Mexico to Canada, they could pick any city along the route.

[Amonester]

24. They ain't worried about 15,000 W_ahabees from the BFEE's...

petro-tyranny either:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2124851

[WinkyDink]

5. Where would it most result in more of a Federal presence?

IOW, it wouldn't advance the plan to destroy our rights if a port were "attacked". BFD, shipping crap gets more guards.

Airplanes? BT, DT. Same with sky-scrapers.
And no malls or other places where we SPEND MONEY. Corporate america will see to that.

Maybe some random highway bombings, the better then to monitor our travels. Stop and ask for ID. Mandate GPS in every vehicle, however many wheels it has.

But not via a Mexican truck; the "right" guy won.

[Mika]

6. It will be done with a pen.

Bush will sign an(other) executive order instituting martial law.

[bananas]

7. It certainly won't be anthrax

especially not weaponized anthrax from Fort Dietrich.

[maine_raptor]

8. Interesting little factoid I heard recently.....

That DHS had gathered together a group of Rand Corp types, Air Force generals, etc., along with some authors of "disaster novels". They were given a "target" and told to come up with creative ways to take it out.

The interviewer (Lou Dobbs?) remarked that this was a smart move by DHS, but the most chilling part of the interview was the author (and member of the DHS group), who said:

"What was striking was how easy it was."

Yup, America is safer now after 9/11 and Saddam is out of power.............NOT!

[FunkyLeprechaun]

9. No...

As much as I don't like to be prophetic, I sincerely think that the next terra attack will be on a commuter rail. It's still fairly easy to get on between major stops. With what happened in Madrid and London, I fear this is increasingly likely.

[Skidmore]

10. Col. Mustard in the library with a

gun.

[Sherman A1]

11. Grab a copy of the current issue of Foreign Affairs

and read the article by John Mueller or go to www.foreignaffairs.org and look it up. He has a very interesting view on our the evil doers

[maine_raptor]

12. That's the one where he agrues the nothing changed after 911, right?

Can I get that for free, or do I have to shell out $? Hate to give to the CFR.

[Sherman A1]

14. Check the online link

and of course there is the library that probably has a copy. The arguement is pretty much, "if these guys are just so capable and terrible, ah, where are they? How come they haven't hit again and again?"

[maine_raptor]

16. Thanks, I'll get a copy of that.

Funny how there is not much talk of this on the cable circuit. I heard some and it perked my ears up, but since then, nothing.

[Sherman A1]

30. As much as we might want to blame the "media"

there is just soo much stuff being published and out there about this topic and that article, no one can realistically keep up. That's the beauty of DU, in finding the stuff that applies and isn't always covered in the mainstream.

[maine_raptor]

33. I got a copy last night and read it.

Good article, should be must reading for every DU'r.

The only criticism I have is that it was too short. I would have like to see some more development of his ideas.

As for the media; yes there is a lot of stuff out there, but I do think that this puts the case together very nicely. And since it's so short there should be no problem for the talking heads to get their tiny brains around it.

[Sherman A1]

34. Agreed

Did you note that he is working on a book?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Of course. Al-Queda wouldn't be so impolite as to change it's tactics.

Our brilliant leaders who are trying to fight WWII in Iraq would get even more confused than they are now.

[treestar]

15. Islamic attackers seem to go for the dramatic effect,

at least in attacks on America.

But I would agree, they can't do a 911 attack again; it is 99% surprise factor. Watch anybody, Arab or not, try to get into the cockpit and the passengers will attack them right away. It was obsolete already on 911 - the people on Flight 93 knew to try to get them out of the cockpit.

No way will a hijacker take the controls of a plane again without a fight.

Doesn't mean they can't deviously think of something else. They do seem very into making the attacks on planes - but a subway would be far easier and more impossible to prevent.

Trying to prevent it by such on-site measures is stupid, IMO. The government has to get intelligence and use it wisely. The ways to strike are so varied and in many cases, relatively easy to carry out. It's just an excuse for them to grab more power.

In conjunction with overstating the number of people willing to do such a thing. You could say all 19 of them have been used up. I have a hard time believing that the reason for no attacks since 911 isn't just that there would have been no other attacks regardless of what we did to "change the world." People really willing to do a thing like this are few and far between.

[oc2002]

18. Truck bomb Amonia Nitrate+ deisel in a city.

Even an idiot can do that, and amonia nitrate is still cash and carry with little oversight.

[mcscajun]

19. Nope. And not because of the enhanced (ha!) "security" at airports

and on planes, but because a) passengers are ready for it next time, even Grandma and Junior will attack to prevent another 9/11, and b) we as a country expect that. Al-Qaeda and their associates are looking at new ways to terrorize, and when they have the right method for the right time and the right place, that's how and when and where they'll hit us. You can be certain multiplicity will be a factor, though.

[Jed Dilligan]

21. I would use nature if I were them

Bust a dam or start a huge wildfire. Maybe that's a California perspective--it would be the most effective way to attack us here.

[treestar]

22. If the Big One were to hit California

Can't you just hear * already, finding a way to blame it on Al Qaeda or "the liberals?"

[Jed Dilligan]

23. Yeah, but realistically I have a strong feeling

he would ignore and avoid it like he did with Katrina.

[Flying Dream Blues]

31. Not if it happened to his "base"...all the gazillionaires in CA

During the Katrina fiasco, I kept picturing what * would be doing if it was happening to someplace where all the rich people were. Can you see the folks in Beverly Hills waiting patiently on their rooftops for days?

[raccoon]

25. Jet skis? nt

[Xenotime]

26. LOL!!! OMFG That's funny...

Now I can get on with my day with a smile. Thanks!

[raccoon]

32. De nada! Glad you got a chuckle out of it.

Somebody could make a good comedy movie out of that idea.

[zbdent]

27. Remember the story about the religious zealots going into Congresspeople's

offices and "anointing" the chairs with oil?

I sense something a bit more sinister, on Democratic congresspeople's areas ...

Remember, they still haven't figured out who had access to weapons-grade Anthrax that was sent to "liberal" congressmen ...

[LunaC]

28. A ship in the Gulf will be blown up - Iran will be blamed

And Round Two of the PNAC's Grand Plan is put into play.

[gulliver]

29. Nope. It will be via pro-GOP propaganda.

Bin Laden will probably do something to try to help the GOP as in 2004. That would assure continued incompetence in U.S. national security policy. By helping the GOP, OBL strikes a massive blow against U.S. counter-terrorism. All for the price of a videotape.