Props to the UK

Guess it’s time to spout off a bit about the foiled terror plot, seeing as it’s been all over the place over the last 24 hours.

Personally, I say props to the UK for getting in on this plan early. Not as is in “before it happened” but by knowing about it long before they attempted to pull the trigger on the plot. From the latest reports, they had the luxury of choosing when to break the whole thing up, so they decided on a day or two before the first test run of the plot. Brilliant work (and I mean that with no sarcasm).

The fallout across the US has been interesting to watch. Airport chaos was the immediate reaction: 4 hour delays at Sea-Tac alone. No liquids, gels or pastes of any kind allowed in the main cabin, is the most important change. At least to me. First because it made me say “Ahhhhhh – yeah, C4 would look like toothpaste in a toothpaste tube” followed by “liquid bombs… pretty slick”. OK, fine, so the engineering/test part of my brain threw out the first comment, sue me. It was quickly followed by the practical side of my head that spat out a “aw, shit – now I’ll have to check in luggage!” since I usually travel with one suitcase and one computer bag…

Does it bother me? No. Other reactions have been varied.

One relative was telling me that if things don’t settle down by December that I shouldn’t travel by air. That pissed me off. Statistically speaking there is a much better chance of me getting killed by a drunk driver on 520 than there is of my getting killed in an normal airline crash, never mind a terrorist related one. Hell, I flew to Hong Kong in October, 2001 – figure the odds of me bailing on a domestic flight. In fact, I maintain that the next six months would be a very safe time to fly: people are on higher alert than normal.

Another person was telling me that the airports were overreacting and at a ridiculous level. I’m hit and miss on that. I think the UK is overreacting by banning all carry on items, but I don’t know what their security system looks like: different nation entirely. I’ll never forget standing in an Italian airport in 1996 and seeing a few cops walk around with Uzi’s by the customs booth. Just a culture difference. So if they think they need to ban everything but wallets, more power to them. I just hope that their carriers are better at delivering checked in luggage than ours! But I do think the US has responded properly. After 9/11, most people realized that they never realized that a jet could be used as a weapon. Today, people are realizing that they never realized that liquids could be used to blow up a plane. Which is sad, considering that a plot similar to this one happened ten years old.

And more props to the UK for ignoring that asinine notion of “racial profiling”. Again, stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. Does this mean that all Pakistani residents of the UK are terrorists? I’m insulted you’d think that I’d think that. But let me ask you this: how many of the people arrested for this plot were Anglo-Saxon? In fact, when was the last time an Anglo-Saxon sacked a plane? Or let me say the inverse: If you dropped my American ass in Paris with an I Love NY T-Shirt, you can bet that I’m going to be viewed as a gun carrying, Big-Mac eating, Diet Coke swilling, drugged up asshole. Why? Because there have been thousands of Americans that were there before me, setting the stereotype. There’s always baggage that you’ll be expected to carry because of your nationality. Get over it, America.

Overall, the foiled plot bodes well and not only because it was foiled. I’ve said it before on this blog that 9/11 was a once in a lifetime shot. There was no way that that exact thing could happen again, not the same way. In the case of 9/11, the only thing smuggled on board were small knives or box cutters. Weapons that couldn’t blow up a plane – these were weapons that were used to enable a hijacking. In the past, Americans were taught that to live through a hijacking you should do what they hijackers wanted you to. The hijackers wanted the plane, media time, and usually some government attention. After a period of time – true, it could be as long as 444 days – you’d be set free. Just don’t piss’m off. Never before had someone taken over a plane and intentionally pointed at a city. Americans remember this. You can bet your ass that if a similar scenario was played out today, most Americans will not just sit back and idly say “oh, we’ll be OK”. We’re going to think “oh, shit” and resist. At least I’d like to think we would. After all, we are all gun carrying assholes that have watch Die Hard at least once a year, right?

Anyway, 9/11 was unique in that only small and personal weapons made it through security check points. Actually… weren’t knives allowed on board at the time? I don’t remember. The point is that they were smuggling individual weapons that could effect people rather than the plane. This plot was a plot that was designed to effect the plane. They’ve stopped other bombers at the gates trying to do this ever since there were gates – it’s a much harder item to smuggle on board. Again, it comes down to odds.

The $64,000 question is would the screening process have caught the liquids if the plot got that far. I remember one story from college about a kid that carried his acid in a Visine bottle. Once day, he was pulled over by a cop for speeding and the cop was a little suspicious about him, that he mighta been on something; he noticed the Visine bottle, which is something odd to have on yer dashboard. He asked the kid what was in it – kid said “Visine, duh.” Cop asked him to use it. Kid drops a drop in each eye. As the story goes, the kid was committed to some institution because he thought he was an orange. Kept running around the yard telling people to peal him. Would I have expected secuirty to notice a group of guys not drinking their sports drinks? Nah. But it would be a great test, if someone did notice… no drinky, no boarding. Just something else to keep in mind…

And if they were storing explosives in energy drinks, I’d quietly advice Red Bull to drop their “we give you wings” ad campaign, cuz, um, yeah, well, never mind.


2 thoughts on “Props to the UK”

  1. Actually, read that they had made false bottoms for the bottles with the explosive materials, for just that reason (“take a drink”).

    The issue to me is that you cannot (short of stripping everyone down and issuing paper robes) keep passengers from bring dangerous stuff on board. You can stop the overt stuff (yeah, maybe no explosives or firearms), but banning all liquids, gels, and/or carry-ons (yes, I’m going to check my laptop in a bag that must remain unlocked .. oh, yeah) is only going to stop people from traveling.

    Feh.

  2. as long as it takes at least an hour to kill the suicide bomber, drinking poison wouldn’t slow a guy down one bit. he’d drink it, get on the plane. blow up the plane. and be dead before the poison took effect.


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