Terrorist plot foiled or political manuevering?

[Downpour]

To start off: i know that this is not a political forum, but then again, this is the water cooler, and all threads welcome.

Okay so i am the kind of person who really really keeps up with politics and such, including the war and reasons behind it, injustices done on both sides, and so on. I am never one sided about anything, and keep an open mind. So today i finally decide to practice my right of free thought and speech.

If any of you have been watching the news, there has been a constant story of every domestic news channel (except, perhaps, the weather channel) about a terrorist plot that was foiled in Britain, and now people are being held up in the United States at airports.

This is only a recent episode that has been on going since early today, as i found out when i picked up my cousin from the airport in my ASM Si. He tells me, "they arent letting anyone on the airplane with any liquids, they take water bottles and everything and throw them away, and even took my body spray".

So i go home and check the news.

Apparently, some ' terrorists' in the UK had planned to board aircrafts inbound to the US with a form of liquid, and a separate form of jelly.

This liquid, as told by the british officials, would be mixed on board with a jelly -like substance and then detonated resulting in , i quote " mass murder on an unimagineable scale". okay,i admit, so we should be worried.

Now, no officials ANYWHERE have been able to say what this liquid or jelly is but both fox and CNN describe this "liquid" used by the terrorist to be a 'form of british gatorade' later mixed with the 'jelly like substance'and then detonated from 'a charge on a gadget such as an ipod'.

EXCUSE ME? apparently someone has realized how to explode entire airplanes on a gatorade mixed compound and an electric charge of less than 2 volts. i doubt even mythbusters can pull that one off. Now, it is quite obvious to me that the officials, once again, have no idea what they are dealing with. Just think about this, it isnt possible. even if one was capable of exploding the worse it would do was blow a hole in the seat. if they took multiples... wouldnt it be the same thing? if i was an airport security official and saw multiple people with the same liquid and same jelly, id be worried. but cmon .. common sense.

Now i realize many of you may think many things of me, but lets all agree folks, if we could make explosives from gatorade and magical jelly, why are cars still running on gasoline? and how come these low tech 'terrorists' can pull this off when million-dollar funded organizations at harvard cant? ask yourself.

now, after we've gotten over the shock of 'mass murder on an unimaginable scale' occuring because of gatorade and jelly, i start to wonder why this scare is happening now. ofcourse, cuz for the next three days, the other major news will be in the shadow.

Today israel is dropping leaflets and telling approximately 1 million Lebanese citizens to leave their homes and take almost nothing. Why ? because they will 'expand their offensive' i.e, level all their buildings. Are all these 1 million people terrorists? maybe just 2 of them are.

How would we feel if we were in war and the enemy told us to leave our homes because somewhere in our town, there was a few bad people? The world is now blind to this because of the new "gatorade attack".

Now please, i would like all of you to watch the news and, think beyond the hysteria, and laugh and the excuses telivision provides.

p.s.i am NOT pro lebanese or israeli, but simply an amused citizen of the united states feeling sorry for people at war.

[Special Ringpop]

Very, very interesting points.

Always nice to see level headedness. :)

[Rainman]

Think about a baking soda bomb... now, granted, it isn't going to blow up an airplane. I am not a bomb expert by any means, but I am sure it is possible. Using short wave frequency from an Ipod or whatever to get an electrical current to start within this liquid/ gel/ whatever. I am sure there is some sort of an electrical charge inside of it as well. Who knows, I don't know.... but if it is true, I am glad they caught it.

[Downpour]

yes, granted there is charge within this liquid, and if this liquid did give off an electromagnetic field, it would be caught in the detection machines. Still, all im saying is , i believe, the main point of mainstream media is avoiding the more important, less hyped up news.

[Fishytron]

well i was thinking and wouldnt a massive fire inside a plane just do the trick or no? like a matov cocktail or the like do the trick? it might be uncontolable or if placed corectly kill the pilots. alot simpler then some gatoraid mix?

[Janizary]

SNAKES ON A PLANE!!

[MaKo]

You have obviously never seen a plane decompress. It would not take much of an explosion to bring down a jumbo jet from a cruise altitude of 35000+ feet traveling in excess of 500mph. Consider also the fact that there are about 40+ thousand gallons of fuel on board. Point is....you don't have to "explode entire airplanes" in a compressed high altitude/high velocity vehicle of transport. You only have to inflict a small, well placed, wound and physics will take care of the rest.

The media's job in this day and age is to increase ratings. This in turn increases ad revenue. Their speculation and hype serves no one but themselves in the end.

Take a chill pill and wait for all the sorted details, then make your decision as to whether or not your conspiracy theory of distraction through misinformation is really plausible.

[thinkinblue613]

Even water is banned in the plane.. Damn "threats"!

BUT.. there's nothing more dangerous than SNAKES ON A PLANE!!!! And they are allowed!!!

[CoryB]

Why would they publicize what liquids are used to create the bombs? That would just encourage wannabe bombers to try the same thing somewhere else.

[Jaranath]

Downpour:

I think everyone is guilty of making your mistake here from time to time...I certainly am! So please don't take this as nasty, and indeed, I am not defending this administration or the general handling of the "war on terror." As real as I believe this incident is, it is also being exploited to the hilt. Nevertheless, you've got a tremendous flaw in your post:

Ramzi Yousef and Operation Bojinka.


In short: In 1994, Ramzi Yousef boarded Philippine Airlines Flight 434 and hid a liquid-explosive bomb under a passenger seat. He debarked the plane at its next stop, and the bomb exploded after the plane took off again. The bomb killed one man, and caused sufficient damage to the plane's controls to threaten to bring the plane down, but the crew managed to land it safely. The bombing was a test run for Operation Bojinka.

The bomb was assembled primarily from nitroglycerin (a clear liquid) contained in a contact lens saline solution bottle, gun cotton that resembled cotton balls, a digital watch, and light bulb filaments wired to 9-volt batteries. In Operation Bojinka, the plan was to plant bombs ten times the size of the Flight 434 bomb on eleven American airliners.

I am not having much luck finding news articles talking about British gatorade, as you saw, but I am finding articles such as this one stating that the terrorists were planning to use triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which could be assembled onboard using liquid component chemicals. I am no explosives expert, but I have a hunch your articles talking about British gatorade were confused, and did not mean to say that the drink (which would be almost entirely water, a bit of sugar and a few salts) was an actual explosive component, but rather that the component could be hidden inside the bottle.

[webby]

next they'll ban mentos



http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...60343168243565

[Janizary]

Awesome avatar, Webby.

I'll...I'll...I'lll burn down the building, yea.

[Fixer]

The threat appears to have been very real. My understanding (and I'm not trying to spread misinformation) is that the liquid had a hydrogen peroxide base and was to be in a compartment within the bottle containing the sport drink. Meaning one could drink the sport drink and not ingest the liquid explosive. Once the plane was airborne, the explosives were to be ignited with the flash of a disposable camera. Pop off the flash lens, click the shutter button and you have a very healthy little 'arc'. As another poster stated, it wouldn't blow up the plane but at 35,000 over the mid Atlantic, depressurization of the cabin could pretty much doom the aircraft. No emergency landing possibilities even if the pilot could recover at a lower altitude. Even if all the planes made it back safely and no one was injured, imagine how totally messed up the air transportation system would be after that. Even now the damn terrorist thugs are accomplishing something noteworthy by causing us extreme inconvenience and expense.

I also know that the Brits have one of THE best intelligence services on the planet. The Brits MI5 and the Israeli Mossaud are the the best because their respective countries have been targeted or attacked so many times throughout history that they can't afford to trust anyone. Can't blame them I guess. Hope our intelligence community can get up to speed as well; if they haven't already. Shame we have to live in a world like this.

[k20z3Vo]

All I have to say is that I had a shitty day yesterday working at the airport in Atlanta. Everything was delayed 1-1/2 hours because of this stupid incident. And then to top it off, we were delayed some more because of the inclement weather... RAIN!!! So basically, our 7 o'clock inbounds didn't come until 1AM or later. My shift ends at 2330 hours, but like I said, I had a shitty day and didnt get home until 0400. I hate mandatory over! "We need to be Unionized!" So that I could "time-out" at 2330 and go home. Let me tell you, this whole incident crap sucks balls big time.

On a foot note for all of those that will be traveling in the next 48+ hours, ARRIVE AT THE AIRPORT AT LEAST 3ish HOURS AHEAD of departure. Security is very heavy and hostile at the moment.

BTW, I work for AirTran Airways in Atlanta.

[Downpour]

lol webby that vid was awesome!

yeah i just had to post this and i guess on recontemplation, maybe the 'terrorists' were trying to get back what was happeneing in lebanon. nevertheless, my other prediction is correct; the ejection of a million people and the israeli offensive is now in the backdrop of the news, if on the news at all.

it also seems that 'code red' at the airport, the crew really has no idea what to do . i think it just causes a state of panic, i wish things were more organized with our security.. why cant we all get along?

[neolives7]

This is a war against Terrorism.. I'm sure it's more than 2 people.

[Downpour]

Originally Posted by neolives7

This is a war against Terrorism.. I'm sure it's more than 2 people.

yes, it is. yet it is not a large enough number to decide to do what they are doing, like bombing a village to the ground. but hey, war sucks.

[MaKo]

If you were living in a bomb shelter with your neighbors to avoid Iranian bought, Hezbollah delivered missles you might actually think a little bit different about that.

[audibleforce]

I see we all go to the Airport dumpsters and pull out all the expensive perfume and cologne that people had to throw away. I saw a lady on the news yesterday out here in L.A. that threw away a brand new Channel perfume . $$$$

Although the airport security has been beefed up, they still cannot stop the terrorist from bringing the liquids on board and im sure they will eventually be able to bring all they require to detonate the bomb in a watch or ipod. The way I see it, is that we will soon need the body x-ray machines like in the movie Total Recall because there is nothing that is stopping the terrorist from storing these liquids up their anal hole. If the Columbians do it to transport drugs to the U.S. then it shouldnt be to hard to do the same with this explosive jelly especially since it is a liquid or jelly. I see this threat as being very real, but dont let this blind you on what is going on around the world like Downpour said.

Also, dogs can detect it, but metal detectors cannot detect gun powder. If they have the balls to try and slip by the dogs then they might be able to sneak gun powder into the plane. I dont know if the dogs can detect gun powder that is inside a human stomach but that's another danger that can defenitely put a hole big enough in a plane for it to decompress.

There are many things that terrorists can do and this might sound cliche, but you must think like a terrorist to catch a terrorist. So far the governments are doing ok.

[skittleslegend]

I really wish they wouldn't publicize this stuff unless there was an absolute need. At this point, it just seems as if they're doing it for the ratings...to be the first ones to break the story but it causes unnecessary panic. I'm all for people being in the know, but they act as if the rest of the world doesn't watch tv, like "oh damn they found our plan...let's make another one." And I agree with whoever said they shouldn't disclose what kinda liquid was used to make the bombs.

The First Amendment is a double-edged sword...