I haven't flown on a commercial airline since 9/11/01. Call me paranoid but when I'm trapped in a giant metal projectile 5000 feet above the ground I want to be sure there ain't no snakes on the plane. After 9/11 I did my own risk assessment to see if the Bush administration was really making me safe on a plane & as I result you couldn't make me board a commerical airline if you put a gun to my head.
Bush's airport security plan is a joke. The only way to effectively thwart plane bombings and hijackings is to ban carry on luggage completely. What's the big deal on banning carry on luggage? If addicted smokers can give up smoking during an air flight, then all passengers can be without their laptops, Blackberries, cell phones and other gadgets for a couple of hours on the plane.
Valuables can be checked in at the gate and locked into the passenger area during the flight; if someone's afraid they'll lose their diamond necklace in the luggage compartment beneath the plane. The only exception I would make is allowing each passenger to carry on a book, newspaper or magazine onto the plane. Nobody can hijack a plane if all you're allowed to carry on the plane is a newspaper or book. The terrorism problem would be over and done with, at least on all airline flights.
What's shocking is what Bush, Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration hasn't done in the five years since 9/11.
It's nearly criminal that our government hasn't acted to protect American citizens from these common methods used by terrorists to highjack or blow up airplanes.
* Peroxide based explosives: The plan by the London terrorists was using peroxide based explosives concealed in cans of soda. Acetone peroxide is one of the few explosives that can be quite easily made from materials that can be readily bought with no questions asked. All you need to make a peroxide bomb is hydrogen peroxide h2o2, acetone ch3coch3, and sulfuric acid h2so4. The peroxide can be purchased at any drugstore and the acetone is available at any hardware story. Sulfuric acid is the hardest to find, but any number of commercial drain cleaners like Liquid Plumber or Drano contain a 93% solution of sulfuric acid that is more than enough to build a bomb. The only other things you need to build a peroxide bomb are a glass beaker, a thermometer that registers between 40 degrees and zero to stir the solution and a funnel. I'm not going to give specific directions but trust me, you can find them anywhere. My purpose in the limited information I'm passing on is to demonstrate how easily a peroxide bomb can be assembled.
How the Bush administration has failed on protecting us from peroxide bombs:
A peroxide bomb is easily concealable in a small container hidden in a body orifice. The solution can be cast into putty and is so volatile that even if a terrorist threw the explosive putty down on floor of the plane, he can ignite it without any detonation device. Most car bombers and airplane bombers use peroxide bombs and so far the Bush administration has no plan to deal with detecting a peroxide bomb. An FBI memorandum also reported that Ahmed Ressam, the would-be millennium bomber, had a peroxide-based detonator when he was arrested after entering the US from Canada in 1999.
The only effective means of detecting a peroxide bomb is dogs trained to sniff out peroxide. Do you see any peroxide sniffing dogs at your airport? The Bush administration should have started a program to train dogs to sniff out peroxide bombs five years ago.
As it currently stands anyone can get a peroxide bomb onto a plane with out so much as a blink from an airline security screener. Despite the common use of peroxide bombs by terrorists over the past 12 years, Bush hasn't done a thing to address the issue.
* Detonators The primary case for banning carry-on luggage is that so many devices can be used to detonate a bomb, even one stored in the cargo bay with the checked-in luggage. A laptop computer, a cell phone, a Blackberry, an I-pod, a television remote, a remote car door lockers or garage door openers can all be used as detonators.
How the Bush administration has failed on protecting us from bomb detonators:
If the Bush was serious about preventing terrorist attacks on airplanes, he could ban carry-on luggage by executive order without even the approval from congress. The fact that he even hasn't banned potential detonation devices like cell phones, computers and I-Pods on all airline flights shows his own lack of interest in protecting the American public from airline terrorism.
* Guns made of plastics, polymers and ceramics: Yet another aspect of terrorism that Bush has failed to protect us from. Another concern is firearms that are undetectable by metal detectors, similar to the device that John Malkovitch's assassin character assembled in the movie In the Line of Fire. In 1995 Modern Gun wrote about the possibility of undetectable guns:
There are several prototype nonmetallic guns using "a super-hard ceramic material" originally developed for the exhaust valves in General Motors auto engines. The stuff "literally has the strength of steel, The CIA considered the material so important to national security that it reportedly had its formula classified, thereby preventing GM from marketing it."
The gun depicted was a small automatic pistol. A magazine of bullets loaded into the handle. When you pulled the trigger, a plastic spring drove the bolt/slide mechanism forward, pushing a bullet from the magazine into the chamber and firing it. The bullet had no case and apparently was the equivalent of a cannonball with a powder charge behind it. The propellant ignited in two stages to keep the chamber pressure low enough that the gun didn't blow up in your hand. The bullet itself could be ceramic, rubber or aluminum. All can do serious bodily harm.
On January 6th, 2004 the Pioneer News published by the University of Wisconsin wrote this:
Students help with research for the US Army
PLATTEVILLE- The United States military is constantly improving its technology and weaponry. For one recent project, they enlisted the help of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Several UWP students assisted engineering professor Osama Jadaan with a research project testing the reliability of ceramic gun barrels for the U.S. Army. Not only are ceramics lighter than the metals traditionally used in firearms, but also they may be more durable. "Ceramics can take extremely high temperature, and they are resistant to wear," Jadaan said.
The army was interested in the prospect of using ceramics in gun barrels of all sizes. University of Wisconsin research graduate student,
Bryan Peterson even parlayed the research with Jadaan into a position at the Army's research arm, where he will work on ammunition systems. "I was in the process of working on Dr. Jadaan's research when I received the job offer from the Army,"
Peterson said. "I believe that the biggest thing that helped me was not necessarily the work I was doing, but the interest I have in the field."
For Peterson, using his engineering skills to develop technology for the military is not only fulfilling professionally but also personally. "I have friends stationed in Iraq right now, and anything I can possibly do to make them safer, more effective, and (help them) complete the mission as soon as possible so that they can return home is of great importance to me," he said. "I believe in America, and I believe that developing new military technologies must be a constant undertaking in today's political climate. It is fulfilling to know that I'll be a part of that."
Mr. Peterson's research in 2004 may be a bit behind the curve as far as 2006 state of the art goes. Magnum Technology http://www.magnumtechnology.com/ has already designed a firearm with a ceramic barrel.
Magnum Tech writes:
We are particularly excited about the recent work we have done for the U.S. Army in the development of light weight, high performance gun barrels, an approach we refer to as Composite Reinforced Ceramic Technology" or CRCT. CRCT barrels are lightweight, can survive both faster and longer firing schedules without overheating or wearing out and are totally non-corrosive. The weight saving over steel barrels ranges from around 33 to 50%. While this barrel architecture is applicable to virtually any type of gun system, we believe one of its best applications is in barrels for the M4 Carbine. This barrel will be lighter, will last longer and will permit longer sustained rates of fire. Modern Gatling gun systems such as 20, 25 and 30mm offer other excellent possibilities for CRCT adaptation.
It's not clear if Magnum Tech is making these ceramic weapons available to those outside of the U.S. Army. The website offers an e-mail address for further inquires about the gun. The U.S. Army isn't particularly discreet with their internet posting of ceramic gun technology. You can find a PDF of the Army's summary research on ceramic weapons technology at this web address, accessible to anyone with a computer: http://www.dtic.mil/... -
How the Bush administration has failed on protecting us from undetectable weapons on air flights:
Most Americans are completely unaware of the danger of undetectable fire arms on air flights. The Bush administration has done nothing to stop non-metallic or undetectable weapons from getting in the passenger section of an airplane. Undetectable guns are only a tip of the iceberg.
David Hambling of Defense Technology http://www.defensetech.org/... this about one of these "hidden in plain sight weapons": One type is the exact size and shape of a credit card, except that two of the edges are lethally sharp. It's made of G10 laminate, an ultra-hard material normally employed for circuit boards. You need a diamond file to get an edge on it.
Taylor suggests that the card could easily be camouflaged as an ID card or one of the many other bits of plastic that clutter up the average wallet. Each weapon is individually handmade so they can be tailored to the user's requirements.
Another configuration is a stabbing weapon which is indistinguishable from a pen. This one is made from melamine fiber, and can sit snugly inside a Bic casing. You would only find out it was not the real thing if you tried to write with it. It's sharpened with a blade edge at the tip which Defense Review describes as "scary sharp."
As if concealable weapons weren't a concern, the FBI even publishes on online PDR http://datacenter.ap.org/... that provides your friendly international terrorist with the information on which weapons are undectable by airport security.
The FBI's extensive Guide to Concealable Weapons has 89 pages of weapons intended to get through security. These are generally variations of a knife-blade concealed in a pen, comb or a cross - many of them are obvious on X-ray but many aren't. If Bush were serious about his war on terror, why is the FBI publishing tips to terrorists on how to conceal weapons from security at airports?
My entire point is that the only thing Bush has done to protect us from terror in the skies is lock-down the pilot's cockpit door and pray that the airport bozos running the metal detectors and the luggage X-ray scanners do the rest. You're crazy if you believe Bush is protecting you from terrorism.