Aug 07 2007
The Chilling Airplane Plot Of ’06
I was flying when the London plot to use gels or liquids to destroy airlines became public last year. I am flying again today, so the details coming out about last summer’s threat strikes very close to home:
Terrorists who had planned to detonate gel-based explosives on U.S.-bound flights from London last August would have achieved mass devastation, according to new information from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in an exclusive interview with ABC News.
“I think that the plot, in terms of its intent, was looking at devastation on a scale that would have rivaled 9/11,” Chertoff told ABC’s Pierre Thomas.
…
Sources tell ABC News that after studying the plot, government officials have concluded that without the tip to British authorities, the suspects could have likely smuggled the bomb components onboard using sports drinks.
…
But they can work — scientists at Sandia National Laboratory conducted a test using the formula, and when a small amount of liquid in a container was hit with a tiny burst of electrical current, a large explosion followed.
Thank goodness the US and the UK have their surveillance operations up and catching these attempts. And thank goodness the Democrats have not been successful in destroying our defenses in their partisan blindness for votes.
Ramzi Yousef developed and tested the liquid explosives plot in the early 90’s. He tested it under a seat in a theater first (in Manilla, I believe). Made lots of smoke, some injuries. Then he did a wet test on a 747 – Philippine Airlines Flight #434 in December 1994. He mis-judged the center fuel tank by a couple of feet, killed the passenger in the seat, and crippled the plane, but the pilots landed it where they retrieved his casio-watch nitro bomb parts. It was most likely one of these casio-nitro bombs that took out TWA800 – set by one of his buddies – while he was on trial. He called for a mis-trial the day after it occured. It would have been too uncomfortable for Richard Clarke, BJ, etc, to admit he was involved – they would have to “do something” about terrorism, so Clarke came up with the mythical, magically exploding center fuel tank for which no corrective action has been taken.
Funny you mention this at the same time TIME magazine is wringing their hands about the FISA bill
http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/08/about_that_eavesdropping_law.html
There’s clearly a group of people in this country, predominantly the media and DNC, who either are so cynical that they don’t believe the threat we face or are just flat out ignorant about it. I am not sure what’s worse but it’s a shame that it would literally take a few more 9-11’s for these people to “get it.” I hope it doesn’t happen obviously but maybe these people at TIME and elsewhere ought to be ducktaped down into a chair and forced to watch video of these guys planning attacks or something.
The lack of seriousness is quite disturbing.