Al-Qaeda plot to blow up US plane fails

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Well, I must say, the end of my über-traveling era, and my departure from the USA, couldn't have come at a better time.

There have been a lot of changes since I moved to New York City in 1999. Civil liberties have been eroded by the Patriot Act. There are SWAT cops with assault rifles and attack-dogs posted on Wall Street. An airport-style security-screening is now mandatory before visiting the UN or (ironically) the Statue of Liberty. Armed soldiers roam Grand Central station. The TSA has taken on thousands of additional employees, often poorly educated and trained and prone to making up their own interpretation of the rules, and dumped hugely restrictive, expensive and time-consuming edicts onto an already overburdened airline sector and it's long-suffering customers. Thousands have been held on foreign soil for years, without the right to a trial or the right of any appeal, and subjected to physical and psychological torture in the name of "freedom". And the majority of the American public have swallowed it all hook, line and sinker, berated into submission by cough-mongers like Fox News, convinced that anyone who questions any of it is "un-American" and therefore on the side of the 'enemy', whomever that may be.

What's the bottom-line of all these restraints, hindrances and knee-jerk reactions? FEAR. And every time a new limitation is set, the terrorists win again, even if they don't cause a single fatality. The fear clogs up the wheels of commerce, stifles public debate, and makes a joke of the American love of "freedom". They aren't free, they're all terrified, all the time. The terrorists have already won. I'm thrilled to be leaving them to it and return journeys will, mercifully, be brief.
 
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Great post NYCguy!

I haven't lived in the US, but it all seems to come down to letting corporations be more important than individuals.

The US government now is so far from the founders intentions. All empires eventually fail though, I give the US about 30 years.

You can see the collapse in places such as Detroit, where whole sections of the city are abandoned
Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline - Photo Essays - TIME

and even the Police have said there is so much crime, that they will not even investigate anything "minor".

It's sad really, America was once a great country - just goes to show that spending more than you earn will inevitably lead to collapse.
 
It’s no surprise a Jewish site parodies a song that refers to arabs as smelly. :!:

Tha song was written and performed by someone who calls himself Frank Sanazi, whose main claim to fame is parodies. He calls himself an agnostic. It appears on the internet at least as far back as 2004.


The fact that it may have appeared on a Jewish site (in fact it's on many sites, mostly with no religious bent) does not bear a mention, and in fact I object to the raising of religion in this forum in a way that tends to disparage.
 
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Sorry I'm completely lost, maybe I should actually listen to the parody. :shock:
But it seems to me that a parody actually makes fun of something, in this case Dubya's (and possible the USA's) view that "you are either with us or against us". Given the relationship of the jewish state of israel with the USA I would have thought that the last thing that a Jewish site would be interested in is a parody that takes the p1ss out of their great protector.

So I can't see how is is "no surprise" that it was on a Jewish website. As I am surprised by that, I can't see how that is a disparging comment.

sorry. :oops:
 
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Tha song was written and performed by someone who calls himself Frank Sanazi, whose main claim to fame is parodies. He calls himself an agnostic. It appears on the internet at least as far back as 2004.

The fact that it may have appeared on a Jewish site (in fact it's on many sites, mostly with no religious bent) does not bear a mention, and in fact I object to the raising of religion in this forum in a way that tends to disparage.

I’m sorry my life's work hasn’t been researching who sings what parodies and what their religion and views of the world actually are. I simply went to a site that played an offensive parody and at the bottom it said: Credit for (and presumably copyright to) this parody rightly belongs to: Jewish World Review It is copied here to preserve it for posterity.

The internet is full of the wrong citations, don’t bite my head off because I didn’t scour the internet to make sure they were telling the truth!

Besides, we’re getting a little off topic here, I don’t think that song has much to do with this incident.
 
According to more recent news reports this Moslem terrorist has 80 grams of PETN in his jocks or upper leg which failed to detonate due to a poor detonator design and / or placement. It was not black powder, although the detonator itself could have been if homemade (BP is most unlikely to initiate high explosive).

Some US officials have been downplaying this but being trained (yes by the government) in the use of this material I can say 80 grams packs a substantial punch; quite unlikely to bring down a big aircraft given its placement here but it would still do a lot of damage and a massive terror impact on passengers. If initiated the bomber would have been almost in pieces and the adjacent passengers would be lucky to be alive still, certainly severe injuries. Several windows would be lost and the aircraft skin would be significantly perforated or torn in the vicinity if he was in a window seat.

I have long said there are major loopholes in our airport security, just surprised some here don't realise crazy folk have always been able to walk on any day with such stuff undetected. The 1 in 40 odd that get processed with the ion scanner MIGHT be picked up although security staff training appears to me to be fairly poor in this area. IMO the only thing that keeps the aircraft flying safely each day if the grace of God and the mental ineptitude of allahs cowardly mujahadeen; airport security in itself is not such a big factor in this equation in reality....
 
Some US officials have been downplaying this but being trained (yes by the government) in the use of this material I can say 80 grams packs a substantial punch; quite unlikely to bring down a big aircraft given its placement here but it would still do a lot of damage and a massive terror impact on passengers. If initiated the bomber would have been almost in pieces and the adjacent passengers would be lucky to be alive still, certainly severe injuries. Several windows would be lost and the aircraft skin would be significantly perforated or torn in the vicinity if he was in a window seat.

I was wondering that actually, had he placed the device near a door or windows, and had it gone off properly, could it have weakened the aircraft substantially to bring it down.

I’m guessing this will be examined carefully and an answer will be forthcoming at some point, along with even more arcane security measures to hamper would be terrorists.
 
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