Metropol

Marcus wrote:there are suicide boms almost daily in Iraq, which kill a lot more than that

That is correct.

However, it is rocket attacks and car bombs that do the biggest damages in Iraq, not suicide bombings in the sense of stapping explosives to the person.

Interesting few sentences on an MSNBC report...

Source: U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests
British wanted to continue surveillance on terror suspects, official says

LONDON - NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.

So it looks like last week's "reaction" was down to American pressue. Jack Straw, the disgraceful ex-Foreign Secretary, knows quite a bit about that

...In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports.

So, let's get this straight. How on Earth is someone going to bomb a plane without a passport to get on it in the first place? How on Earth are they going to get on a trans-Atlantic flight without such a vital document? Hide in a suitcase?

The source did say, however, that police believe one U.K.-based suspect was ready to conduct a "dry run." British authorities had wanted to let him go forward with part of the plan, but the Americans balked.

This is getting faintly absurd. If their intel was so suss that some of these "jihadists" didn't even have a passport, how could they know that a "dry run" was going to take place?

...Monitoring of Rauf, in particular, apparently played a critical role, revealing that the plotters had tested the explosive liquid mixture they planned to use at a location outside Britain. NBC News has previously reported that the explosive mixture was tested in Pakistan. The source said the suspects in Britain had obtained at least some of the materials for the explosive but had not yet actually prepared or mixed it.

So, they didn't have flight tickets, many of them didn't even have a passport and these supposed bombings of the aeroplanes could not have taken place until they had prepped up the equipment.

How could the situation possibly warrant a "terror" warning of imminent? Given this account from a mainstream media source, it was weeks if not months away, if such a plot really existed in the first place.

In the last couple of months I've flown from Belfast City Airport to Heathrow and back again twice. On neither occasion has anyone checked my identity at either end of the journey.

I checked in on an e-ticket using my bmi Diamond Club card at a self-service ticket machine (though I didn't even need to do this in the airport, I could have done it from home and printed my own boarding card). I had my passport in my hand going through each security point but at no point was it checked - only the boarding card was looked at. It could have belonged to anyone.

The airlines have introduced fast and efficient self check-in facilities which do speed up the processes but these same processes remove a number of the checks that a human would have done before which can only reduce the level of security available.

marksi wrote:In the last couple of months I've flown from Belfast City Airport to Heathrow and back again twice. On neither occasion has anyone checked my identity at either end of the journey.

Pah. A few years back I tried to fly from Southampton to Belfast and they wouldn't let me because I didn't have any identification on me. Mind you, it was for a funeral and I fucking hate funerals, so it was quite a good thing in the end because I managed to get out of going. It did cost me sixty quid in taxi fares to get to the airport and back on a wild goose chase, though.

I flew to the US 3 weeks after 9/11, with a stop off at the Airport where the terrorists hijacked the planes.

I saw american domestic passengers walking straight past security checks, as I stood clutching passport and boarding cards like an idiot waiting to be checked. No one said anything, no one gave a damn.

The americans have no conception of queing and even less regard for security.

Bloody idiots.

marksi wrote:In the last couple of months I've flown from Belfast City Airport to Heathrow and back again twice. On neither occasion has anyone checked my identity at either end of the journey.

I did the same thing only last week, though Belfast City to Liverpool. Checked in online, no-one checked ID at either end of the journey, outbound or return.

I hate airports.

I was on holiday a few weeks ago and there was a three-hour delay in the flight back home.

I love going away but the airport is somethng I have always hated.

I was once stuck in a 3-6 hour delay at Majorca airport. The delay also appeared on the news and there were cameras as well but someone said they saw me on TV. But my favourite part of going on holiday is going down the A25 at 3am.

An interesting article on The Register website:

Mass murder in the skies: was the plot feasible?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17 ... rror_labs/

Interesting!

Have you ever had peek at the Anarchists cook book? There are so many formulas for explosives using household chemicals, which can be concoted with relative ease.

I saw something in there once that i was tempted to try out. It was a trippy drug using and baking banana skins.