On Thursday, December 27, 2001, at 02:34 PM, Anonymous wrote:
A good plastic (haha) surgeon might be able to implant 10lbs or more, easily enough to bring down a plane. Breast implants would be the obvious place to put it, because they certainly can't open up every woman who wants to get on a plane with "augmentation" so what can you do? <<
Gives new meaning to "Show us your tits!" Having seen a bunch of bad boob jobs, where they look like they're read to explode even without HE in 'em, I don't envy the job of the Bod Squad.
It takes a few weeks to heal from abdomen surgery that could be done in a field hospital. How to sleep without rolling over on the lump which is the activator is the tough part.
Easy to imagine safer activators. A magnet arrangment, where an external magnet pulls something. A dual activator system, where two switches must be closed simultaneously, ampoules to be broken or pierced under the skin, and so on. A person willing to martyr himself is almost assured of being able to take down a plane. Here's something I wrote in another, more subversive forum: " For people willing to martyr themselves, there is very little hope that these suicide bombings can be stopped. Planes are just too easy to destroy (not being armored and all). Think about mules carrying balloons of cocaine into the U.S. Now think of those balloons carrying C4 or Semtex instead. Now think of ways to dissolve those balloons with the right intake of food. (This is already an issue with coke mules, who cannot eat certain foods as the acids produced will degrade/rupture the latex condoms and suchlike that they use.) Think of those explosives not being a shoe but being anally or vaginally carried. Not that difficult to pack several ounces of high explosive this way. As for sniffers finding these things...the signals are already being lost in the noise. Dogs can find certain kinds of explosives, but are fooled by others. And the vapor emissions can be very, very low. (Nothing is ever "zero" on a log scale, of course, but something sealed inside a glass ampoule and very thoroughly rinsed with water and alcohol and benzene and such is about as close to "no emissions" as one can imagine.) If I were an attacker trying to cripple the U.S. and European airline industries--thus dealing a devastating economic blow--and I had a ready supply of mules willing to martyr themselves, I would find this a rich hunting ground of potential attacks. Planes have always been soft targets. The insurance-related bombs of the 1950s and 60s, the hijackings of the early 70s, and the various bombings of several planes in the 80s and 90s (Lockerbie, Air India, a few other unexplained "energetic disassemblies"). And now the 911 events and the shoebomber. Me, I haven't flown in a few years. Nothing has needed it. And with the police state search procedures and potential dangers, I plan to avoid flying for as long as I can. Fortunately, here in California, nearly any kind of recreation or family event (in my case) can be reached easily enough by car, or by rail. "
--Tim May "If I'm going to reach out to the the Democrats then I need a third hand.There's no way I'm letting go of my wallet or my gun while they're around." --attribution uncertain, possibly Gunner, on Usenet