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? <<
10 lbs can do a *lot* more than take down a plane, which is very easy when its in flight at high altitude. 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. Breasts are amusing locations, but Al Q doesn't use chicks (yet) and its not easy to get them to look right. (Admittedly, get an ugly chick and not many will check for symmetry etc.) PETN Flavored Gatorade: Is it in you?
The next major attack will not likely involve civilian aircraft; that target has been effectively crippled, wounded not killed so that resources must be squandered to care for it. More likely will be a target (or targets) which provides a sense of security and does not appear to be a source of danger and fear. Where there are few protections in place, and where the shock of attack will be maximized, not just in casualities but in its unexpectedness. The attack should have the effect on Western culture, say, that bombing of Mecca would have on Islam. That is, it should be so violently audacious that long-standing presumptions that the enemy would never do such a thing are overwhelmed. Under this scenario attack by weapons of mass destruction are not likely because of the overplay of their possible use. What then would be such an attack, least expected and most likely to be unprotected against? Most likely is a widely distributed attack, perhaps simultaneous but best to be staggered or unpredictable in time and how extensive the attack is and what all its targets are. With unpredictable pauses in the campaign, a combination of rapid fire hits, pauses, seeming cessation, then a hit or two, weird and shocking concordances and discordances with other events, violations and cruelties beyond conventional belief, beyond reason and madness. A clue to understanding what an attack like this would be is to imagine what would cause battle shock in the citizenry, not terror and flight, but incapacitation of the mind and body to function without physically harming most of the victims. One likely cause of this breakdown is lack of information about what is going on and what will happen next, where danger lies and when will violence against loved ones and self occur next. Dread of the unknown after initial evidence that horror is sure to come, and is inexcapable no matter what measures have been taken to prevent it. By now it is clear that this is what the US military did in Afghanistan, and what is most likely to be done to the US and its allies in vengeful payback, if not soon then eventually. Calling in F-15s to combat shoes containing explosives shows how Western military forces helplessly misgauge its enemies. So, too, does declaring the US has won in Afghanistan when it has not engaged the enemy, and when it has repeatedly failed to protect its forces, its embassies and its cities from asymmetric attack. The US and its allies is fiercest in engaging in propaganda, ably assisted by commercial propagandists, the news media. Beheading the centers of information warfare would be the end of Western culture.
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
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.)
Sniffers are one way to detect things, but as you point out, it is possible to get emissions so low that they cannot be detected. However, the new methods are based on other exotic things like neutron scanning and mass spec, which can detect chemical composition, right? Also things like CAT scan X-rays and maybe even ultrasound can detect different material types; ie, bone and flesh look different, so perhaps C4 has a different X-ray opacity than other things? With things like neutron scanning, it should be possible to detect stuff anywhere in the body, perhaps? That's why boobs are the perfect place for this. A big homogenous-opacity shape in a body cavity or the abdomen is suspicious, but boob implants are "normal". I know little or nothing about these things. Maybe someone can give us a summary of the different super-scanning technologies? Even without knowing anything about them, I do know that they will all be expensive, and, even if they are safe, they will have to overcome public perceptions about radiation. And brand-new technologies like this are usually only partially effective. Interesting stuff. At the beginning of the 20th Century, four countries had the opportunity to become empires: The US, the Russians, the Germans and the Japanese. After much bloodshed, the US won (I'm glad about that, especially when you look at the alternatives). Now the US is having to put up with some of the unpleasant aspects of being an empire, and that's why we're even discussing neutron scanning to detect explosive boobs (aka "booby traps").
On Thursday, December 27, 2001, at 05:45 PM, Dr. Evil wrote:
Sniffers are one way to detect things, but as you point out, it is possible to get emissions so low that they cannot be detected. However, the new methods are based on other exotic things like neutron scanning and mass spec, which can detect chemical composition, right?
Tough to do NAA on a living person. Likewise for getting a sample from the inside of someone for mass spec.
Also things like CAT scan X-rays and maybe even ultrasound can detect different material types; ie, bone and flesh look different, so perhaps C4 has a different X-ray opacity than other things? With things like neutron scanning, it should be possible to detect stuff anywhere in the body, perhaps? That's why boobs are the perfect place for this. A big homogenous-opacity shape in a body cavity or the abdomen is suspicious, but boob implants are "normal".
All of these scanning technologies are ultra-expensive. Even for hospitals, where such scans routinely cost thousands of dollars. While a security scan may be faster (less analysis by doctors...), and while there may be economies of scale (as the number of scans jumps from hospital-type numbers to airline-travel-type numbers), the math is clear: deploying an arsenal of NMR scans, x-ray body scans (lawsuit issues, too), etc. will not be economically feasible. People will stop traveling by air unless absolutely necessary, which will accomplish the effect the terrorists sought.
I know little or nothing about these things. Maybe someone can give us a summary of the different super-scanning technologies?
There are dozens of explanations on the Web. I can't imagine anyone knowledgeable will write such an article for you, though I could be wrong. For one thing, time. For another, relevance, as we are not scannerpunks.
Interesting stuff. At the beginning of the 20th Century, four countries had the opportunity to become empires: The US, the Russians, the Germans and the Japanese. After much bloodshed, the US won (I'm glad about that, especially when you look at the alternatives). Now the US is having to put up with some of the unpleasant aspects of being an empire, and that's why we're even discussing neutron scanning to detect explosive boobs (aka "booby traps").
Speaking of the U.S. having "won" the opportunity to become an empire, why not think about alternatives? I can imagine that a North American continent operating as roughly 5-15 regional states, each trading freely with each other, with none of them sending gunboats to far off shores and none of them sending taxpayer monies to prop up dictatorships and satrapies would be an improvement. My own state, California, is already the sixth largest economy in the world. (Before someone jumps in with a claim that the only reason California thrives and can trade with China and Japan and Mexico and so on is because the U.S. government intervened in past European and Asian war and now sends $5 billion a year to prop up Israel, I don't believe it. We can debate one specific war, WW II, as a separate issue. Even that war could have been fought from this side of the oceans with 5-15 regional states, if necessary.) Empire is not necessary. Empire brings on precisely the foreign engagements that Washington warned us to avoid. Empire brings on "peace keeping troops" in far-away lands...and attacks like 911. Empire will eventually get us nuked. --Tim May "Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity." --Robert A. Heinlein
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