Nigerian man who said he was an agent for al-Qaida tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane Friday as it was preparing to land in Detroit, but travelers who smelled smoke and heard what sounded like firecrackers rushed to subdue him, the passengers and federal officials said.
Flight 253 with 278 passengers and 11 crew members aboard was about 20 minutes from the airport when passengers heard popping noises, witnesses said. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to the front of the plane with his pants cut off and his legs burned, a passenger said. Law enforcement officials said the burns indicated the explosive was strapped to his legs.
The guy claims to be from al-Qaida, and he attempts to blow up a plane, which means that airport security gets even more intrusive, and that the Afghanistan war will get more support from the American people. Neither of these portend a happy New Year for the citizens of the US, or for our soldiers overseas.
This is extremely reminiscent of Richard Reid attempting to light his shoe back in 2002. In that case Reid lacked a detonator cap, and probably would have done little more than to burn his legs, just like Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. In other words it would have failed.
It still amazes me that while most al-Qaida attacks fizzle out like the one yesterday, that under the Bush administration they were able to pull off the most horrendous terrorist attack in human history. It kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Now I am interested in seeing how President Obama reacts to this attack.
From what I've read, he's been informed of what happened. He's not announcing a War On Stupid, which is what it would take to deal with ineptitude of would-be attacker. I mean, if you set up a bomb, wouldn't you make a couple of practice runs before you attach it to yourself and get on a plane?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I feel a lot more threatened by rightwing Christianist terrorists who have committed more crimes in this country- clinic bombings and shootings and so forth. They seem, not to get a pass for it, but people don't seem to realize that they are terrorists- and there are more of them and they already live here.
Ivyfree
WTF??
ReplyDeleteMy mother in law got her toothpaste and jar of homemade jam confiscated last month when she flew USAirways cross country, but people can board a plane with firecrackers on their legs??? Aren't there dogs and sensors supposed to detect this stuff?? I mean they are detecting the deadly jam and toothpaste?? BUT ALLOWING my MIL to board with huge sharp knitting needles that would take out an eye or puncture a chest!!!This pisses me off to no end. What pisses me off even more is how we as people blithely allow them ot take our toothpaste and bottled water and larger hand sanitizers, but keep the samurai sword knitting needle.
ASK Questions/ Demand answers of this insanity. How can you board a plane with explosives today????
I think somebody is going to be very sad on nov. 4, 2012.
ReplyDeleteon another note, I wonder if anyone has ever done a research paper on the record number of anomalies in one event.
Gryphen, please get rid of this POS on your blog.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you emrysa...someone is going to be very sad indeed!! I just hope we don't have to wait until 2012 for Sarah worshippers to be extremely disappointed in their queen. I hope she is brought down in 2010
ReplyDeleteGryphen made a very insightful comment/suggestion yesterday. I think it should be honored.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, with Blogger's pop-up comment box the spammer comments can be folded-up by clicking to the right of the spammer's name. Any reader can do that.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas Tiger--you're FINALLY off the front page!
ReplyDeleteWow Sarah2012, you always have the most thoughtful comments. Oh wait, their just stupid cut and paste wacknut blips, sorry, my mistake.
ReplyDeleteSame type of stupid comments all the born agains are posting on USA today, not one of them is saying, oh, thank goodness everyone is safe. It's all hater speech.
Truely sad.
I agree with Anon@7:17am and Gryphen's comment yesterday.
ReplyDeleteHey! We compulsive knitters waited a long time to be able to bring our needles back on board. Show me one instance of a plane being commandered by someone wielding a half-knit sock. For the record, most of us use circular needles and the sharp pointy part isn't long enough to shishkebab a mouse.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I agree with ivyfree, and am waiting for an e-mail pointing out how we need more troops and guns and deportations, etc., from my otherwise normal friend who has bathed in the 9-11 koolaid so long she has permanent prune wrinkles.
You missed the point here, Gryphen. There's no praise or blame for any presidents to be doled out here.
ReplyDeleteThe real lesson is that it is folly to think that anyone can insulate the United States against terrorist attacks. We need to do our best to address the causes of terrorism (and no, that does not include a "war on terrorism").
This was a non stop flight from Amsterdam and just shows, again, that our airport "security" is an illusion.
In this particular case, the people who are responsible are those in charge of security in Amsterdam. The airlines with the toughest security is El Al, the Israeli airlines. These days, because of last year's attack in Mumbai (Bombay), India is clamping down.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have flown on international flights, and I can tell you that depending on the airline and the country, they are either careless, lax, or don't do too much about it. London Heathrow is pretty good, but some of the other major cities have their flaws.
To the knitting lady, I have seen people carry their knitting on planes, but you cannot use metal needles, or bring any little scissors along. One suggestion (from a flight attendant who I saw knitting on a plane) was to lay wooden or bamboo needles along the seam or edge of the carry on bag. Also, always carry a large stamped self addressed envelope so you can mail your knitting home in case they actually do stop you.
I'd read elsewhere that since the passenger boarded in Nigeria there was no TSA done there, and Amsterdam hasn't been doing secondary inspections on passengers.
ReplyDeleteJeez, Sarahin2012, its the day after Christmas, do you have to be such an s$$hole? All that white space...ick.
ReplyDeleteSorry, i beg to differ. My MIL's kntting needles were metal and were sharp and are more of a threat than a jar of homemade jam. I was a competitive adult figure skater up until a few years ago and was/still am able to board a plane with skates...You can impale someone with the blade if you wanted to. There just is no rhyme or reason to the security edicts any more and I stand by that statement. Also, I am a knitter so I know alittle about the subject as well. With enough force yuo can do damage with a knitting needle. More damage than a plastic jar of homemade jam. Also, did I mention my MIL is 83?????
ReplyDeleteJust click to the right of "Sarah2012 said..." whenever you see it, and yes indeed, it does collapse the ugly comments and white space down to the nothingness those "comments" deserve.
ReplyDeleteWorks great as an instant Sarah2012 eraser. You know somebody is really upset and now this is what they are reduced to. Must be really confident of the race and that's why "it" is posting this crap, yeah, that's the ticket. But hey, she'd have to get the nomination first, LOL. Yeah, right! Sarah2012 must be smoking too much of the MTF. Lay off that stuff and get some help. And I am ignoring you from here on out.
Now we return to our regularly scheduled program.
Which leaves Americans just two choices: Everyone take off all their clothes before boarding an airplane or pull all the troops out of the ME.
ReplyDeleteIt works!!! Awesome and so satisfying...click to the right and bamo...idiot 2012 is collapsed!
ReplyDeleteIt's left click, not right at least for Firefox.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is a pilot for Delta/Northwest and the guy was checked at his starting point, just not as thoroughly as the TSA does for air travel here. Almost no airport rechecks incoming passengers unless they leave the terminal area.
My husband who flies the damned planes was more scrutinized when he went to work 12-24 than this jackass was.
Right click, left click...it all depends on how you've programed your mouse.
ReplyDeleteI just knew it.
ReplyDeletePretty soon we'll be required to fly naked.
Hi anon 09:55 - yes, you are correct, it is a left click on FireFox. I actually omitted to put that part. What I meant was to click (left click), in the space to the right of the commenter's name, in order to collapse the annoying spam post. Thank you for pointing out which button to click for anyone who wasn't sure about that part :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd that is interesting about your husband. I have heard tales about pilots and flight attendants searched a lot more thoroughly than some of the passengers. I can't imagine why they did not detect that this guy had explosive stuff on his person. I used to fly a lot and practically every single time they would do the explosives test swab on the small backpack I used as a carry on. I started to wonder if I was on some kind of a list, I had that done as well as extra screening so many times.
Ummm--and I was going to hold out some hope of redemption for the neighborhood pest. Most trolls take a dump and leave, but it's nice to now be able to click on the icon to the left of its alias (I'm using Firefox) and hide the mess.
ReplyDeleteAs far as airport security, do they still hand out metal forks and knives when serving dinner on long flights? I haven't flown for more than an hour or so in a couple of years, and overseas flights had neatly packed metal cutlery. Always seemed ironic to me--
At least we know that President Obama is on it. We also know that he didn't stare off into space for 6 and 1/2 minutes until one of his aides told him to move.
ReplyDeleteI am confident President Obama will handle this as best as he can. Times have changed forever since 9/11. It would make no difference who was or will be President, terror attacks are here for good(bad).
Thank God McLame/Painlin are not in the White House. They would have nuked someone, anyone, just so they could show the world how big and bad they are.
If this is the best al qaida can do, (assuming the worst), then as I read somewhere else, we need to downgrade the "threat" from this supposed brilliant worldwide conspiracy organization.
ReplyDeleteSome poor dude, who will no doubt admit to whatever his interrogators suggest he's involved in, ends up with a totally burned crotch. He didn't need to be "subdued," according to eyewitnesses. He was "in a trance."
State of the art mind control? Or just a crazy idiot?
Just remember, what we hear on the "news" is what someone wants us to hear/believe.
Happy day after Dec 25, all!
Some congressman (small "c") is now blaming President Obama for this terrorist attack. If this keeps up we should try Cheney, Bush, and Rice.
ReplyDeleteOf course it's Obama's fault. A year ago you idiots would have been blaming Bush, so why would it be any different now? Gryph you have the biggest flock of stupid fucks I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteMy ex had the pleasure of sitting on a jet, on the tarmack, for six and a half hours at Newark Airport. When the new jet arrived, they deplaned and had to go though security one more time. Six people were kept from boarding the second time, although they were cleared once. To this day, I'd love to know why that was.
ReplyDeleteI'm confident President Obama will get to the bottom of it.
"A year ago you idiots would have been blaming Bush, so why would it be any different now?"
ReplyDeleteIt's not. The fact that Bush spent 8 years acting like a swaggering asshole around the world, encouraging people to hate us, is bound to play into it. Nobody with any intelligence expects Obama to solve the level of damage the Bush administration did to this country in a year or so. It's probably going to take decades, if we ever recover- and I doubt we will in the Mideast. Those people have been given plenty of reason to hate us forever, thanks to Bush's small dick.
Ivyfree
Ivyfree: Americans have been hated abroad longer than you've been alive. You think they all of a sudden started hating us because of Bush? Al-Quaeda and the rest of the world were hating us and attacking us plenty under Clinton.
ReplyDeleteGet out of your little bubble and head up to Canada. You can shit on the U.S. from there along with the rest of those jealous of our way of life.
Special K that may be so but did 8 years of the last administration change anything for the better? No it did not.If things had been done right 9/11 would not have happened.If the president had listened to his people instead of darth vader and the ABC'S of the government had shared information 9/11 could or would have been stopped.If someone flies in from another country with whatever it is that country that did not check things right not our country.Wonder how many attacks were stopped during the last 8 years that we don't know abvout?
ReplyDelete