**** THE MEDIA!

Agree, the media IS stupid.

Im still waiting to see someone with a screen in their car and a TV tuner get chased by the cops on live TV. Some of these news channels listen in on police radios and reveal every next police move on live broadcast. What a way to help.

But in regards to that news report. What a way to get people not to travel this Holiday season.....well, atleast those media "sheep".

 

Fear $ell$...$imple.
The kicker is that the media assists the terrorists in trying to scare the hell out of everyone...

 

The Department of Homeland Security estimates there are 750,000 shoulder-fired missiles in the world. The portability, ease of use and availability on the black market have made these missiles -- manportable surface-to-air missiles, also known as MANPADs -- a security concern. I would bet that .25% of the 750K units are already in the US.

Lets do some simple Middle East terrorist math that makes sense to their hatred towards America: 1625 attacks on a single day X's an average of 150 people per plane is about 250K people that will die. They would get a kick out of that day!

 

I don't know if revealing that such a thing is possible is necessarily a bad thing. Terrorist planners aren't stupid, if they news crews have this figured out today, they've probably had it figured out months ago, just that we wouldn't know about it.

At least telling everyone about it compels (or should compel) the government to take some corrective action.

It's like what some of those white/grey hat hackers do when they hack your web site to leave a simple public message saying "tighten up your security, you've just been h4x0r3d", without destroying any of your data. Embarassing to you, yes, but it would spur you on to take some action to secure your system, wouldn't it ?

 

What a bunch of fücking aššholes!

 

Sensationalism - the greatest tool of disinformation available today.

--Dan

 

I hate to break it to you but a terrorist could go to any airport and shoot down planes that are taking off or landing. Its not hard to drive to a parking lot near a runway.
At JFK someone could just set off a truck bomb on the van wyck where a taxiway passes over it when a plane fully loaded with fuel is passing over it. That would cripple the airport for a long time, and create an enormous traffic problem by destroying a major highway. Also, theres a gas station near there were planes pass over at no more than a couple hundred feet.

 

it was said before any major airport is vunerable when planes are taking off or landing. at orlando international there is a road that runs perdpendicular to the runways and you can park there and watch the planes fly over you. i could throw a football and hit them they are so close.

it is kinda like waynes world when they are watching the planes land, that close. oh yeah the media is about entertainment, it is no longer news. news is things about what happened or is happening. have some fun and read the paper and pick out all the speculative stories, may could maybe potentially. it is mostly sensationalism.

 

I lived in LA for years and I think the local media there is worse than most. I'll never forget a newscast soon after the riots had quelled where they took a poll "what racial slur offends you the most?". One guy called in fuming and said "YOU MEDIA GUYS JUST LOVE TO STIR THINGS UP, DONCHA!"

 

Ah welcome to my world... Sorry as a member of the media i still get a smug feeling of superiority when it comes to Television News. I have said this many many times but TV news is now the biggest load of fetid donkey droppings on the planet.


Geez this is what happens when your "News" becomes "information" and is run by the Entertainment and advertising department. Profit of having viewers and bottom line baby


"Ten Things that can kill your children at school... story at 11..." BULLSPIT!!!!!!!!

If it took these wanks this long to figure out that airplanes are somewhat exposed when they go slow and low at take off and landing maybe sometime soon they will discover that ships in the port of San Diego may have barnacles.... THE TERROR FROM THE SEA.... NEWS AT 11...

 

Ummm..you seem to have put alot of thought into this..

 

Forget Sepulvida. If you part your car on Aviation and walk down a bit, you can stand right under where the planes are landing. You could practically throw rocks at the things.

 

Hell,

we don't need over the shoulder rocket launchers, we have our own people who are probably more dangerous........or could give 2 sh*ts!!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041215/ap_on_re_us/fake_bomb_lost

 

A Stinger can lock on and track a target at well over 10 miles. Same for an SA-7. An airliner gives off a massive IR and radar signal and they have no counter measures.

You dont need to be right under them on landing. You could be on the roof of a building 5 - 10 miles away. As long as you have line of sight, you can aim the missile and get a lock. Once fired.... bye bye airplane.

So, given the above what possible counter measures should anti-terrorists forces take?

The answer of coarse is to focus on catching and killing them ELSEWHERE. By the time a terrorists arrives in the US with a shoulder launched anti-air missile, you have failed. There is nothing you can do short of ending air travel to prevent such a missile attack if the terrorists is indeed already here and in possession of the weapon.

That said, I believe the threat is perhaps a bit overblown. These missiles are expensive. They also have a limited shelf life. The rocket fuel loaded into a stinger in 1988 isnt going to be worth a damn today, it degrades. They require maintenance and upkeep that is far beyond the average terrorists. You dont buy solid rocket fuel at Walmart and you certainly dont configure it for a specific application in your Afghan cave! These missiles are also extremely expensive. Im not saying that a terrorist couldnt get one, clearly they could. But the odds of there being thousands of these in the hands of terrorists is just very unlikely. If the were, you would be seeing their frequent use by insurgents in Iraq today. We see almost no use of these by insurgents. The "missiles" being shot at most US aircraft in Iraq are simply RPG's aimed at the sky and fired in hope of a freak hit.


Terry