The “don’t touch my junk” story catalyzes a noticeable measure of public dissatisfaction with the national security apparatus in the US. And the buzzing technology and frequently mediocre people, often afflicted with normal human bad judgment, required to run it.
Most people who know anything about security saw this coming years ago.
American leadership believes there is a technological answer for everything. And it has led to the permeation of increasingly prying and degrading machinery throughout society. When you couple that with average workers, often plagued by bad thinking and judgment but trained to strictly enforce senseless rules, you have what you do now.
All things considered equal, enduring vile mechanisms and/or frisking your johnson is now made permanent.
The assumption that terrorists have become increasingly ingenious has also been pernicious.
Reality shows that isn’t the picture.
The reality is that not only have terrorists been forced into building more unreliable devices to get past security but that they’ve also been compelled to rely on average to bad or even totally incapable human resources.
And there simply are not enough of them to pose the national threat pundits normally assign. Although in the future, if they try enough, they certainly have their chances of being infrequently successful.
This has all been said, in various forms, in this blog before.
And the latest failed plot has nothing to do with onerous whole body scanning. But everything to do with the stupid practice and business procedures of UPS and Fed-Ex in the crap country of known terrorists, Yemen.
In essence, any random nuisance could walk into an UPS store and send a small IED in a cardboard box into the air.
Those are just facts, and not proper justification for antagonizing passengers on American flights more and more until they totally detest going up in the air.
However, I’d be lying if I thought anything would change. Instead, like everything else it will only get worse. And people will just learn to stomach it, the businesses involved in making widgets for searching people perfectly happy with the state of affairs, one in which they can sell more and more odious mechanisms into the queues.
The battle is over here. The underwear bomber and the national security business won, even though the former is in jail.
So many, but not all, of the suicide bombers come from failing, humiliated societies that generate huge numbers of “sitting-around people,??? who are easy prey for recruiters offering martyrdom and significance in the next life. We need to do what we can to eliminate their sources of energy.
Boy, what other “failing, humiliated societies” that have generated “huge numbers of ‘sitting around people'” do we know of?
We must do all we can to eliminate their sources of energy, too.
A selection of story quotes describing al Qaeda toner cartridge bombs that didn’t go off. al Qaeda plots, even when they don’t work, which is a lot of the time, are always innovative, creative and sophisticated.
Before the September shipments reached their destinations in Chicago, U.S. authorities seized and searched the boxes. They removed “papers, books and other materials??? that now appear to have been sent by the Yemeni militant group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to test the logistics of the air cargo system, the official said.
Which raises the question why didn’t Yemen get shitcanned as an entry point for small air freight shipments back then?
The two bombs contained 300 and 400 grams of the industrial explosive PETN, according to a German security official, who briefed reporters Monday in Berlin on condition of anonymity in line with department guidelines.
By comparison, the bomb stuffed into a terrorist suspect’s underwear on the Detroit-bound plane contained about 80 grams.
“It shows that they are trying to again make different types of adaptations based on what we have put in place,??? said John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser. “So the underwear bomber, as well as these packages, are showing sort of new techniques on their part. They are very innovative and creative???
EXPLOSIVE devices found on two planes were “very sophisticated”, both in the way they were constructed and concealed, a top US security official has said.
One of US President Barack Obama’s security advisers, John Brennan, said the devices, hidden inside printer toner cartridges, were very difficult to detect
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says there’s also evidence of novel and more sophisticated devices, including explosives that can be sewn inside the body. These devices can only be detected with the use of body scanners, a security measure which is still being resisted in most countries, including Australia.
Clearly these groups have shown a degree of innovation in the types of bombs that they’re making and how they’re using them. Things like prosthetic limbs, women masquerading as being pregnant, but in fact carrying a bomb inside a cavity in their bellies. Even the idea that breast implants or buttock implants could be used to hide a bombing device.
The chief executive of the intelligence agency IntelCenter, Ben Venzke, said: “If this attack is by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula it demonstrates an accelerated ability to design new and innovative ways of conducting IED attacks and a focused effort to execute those attacks on US soil …
Terror expert Dr Sally Leivesley said it appeared to be a “sophisticated” device which may have used the powdered toner as a means of evading screening.
Their airplane bombers — Richard Reid and the equally feeble underwear bomber — also present problems.
This constrains the bombmaker with obstacles in the form of unreliability, not only from the human angle — but also from the technical side.
In an attempt to remove the need for the bomber, an al Qaeda group’s air-shipped bombs faced additional problems with timing and whether or not they would actually work. And the results, in this case, are apparent.
So rather than always deadeningly looking at it from the side which describes these people as “innovative” and “creative,” one can also observe it from the angle that they are increasingly constrained. And that their technical expertise is definitely finite.
Which is not to say that if they try enough they won’t get lucky.
On the other hand, there are way bigger fish to fry in terms of problems — national and geopolitical.
“Initial reports indicates no trace of explosives,” recites a CNN newsgirl right now. “Is this a dry run?”
Whether it is or not, DD’s take has been that evidence and history suggests al Qaeda is resorting to more and more haphazard, random and threadbare plots, probably because there are less and less competent drawn to the organization. And the pressure put on it worldwide by the US military and intelligence services.
Ineffective underwear bombs and theoretical explosives the size of toner cartridges don’t comprise any existential threat to the country.
In contrast to actual threats to an average American’s security — like mass unemployment and a ruined life — these are not big things to be solved.
On the other hand, it guarantees business at General Atomics and companies making more bomb sniffers will remain solid. But that won’t mean anything better for you.
Two weeks ago DD wrote about al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine here.
It is an example of a certain lack of inspiration in al Qaeda.
When the best you can come up with after years of plotting is to wish jihadis to buy a Ford F-150 with a snowplow blade so that they can go on a monster truck rampage, it appears you’ve been enfeebled.
What could be next?
Attempting to ship fireworks to the US under cover of the days running up to the 4th of July? Mass purchases of matches so as to accumulate red phosphorus? Raiding swimming pool supply stores for hydrochloric acid or breaking open of old car batteries in preparation for acid-throwing-in-a-crowd sprees? Posing as exterminators so that when going out on the day’s run they can spray much higher than recommended concentrations of pesticide? How ’bout a team of jihadis to crap in paper bags and set them on fire on random porches? Training camps on how to start fires in southern California in the dry and windy season? Learning kung-fu so that jihadis can beat up people on airplanes and in airports?
Just imagine what will happen when they start buying lots of charcoal, lighter fluid and paper for shredding!
The mind reels.
“Their foothold in Yemen has become much stronger … their numbers are about 400,” some blowhard on CNN is saying.
It’s always interesting to see how these types of whoopie cushion things overturn all news, derailing all other discussions in favor of the parade of national security profiteers experts. And how they inevitably drift to assumptions having to do with how clever this demonstrates al Qaeda to be.
Coincidentally, great stuff for the GOP since the news has silenced most political coverage. The guys with the lead on the field going into the last two minutes benefit from the running out of the clock on this matter.
It took less than a day for the talking heads to begin talking about ‘sophistication.’
Sophisticated bombs contained in packages sent from Yemen were designed to explode in the airand bring down the cargo planes carrying them, UK security officials have confirmed.
Intelligence experts believe the use of the devices, contained in printer cartridges despatched on two Chicago-bound cargo planes, represents a shift in terrorist tactics to commercial targets.
One of the devices was linked to a mobile phone, while the other was attached to a timer. The Observer understands that the East Midlands device was so sophisticated an initial examination by forensics experts initially suggested it did not contain explosives.
On the other hand, one again sees the caveats creep in:
The target of the device may have been an aircraft and, had it detonated, the aircraft could have been brought down,” May said. “But we do not believe that the perpetrators of the attack would have known the location of the device when they planned for it to explode.”
The Metropolitan police said in a statement that “early indications suggest it had the potential to bring down an aircraft in flight.
Not quite as successful as the Unabomber.
The al Qaeda men have been compelled to make ever smaller bombs, their size and complication designed to get them past security while at the same time making them problematical in terms of reliability.
In terms of result of plot, besides tipping over security and giving the usual characters on television and in government the vapors, they’ve succeeded in having all package shipping banned from their country.
Which is a pretty decent and fair solution. Who actually needs shit, besides oil, from the Arabian peninsula?
You could make a pretty good joke reply to UPS’s “logistics” commercial given the company’s role in enabling this matter:
Lyrics:
Logistics makes the world work better!
When it’s planes in the sky for a chain of supply, that’s logistics
When the pots for the line come precisely on time, that’s logistics
A continuous link that is always in sync, that’s logistics
Carbon footprint reduced, bottom line gets a boost, that’s logistics
Always new ways to plan so the shit hits the fan, that’s logistics
When technology doesn’t know where everything goes, that’s logistics
When bombs that are wee don’t go poot-doot-doot-dee, that’s logistics
There will be lots of stress ’cause they called UPS, that’s lo-og-i-stics
Today the Tennessean newspaper ran a big expose on the lucrative business of spreading hate and fear over Muslims taking over America, as peddled by a small group of extreme right “national security” experts.
“Anti-Muslim crusaders make millions spreading fear,” is the headline.
This isn’t news to the followers of blogs like this one. The field of US national security is thoroughly contaminated with people who’s only business is encouraging Americans to despise Islam by mouthpiece-ing the hate through the media.
However, it’s welcome to see a newspaper’s investigative team digging into it so thoroughly.
Steve Emerson, who has been radioactive poison for a good long time is the biggest figure profiled. His business is described as one that uses a non-profit to front a for-profit business selling his ‘expertise’ about reputed Muslim group ties in the US to terrorists overseas.
It’s a damning takedown.
Also up for scrutiny is Frank Gaffney.
Gaffney is a charter member of the Cult of EMP Crazy, where he and other members of the GOP regularly push stories into the media about how Iran will send US back to the horse-and-buggy age with an electromagnetic pulse attack.
Writes the Tennessean:
Frank Gaffney, head of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Center for Security Policy, earned a $288,300 salary from his charity in 2008. Gaffney was a key witness in recent hearings in the Rutherford County lawsuit filed by mosque opponents. He said he paid his own way.
On the stand, the Reagan-era deputy assistant defense secretary accused local mosque leaders of having ties to terrorism, using ties to Middle Eastern universities and politics as evidence. His main source of information was his own report on Shariah law as a threat to America, one he wrote with other self-proclaimed experts.
But, under oath, he admitted he is not an expert in Shariah law.
The list of people on the anti-Islam circuit goes on. IRS filings from 2008 show that Robert Spencer, who runs the Jihadwatch.org blog, earned $132,537 from the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a conservative nonprofit.
Gaffney authored the recent “Team B” report alleging Shariah law and Muslim terror was taking over the heartland of America.
The report, pumped by Fox News, the Washington Times, and many others in the right wing noise machine, acted as a convenience for the usual gasbags to fan the flames of Islam-o-phobia.
The Tennessean asserts the message from these non-experts resonates strongly in middle Tennessee among the hardcore Christian white right of the Bible Belt.
And it has been a very lucrative business. The thrust of the article contains tax returns from the various “businesses,” revealing the additional fact that they employ non-profit fronts as tax dodges.
The Tennessean article is here. Everyone should read it as a graphic example of the malicious application of fear for the making of money. At the expense of all Muslims in the United States.
Another fact is worth restating. The people who carry this out are the sole property of the Republican Party. And they are disgraces.
Perhaps the Tennessean newspaper has contributed to driving a stake through some of them, at long last.
“The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is pleased to announce four winners of its 2010 Pioneer Awards: transparency activist Steven Aftergood; public domain scholar James Boyle; legal blogger Pamela Jones and the website Groklaw; and e-voting researcher Hari Krishna Prasad Vemuru, who was recently released on bail after being imprisoned for his security work in India,” reads the announcement at EFF here.
“Secrecy News … provides direct public access to various official records that have been suppressed, withdrawn, or that are simply hard to find,” EFF adds indisputably.
In one capacity or another, DD has relied on Aftergood for advice, help and careful reflection for at least fifteen years. Never parsimonious with his time, Steve always delivers … um … the goods.
Loyal DD reader João suggests head’s up on two movies. He’s right on the money judging by these trailers.
First up, hilarious teaser for Four Lions, a British comedy on wannabe jihadis. The phenom — described by me in various essays, articles and brief posts over the past few years — was always ripe for this kind of treatment.
And now someone has done it. Shame no American studio would have had the stones.
And this one, a US sci-fi apocalypse thriller, which would seem to be already in release overseas:
Its best bits look to be material only good for black comedy. Like the feature article on using a US-made pickup truck, preferably equipped with a snow plow blade, to run people over.
Astonishingly, it seems to have taken al Qaeda more than ten years to get this strategy into potential development.
Why stop with a Ford F-150? If the jihadi is a bit short on cash, a smaller pickup or even sedans might do. Or you could go Japanese and buy a Toyota Tundra. Now that’s a mighty truck, too.
Just think if those guys bought some guns!
All readers know there have been a bunch of horror movies centered around maniacs terrorizing people with tractor-trailers, starting with the granddad of them all, Duel.
Perhaps tips on jihadi plots could be gained by observing the rental traffic of such movies.
Also contained in Inspire is more wishful thinking about making WMDs at home. It’s been ten years, at least, and no progress on that front. Try as it may, al Qaeda has had great difficulty cultivating and deploying serious scientific talent in the life sciences.
But there are seemingly many among aspiring jihadis who still think they can do something with botulism or castor seeds.
It reads:
“These are some of our suggestions … The best operation however is the one where you come up with an innovative idea that the authorities have not yet turned their attention to, and that leads to maximum casualties or – equally important – maximum economic losses. Also those brothers of ours who have specialized expertise, and those who work in sensitive locations that would offer them unique opportunities to wreak havoc on the enemies of Allah, should take advantage of their skills. For those mujahid brothers with degrees in microbiology or chemistry lays the greatest opportunity and responsibility. For such brothers, we encourage them to develop a weapon of mass destruction, i.e. an effective poison with the proper method of delivery. Poisonous gases such as nerve gas are not out of reach for the chemist and require simple equipment. A microbiologist would be capable of developing the most effective strains of Clostridium botulinum and thus develop the most lethal toxin of all: botulin. An effective botulin attack administered properly could lead to hundreds if not thousands of casualties. For such brothers we would ask them to take the utmost security precautions and take their time even if that means years … Such an operation is worth the wait. Brothers with less experience in the fields of microbiology or chemistry, as long as they possess basic scientific knowledge, would be able to develop other poisons such as Ricin or Cyanide. Due to the extreme importance of moving the war with America over to the next stage, the stage of weapons of mass destruction, we will, insha’llah, cover such topics in more detail in our upcoming issues.
Promises, promises, fellows. Always with the promises.
DD’s various analyses of al Qaeda’s feeble playing about with poisons and biology:
Featured prominently on Google News, which was probably paid to display it, here are the great quotes:
How small can air-to-ground weapons get? Air Force officials are publicly suggesting the development of 1-pound munitions that could kill an individual in a crowded area without harming innocents standing nearby.
So, guys, you go stand right next to the wooden target on the test range, then. Any takers? Thought not.
[The small flying cluster bomb/anti-tank mine] spins like a maple seed as it descends, scanning the area for its targets using laser and infrared sensors.
Like a maple seed. I bet the p.r. person at Textron who came up with that description got a raise.
The 9-foot torpedo, petite enough to be carried by unmanned submarines and drone helicopters, is currently under development at Penn State University, in association with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.
Petite. A 9-foot torpedo is petite. Who could write such s—? Someone not to be invited over for drinks and barbecue, that’s for sure.
Now, if you know some androids who throw parties where they eat bags of arsenic and roofing nails for kicks …
The work of that segment of the economy unhurt by the Great Recession. If you were in the business of making petite torpedoes and anti-tank mines that spin like maple seeds, things have been great.
Some translations.