Flying to or from Britain this week? Don't bother.

[pritch]

Here in Ye Olde Englande The Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch have apparently foiled an attempt to blow up at least 9 airliners which were bound for the US from the UK.

The problem is the UK threat level has been raised to Critical - which means an attack is imminent.

As a result people flying can take almost nothing with them in hand luggage and everyone must be searched by hand. This means huge delays, indeed all flights into Heathrow are cancelled today and everything but long haul out has been cancelled or delayed as well.

21 arrests have been made.

But the main thing is if you're British and are going to fly anywhere this week, don't bother. It will be excruciating. Airlines will offer you alternative dates.

If you aren't British but were going to be flying in, don't bother doing that until next week either.

[Psyonisis]

.

[NailGunner]

I wonder if the heightened security will carry over to American-based airports and airlines? I have to fly halfway across the country in a week...

[Enjay]

If the plot has been foiled, all the suspects arrested and explosives captured - why is the threat level "critical" now? Surely it was critical yesterday and today things are much better?

Anyway, us Brits need situations like this to keep reminding us how real the terrorist threat is. Without these incidents, we might start questioning the government.

Oh, how I long for the good old days when we "knew" Russia was going to start nuking us at any moment. In those days we could all live in state-induced fear but still be able to go about our daily lives. All we had to worry about was whether the 4 minute warning would give us enough time to get the doors off their hinges and fill enough sand bags to build a shelter inside our houses, stock up on enough beans to see us through the fallout and block our windows to deflect the radiation (all as advised by the government manual "Protect and Survive"). Nowadays we don't get the bus because the guy next to use in the queue has a sun-tan, beard and rucksack or we spend 36 hours at an airport due to cancelled flights. Bah!

[myk]

Sure looks like it could be a bullshit scare if one looks at the news articles about it, providing nothing but that the authorities foiled this behind the scenes. But one never knows and we'll have to wait to see (maybe forever).

[Gokuma]

Oh shit, the warning meter is in purple with periwinkle stripes!

[fodders]

Booga booga

[Nightmare Doom]

Enjay said:

If the plot has been foiled, all the suspects arrested and explosives captured - why is the threat level "critical" now? Surely it was critical yesterday and today things are much better?

Anyway, us Brits need situations like this to keep reminding us how real the terrorist threat is. Without these incidents, we might start questioning the government.

Oh, how I long for the good old days when we "knew" Russia was going to start nuking us at any moment. In those days we could all live in state-induced fear but still be able to go about our daily lives. All we had to worry about was whether the 4 minute warning would give us enough time to get the doors off their hinges and fill enough sand bags to build a shelter inside our houses, stock up on enough beans to see us through the fallout and block our windows to deflect the radiation (all as advised by the government manual "Protect and Survive"). Nowadays we don't get the bus because the guy next to use in the queue has a sun-tan, beard and rucksack or we spend 36 hours at an airport due to cancelled flights. Bah!

Perfect Example on how Imperial Empires control it's people through fear (It's nothing more than a Strategy for keeping the Government in Power)

[AirRaid]

Yea because there are only 21 terrorists left in the world and they've all just been arrested! Why the fuck do you think the alert level is still high? Jesus...

[geX]

"it's terror alert orange.
which means something might go down somewhere in some way at some point in time..."

[Enjay]

AirRaid said:

Yea because there are only 21 terrorists left in the world and they've all just been arrested! Why the fuck do you think the alert level is still high? Jesus...

I didn't say that! :rolleyes:

Of course there are more than 21 terrorists in the world. Yesterday, when the alert level wasn't as high, there were thousands at large (in fact, 21 more than today). There are still thousands at large and there will be tomorrow too. Your statement implies that the alert status should stay high until all terrorists are removed - because (if we believe everything we are told) 21 terrorist off the street is a mere drop in the ocean against the ever increasing tide of terror threatening our nation.

The alert status has been raised because of this particular plot. A plot which has been foiled. Presumably the security services didn't just happen upon this plot - so they knew of the threat when the alert status wasn't high. Now that the plot is foiled, and we know that this particular danger cannot be visited upon people, that's when we have the restrictions.

So why is the alert status high? What is the current additional danger presented by 21 people who yesterday were at liberty and who, today, are behind bars with their explosives impounded? When will the security forces/government lower the alert status? What is the trigger required to do that? That's what I want to know and what I don't understand.

Obviously the security forces didn't want to tip their hand by raising the alert status (with accompanying banner headlines in the newspapers) before the operation to arrest the terrorists - but why does the alert status get raised after they are behind bars? Is it for any good reason or is it just to remind the public of the danger and bring home the "reality" of a beardy weirdy terrorist hiding below every bed by ensuring the arrests get a lot of publicity and perhaps giving the security forces some positive press compared with the negative headlines that have gone with recent botched operations?

[XDelusion]

I've been on this rock since 75, and since I was old enough to comprehend the images on the news screen, I've noticed that terrorists seem to be obsessed with Air Planes.

Don't they hit up fast food joints, sports stadiums, anything?

Why is it always planes?!?!
Did a plane rape a terrorist at a young age or what? It just does not add up.

If I was a terrorist I'd be hitting up something or a place that seats more people.

Silly government agents.

[Enjay]

I dunno, maybe the disruption to travel and the additon of the fear of terrorism to the fear of flying, or something...


We've certainly had plenty of terrorist attacks on more domestic targets in this country: pubs, shopping centres, restaurants, dustbins in busy streets, sports stadia, museums...

There hasn't been much of that in recent years though. In the UK, most attacks of that type were carried out by the IRA.

[XDelusion]

The International Reading Association?!?! I KNEW they were evil!

http://www.reading.org/

I'm up for the fast food attacks, at least you can see burned flesh mixed with...

...burned flesh.

Much better than flesh on steel any day!



What is Football? I feel compelled to ask this of you.

[Quast]

XDelusion said:

Don't they hit up fast food joints, sports stadiums, anything?

Yeah, most of the time actually. Maybe not sports stadiums as much though, except at the 1972 olympics in germany.

[Kristian Ronge]

The incident in Munich in 1972 took place at the olympic village (i.e. the buildings housing the athletes and all their staff), not in any sports stadium.

[fodders]

geX said:
[B

"it's terror alert orange.
which means something might go down somewhere in some way at some point in time..." [/B]

Green - Low: This setting is here just as a reference point. DHS will never use it because it would mean we didn’t need them anymore.

Blue - Guarded: This rarely used setting on the Stoplight ‘O Terror could indicate things like an undocumented worker within 3 square miles of the president.

Yellow - Elevated: This is the standard level of fear. Don’t expect to see anything lower than this as long as the Regressives are in office. Be scared, but not too scared to vote Republican.

Orange - High: Chertoff heard that someone in the CIA’s brother’s boss’ nephew’s sister-in-law heard about a plan to blow up Amish Country Popcorn Factory in Berne Indiana. It’s ok to pee your pants at this level.

Red - Severe: OMFGPWNBBQ!!!1! A terror attack was recently narrowly averted. We can’t release any details but just be thankful we saved your asses. Used frequently before midterm elections. See October Surprise.

[Csonicgo]

Now you can't take liquids on planes. The Explosive device was an explosive liquid .. Wow. *hides*

EDIT: Fodders, I love you.

[insertwackynamehere]

Surely this must be a hoax. I mean, only the Israelis would ever do anything to attack someone! It must be a government set up.

^Sarcasm.

Just pointing out how easily certain people on this board will blindly condemn every Israeli action, and blindly deny every Arab action. It's like hypocrisy, in action!

[XDelusion]

I can still sneak my pee in! ha ha ha, they will never stop me!

[Fredrik]

insertwackynamehere said:

Just pointing out how easily certain people on this board will blindly condemn every Israeli action, and blindly deny every Arab action. It's like hypocrisy, in action!

Maybe you're just taking notice very selectively of what people say here.

[Quast]

Kristian Ronge said:

The incident in Munich in 1972 took place at the olympic village (i.e. the buildings housing the athletes and all their staff), not in any sports stadium.

Ah, for some reason I thought it did. Serves me right for not looking it up.

[darknation]

what the fuck, the RAF up here are going spastic. That's the third Hercules helicopter I've heard in the past hour.

Either the fuckers are circling, planning to blow up my house or the entire fucking RAF is relocating.

[Csonicgo]

mallis said:

what the fuck, the RAF up here are going spastic. That's the third Hercules helicopter I've heard in the past hour.

Either the fuckers are circling, planning to blow up my house or the entire fucking RAF is relocating.

be very Afraid.

[Sharessa]

I agree that it's silly that they've raised the alert. I remember back in the late 90s (I'm not a big fan of Clinton, but he sure was good at combating terrorism), whenever they'd divert a terrorist attack, they would release the info a few days later after they did their investigations and say "we captured a couple of Arab guys coming over the border in Blaine with 50 lbs of explosives in their car". It would happen all the time and only made national news a couple of times, and then only for a couple of days. The government would act like "crisis averted" and everyone would go back to their normal lives. Now it's like they release all these vague warnings that something might happen somewhere and it's all over the media for a week while the "terror alert" gets raised. When something does go down they send everyone into a panic like they've only hit the tip of the iceberg or something. Whatever happened to calmly getting the situation under control?

Psyonisis said:

Shit I knew I shouldn't have read the forums on the plane!

Well you should know that using a laptop on a plane causes disruptions to the communications devices on the plane! You, sire, should be ashamed!

[DeumReaper]

Enjay said:
We've certainly had plenty of terrorist attacks on more domestic targets in this country: pubs, shopping centres, restaurants, dustbins in busy streets, sports stadia, museums...

Here's a little story that happened last year. My father and I went to London to go sightseeing; saw London Bridge, Bond Street, etc.
Two or three days later, I was back in Texas, and watched the morning news: The news shows breaking news about how a section of the London subway was bombed. I was like Damn! we were right there too. All my dad had to say was "Well thank God we didn't go after because we would have to deal with the tightened security."

[AirRaid]

Actually I think pretty much the only thing that sucks about security on the london underground now is that there are NO fucking rubbish bins anywhere. It's really aggravating to have to carry your crap around with you til you get to wherever you're going.

[Xanthier]

the reason the alert is still high is because they are worried that the only uncovered part of the plot, they don't want to jump to conclusions and ligting cigars, patting themselves on the back and suddenly a bomb goes off somewhere else.

It reminds me of the movies where they foil something and say, hey that was too easy...this was just a diversion! we gotta get to the _____ building right away! Okay maybe I watch too many movies. But they said in news it was because they suspected there was more to it.

I don't live in fear, I also don't live in a big city though. For the record, all governments are corrupt to some degree, why act surprised? yes all.

[Quasar]

I hear you can't even buy a postcard at the gift shop. How retarded is that? Why don't they focus on real measures instead of trying to present some facade of security by keeping some Yanks from buying a postcard. What are you gonna do, give a stewardess a paper cut with it?

[exp(x)]

XDelusion said:

Why is it always planes?!?!
Did a plane rape a terrorist at a young age or what? It just does not add up.

If I was a terrorist I'd be hitting up something or a place that seats more people.

http://www.wondermark.com/d/220.html