Man Charged in Model Airplane Plot To Bomb Pentagon 515
garymortimer writes "A 26-year-old Massachusetts man with a physics degree was arrested and charged Wednesday with plotting an attack on the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol with remote-controlled model aircraft, authorities said. Rezwan Ferdaus, a U.S. citizen from Ashland, Massachusetts, planned to use model aircraft filled with C-4 plastic explosives. As a result of an undercover FBI investigation, Ferdaus, who has a physics degree from Northeastern University in Boston, was charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda for attacks on U.S. soldiers overseas. His federal public defender couldn't be reached immediately for comment."
God dammit (Score:5, Funny)
Worse, maybe it's FBI entrapment (Score:5, Insightful)
As I understand it, all Islamic terrorists arrested inside the U.S. were put up to it by the FBI [metafilter.com].
You see, the FBI prefers to train it's own terrorists because doing so is far easier than catching the real deal, who might be dangerous, or hard to find, or worse not exist at all. Don't you feel safer with the FBI making sure there are terrorists to catch?
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In fact, the FBI kinda started that way. Hoover initially tasked the FBI with finding stolen cars. You see, stolen cars eventually turn up, meaning they'd close a case, meaning they could brag to congress about their closed cases. Yes, that's why some many federal police forces exist today, the FBI cheated to elevate it's closed cases ratio during it' early days.
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And this you contrast with (inherently criminal) plotting to attack the government and kill people? The minimum requirement to sign on to such an effort is, duh, an intent to kill people. That's about as 'much different' as you can get
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It sounds like all the FBI did in this case was give him someone to talk to, and some fake weapons/explosives. Everything else this guy did indicated he was entirely serious about this all on his own. He was even given a chance to back down and didn't. Its probably for the best the FBI picked him up prior to him finding someone that actually had malicious intent.
Sometimes tinfoil is just for baking people...
I think the FBI have learned lessons from their past attempts to manage information flow around high-profile terrorism cases. The purpose of a press release is to influence public opinion -- the suspect-didn't-back-down gambit in the PR (something that has not occurred in previous terror-related FBI PRs) is obviously designed to get the FBI off the entrapment hook in the public's eye. But I can see an astute defense lawyer demanding the FBI prove that the suspect would have continued his activities abse
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Well shit does this mean I have to get groped before using my RC airplanes?
No, it means they are not safe for you to use... you know... like many modern firearms...
Feel free to enjoy the rubber band powered balsa wood planes instead.
Re:God dammit (Score:4, Insightful)
Am I the only one who reads this and is reminded of the scene in 4 lions with the terrorist who wants to strap dynamite to pigeons to blow up , uh, jews or something.
Pretty sure if a 757 can't destroy the pentagon, sure as hell a toy airplane with a stick of dynamite taped to it sure as hell wouldn't.
At some point we're going to realise that most western terrorists are not Bin laden's but angry clowns.
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True. But if I'm working at the pentagon, I still don't want the toy airplane with C4 going off next to my window.
Also, there is a subtle difference between C4 and dynamite.
Re:God dammit (Score:4, Insightful)
You're forgetting something...
The vast majority of energy released in such a plane crash is done so burning off the fuel. The ballistic energy of the craft combined with the engine thrust is fairly small put next to that.
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Re:Rezwan Ferdaus is a moslem (Score:4, Funny)
NEWSFLASH: Fundamentalists are nuts! Story at 11!
Re:Rezwan Ferdaus is a moslem (Score:5, Insightful)
So in other words, you feel your atheism gives you superior morality.
His atheism allows him to question morality, his own and others, as opposed to morals dictated by a religion that must be adhered to without question.
--
Religion is regarded by the common people as true,
by the wise as false,
and by the rulers as useful.
— Lucius Annæus Seneca.
Terrorism, the new religion.
Doing the "right thing" (Score:5, Insightful)
you feel your atheism gives you superior morality
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire.
eh? (Score:2)
Didn't he get the memo about how SUICIDE bombers work?
And a remote control plane? Great, now the TSA's going to be doing strip searches in toy stores. (always figured groping kids was their main plan all along, this just helps them achieve it faster).
Re:eh? (Score:5, Funny)
Why it works (Score:3)
I remember hearing big-name Republican candidates and pundits telling us that there would be a 9/11 ever few months if Obama got elected. Strange how it has seemed to work out.
They were willy enough to believe what he said while campaigning. As far as civil liberties go and the program to do whatever they hell we want to terrorists, he just kept doing what Bush did because once he was in the hotseat and got to look at what was really going on he realized we actually did need to worry a bit.
So yeah, that di
*sigh* Not Again... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have to wonder the nature of the situation when the charges are for, "attempting to provide material support", as in, was he in contact with anyone who was actually planning to bomb anything, or was everyone he interacted with affiliated with law enforcement, and they took a disgruntled man and groomed him into the position they're not charging him for.
We'll probably never really know, which is why I really dislike conspiracy type charges when there aren't several people charged.
Re:*sigh* Not Again... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yep, another case of the FBI finding a 'terrorist' by finding a mildly disgruntled guy, giving him fake weapons and explosives, suggesting a terrorist plot to him, and then 'catching' him when he did exactly what they wanted him to do.
Like these guys:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-arrests-terrorists-sting-operations-dallas-springfield/story?id=8666300 [go.com]
And these guys:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/11/families-struggle-in-the-_n_957365.html [huffingtonpost.com]
Re:*sigh* Not Again... (Score:5, Insightful)
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The smarter people aren't actually *caught*. Think commandos and Hellfire-armed UCAVs.
Do you want to know why they aren't caught? BECAUSE THEY AREN'T ATTACKING!!! Unless you want to provide me with a link of one that succeeded.
Re:*sigh* Not Again... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well you did make me RTFA retarded AC and I think that TWX is wrong: we probably will know. It seems this is another "conspiracy" of one where the FBI eggs on a crazy guy and supplies him with all the tools to turn his bad feelings into a charge they can pin on him. Given that this is the initial CNN article, and that is usually when the case for the FBI is presented most favourably because there has been no time for journalists to investigate more in-depth.... Well, you can read this and see that it's probably entrapment when described most favourably so likely will be conclusively that later on when more embarrassing facts start to be revealed.
from TFA:
""There is no information to indicate he was connected to a foreign terrorist organization. It appears he was radicalized watching videos on the internet. He was given the opportunity to back down, but he never wavered" from his intention to carry out the attacks, the source said."
"The FBI agents also gave Ferdaus six AK-47 assault rifles and three grenades, but they weren't functional,"
"he began supplying the FBI undercover agents with cell phones rigged to act as electric switches for improved explosive devices"
"Undercover federal agents also gave Ferdaus 25 pounds of fake C-4 explosives"
"The investigation also involved a cooperating witness"
"law enforcement official said Ferdaus posed no immediate danger to the public because undercover operatives kept in close contact with him"
Yep, pretty much the same story as the other "terrorists" the authorities have caught: (not the incompetent real terrorists that the public caught) Entrapment.
Did anyone tell him (Score:4, Insightful)
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I don't think it really counts as asymmetric warfare when it's just one guy. That's just somebody being dumb. It's not really a war when there's not even a way to define one of the sides as winning, is it?
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Yes, C4 going off near the Pentagon would cause a frenzy of authoritarian crackdowns, civil rights removals and economic damage. It would be quite successful in its goals.
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I'm surprised the plan didn't succeed then. I guess the FBI did its job a little too well, since there's doubtless other parts of the government that would love to have an excuse to have authoritarian crackdowns and civil rights removals.
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And most importantly: I-395 would turn into a parking lot. I'd never get home from work.
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These things frequently end up being about hypothetical explosives that the FBI contact is telling the suspect they can obtain.
Re:Did anyone tell him (Score:4, Insightful)
In other words, our response to the minor incident is what causes the damage?
As a physician I can't help but notice the similarity: You would not believe how many disease conditions are caused by a person's own immune system over-reacting to an otherwise relatively benign situation. Take for example the leading cause of death - heart disease due to atherosclerosis. A condition where macrophages (part of the body's defenses) decide to "eat" LDL cholesterol because they think that this natural component of the blood-stream is a foreign body. Unfortunately for them they don't know that they can't digest LDL-cholesterol, so they keep eating it without metabolizing it, turning into "foam cells", dying, and releasing all sorts of nasty stuff when they die, nasty stuff that calls other macrophages to the scene to see what's going on. Unfortunately the scene happens to be your coronary arteries. Almost all rheumatic and inflammatory diseases are caused by similar mechanisms - overstimulation of the host's immune response leading to tissue damage from one cell line or another, or overproduction of antibodies or complement, etc; as well as some infectious ones (like TB, for example).
Perhaps we should deal all of their plots a fatal blow by tempering our responses
Well if you are responding then you are not the one with the initiative. You need to get them to respond to you. And you need to deal the "fatal blow" by either removing their ability to hurt you (completely impossible because explosives are so easy to make - they were making them in the 11th century for god's sake), or removing their desire to hurt you. I would put my money on the latter, but honestly this would require a complete re-write of current policy as well as a major re-shuffling of world politics and economics. So that's not going to happen either. What's left is damage control and trying to minimize the size of events and losses when they do happen. I guess that's what is being done now.
Re:Did anyone tell him (Score:5, Informative)
Well some remote controlled airplanes are actually pretty big. Here is one with a 12' wing span. It could lift say 7 kg with no real problem. http://www.hobby-lobby.com/telemaster12.htm [hobby-lobby.com] Maybe cut that to 4kg and use electric power and if you covered it in light grey you no one would see it until impact. but 4 or 7 kg would kill anyone outside near the impact point. You would aim it at an entrance time the impact for say 5:50 pm in the winter so that it is dark, Sure it wouldn't blow up the entire building but it would still suck to die or have your arm or leg blown off.
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I am sure that everything I said was a duh for just about everyone.
Re:Did anyone tell him (Score:5, Insightful)
Clearly a mentally disturbed individual, targeted, groomed and his mental delusions preyed upon to create a opportunity for public terrorism promotion and of course prop the ego and future careers of a couple of agents.
Real indicators of delusion, using a $6,500 dollar model aircraft, grandiose plots with little action (the agents did pretty much everything) and, no indication of employment whilst living with parents.
The really disturbing things about the way it is being presented are, ohh look he had a physics degree (smells of targeting all university students in science areas as potential threats) and, he took photos of buildings (why he didn't just use street view remains or the thousands of available photos on line are further indicators of deranged thinking). Also they were careful to exclude from the press releases any indication of mental disturbance in the individual, even though it seems pretty obvious.
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Re:Did anyone tell him (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, I just watched the video on CNN. The "models" were 1/10 scale replicas of an F4 Phantom and an F86 Sabre. The plan was to use them as drones, and the explosions were mostly just a decoy. He and his helpers would then use the assault rifles to fire on people while they left the buildings, since you can bet your butt the pentagon and, especially, the Capitol building have evacuation procedures and that people would be coming out.
Besides, the goals of "terrorism," ever since the Anglo-Irish War, has always been to cause the enemy to grossly over-react, thus causing domestic support for your oppressors to erode. Example: in 1922, the IRA assassinated 6 British special police within the span of about an hour. The auxiliary police and army then shot up a gaelic football match, killing civilians. There was then backlash in England and a loss of support for continued occupation of Ireland.
This plan really wasn't that bad, all things considered -- especially when you realize that any semblance of a successful attack on those two targets would bring down a crack-down on civil liberties so fast we'd all start reminiscing about when we had all those freedoms left under the PATRIOT ACT.
So now we're down to catching the nutcases (Score:5, Insightful)
A real, full-size airliner barely put a dent in the Pentagon. A remote controlled plane the size of a Cessna full of C4 would break a few windows.
This guy was a physics major and can't calculate how much C4 it would take to punch a hole in a solid concrete building?
Re:So now we're down to catching the nutcases (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So now we're down to catching the nutcases (Score:4, Insightful)
That was his plan? He might have as well tried to set up an ambush outside the White House, or Congress. This plan is so badly thought out, so badly implemented and relied so heavily on the FBI providing him with bad materials that they might as well charge him with being terminally stupid. This plan wasn't going to go anywhere, and wasn't going to do any damage. If he would have been lucky, he might have been able to shoot one or two guards on the way to "the door".
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I'm sure prosecutors will say that he could have caused massive destruction and killed scores of people.
I wonder how he would get the plastic explosive to go off at precisely the right moment. Assume this thing is going 100mpg, if you are a millisecond too early, it explodes harmlessly in the air. If you are a millisecond too late, the plastic explosive will go splat and detonator will go flying into pieces. Let's not even get into making a proper shaped charge.
Remember the NYC firecracker bomber who put
Re:So now we're down to catching the nutcases (Score:5, Insightful)
With the Times Square bomber, he also had a half-assed ANFO bomb in the car as well. Why half-assed? Because he didn't follow even the most basic and logical testing routine. If you want to make homemade explosives that you are not sure will go off, you need to
1. Make SURE you have the right ingredients (he had the wrong kind of Fertilizer because apparently he can't read labels)
2. TEST your concoction, with a large enough sample to be sure it works.
Oh, and multiple detonators are probably also a good idea. Don't just rely on a single fuse that might go out.
The various 'terrorists attempts' over the last 10 years have been so pathetic they make me angry. (because we are spending trillions of dollars to fight enemies who are so incompetent they couldn't shoot someone in the back without blowing off their own foot)
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That would work almost as well as the guy trying to bring down the bridge in New York with a cutting torch. There are a lot of people with guns in the Pentagon. They would shoot back.
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This may come as a shock, but there is not exactly a lack of well-trained, well-armed individuals at the Pentagon. Six idiots with guns walking up to the place is not an excellent plan.
Catching nutcases was always the goal (Score:4, Insightful)
All terrorists are nutcases. No sane person decides that cold-blooded mass murder (often of people only tangentially related to the source of their anger) is the best way to accomplish their goals.
Given my druthers, I'd prefer smart terrorists. Guys like this making RC plane bombs, or that guy who tried to make a dirty bomb to set off at Obama's inauguration. They tend to be easier to catch, because they outsmart themselves. Someone less "clever" might just buy a gun and shoot some people -- see Scott Roeder, Byron Williams, Nidal Hassan, and Jared Loughner.
All different motives (anti-abortion, Glenn Beck told me to, anti-military, straight-up crazy), and all of them not-all-there. Three of the four successful, and the fourth (Williams) only failed because society was lucky enough for him to get a traffic ticket on the way to the shooting. I'll take a dent in the Pentagon's walls any day of the week.
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...No sane person decides that cold-blooded mass murder (often of people only tangentially related to the source of their anger) is the best way to accomplish their goals...
Wouldn't that depend on exactly what their goals are?
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All terrorists are nutcases. No sane person decides that cold-blooded mass murder (often of people only tangentially related to the source of their anger) is the best way to accomplish their goals.
No one said that Bush and Cheney were sane.
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No sane person decides that cold-blooded mass murder (often of people only tangentially related to the source of their anger) is the best way to accomplish their goals.
*cough*Hiroshima*cough*
Fair enough, although the US was under the impression that fewer people would die (on both sides) by use of the bombs than by not using them.
It was still at best a questionable moral decision, but never-the-less it was one (unusual) case where cold blooded mass murder was a logical potential choice for accomplishing the a goal.
Similar circumstances occur in containment of high danger ultra-infectious diseases (like most Zombie outbreaks in recent media).
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Dropping the atomic bombs wasn't even a questionable decision morally, it was the right thing to do. America wasn't dealing with rational, modern thinkers. They were dealing with medieval thinkers who had manufactured modern implements of war. The only way to get the message across that continued fighting was useless was to glass them. Had America been able to drop the bomb on Germany I'd have supported it too. That war was the greatest horror mankind has ever faced and anything that ended it sooner rather
Re:So now we're down to catching the nutcases (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, IIRC, the Pentagon is more than just "solid concrete", and has a lot of extra reinforcements and materials in its walls to withstand bomb blasts better than normal buildings.
An R/C plane (or even a Cessna) full of C4 wouldn't have done much besides break a few windows, as you say.
I'm going to go ahead and give the terrorists the secret here about how to destroy the US. I hope I don't get prosecuted for terrorism or treason or whatever. It's pretty simple, really: just pour a lot of money into the campaigns for far right-wing Republican candidates like Bachmann, and maybe find other ways to con the voters into electing these wackos, not just in the Presidential race but in Congressional races too. After they get elected, just sit back and watch the country implode. You can also do the same by getting more Democrats elected, but it won't be quite as fast as with the Republicans (this is probably debatable though). Of course, there's lots of corporations already pouring money into these peoples' campaigns, so maybe they should be prosecuted for terrorism... Or, you can just do nothing at all and wait; we don't need terrorists to destroy this country, we're doing a great job of it all by ourselves.
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The problem with the FSP is that the Federal government would never allow a state to secede like that. Remember, a whole bunch of states tried that back in 1861 and it didn't turn out well. The only way any state can successfully secede is if the Federal government is too weak to enforce the union, and the whole thing is already crumbling. Of course, with the way things are going now, it might not be too long before we reach that state and some states do decide to secede unilaterally, but if/when that co
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The FSP is not a secessionist movement -- it is a "big tent" for anyone interested in a government whose maximum role is the protection of life, liberty, and property [freestateproject.org]. What that means in practice is up to each participant to pursue. The idea is simply to pursue all such strategies in a concentrated geographical location, where such efforts may actually bear fruit.
However, if secession is your thing:
http://freestateproject.org/intro/states_rights [freestateproject.org]
Re:So now we're down to catching the nutcases (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:So now we're down to catching the nutcases (Score:5, Informative)
I know far too much trivia.
Re:So now we're down to catching the nutcases (Score:4, Interesting)
We're down to supplying nutcases with the fake tools that make them think they are playing a "terrorist" video game. Then we charge them for their unfulfilled intention to use the tools that they though were real that we gave them.
I predict (Score:5, Insightful)
It's too bad that a fun hobby like RC aircraft was co-opted by the military for use in target drones and later surveillance aircraft and now weapons platforms. Of course one understands the reasons - they are cheap, well no now they are $100 million each but they used to be cheap, they are quiet, and you don't need to put a pilot in danger or have the whole logistical set up of a full airbase to support one. At some point the airbase itself becomes a target that needs to be defended. A drone can be launched or recovered from almost anywhere - depending on the drone.
It was an idea that made sense. But ideas grow, just like the concept of lighting gunpowder behind a ball of lead inside a tube. The basic properties of drones remain - almost anyone can fly one. They are cheap. They are quiet. And you can't put a hellfire missile on one but you certainly could put a couple pounds of explosives, and fly it absolutely anywhere. And I mean anywhere. If the military can do it, so can you. Because of this innate problem, my prediction is that RC aircraft - owning one, manufacturing one, or flying one, is about to be grabbed by the government and handed to the military. Just like today guns are under strict control, RC aircraft will soon be under strict control. And that's sad because the vast, vast majority of RC aircraft are flown by hobbyists for fun.
And model rocketry is next on the list.... (Score:4)
The government is starting a new process to restrict shipment and sales of model rocket engines, after getting their asses handed to them in a big court case against rocket hobbyists a couple years ago.
Next hobby on the chopping block-- Punkin Chunkers? BattleBots? , DIY anything?
That's right citizen...just sit on your couch and watch the tube...actually building things helps the terrorists!
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Re:I predict (Score:5, Informative)
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This is an issue that is hot and current. Here is the current situation, which is coming to a head in the next few months.
How incredibly fortunate that this uber-terrorist's plot should come to light at such a timely and opportune moment.
It really makes it clear just how important it is to regulate this enormously dangerous hobby.
I sure am glad that those FBI agents didn't arrest the man when he made cell-phones into bomb triggers and tried to ship them to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
It really was important that they kept grooming him until his arrest could really have an impact on the american political process.
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This is disturbing to me. I use puffer kites filled with helium and V shaped balsa structures with those stick-up lights (as seen on TV) to make realistic looking UFO hoaxes. Your depth perception really doesn't work well at night and you honestly can't tell how big something is in the sky. Makes for really good stock news footage for the shaky cam folks -- hay, maybe they can even get a buck for it. I'll never tell......good for the economy right?
One of my dreams was to have one I didn't have to tow be
Re: secondary targets (Score:2)
At some point the airbase itself becomes a target that needs to be defended. A drone can be launched or recovered from almost anywhere - depending on the drone.
Right... because a "drone control center" - and you KNOW they will centralize it - wouldn't be just as juicy a target as an airfield? It may be easier to hide now, but eventually techniques for backtracking the control signals or whatever will make it possible to locate them. Didn't you watch SG:U or the Star Wars prequel movies? They *always* go after the drone command!
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they are cheap, well no now they are $100 million each but they used to be cheap
Holy shit, are you exaggerating? You can buy an F-22 air superiority fighter jet for that price. These drones are comparatively stone-age: piston engines (IIRC), slow, poor maneuverability (compared to a fighter), etc. Those defense contractors must really be raking in the profits.
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http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Atomics_MQ-9_Reaper [wikipedia.org]
The new Dealers are $30M each, with the entire program running a $11B budget.
For that price, just by comparison, you can buy two F16s, which will run ya about $15M each. (It's a cheap fighter but still.)
The right demographic... (Score:3)
A 26-year-old Massachusetts man with a physics degree
So, what was his Slashdot handle?
Degree? (Score:2)
Jet RC community polices itself very well (Score:2)
At the local RC airport here in Van Nuys (probably the busiest RC airport in the world) they have a couple of days of LA JETS each year. The variety and sophistication of the equipment is amazing. Each of those planes probably is a multi-thousand dollar investment.
But what's also amazing is how well the community polices itself. There are safety interlocks on each plane, and very strict rules about speed, altitude, and range; and everybody watches everybody else extremely closely. They all know that the
authority actually seems to have done a proper job (Score:2)
For once.
Which is, like, good. Real C4 could still have killed some people (either in the park or at this location by being dumb or while exploding even if it doesnt really arm the building itself, could crash nearby and injure people.
In short, echelon seems to work just fine ;-)
Slightly off topic, but gotta say it. (Score:3)
This guy was defeated by the groundwork done by the FBI in tracking him, contacting him and then catching him red handed while he was planning the operation. Note that this wasn't done while he was driving to the Pentagon or setting up his drone. Terrorist plots need to be defeated at the planning stage, and that requires good old investigation and espionage. Not by groping people at the airport check-in queue.
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Hmm . . . Christians have bombed federal buildings and abortion clinics in the U.S., and buildings in Norway.
By your logic, physics degrees should not be given to Christians because they might build nuclear bombs and drop them on people.
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Re:Christ, how stupid are we? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm more inclined to think equal opportunities and education for all, regardless of their beliefs, is a very positive step forward.
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In a perfect world, scientific/engineering degrees would be reserved for people who display rational, scientific thought in all areas of their life, and don't suspend it when it comes to 2000 years old fairy tales promoted by authority figures, yes.
In your perfect world, we wouldn't have things like logarithms [wikipedia.org], The Big Bang theory [wikipedia.org] or Bucky Balls [wikipedia.org].
Yeah. Those Christians sure are stupid, anti-science, freaks! I'm sure science would be better off without them trying to meddling with their voodoo discoveries.
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Hmm . . . Christians have bombed federal buildings and abortion clinics in the U.S., and buildings in Norway.
By your logic, physics degrees should not be given to Christians because they might build nuclear bombs and drop them on people.
So a lone wolf "Christian" tries to bomb an abortion clinic because he truly believes that it will save the lives of hundreds of children and at the very most, kills a staff of 6 that work at the abortion clinic and is shunned by over 99% of Christians.
The most recent abortion protest death was not done by a pro-life activist, but was done TO a pro-life activist James Lawrence Pouillon [wikipedia.org].
Before that, it was George Tiller, an abortion doctor, who was murdered. Oh, yeah, George Tiller was also an usher at a ch
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A degree does not automatically make anyone capable, conversely, a lack of a degree does not make them incapable. This holds true in all walks of life.
- Dan.
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You can grow a pair and realize that the vast majority of these nut jobs are muslim, or you can bury your head in the sand and pretend they're not. Your choice. Though it might help if you leave the west for a bit and travel the world and see for yourself exactly how true it is.
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You can also grow a brain and realize that the vast majority of these nut jobs are mad because we just won't leave them the fuck alone, and are constantly getting involved in their countries' business in the mideast because of our addiction to oil. If we didn't have troops and military bases over there, we wouldn't have them trying to blow us up all the time. Maybe if we minded our own fucking business instead of trying to be an evil empire, we wouldn't have so many enemies.
How many suicide bombers have a
Look at history (Score:3)
Name me a time when there wasn't violence going on in the middle east. It was all rainbows and unicorns until Israel showed up and ruined the peace party.
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Out of curiosity, did you begin by writing "How many terrorists have attacked England?" Ah, crap. "How many terrorists have attacked Spain?" Oops. "How many terrorists have attacked Germany?" [http://www.france24.com/en/20110913-germany-salafist-funadamentalism-islam-terror-attack-plot-internet-propaganda-rise] Um. No wait. "How many terrorists have attacked France?" [http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,176139,00.html]
Seriou
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I was under the impression that we paid for it. If not, where did the King of Saudi Arabia get all that money from? Did he win it in a card game?
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The vast majority of these nut jobs have brown hair.
The vast majority of these nut jobs are humans.
The vast majority of these nut jobs have two ears.
Want to know that ALL of the nut jobs have in common?
THEY'RE NUT JOBS!
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Nice conspiracy theory but.... ....."
Would you ever be fooled by this setup? "Yo dude, go buy a model airplane and I'll give you some C4 and
Please. Reality here.
First the article said the FBI worked with an informant. The idiot probably asked a buddy how to get some C4.
The guy wanted to do something and apparently the FBI just helped him along. I'm sure they have every meeting taped. According to the article they at least tried half-heatedly to make sure this idiot was serious. I'm sure that's on tap
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You might even say, somebody set up them the bomb.
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Its the old skill set of "preemption," "prevention," and "disruption"
A massive informant network (rakers) spots "a" lone wolf and an undercover operative is sent in to see what can be done.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/ap-documents-expansion-of-nypd-into-domestic-cia/ [pbs.org]
The operative will propose a plot, provide explosives and then solve the crime
Re:Yeah right... (Score:4, Insightful)
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It is called 'terrorism' and not 'demolition' for a reason, and I think that some fair sized bomb going off at about the same time at the capital and pentagon would cause a fair bit of terror.
Besides, I don't think you appreciate how big of a boom a couple pounds of C4 cause. The 'high' in 'high explosive' isn't a marketing term.
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Why would anyone with half a brain do this? A model plane with a bit of C4 wouldn't do much to the exterior.
So you do something *besides* flying into the roof. Like, for instance, fly it into the the main entrance.
It would smash into the door and create a big C4+fuel fireball, killing or seriously wounding anyone in the vicinity and scaring the crap out of everyone else, while sending our Dear Leaders into a panic.
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In the CNN video they show both planes and the other is an F-86.
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Because they entraped a crazy guy capable of making a phone into a switch and telling him that they would give it to the bad guys he liked in an internet video. Real criminal... err... terrorist... or whatever.
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Actually, there's a way for terrorists to take down the country without any weapons at all. Just convince lots of students to default on their student loans. In fact, that might just happen soon (without any convincing by terrorists) thanks to the crap economy and outrageous tuition prices these days. I wonder if Obama will want to bail out the lenders again while screwing over all the regular people?
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For a cheap ducted fan model a few hundred bucks is about right, but RC jets really do cost thousands of dollars.
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The plane that hit the Pentagon did its damage with momentum and fire. Granted that a few pounds of poorly placed high explosive will cause limited damage, but it can cause much more damage per pound. If it penetrates a window and explodes inside the building, it's likely to destroy several rooms, possibly blow out a portion of the external wall, and potentially kill dozens of people.
This guy failed because he couldn't keep his mouth shut, couldn't synthesize his own explosives and otherwise not attract att
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I wonder which geeky hobby is next up to be regulated into oblivion.
Writing programs for your own computer.