Althouse: "Even a pat-down thorough enough to simulate foreplay, however, won’t protect us completely..."

January 7, 2010

"Even a pat-down thorough enough to simulate foreplay, however, won’t protect us completely..."

"... not from a threat that sounds even more absurd than an underwear bomb and that is also more alarming: the butt bomb."

35 comments:

Scott M said...: And the head of the NCTC, ground zero for anti-terrorism, couldn't be bothered to cut his ski vacation short when he found out about the failed bombing attempt.

Dovetail that together with the Newark farce and the additional details now coming out from other passengers on flight 253...what you get is a picture that should completely disillusion any half-rational Obama supporter.

In the first year of the President's term, we've had two attacks on American soil. Using his own logic re the stimulus, I'm sure we'd be up to five or six if he hadn't reached out to the Muslim world.; 1/7/10, 10:04 AM
KCFleming said...: The good news is that the TSA prostate exam means I can skip the doctor visit this year.; 1/7/10, 10:11 AM
robinintn said...: I have an idea: Profile.; 1/7/10, 10:14 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: But the Butt-bomb has to rip through human flesh first, before it can start to rip through anything else.

Certainly the goons will attempt to find a powerful enough butt-bomb to surpass the human-padding dilemma.
or not.
The good news: butt-bomb testing must be very deadly for the jihadi.; 1/7/10, 10:16 AM
kjbe said...: ...or connect the collected dots.; 1/7/10, 10:17 AM
Lincolntf said...: I'd like to humbly suggest that whatever procedures they come up with, they add one more: "If your father repeatedly calls the FBI to tell them that you're an Islamic terrorist-in-training then you're not allowed to get on a plane while carrying a bomb."

I know that this is a very complicated rule, and the bureaucrats might need a few months to figure it out, but still...; 1/7/10, 10:19 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Let's not profile, though. Better to make everybody go through cavity searches.; 1/7/10, 10:19 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Profile?
Our collectively guilt-ridden pansy-ass Sullivan-Obama PC minded "The constitution belongs to the terrorists" mentality will only allow non-threatening American citizens to be profiled.; 1/7/10, 10:20 AM
MadisonMan said...: It's not clear to me why the American Public thinks The Man should be doing everything possible to keep the American Public safe 100% of the time. (Just heard this morning a story about mandating CO detectors in homes. Sheesh). Politicians who are "doing something" to address an immediate problem are the bane of this Country.

It's just react react react. A little long-term planning, and getting in front of a problem, would be a welcome change.; 1/7/10, 10:20 AM
Lincolntf said...: "A little long-term planning, and getting in front of a problem, would be a welcome change."

Those are snappy catch phrases, but how do they help eliminate terrorist attacks?; 1/7/10, 10:22 AM
Anonymous said...: The new profiling: laxative customers.; 1/7/10, 10:23 AM
KCFleming said...: And as horrific as butt bombing will be, if our diversity becomes a casualty, well, General George Casey, U.S. Army chief of staff, thinks that's worse.; 1/7/10, 10:25 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: I suppose, however, the butt-bomber could squeeze-hold
the bomb making components in the anal cavity. then retrieve the material from his/her ass behind the bathroom door, and becomes a mad scientist in there.
But that takes time...
At least 20 minutes in the bathroom.

20 minutes in the bathroom? -
I may be wrong, but, unless you're sick, no one spends 20 minutes in an airplane bathroom.; 1/7/10, 10:33 AM
Anonymous said...: It's nuts. The best plan I heard was to concentrate on people, not weapons. Let's hire the company that handles El Al. Pronto.

Either that, or Obama will have to give a couple more unprecedented Cairo speeches. The first one apparently didn't take.; 1/7/10, 10:34 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: and become
(no "s"); 1/7/10, 10:40 AM
Beta Conservative said...: Two sex posts and generous cavity searches. Me likee Randy Annie today.; 1/7/10, 10:44 AM
DADvocate said...: Explosive suppositories, the thought crossed my mind the other day. Does Islam allow men to stick things up their butt or will they be forced to recruit suicidal, homicidal women who will insert the explosives up their vagina? Are explosives in the vagina acceptable to Islam? Does an Islamic woman get 72 male virgins if she dies fighting for Islam? Does that make her a slut?; 1/7/10, 10:46 AM
Kylos said...: Well, April, I don't think it would take twenty minutes with a properly designed bomb (I've been thinking about this technique way too much in the last few weeks). But I am afraid that women may be able to carry a bigger payload than men. Fortunately, al Qaeda doesn't recruit women very often, but if they start getting to be smart about these issues (and it's not really that difficult to figure these things out if you're intent on destruction), we're going to be seeing planes dropping out of the sky or extremely uncomfortable investigations.; 1/7/10, 10:47 AM
Unknown said...: Bury 'em with some pork in that anal cavity. Bet that will deter the Followers of Peace.

In the meantime, emulate the Israelis (sorry, Cedar) - profile (yes, that means the Feds will have to hire people who can THINK), don't negotiate - ever, and let the bastards know hostages come second - take our people and you will die on the field.; 1/7/10, 11:25 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: @Kylos--
"...we're going to be seeing planes dropping out of the sky or extremely uncomfortable investigations."
I think so, too.
As I've said before, the crotch is the last frontier for the suicide bomber.

And yes - females have twice the cargo space.

It's frightening to consider.; 1/7/10, 11:43 AM
Arturius said...: The issue here is not so much how much further we can make air travel an epic nightmare but whether or not we’re going to get around to addressing the actual problem which is radical Islam. I continually ask at what point those in charge with our security actually stop and recognize the elephant in the room for what it is.

Clearly there is a significant problem with a religion whose adherents freely admit they cherish death more than we cherish life. I also suspect that while most Muslims aren’t seeking martyrdom they are at worst, sympathetic to those that do and at best, indifferent. Logic dictates that if radical Islam is the tiny minority of the overall population (as I am constantly told) then the 1 billion plus Muslim community should have little difficulty rooting out those that defame the ‘religion of peace’. However, reality appears to trump logic since it seems Islamic extremists seem to be able to find safe havens in Pakistan hinterlands, Yemen, Somalia, Thailand, Britain, the United States Army….

I also think that the tired meme of poverty breeds terrorism be shelved as the attacks on the West have been carried out not by illiterate goat herders from Pickastan but rather upper middle class, well educated and rather wealthy individuals (who happen to be Muslim). That in and of itself should raise serious questions as to the kind of Islam that is being practiced when individuals who by our standards have everything to live for would prefer to self detonate themselves among innocent civilians.; 1/7/10, 12:02 PM
Scott M said...: @Arturius

It's pretty simple. These men all subscribe to a polygamist cultural outlook. The available women are scooped up by a minority of men, thus leaving the rest to simply go without.

In other words, in the vein of most of today's threads, we need to get a lot of proto-radicals laid.; 1/7/10, 12:07 PM
Cedarford said...: PatCA said...
It's nuts. The best plan I heard was to concentrate on people, not weapons. Let's hire the company that handles El Al. Pronto.

El Al is a very small state airline. It is heavily subsidized by the Israeli Gov't or the US taxpayer...take your pick. Supposedly, the state also picks up the cost of the long security interviews by private security companies.
Do not forget the the Israelis also have the luxury of compiling security dossiers on Israeli Arabs from childhood, greatly restricting employment and travel of Palestinians in Occupied Lands, and barring Muslims from other lands from Visas or flying through Israeli airspace. (and some of the Arabs eagerly reciprocate by treating Zionists as lepers as well).

The bottom line is that the Israeli system would introduce insufferable costs and delays on top of the present security theater - and the "Israeli Way" also involves banning foreign Muslims from flying and watching the internal Muslims from childhood. So our difficulties in an Open Society, vs. Israel's semi-closed, semi-democratic society would be significantly greater.

If we go with The Israeli Way, keep in mind it was copied off the Soviet Internal Passport system and the internal Red Terror security appartatus Jewish Bolsheviks helped devise.
As a young teen living in Europe, I was impressed by the huge anti-nuke demonstrations against Reagan....and also impressed by what E Germans said...such demonstrations were impossible there because Stasi was strong and travel was internally controlled.; 1/7/10, 12:30 PM
Penny said...: "Does an Islamic woman get 72 male virgins if she dies fighting for Islam?"

Oh I doubt there is a woman alive who would fantasize about a "reward" of 72 male virgins.

That's too much like hard labor.; 1/7/10, 12:40 PM
Peter Hoh said...: Profiling didn't help the Saudis stop the first underwear bomber.

And yes, nothing will protect us completely.

That doesn't mean that we should do nothing, of course, but we ought to be realistic about the inability of government to offer complete security -- no matter who is sitting in the Oval Office.

Here's a handy guide to Terrorball.; 1/7/10, 1:08 PM
Cedarford said...: Within a month of 9/11, having lost a nice little Gerber set of scissors and punch and tiny 1/2 knife....and others mentioning ridiculous other confiscations inc a women whose large hoop earrings were seized by a "Hero security officer" likely wearing them the next day.....people were mentioning how ridiculous it all was - the security theater, the Idiot Bush jabbering about his Religion of Peace and how he loved "Women of Cover" and their little children who soon would be liberated by the Heroes.
Back then, someone who had dealt with drug mules said all the "towelheads" had to do was talk to a Mexican drug smuggling gang about the tricks to internally pack a hapless peasant with 4 kilos of coke - and then just substitute C-4 for coke. Boxcutters? A joke!

Being in engineering circles, of course when bored engineers are sitting around in long lines while someone who 2 months ago was asking if people wanted to Supersize their order was bellowing out in full welfare momma authority mode - they think of dozens of devious ways to thwart the system oppressing them.

Butt bombs, laptops made of compressed thermite, clothes impregnated with incendiary chemical, a team of 4 engineers that would each bring some harmless stuff on through security that could then be combined to make a bomb. One guy thought up the laptop battery-powered miniature diamond buzzsaw blade that would cut through electronic control cables or hydraulics - because as an engineer, he loved elegant solutions more than life.
Everyone mentioned ceramic blades and guns that could get through security. Bullets in fake medical devices. One had the "death wheelchair" idea - designed so that it could be broken down into a number of deadly weapons.

Others pointed out that outside being a passenger, you if you were Islamoid, could do a lot of harm as an airport worker, plane repair mechanic. Or that planes taking off and landing from runways readily approached by the public, adjacent to private land are vulnerable to large volume gunfire, homemade rockets, even Islamoids sowing litter on runways from launched dispensers or covertly sown as airport employees to get in jet intakes.

And so on.

I guess the point is there are no shortage of crazy ideas, with maybe one in 8 or one in 10 that would work. Back then, I thought the butt bomb was so obvious and surefire it was inevitable.

The CIA-Saudi report indicates they think the internal bomb is coming, finally.

Which makes the whole "magic miracle body scanning machines are the perfect solution" crowd look like idiots.

THe truth in war is that there is no perfect defense. The main way we prevent war is not by defense, but deterring through knowledge of repercussions. Nuke missiles do not fly to and from enemy nations because the consequence is millions of non-combatants deliberately killed in turn.
The talk of Islamoids being undeterrable is just talk. You kill radical Islamoids brothers, sisters, children and parents and friends in droves - as Assad did in Hama, or King Hussein did liquidating Black September - you deter the Islamoids. Either self-deter, or people who know of them saying they do not want terror because the B-52s or Chinese now have the will to kill droves of civilians.

And the insipid quote so beloved by Bushies and TSA about how they had to be "perfect everyday, the enemy lucky only once..and if that ever happened "the terrorists WIN!".....so stupid! The Bushies and TSA were hardly perfect, and the Islamoids have killed thousands of our guys in war...and they have hardly won.; 1/7/10, 1:13 PM
Scott M said...: I thought the butt bomb was so obvious and surefire it was inevitable.

I know there's currently no pre-mature ejaculation bomb, but I hear that's coming.; 1/7/10, 1:18 PM
Wince said...: I suppose you could combine all the worst aspects of the "underwear bomb" and the "butt bomb" into that most diabolical weapon of all...

The Wedgie Bomb!; 1/7/10, 1:42 PM
hombre said...: That doesn't mean that we should do nothing, of course, but we ought to be realistic about the inability of government to offer complete security -- no matter who is sitting in the Oval Office.

This is the already hackneyed meme of the apologist Obots.

Note that this observation carries with it the patronizing supposition by the lefties who promulgate it that the embittered and dimwitted prols expect complete security from the inept Obama government.
Never mind that the public concern actually stems from the government's failure to act in the face of considerable foreknowledge of potential danger from the crotch bomber and the army shrink.

It is interesting, C4 notwithstanding, that the post 9-11 example of the Bush administration is not pouring forth from the effete left on this issue.; 1/7/10, 1:55 PM
Peter Hoh said...: elHombre, red flags about Hasan were ignored back in 2007-2008. You want to argue that was the fault of the Obama administration?

The Army, under both administrations, failed to heed warnings about Hasan.

It's outrageous that the warnings about Abdulmutallab did not put him on the no-fly list ASAP. The Obama administration is responsible for that failure and had better figure out how to prevent such failures in the future.

I've read that Abdulmutallab purchased a one-way ticket with cash. That alone should have set off the alarms and subjected him to additional screening, but until the TSA is willing to give a full strip search, it's unclear that the pat down would have uncovered the plastic explosives he was packing.

Even if we were to institute invasive body searches on young men from selected countries, al Q is going to find a way around that. It'll be an old man, or a woman, or someone who is not from one of the countries on the list.

Whatever the rules, al Q will try to work around them, even if it takes them 8 years.; 1/7/10, 2:21 PM
hombre said...: elHombre, red flags about Hasan were ignored back in 2007-2008. You want to argue that was the fault of the Obama administration?

I think you mean "were ignored [as far back as] 2007-8. Certainly, the cumulative effect of those red flags and others since then existed and was being ignored at the time of the attack.

But none of that really matters. The ball is in Obama's court now, isn't it? I don't recall that the rallying cry among his supporters was then, as it is now, that he would merely be "not as bad as Bush."

Even if we were to institute invasive body searches on young men from selected countries, al Q is going to find a way around that.

Agreed. Obviously. So what's your point then, that we ought not to profile/search them????

You do see the problem with that, I hope.; 1/7/10, 3:01 PM
hombre said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/7/10, 3:07 PM
hombre said...: ... until the TSA is willing to give a full strip search, it's unclear that the pat down would have uncovered the plastic explosives he was packing.

That's not relevant. The point is that given his history and the circumstances:

a. He should not have had a US visa, and,

b. He should not have been allowed to board the plane.; 1/7/10, 3:10 PM
Peter Hoh said...: el Hombre, yes, "as far back as" is correct. I almost added "as early as" to modify the 2007-2008 incident, as there may have been previous red flags raised during Hasan's residency.

Yes, had Abdulmutallab been on the no-fly list, as he should have been, he would not have been granted a visa or been allowed to board.

My suggestion that his cash purchase of a one-way ticket should have prompted an aggressive search was an additional critique of the TSA.

I don't know what I'd propose, but I doubt that we're going to be giving body cavity searches to every 18-30 year old male who is from or has been in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Nigeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, etc.; 1/7/10, 4:18 PM
kentuckyliz said...: Where do the virgins come from?

Once the rewarded martyr deflowers them, no virgins left...just aging nags pestering you ....

Maybe the virgins are all the innocent children murdered by the Islamoids.

Imagine their disappointment, finding out that the virgins are angry, bloody children.; 1/7/10, 10:56 PM