The Global War on Liquids continues:
U.S. authorities are advising women not to wear gel bras on airplanes as information developed in the foiled London plot points to an expanding role for women in smuggling explosives on to an aircraft.
… and …
Authorities at Scotland Yard are questioning a husband and wife, suspects in the London terror plot, about allegations that they were planning to use their baby’s bottle to hide a liquid bomb.
So … can we expect no more certain types of clothing — or anything with any sort of gel? (Hmmm. Teething rings? Gel sleeping masks? Absorbent gel in diapers? Prosthetic post-mastectomy breasts?) Is that something they can detect in the magnetometer, or will women be patted down?
And can we expect no more baby formula? Will the airlines be providing same? Of the appropriate type, flavor, etc.? Or are babies simply not to be allowed aboard, either (tempting as some might find the idea)?
And if this stuff is let through … then how are we safe? Might as well let folks walk on with their Starbucks and toothpaste.
Ted Rall’s most recent column talks about the plot…
According to the respected and irreverent British technology publication The Register, the plot–if it existed–was a joke. Smuggling the component parts of triacetone triperoxide (TATP)–the liquid explosive we’ve been told was the object of the wannabe jihadis’ vengeance fantasies–and successfully mixing them into a brew powerful enough to bring down a plane would require skills far beyond the capabilities of, well, anyone.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20060823/cm_ucru/plotthis
I’ll be generous and say that the idea it was specifically TATP is just speculation at this point. (Leaving aside I’d rather chew ground glass than agree with anything Ted Rall says.)
Apologies for not noting in the citation for the folks at home that Ted Rall has a large liberal bias.
To be fair, had someone quoted and linked to an Ann Coulter article, I’d be the one reaching for the ground glass.
Me, too. I wouldn’t mind stranding both of them on a desert island, save that they’d eventually try and breed and the result would either be the matter/antimatter annihilation of all things or the return of the Elder Gods.