"Fly Air scRunge And DIE...!!!" [WAS:: Cub reporter earl evleth gives you the scoops you already learnt about
Gregory Morrow
[...]
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Best
Greg
> "Earl Evleth" <evl...@wanadoo.fr> a �crit dans le message de groupe de
> discussion : C75C0CD4.1916F7%evl...@wanadoo.fr...
>> I like hero stories
>>
>>
>> *****
>>
>> Passengers Took Plane�s Survival Into Own Hands
>>
>> By SCOTT SHANE and ERIC LIPTON
>>
>> Published: December 26, 2009
>>
>> During 19 hours of travel, aboard two flights across three
>> continents, law enforcement officials said, Abdul Farouk
>> Abdulmutallab bided his time. Then,
>> just as Northwest Flight 253 finally began its final approach to
>> Detroit around noon on Friday, he tried to ignite the incendiary
>> powder mixture he had taped to his leg, they said.
>>
>> There were popping sounds, smoke and a commotion as passengers cried
>> out in
>> alarm and tried to see what was happening.
>>
>> And then history repeated itself. Just as occurred before Christmas
>> in 2001
>> when Richard C. Reid tried to ignite the plastic explosives hidden
>> in his shoe on a trans-Atlantic flight, fellow passengers jumped on
>> Mr. Abdulmutallab, restraining the 23-year-old Nigerian. Crew
>> members poured bottled water on the flames, snuffing out the sparks
>> of what could have been
>> a planewide conflagration.
>>
>> That close call was followed by several tense hours as
>> counterterrorism officials checked on other United States-bound
>> flights to determine whether
>> more planes were targets, as in the thwarted 2006 plot to smuggle
>> liquid explosives aboard multiple flights leaving from the United
>> Kingdom.
>>
>> They found no immediate signs that other flights were in danger,
>> officials said. They tightened airport security but did not elevate
>> the nation�s overall threat level, which has been at orange since
>> 2006.
>>
>> Although transportation officials had not announced new security
>> measures yet, Air Canada said the Transportation Security Agency
>> would make significant changes to the way passengers are able to
>> move about on aircraft. During the final hour of flight, customers
>> will have to remain seated, will not be allowed access to carry-on
>> baggage and cannot have personal belongings or other items on their
>> laps, according to a notice on Air Canada�s Web site.
>>
>> In effect, that means passengers on flights of about 90 minutes or
>> less will
>> not be able to get out of their seats, since they are not allowed to
>> move about while an airplane is climbing to its cruising altitude.
>>
>> Air Canada also told its United States bound customers that they
>> would be limited to a single carry-on item and that they would be
>> subjected to personal and baggage searches at security check points
>> and in the gate area.
>> It said this would result in significant delays, canceled flights and
>> missed
>> connections. Air Canada said it would waive the baggage fee for the
>> first checked bag as a result of the new policy.
>>
>> Dozens of investigators led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
>> were working Saturday to understand exactly how a passenger managed
>> to get flammable powder and a syringe of chemicals aboard the flight
>> and what the implications might be for air safety at a time of heavy
>> holiday travel. Intelligence agencies were studying intercepted
>> communications to see whether clues were missed and assess whether
>> the airliner fire could presage
>> more attacks.
>>
>> In London, Scotland Yard was conducting searches of apartments around
>> University College, where a university spokesman said a man they
>> identified
>> at Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had studied mechanical engineering from
>> September 2005 to June 2008.
>>
>> Mr. Abdulmutallab, who was sitting on the left side of the aircraft,
>> may not
>> have been trying to blow up the plane, but possibly intended to
>> cause a fire
>> to distract the cabin crew, cause passengers to panic and create a
>> stampede
>> for the exits as the plane was landing, a senior airline industry
>> official who had been briefed on the situation said Saturday.
>>
>> One passenger who was sitting in the same row as Mr. Abdulmutallab,
>> but on the right side of the plane, apparently hurled himself across
>> a middle row of four seats to tackle him. The passenger who hurtled
>> across the aisle was
>> Jasper Schuringa, a filmmaker from Amsterdam, a friend of Mr.
>> Schuringa said
>> Saturday. A senior airline executive said that flight attendants also
>> jumped
>> in.
>>
>> Richard Griffith, 41, of Pontiac, Mich., said he had been sitting in
>> the back of the plane when the commotion happened. Mr. Griffith
>> praised the crew
>> for its professionalism in averting the threat and a panic among
>> passengers.
>>
>> After landing, he said, he talked to the passenger who was sitting
>> next to the suspect, in seat 19B. The passenger told him the suspect
>> had done nothing during the flight other than get up once midflight
>> to use the bathroom. Then, about 20 to 30 minutes before the
>> incident, the suspect got
>> up again, apparently to brush his teeth, he said.
>>
>> Otherwise, Mr. Griffith said, �He just sat there, he didn�t talk to
>> nobody.�
>>
>> Many questions remained:
>>
>> Where was the screening of Mr. Abdulmutallab, who left Lagos,
>> Nigeria, late
>> on Christmas Eve and changed planes in Amsterdam, and should the
>> chemicals he was carrying have been detected?
>>
>> What led a worldly young man, who had studied at an elite British
>> university, to choose suicidal violence?
>>
>> And what of Mr. Abdulmutallab�s alleged statement to law enforcement
>> agents,
>> after he was carried off the plane handcuffed to a stretcher, his
>> trousers sheared off, suffering from leg burns, that he had been
>> trained and supplied
>> by Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen?
>>
>> The episode, which riveted the attention of President Obama on
>> vacation in Hawaii and prompted dozens of counterterrorism officials
>> to rush back to work, capped a year in which plots of violence
>> inside the United States surged. The near-miss aboard a plane loaded
>> with 278 people appeared to underscore the continuing determination
>> of Muslim militants to kill Americans more than eight years after
>> the Sept. 11 attacks.
>>
>> Bruce Hoffman, who studies terrorism at Georgetown University, said
>> it was at least the tenth plot or attempt at �jihadi violence aimed
>> at the United States� in 2009, a number he said was at least triple
>> the average for recent
>> years. Mr. Hoffman noted the timing of the attack < Christmas <
>> which he said was �the crusaders� holiday� in extremist Muslim
>> parlance.
>>
>> The Transportation Security Administration immediately imposed what
>> one law
>> enforcement official called �broad-reaching security measures to
>> stiffen the
>> back of the security network.�
>>
>> �You will see more dogs, more uniformed officers, more random
>> measures at checkpoints,� the official said. �Not high drama, but
>> observable differences.�
>>
>> Passengers transferring from foreign flights at the Amsterdam
>> airport are required to be screened by security there before taking
>> off for another flight, an airport spokeswoman said Saturday. She
>> could not confirm the details in Mr. Abdulmutallab�s case. But she
>> said that because all foreign transfer passengers were screened, he
>> would presumably have been subject to
>> additional screening before he boarded the plane for the United
>> States.
>>
>> A law enforcement official who was briefed on the Detroit incident
>> said the
>> American authorities were reaching out to counterparts in Europe and
>> Africa
>> to find people who might have been in contact with Mr. Abdulmutallab
>> during
>> or before his travels.
>>
>> �We�re still sorting out what happened,� the official said, �so
>> we�ll be going back and interviewing everyone on the planes he flew
>> on, tracing back
>> to the originating countries, and looking over any security-camera
>> video footage of him that might have been taken.�
>>
>> The authorities are closely examining how Mr. Abdulmutallab was able
>> to bring on board the powder and syringe full of chemicals.
>>
>> �You can bet that whatever he was able to bring on will be banned
>> from now on,� the official said, noting that passengers were banned
>> from bringing liquids aboard after the foiled 2006 plot, in which
>> militants planned to bring chemical explosives aboard jets in sports
>> drink bottles. T.S.A. regulations currently permit syringes
>> pre-loaded with medication to be carried aboard flights.
>>
>> Mr. Abdulmutallab apparently left Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos
>> aboard KLM flight 588, a Boeing 777, at 11 Christmas Eve and arrived
>> at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam a little early, at 5:37 a.m. on
>> Christmas Day.
>>
>> Three hours later, at 8:54 a.m., Northwest 253, an Airbus A330, took
>> off for
>> Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Detroit, with three pilots,
>> eight flight attendants and the 278 passengers.
>>
>> Amsterdam has long been an airport of concern for American aviation
>> security
>> officials, like other major gateways in Europe, including London,
>> Brussels and Frankfurt, where the T.S.A. sees an unusually large
>> number of hits from
>> people on t so-called �selectee� or �no-fly� lists associated with
>> security
>> threats, one former senior Homeland Security official said.
>>
>> As a result, United States-bound flights from these cities are more
>> likely to have air marshals aboard < teams that typically travel in
>> pairs. But that
>> apparently was not the case on Northwest 253, said Edmund S. Hawley,
>> who served as administrator for the Transportation Security
>> Administration until
>> January 2009. If the air marshals were present, they would certainly
>> have broken their cover and apprehended the suspect, moves that
>> would have been apparent to other passengers on the flight, Mr.
>> Hawley said.
>>
>> Mr. Hawley, who coordinated the response in the United States to the
>> 2006 liquid bomb threat from London, said this should not be seen as
>> a sign that
>> security has dropped. It was probably just bad luck, he said. �That
>> doesn�t
>> suggest to me they let guard down,� Mr. Hawley said. Holiday traffic
>> is too
>> great to have marshals on every plane.
>>
>> In 2007, the Amsterdam airport introduced body scanning machines
>> that can find threats hidden under a passengers clothing. But the
>> sprawling airport,
>> with some 200 security checkpoints, has only about 10 of the devices
>> and they are only being used to test the technology, an airport
>> spokeswoman said.
>>
>> In the United States, the T.S.A. is substituting similar machines,
>> called millimeter-wave technology, for walk-through metal detectors
>> in some locations. But here too, only a small percentage of
>> passengers are screened
>> by the new machines, considered the next generation of airport
>> checkpoint security.
>>
>> �Those will pick up anything underneath clothing,� Mr. Hawley said.
>> �It would show up as anomaly. If he had it taped to his leg, could
>> have easily identified something there.�
>>
>> In September, the T.S.A. expressed concern about explosive powders.
>> �While there is no specific threat at this time, T.S.A. is deploying
>> powder explosives detection kits to airports around the country to
>> enhance our existing explosives detection capabilities and further
>> strengthen our layers
>> of security,� the agency said.
>>
>> The authorities were also examining Mr. Abdulmutallab�s background,
>> including any ties with extremist groups in Nigeria, the United
>> Kingdom, Yemen or elsewhere. A relatively privileged life, and even
>> an engineering background, are familiar notes to counterterrorism
>> specialists; Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the main organizer of the Sept.
>> 11 plot, was raised in Kuwait by Pakistani parents and earned an
>> engineering degree in North Carolina.
>>
>> Mr. Hawley said he thought the scheme seemed too rudimentary for al
>> Qaeda. �It is hard to blow up a plane,� he said. �You need a pretty
>> sophisticated bomb. Al Qaeda central knows that.�
>>
>> Speaking of al Qaeda and like-minded militants, he said: �They have
>> been trying since 2001, and they are going to keep trying. You have
>> to keep your
>> vigilance up over the long term. That is the hard thing.�
>>
>> Reporting was contributed by Eric Schmitt in Washington, Sarah Lyall
>> in London, Micheline Maynard and Nick Bunkley in Detroit, and Matt
>> Wald in Sarasota, Fla.
>>
>>
>>
>> __________ Information provenant d'ESET Smart Security, version de
>> la base des signatures de virus 3948 (20090319) __________
>>
>> Le message a �t� v�rifi� par ESET Smart Security.
>>
>> http://www.eset.com
>>
>>
>>
>
> __________ Information provenant d'ESET Smart Security, version de la
> base des signatures de virus 3948 (20090319) __________
>
> Le message a �t� v�rifi� par ESET Smart Security.
>
> http://www.eset.com
Runge11
"Gregory Morrow" <wah...@wahwahsun.jp> a �crit dans le message de groupe de
discussion : 8pWdnRXPN924EKvW...@earthlink.com...