Originally Posted by Japhydog
The best deterrence is finding them before they attempt to get onto the ferry, big pacifier or no big pacifier. And how, exactly, are we supposed to mitigate against the risk of an unsuccessful terrorist attack? Buy giant pacifiers?
I beg to differ with your perception of reality. Getting thousands of pounds of fertilizer on a rental truck does not happen overnight. Planning 9/11 and executing it did not happen overnight. Any major terrorist attack requires months and months if not years of planning.
Again, have a sense of proportion. There are thousands of people in the Pacific Northwest running around with shotguns in their trucks. Do we confiscate those shotguns when they get on the ferry? No. Why not? A gang of them could get together and open fire and kill just about everyone on the ferry. Why not? Because it is their right to carry shotguns around in their trucks. And because it's a miniscule risk. So why do we care about the truck bomb risk enough to go out and buy giant, expensive pacifiers while we ignore the gun-rack crazy gang risk?
Japhydog, you are missing my point(s) entirely. The fact that a particular type of attack is likely to be detected is the deterrent. If Joe terrorist knows that detectors will identify a specific bomb type, then he won't use it. Job done. You have to take these things one step at a time. It hasn't caught Joe Terrorist (yet) but it has slowed him down. Catching him comes next.
Creating a bomb consisting of a lorry-load of fertilzer can be done in a few hours. In my book that's pretty quick and the only way for a 'profesional investigation' to latch on to that and prevent it (other than through sheer luck) is for the type of techniques and intelligence-gathering that would have you howling all the way to The White House.
Why does this forum keep focussing on sophisticated terrorist attacks? There are individuals out there, with possibly half a brain between them, who will carry out criminal attacks given an opportunity. You talk about people going amok on a ferry with their shotgun. Well at least I stand a chance of getting away from that. This is a flying forum. If a gun gets on a plane (in the hands of a terrorist or just plain fruitcake) then my chances of survival are just about nil when the plane goes down. That is why security checks at airports are all the more important, surely?