Originally Posted by UAL_Rulez
The liquid exposives plot was not a joke. TATP could be fabricated in an airside restaurant kitchen, packaged in soda bottles, and carried aboard. Apparently a bunch of guys were bent on doing just that. Among many other potential methods of carrying out al-Quaeda's stated intent to take down airliners.
And you haven't read what chemical experts have said that this would be dang near impossible to pull off? I posted an article on here about it already. Do a search.
No, it's not a joke. But it's also pretty far fetched that people would have the know how or the ability to do it at an airport without getting noticed. It takes a few hours under very controlled conditions to make enough explosive to bring down a plane. Do you think people wouldn't notice that a lav was occupied for that long? Or that people wouldn't recognize a strange smell coming from the lav? Or that the terrorist would probably blow himself up and mess up the lav way before there was sufficient explosive made?
Sorry, you may think we're sensationalizing, but this threat was way over sensatitionalized.
This forum seems to be mostly just a one-sided outlet for TSA-haters, not an honest debate over what ought to be done to make US commercial aviation a much less attractive terrorism target. Which is too bad.
Honest debate involves listening to both sides, you're right. Only problem is that DHS and TSA won't listen to the facts and science involved nor make real risk assessments to determine if something truly is a threat.
Super