pocket knives and box cutters : doesn't improve airline security, even after 9/11.

Posted Nov 16, 2003 17:17 UTC (Sun) by neoprene (guest, #8520)
Parent article: November CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter

"People who think otherwise don't understand what allowed the terrorists
to take over four planes two years ago. It wasn't a small knife. It
wasn't a box cutter. The critical weapon that the terrorists had was
surprise"

Surprise was clearly a _part_ of the recipe for taking Control of the Airplane.
Deadly force along with the commonly held beleif of the average Joe (that letting hijackers do want they want will lead to safety for the rest of the people and that hijackers won't use an Airplane like a Kamikaze missile) is what gave the hijackers Control of the Airplane. Once those notions were dismissed, the passengers on airplane no.4 took control back from the hijackers. As everyone should know by now the reason for plane no.4's "failure" was the willingness of the passengers to sacrifice their lifes to save others, likely a doctrinal surprise to the hijackers. The plane crashed perhaps because there were no pilots left to fly the plane or automatic systems to keep the plane flying. I bet a few people wished they'd brought parachutes. Timely media coverage together with use of cell phones was also part of why their plan failed on No.4.
Will hijackers learn from these mistakes? I should think so.
Airplanes full of passengers, cabin crews, and cell-phones would now be identified as obstacles. One could venture to guess future hijackers will avoid repeating those mistakes. And of whatever airport security is looking for, bring something/soembody they are not looking for. Perhaps avoid passenger airliners altogether.

The real reason for wars and conflicts are the clashing of ideas and financial/economical interests. Lack of understanding and respect for other people/nations could lead to repetition of history. Solving your "problems" with war is a very risky business and could lead to very undesirable consequences and should only be undertaken when other avenues have been exhausted, i.e. diplomacy, trade negociations, treaties, foregn aid, learning languages and cultures, propaganda, time and patience, et cetera have failed.

Winning the War is difficult, winning the Peace is much harder, maybe impossible.