Plot to destroy airport 'fantasy'

[TexasLawyer]

Source: The Australian/ Agencies

Plot to destroy airport 'fantasy'

06 jun 07

NEW YORK: The alleged plot to blow up fuel tanks and pipelines at New York's JFK airport had little chance of success, according to safety experts, who have questioned whether the plot ever posed a real threat.

US authorities said they had averted an attack that could have resulted in "unfathomable damage, deaths and destruction", and have charged four alleged Islamic radicals with conspiracy to cause an explosion at the airport.

But experts say it would have been next to impossible to cause an explosion in the jet fuel tanks and pipeline. And the plotters appeared to lack both the explosives and the financial backing to carry out the attack. John Goglia, a former member of the US National Transportation Safety Board, said that had the plot been carried out, it might have sparked a fire but little else, and certainly not the mass carnage authorities described.

"You could definitely reach the tank, definitely start a fire, but to get the kind of explosion they were thinking they were going to get ... this is virtually impossible to do," he said. Similarly, the fuel pipelines around the airport would burn, rather than explode, because they were full of fuel and unable to mix with enough oxygen, he said.

<snip>





Read more: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,21857231,00.html

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. First thing that came into my mind:

Terrorists plotting to tell Polyanna airports are not like Disneyland and are not the best places in the world.

[underpants]

2. Now do people understand why they regulate dynamite?

Funny how that is such a HUGE step (acquiring the explosives) and it is meant to be for just this reason.

[monktonman]

3. You mean government regulation

is good for something??
go figure

[Kikosexy2]

6. Is it my understanding...

that jet fuel does not cause explosions?....so what caused the WTC Towers & Building 7 to collapse?...according to witnesses on 9/11 (i.e. firefighters, civilians, etc.) they heard explosions in the buildings...and is it my understanding that jet fuel cannot melt steel...something's fishy....?????

[karlrschneider]

7. Sorry, your understanding isn't.

...

[truedelphi]

10. Towers collapsed at almost the speed of an object falling with no resistance to gravity

Thermite is one explanation.

At least one individual has sworn an avadavit tot he effect that during the weekend of Sept 8th and 9th, both towers were overrun by technicians who were supposedly putting in optic fiber cables.

Were they really?

[raccoon]

17. Very interesting...can you give us a link? nt

[MGKrebs]

27. "No resistance to gravity"? What does that mean?

I'm having trouble thinking of how any building falling would have a resistance to gravity.

[Barrett808]

19. But burning jet fuel can soften steel

A few weeks back, a California onramp collapsed when a fuel tanker truck crashed and burned beneath it. The fire didn't heat the steel enough to melt it, but the structure still failed.

[truedelphi]

22. Okay, but the raw material of the CA highway structure was all accounted for

After the structure collapsed.

THe towers fell inside their own footprints. Experts who notice such things realized that the accumulated debris did not add up to the amount of debris that should have resulted. The rubble pile was something like one third of the height that it should have been.

Where did it go? Remember all the scenes of people fleeing from the towers collapsing - the billowing clouds of dust chasing people down the streets of New York?

If the buildings failed because the steel failed, theere still would not be pulverized dust like that. Instead there would have been a massive rubble pile with the split up sections of the building.

The film footage of the dust chasing people tells us a lot.

(BTW, CA highways are built by what amounts to Mafia style construction - cement that is mostly sand. Steel that is mostly - God knows what. The builder of the WTC has stood behind the fact that his materials were class A materials)

[Barrett808]

23. "My God, the whole thing's made of breadsticks!"

Skinner: Well, at least we're prepared for the new millennium! (pats a ramp,
causing the entire system to crumble to the ground; picks up some
rubble) My God, the whole thing's made of breadsticks!


Fat Tony: And paint and shellac. It's all itemized in this bill. (hands
Skinner an invoice on which is written "Two Hundred G's Thank You!
Tony :)")

Skinner: $200,000?! Are you mad?

Fat Tony: I don't get mad; I get stabby.
(Legs and Louie nod, Skinner grumbles)
-- "Grift of the Magi"

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/BABF07

[Ilsa]

21. I think what they are saying is that pipelines and fuel systems are built with safe guards

that prevent something resembling a chain reaction, which was a part of the fantasy plot.

[hedgehog]

25. There is a difference in the explosion potential between a tank of

liquid kerosene and the same kerosene that has been vaporized and dispersed. Most people don't think of flour as an explosive, but a cloud of flour dust can be very explosive.

http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/pr_histpubs/Pubs/1997Dust_Explosions.pdf

[Ian David]

4. Destroying an entire city requires forcing the Army Corps of Engineers to install faulty pumps...

around a levee.

Mission Accomplished, Bush!

[yardwork]

5. I'm certain that this entire so-called plot was dreamed up by the informant

The federal informant - a small-time crook - was sent in by the feds to stir up "terrorists" so that the government could arrest them all and scream terra-terra-terra from the rooftops just in time for the G-8. In return for his play-acting, said informant got the earlier charges against him dropped.

Pathetic.

[TexasLawyer]

8. and now that the feds can declare people,

including U.S. citizens, "enemy combatants." and haul them off to Guantanamo, the American public will be none the wiser that it was entrapment and/or "fantasy" as concluded by the expert quoted in this story.

No trials = no messy facts.

[yardwork]

9. Exactly. Meanwhile, the original crook gets released to do it again.

And most-probably innocent people get thrown in prison and tortured and denied attorneys and never heard from again. And Faux News can report that the terraists were caught "just in time."

Horrible. We live in a fascist state.

[pitohui]

11. a modest suggestion

when an ex drug dealer talks about blowing stuff up, there is nothing to stop a person from calling the fbi themselves or even just yelling "no" and running v. v. far away

no pity here for people who are happy to go along to get along with a bomb plot

[yardwork]

20. So I guess it's fine with you that they'll be tortured to death in Gitmo.

Yeah, that's justice.

Meanwhile, this and other "terrorist incidents" are used as the justification to continue killing and brutalizing people across the world.

[glitch]

13. Gotta toss their base a bone every now and again. nt

[ourvoicescount]

12. The Chronicle in Lorain, OH ran that story... WHAT!?!

...That the airport would have been destroyed... WHAT!?! Those 4 guys DESTROY the entire airport? The size of JFK? How many weeks were they planning on setting off those explosives they never had?

[pitohui]

14. what precent of the airport would you be happy to see them destroy before arresting them?

the argument that you can't cause an explosion w. fuel is a lie, in the 70s i lived in a neighborhood where several houses blew up from an accidental explosion in the gas pipeline, please

i don't have to see jfk leveled to the ground and everyone killed for miles around to know that people who plot crap like this don't belong in the world

it's pretty easy not to get entrapped by shit like this, if a drug dealer approaches you about blowing shit up, call the fbi, call the local cops, call 911, or just get into wind -- don't hang out with the guy and give him encouragement and tell him how cool it is and how you'll be happy to help out

stupid people can cause great harm, i doubt that flying an airplane into the world trade center sounded like something albert einstein proposed back in the day and yet...it didn't destroy all of manhattan as they fantasized, yet plenty enough people were hurt and killed if you ask me

people who plot stuff like this need to go down before their plots become action, i got no problem with that whatsoever

[dysfunctional press]

16. not all pipelines are the same.

and i'm willing to bet that modern fuel lines in a major airport have a few more safety precautions designed into them than nearly century-old natural gas lines to houses.

the problem comes with the monumental waste of time and resources on a few harmless wackos, as well as the excuse it gives them to further erode civil rights- when there was no actual threat to begin with.

[yardwork]

24. By all means, let's torture and murder people who talk about things

but give a pass to the people who are actually killing and torturing. Hm. That's logical.

[Rex]

15. So another FBI informant is able to talk idiots into an impossible terrorist

plot. Wow. Good job guys! Now that you can talk idiots into doing anything, how bout going out and catching some terrorists who don't need your help? Maybe you could start with Gonzo.

[saigon68]

18. LOL

Yes the terrorist Chimp and his murders would be a good starting point

[The Stranger]

26. Why the fuck can't I "recommend" this?

[Maeve]

28. You should be able to

Even if it is close to the 24 hour limit

I just did, so it got another "recommend" from your complaint! ;)