Why Are the Feds Giving Disneyland Special Anti-Terrorism Protection?

[question everything]

Goofy: Why Are the Feds Giving Disneyland Special Anti-Terrorism Protection?
Posted by R. Scott Moxley under Main
Wed 9 May 2007

KNBC’s Chuck Henry recently scooped everyone with this: Oddly, the only two commercial properties in the U.S. that have gained federal no-fly-zone status after 9/11 are Disneyland in Anaheim and Disneyworld in Orlando. The play parks won the favor just days after President George W. Bush invaded Iraq, according to Henry. The ban keeps aircraft three miles away and at least 3,000 feet above the properties around the clock.

So? Well, if you’re thinking the feds are merely protecting sites where large crowds gather, think again. No other theme park in the nation — including Universal Studios, Six Flags, Knotts Berry Farm or Magic Mountain — has such protection. In fact, the Las Vegas strip regularly holds more people on any given day. Anyone can fly over the strip.

Worse, Henry noted, “The unique status that has been granted the Disney theme parks is something that even Southern California’s highest potential terrorist targets don’t have, and that includes LAX. We hired a pilot and a small plane and flew over the airport terminals, fuel tanks and even active runways. Then we headed south to Orange County and flew over another potential terror target, the San Onofre nuclear reactor. There are no flight restrictions here, either.”

Disney officials declined to talk on camera to KNBC, but Loretta Sanchez, who represents Anaheim in Congress, called the special treatment “amazing” and laughed about the “power of the mouse ears.” She also blames the ban on a secret directive written cryptically into federal legislation by . . . wrong . . . Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby. According to Sanchez, Shelby buried his move in a $350 billion appropriations bill in 2003... Shelby’s office told KNBC, “no comment.”

Would Disney use the threat of terrorism as a cheap business ploy? At least one California pilot thinks so. He told Henry that Disney officials wanted the special federal restrictions to prevent planes with commercial ad banners from flying near their parks.

(snip)

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/blotter/goofy-why-are-the-feds-giving-disneyland-special-anti-terrorism-protection/

[shain from kane]

1. Hell, I must be in Fantasyland. I thought we were safe, as long as we fight them over there.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. New news article, but old news

The strong suspicions about Disney's corporate interest in preventing any and all outside advertising has been the leading theory for this special exemption ever since it went into effect. Also, isn't ABC (parent corporation to Disney) the lead toady of the Big Three networks? Maybe the exemption is actually a favor to ABC's corporate interests?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Those bastards.

I can't believe there aren't no-fly rules over LAX.

:crazy:

[Beaverhausen]

4. If you were a terrorist, and wanted to hit America where it hurts, wouldn't you hit Disneyland?

I hate to say it, since I go there quite frequently.

I heard back in Sept. 2001 that all the studios in Hollywood were warned that they were targets.

[Sequoia]

6. No, Las Vegas.

[frylock]

8. i'd hit that little strip mall over in bum fuck, iowa..

the Piggly Wiggly in Decatur, the 7/11 in Sioux Falls, and the Gas & Sip over in Bozeman. If you really wanted to shut this nation down, you'd make a coordinated effort to hit these little places that nobody would ever think to hit. But blowing up a convenience mart in the heartland would never provide for a "catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor."

[NV Whino]

5. if they blew up Mickey

we would have to come up with a new term for ricky ticky things.

[kenny blankenship]

7. If Disneyland stopped working, people would lose all faith in America

If we can't keep reality at bay in one little theme park how're we going to maintain the blanket of illusion that stretches between the Rio Grande and the Great Lakes from the Atlantic to the Pacific?
So you see, Disneyland isn't just one minor moneymaking asset of the Disney Corporation, it's vital national infrastructure.