TERRORISTS TARGET AIRCRAFT CARGO: Cargo security has lagged behind passenger screening of late, a situation spotlighted by the recent discovery of two packages bound for Chicago containing explosive materials.
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The latest terrorism scare, involving a pair of explosive packages bound for Chicago from Yemen, has shed light on a new target for bombers—aircraft traveling to the U.S. whose cargo holds either have not been inspected, or if they have, by x-rays and bomb-sniffing dogs that are not sensitive enough to root out certain types of explosives. Would-be aircraft bombers have proved successful at smuggling pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) into aircraft cabins concealed in shoes and underwear, but fortunately have been unable to detonate this high-powered, military-grade explosive in flight. The latest plot placed one PETN bomb and detonator in a cargo plane and another in the cargo hold of a passenger plane, where they were less likely to be detected.
One of the bombs, which contained 400 grams of PETN, was found at the East Midlands Airport in England, having traveled there on board a United Parcel Service cargo plane. The other device, which contained 300 grams of PETN inside a Hewlett–Packard desktop printer, was found in a FedEx package in Dubai after having traveled there on a Qatar Airways passenger flight. Both bombs contained far more explosive material than the 80 grams of PETN that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab managed to smuggle onto a Northwest Airlines flight in his underwear while en route from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas day last year. Abdulmutallab's plan failed when he was unable to detonate the explosives. In December 2001 Richard Reid tried to use PETN hidden in his shoe to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami.
Since Abdulmutallab's attempt, efforts to secure airline cabins have been stepped up, but security surrounding cargo planes and cargo compartments in passenger airplanes has received much less attention, particularly outside the U.S. In August 2007 President George W. Bush signed a law requiring that by August 2010, all cargo transported on domestic flights and on passenger aircraft flying into the U.S. pass through security screening. Congressman Edward Markey (D–Mass.), who authored the 2007 legislation, says the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was inspecting about 80 to 85 percent of international cargo bound for the U.S. on international passenger planes as of August 1, and that the TSA is not expected to reach 100 percent screening of that cargo for two more years.
Cargo planes are not covered by the 2007 law. Instead the TSA relies on international shippers to follow the agency's security requirements covering access to shipping facilities and cargo. All international U.S.-bound aircraft carrying cargo must also provide cargo manifest information to U.S. Customs and the Border Protection (CBP) prior to arriving from international destinations.
The TSA expanded its use of Explosives Trace Detection (ETD) technology at security checkpoints around the country to screen carry-on baggage and passengers for traces of explosives after the failed Christmas Day attack. When using an ETD device, officers swab a piece of luggage or passenger hands and then place the sample inside the ETD unit, which analyzes the content for the presence of potential explosive residue. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has awarded $15 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for 400 fixed ETD units. The federal government's fiscal year 2011 budget includes $39 million to purchase about 800 portable ETD machines. (There are about 150 international airports in the U.S.)
In addition to ETD devices, the TSA uses two types of imaging technology to screen the nearly two million passengers passing through U.S. airports daily—millimeter wave and backscatter. Millimeter wave technology bounces electromagnetic waves off the body to create a black-and-white, three-dimensional image. Backscatter technology projects low-level x-ray beams over the body to create a reflection of the body displayed on the monitor.
The October 29 incident indicates that more attention must be paid to screening shipped packages. Yet, even if all cargo were screened, explosives, including PETN are difficult to detect because they have a very low vapor pressure, which means very little of the explosive material gets into the air around the bomb where it can be detected. "Normally, whenever there is a solid material sitting on a surface, there is a certain concentration of that substance lingering in the air above it in a gas phase," says physicist Kurt Becker, Polytechnic Institute of New York University's associate provost for research and technology initiatives. "All explosives are notorious for having a very low vapor pressure at room temperature." Cheese, by comparison, has a very high vapor pressure at room temperature and is easy to detect through its aroma.
Most explosives are not instantaneously combustible and require a detonator. In the October 29 incident the packages bound for Chicago contained bombs hidden inside Hewlett–Packard desktop printer cartridges. The Dubai package also contained a closed electric circuit connected to a mobile phone SIM card hidden inside the printer.
"You need to look for some type of detonator, which is easier to find than the explosives themselves because most types of detonators have metal in them—a wire or a microchip, for example—that triggers a small spark or electrical signal," Becker says.
Becker serves as a consultant for Austria-based gas analysis instrument-maker Ionicon Analytik, GmbH, which makes proton transfer reaction–mass spectrometry (PTR–MS) technology that the company claims can distinguish substances having very similar molecular structures as well as correctly identify explosives, chemical warfare agents and substances that could be combined to create a bomb. Ionicon's goal is to have its technology deployed throughout the airport screening process, both for passengers and packages. "We have a proposal pending for the Department of Homeland Security that would further develop the technology," he adds.
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17 Comments
Add CommentIf the free world were to isolate itself from the fundamentalist nations who do not respect the lifestyle and beliefs of others and seek to impose their lifestyle on the rest of us, the world would be a better place for the free world.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBy isolate I mean cut off all connections, including visits of nationals of these countries, and vice versa.
Yes they might terrorise their citizens and violate their rights but it is not our problem, not unless we are willing to use nuclear weapons to put an end to this terror.
Let me further add, in the united nations where these countries demand an equal value vote, based on democratic principles, they should be excluded, since they do not provide their citizens with similar rights.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhy not look at why they're trying to blow our stuff up instead of being so reactionary. if we left the middle east I'm sure they world leave us alone. I mean come on, Osama said he attracted us because of or support for iseral.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisedit: attacked us. small keyboards on phones are not conducive to correct spelling.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe reason they are trying to blow all our stuff up is because they want an Islamic world. They have a grandiose plan to out-populate the rest of us, they are very near achieving this in Europe.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOnce Islamic populations outnumber the previous inhabitants then democracy, human rights etc. get thrown out the door. Islam does not believe in democracy, the religion rules supreme.
Don't you think it a bit obscene that you always have to respect their culture, beliefs and their rights but they don't have to reciprocate.
In riots between Muslims and the rest in Sydney, the rest attacked Muslim youth indulging in violence. The Muslim youth on the other hand drove in cars in the night and attacked and beat up any one who was not a Muslim.
Sorry David a non existent god is not the answer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe concept of a god is a direct consequence of evolution. The primate's ability to dream is the source of the concept of god.
As a tribal animal our ancestral tribes were ruled by the strongest. The strongest was soon challenged and replaced. Children have nightmares and awake screening in the night. Did not take long for a crafty tribal to come up with an idea that an evil spirit was the cause, and he/she could control or placate it. From evil spirits we move on to good spirits and from a tribe controlled by the strongest we become a tribe controlled by the smartest.
Evolution favours the survival of the fittest. A tribe controlled by brains will always beat the tribe controlled by brawn. Evolution created god.
Evolution created God?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI strongly disagree.
The ability to worship is peculiarly human. No trace of spiritual quest has ever been found among animals. No primitive form of veneration in non-human species that would eventual mature among humans. Spirituality clearly set human apart from other creatures.
Wrong interpretation of dreams might nurture superstition, leading to evil or debased forms of spirituality. However, the link to good spirits is not that obvious. Elevated religion does not work in harmony with man’s basic instincts, it reproves them. So nothing natural could push humans to fight their debased tendencies and press on to moral achievement. Morality challenges evolution.
You have the right to disagree.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a rationalist, please explain to me why god needs worship? Why is god such an egoist that her requires us to constantly worship and thank him/her? Yet if I show any hint of egoism I am committing a sin. (Christian belief)
If you believe in the Christian god then read Sam Harris "Letters to a Christian Nation" and explain to yourself why god wants slaves to treat their masters as if they were god, there are dozens of immoral demands made on man by the bible, perhaps other religious texts make similar demands, I don't know. Just do yourself a favour and read the bible or whatever is your holy book. I am sure you will find they preach an out of date morality which serves us no more.
The concept of a god was an important step in man's intellectual development, it was the first step changing us from tribes led by the strongest to the smartest. It gave us a competitive advantage over other tribes and eventually led to our domination of the planet. Evolution at work.
At the present stage it hinders our future. In an extremely overpopulated world, we need to control our population. A simple way would be to accept an imaginary god and then shut down all the hospitals, medical research, manufacture of pharmaceuticals and all forms of human intervention to prolong life or prevent disease. After-all an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent god chose to inflict these conditions on you. Why would you fight his/her will.
If you want the advances of science you must accept that we are masters of our destiny. We shall all die, and that is the end. To prevent our species extinction we must control our population and restore bio-diversity. Childbearing is not a right and must be regulated.
As to why we need to worship God,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisit is noteworthy that if God created all things, then this would be an incredible act of generosity.
How did he think of enabling other beings to enjoy life? This is the pick of love. Love in this respect means, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and redeemed us, even after we lost life. Ours is responsive love.
If God is central to meaning, then all attempts to reach fulfillment should revolve around him: this is worship. If the source of life is with him, then our being reconciled to him means we will get light from his light.
In a nutshell, the main issue is agreement or peace with God and all other things will be added to us, including the ability to subdue the physical universe obviously made with physical intelligent beings in mind.
Concerning slavery, all mankind is actually being enslaved by corruption or sin, this degenerating tendency causing our inability to act without regretting. Our tendency to decay (sickness, old age, then death) is merely a manifestation of this basic inability to remain true to what we should be. Without integrity or completeness, there is degeneration.
In times past, God, due to our erring condition, overlooked enslavement by humans as secondary issue compared with inability to perpetuate one’s life. Nonetheless, he gave a first set of requirements including regulating slavery by enforcing love between master and slave. Disappearance of the normalcy of slavery today is indication that mankind will soon reach the glorious freedom of God’s children with everlasting life as obvious consequence.
The Bible is still practical in that the loving relationship encouraged between slaves and masters is still binding between employers and employees. The excruciating pain among proletarians, underlying the violent advent of socialism in the 19th century, is ample evidence that relationships between the powerful and the less powerful should be regulated before the time global harmony comes.
David Cota:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNice to hear from you. The responses are not about god, but religion sure is. Culture is an ever evolving state of mind, if you read George Orwell's 1984 today, your reaction will be totally different to that of my father's generation or mine perhaps.
One hopes that the Muslim troops serving in the US army are totally committed to the American cause, after all if they are religious, their religion tells them, in no uncertain terms, that there can be no separation of religion from the state - Religion is the state.
When it comes to using nuclear weapons, well science takes us forward, why ask your citizenry to sacrafice life when a wepon can acheive the same result? I believe the USA should have used a nuclear response to 9/11.
The Saudis have been using petro-dollars to spread their tyrannical version of Islam worldwide. Egypt is a shining example - view the funeral of Nasser and you will see thousands of Egyptian women grieving his passing, very very few cover their faces, go to Egypt now almost all women are covered head to toe.
This paragraph of yours also supports my initial posting to segrate ourselves from those unlike ourselves. Famine has always existed worldwide, its destroyed the Inca empires in the Americas before the Europeans arrived. Disease killed off a lot of the original inhabitants of the American continents because they were never exposed to viruse that the European visitors and settlers brought with them, but dont forget the Europeans also picked up viruses and bacteria they had never been exposed to, however their prior exposures to new microorganisms had made them better capable of coping. Just strenghtens the argument for isolation as suggested in my first post.
On the subject of god, I cannot be absolutely sure that such an entity does not exist, but based on what I was taught in school,(Catholic) an omnipresent, omniseiant. omnipotent being is impossible. Further a causelees cause with such potency? Too irrational for me.
I accept, I can not understand life that exists on a different time-scale to mine or is totally different from me but I never claim it does not exist, if you have read some of my earlier postings I have considered that the essence of me exists in an electro-chemical matrix generated by neurons and other cells, which further suggest the sun could be sentinent (read the Black Cloud).
Run out of space so will do as you did.
Now to continue:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was educated in science and have worked my whole life in science - now retired. However I adopted the name Scientific Earthling as a direct challenge to Scientific American - there are scientific people everywhere on the planet, all earthlings just like me of no real value, doomed to eventually die and cease to exist.
To answer your question Survival of the fittest or luckiest, we discussed this at uni. We came to the conclusion: Any species will survive if on average the individual members can reproduce before they die. The Dinosaurs were definitely more successful that us, we were taught that at uni too. We shall be a short lived species that brought on a massive extinction. The sun won't reclaim our little planet before a new era of life emerges, hopefully better than us, and I wonder if they will try to figure out what caused the "Anthropocene Extinction".
I accept your statement that all evolution is based on long periods and feedback etc.
But when it comes to communism, China went that way, India chose democracy. China is now an advanced nation moving forward (communism in the garbage bin), India on the other hand is one of the most corrupt nations on the planet going nowhere. The benefit of communism was education of the masses and population control.
I like to see time as beginning 13.75 Gyrs ago. But I also see time as an imaginary concept that does not exist, our memory and circadian rhythms create the concept of time. Have been in a long conversation on these very pages about that.
David Cota:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is in response to your second posting did not go up far enough up. Realised it after I was halfway through.
At no spot in my conversations with you have I mentioned the word "worship", I did use it in my response to Fabrice LOTY, but decided not to continue my conversation with him/her because he/she is preaching.
The questions you ask me about worship are the same I ask of Fabrice.
I have no problem with people believing anything they want as long as they don't forcefully impose their beliefs on others. Tolerance is what results when I allow people to believe as they please, intolerance is forcing me to believe what I don't. However being tolerant of the intolerant is a problem.
What concerns me about the world today is the rate at which we are breeding, when science ensures most of our offspring survive. We then destroy habitat for the majority of the species and cause their extinction. Life on earth is a web of support structures, loose one vital link and it it can all come crashing down. We are destroying this structure bit by bit with no concern other than platitudes like: if things go wrong we can fix it.
I have made a note of the books you mention, hopefully I shall read them, I have a list of "wanna read" books it gets longer. I don't know if I am smart, does a high IQ make you smart? I don't think so. Does living for a long time make you smart - no again, so what does? I agree life is like Becket's "Waiting for Godot" which is my response to your comment about going around in useless circles.
If you have the time an essay "The Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin is free to download, If you can put up with old English "An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus is brilliant.
My first response was a live and let live one, achieved by isolating ourselves from in-tolerant societies.
We can not know if the truth is true till it is proven false, true but what do we believe in then. I chose science, I took to it because it was all around me growing up
Now this is a response to your second last posting: Sorry to get them back to front. This is what I worry about at the personal level, my brain turning to mush with age. Hope I am cognoscente enough to know when its time for the Nembutal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe have many common thoughts here. The Christian religion stalled European progress for almost 900 years, at the same time Islam did not retard the progress of mathematics, astronomy and the other sciences.
Astronomers in the middle east observed supernovas missed by the Europeans. Now the tables are turned. When it comes to religions the only religion I would accept if I had to with a gun to my head is Buddhism. It entertains the idea that there is no creator.
Your Concept of love at a higher level is to me an inquiring open mind, which I hope I have.
I am against genetic manipulation of existing species, but I do want to know about genetics, in fact it was for no other reason I chose Zoology as my second subject at the undergraduate level.
The rapid scientific advancements we see now are the result of microprocessors. Absolute truths are beyond us, I am happy with pragmatic truths. From my experiences at uni and later; Science has never been group thought, it is always challenged by those within the fold. We have wonderfully free minds till they become conditioned at about 24. You will find most scientists who have come up with brilliantly new ideas got them very early in their life. I am afraid I just can not do that. Most of my enlightenment comes from reading other peoples work.
Yes procreation is a drive, but legally it is your right. At the current time we have a religious war to out populate and take control of European democracies. People may have grandiose ideas of their ethnic group, but food is the problem. We need to control population to stop a global war for food, energy and fresh water.
I went to China in 2006. I travelled deep into the countryside, I was appalled at the lack of sewage treatment works (every toilet ran straight into the river), and that no one could drink water from the taps. But every family seemed to want a girl, why I asked - because you loose a boy when he gets married. Males do not look after their old parents. The Chinese have changed.
David,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOur little planet cannot support a 9G population; even 6.88G is pushing resources to the limit.
Science and crude oil makes it possible for our current population to exist. We generate food using fertilisers produced from crude oil. However our monoculture crops are unsustainable, degrading the land and need ever increasing dosages of fertiliser to yield slowly decreasing output. Food aid sustains vast growing populations worldwide.
As crude oil becomes increasingly scarce we loose our ability to feed ourselves. Genetic modification has done little except create sterile plants, herbicide/pesticide resistant weeds/insects and sales for chemical manufacturers.
Government is important in our societies, its function is not to be an investor, but to provide essential services to its population at a fair price. Governments should concern themselves with law and order, justice systems, education systems, public transport, electricity, water, roads, city and country planning, and the like. Private companies cannot be trusted not to exploit their monopolies. Worry about the privatisation of government services, no rational populace should permit it.
The way to fix our systems is to isolate ourselves from those who don't play by the rules that make our system work. We need to sustain our evolving morals, ethics & philosophies and not allow them to be hijacked by primitave beliefs. In France 50+% of the youth are Islamic and reject all French values.
As population densities increase, compassion, empathy and similar feelings decrease, you get an aggressive if not savage society. A previously homogeneous population fragments into warring tribes and the few providers of refuge pick up the refugees.
The number of refugees will keep on increasing as population pressures increase in regions where birth control is not practised.
Compounding the issue is the fact that immigrants today do not want to become part of their host culture. In Australia where I live we have a baby boom, no one wants to know who is having the kids, but all you got to do is look.
If we accept refugees, there needs to be an agreement: they receive a new life, but they must assimilate and accept our way of life, not form an invading army with an aim to out-populate those that give them refuge.
I am just a simple homo sapien, have contributed nothing, my every thought has come from someone else. To them I am grateful. I am unimportant and I know the cockroach is better adapted to life than I am.
I don't believe we will do anything about our population, and we shall pay the price when we run out of resources.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe French are a very egalitarian people. They gave everyone including the original Ayatollah Homeni sanctuary. Part of their every man has a right to his beliefs ideology. I don't remember where I got the 50% of youth number from, but I did read it, perhaps it was in the cities. The reactionary approach you talk about is a recent occurrence, they had bent over backwards to accommodate them before.
In Sydney we have a substantial Muslim population, we have a whole lot of veiled women, but I don't care about that, they confine themselves to certain suburbs. However they do try to rid the suburb of the others. If you were to have a home there you will find garbage thrown over your fence, they will park their cars across your driveway, they will make your life difficult every way they can till you leave. My sister lived in a suburb Lidcombe in Sydney during the early 90s, she moved, especially because of constant taunts from young Muslim men who stand around corners saying nasty things to non-Muslim females.
Its strange about 9/11, I was thousands of miles away but watched the whole thing on TV, late in the night (Sydney time). Never dreamed I would know anybody there, then my Aunt came back from a holiday in Canada, and informed me a girl (about 8 when I knew her, a woman in 2000) was a passenger on the second plane. I could not visualise her but had a good recollection of her father, who had spent months in traction after falling off the wing of a 707 he was servicing.
When you take the attitude: let them make bicycles, we shall make other thing, slowly you loose every other thing, now you can only manufacture weapons, which were a protected industry. During my trip to china I visited factories to see how they manufacture things. They are less productive than our workforce. I have worked in Auz, USA, Germany, Britain, Greece to mention a few so I know what I am comparing. One bloke does the job he has three others standing around instructing. This was in a private engineering firm. The only reason they compete is a undervalued Yuan. If in my travels I saw a Yuan as a dollar they could not cheat me. You can protect your manufacturing base by using the Mac exchange rate, an exchange rate derived the relative values of goods and services.
I have only recently taken the isolationist approach, I was a strong supporter of globalisation. But it has to be a two way street. Why do I find only Muslims a threat?
I am certain our species is doomed, not in the long term (few will argue with that), but in the short term, by our own actions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReligion did help us develop in the near past. The most educated people were the priests, if you were smart that is what you did. In England you could not pursue higher education without the right religious background. But the past tends to linger past its use by date, and now hampers our species existence.
I don't see any religious state as a threat, religion stifles the mind, yes they will copy technologies they can read about, but that does not give them the edge. I don't expect a religious person to come up with the next scientific advance, in spite of science becoming a team activity, with the sneakiest taking advantage. "The Double Helix" by Watson, Crick and whoever, demonstrates what modern science has become a race to self glorification and wealth.
I don't like the peer review system, the pain and suffering caused to the two researchers who discovered that Helicobacter pylori cause ulcers and could be treated with antibiotics is proof enough peer review does not work. They had to self inflict ulcers and cure them before their findings were excepted.
Scientific businesses just sell products. Takes me back to attending an HP course on gas chromatography, it seems there was nothing the gas chromatograph could not do. My objections that it did not test to a primary standard, and it was just a delay in travel across a medium and we could not be certain what is being detected by the ionisation of the hydrogen flame, I was too old fashioned and out of date. Perhaps I am becoming a bit like religion - out of date.
Using x-rays to "inspect" US like luggage is going to be a public health risk! While at the same time we fly with thousands of # of uninspected cargo is under your feet?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPuffer machines, real intelligence and friendly foreign policy like George Washington recommenced would be the way to go. Rocky Flats Gear Original USA mfg of radiation blocking undergarments.