About immigration. I mean, I love La Shawn normally, but stuff like this just irritates me. I mean really, people in non-border states don’t know what they’re talking about.

you can continue the rants…..but no one will stop this illegal immigration. its the dirty little thing that keeps our economy stronger than everyone else’s

These terror attacks are years in the making. They require careful planning and a long time to execute. The best way (and maybe the hardest) to stop them is to keep the terrorists from entering the country, and to track down the ones who are already here.

Our work is made harder by the fact that these individuals do not value life in the same way that we do. The cause means more to them than their own life. Only with dilligence in ALL areas can we have success.

The 1st recorded hijacking happened 75 years ago this month, when Peruvian revolutionaries seized a Pan American mail plane with the aim of dropping propaganda leaflets over Lima.

Granted given the ratio of hijackings to the number of flights, we’ve done better than five 9s (99.99999%). However, I would say the sucess is attributed to both deterence and relative lack of would-be hijackers and not to screening/enforcement. I’m at pains to recall when, if ever, a would-be hijacker was caught during screening, especially within the US.

As for “I hope you don’t seriously think we can make our airplanes safer by arming passengers with knives. All that would do is increase hijacking risk.”

Again, I point to the relative calm in the late 80’s and 90’s when I almost always carried a knife. I certainly wasn’t the only one carrying. And knowing what we know now, the airways would be safer if everyone was obligated to carry a knife; for the simple premise that any hijacking attempt would have to factor that every passenger is armed.

There’s talk of allowing passengers with CCW permits board flights with their CW of choice. Granted that won’t get anywhere as long as Norm Pinhead is in charge. As for detering crime, CCW States are full of stats extolling the benefits.

It goes without saying, that for the imaginative, practically every seat is equipped with several makeshift weapons suitable for bludgeoning, cutting, slingshoting, stabbing and of course restraining–even more in 1st class, where one also has china, cutlery and glassware handy as well.

Don’t click on my name if you don’t want to read the Federation of American Scientists regarding Clinton & EgyptAir in their Intelligence series. It so happens that this roundup includes a host of Clintonian breeziness regarding terorism in generl & specifics.

I should also point out one interesting parallel between 9/11 & EgyptAir. Each was preceded by an advisory warning of impending terrorist acts one month prior to the incident. While Condi was getting roasted on what and when did she know, Clinton & his Terror Czar were given a pass.

There are some other juicy articles if you Google “Clinton Egypt Air Crash”, including the tidbit that Clinton promised Mubarak not to let the FBI start a criminal investigation.

I think a certain beverage company made reference to that not too long ago.

01 Nov 99: Officials, Clinton say no evidence of terrorism in EgyptAir crash, even tho FAA issued an alert to airline and airport security personnel about a month ago after agencies received an unconfirmed warning that a bomb might be planted on a plane. (sound familiar WRT Condi and the Aug 01 bulletin prior to 9-11?)
http://www.cnn.com/US/9910/31/plane.clinton.02/

05 Nov 99: The crash of EgyptAir 990 is the most recent example of an apparent Clinton administration policy to deny terrorist involvement in airline disasters, according to independent investigators
http://www.greatdreams.com/bomb2.htm

23 Nov 99: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak obtained a pledge from President Bill Clinton to delay an investigation of the Oct. 31 crash of EgyptAir Flight 990, an Egyptian minister said on Monday.
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/11/23/80610

Don’t click on my name if you don’t want to see the truth about how slack Clinton was regarding this crash, as well as a host of other intelligence issues. FWIW, it’s a roundup of intelligence news published by the Federation of American Scientists.

Regarding the issue of security screening, checkout the link to Aviation Security at
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay_cat/7.htm Bottomline, screening did not prevent hijackings, it did however deter other would be hijackers. IIRC, there has only been one or two would be hijackers that were caught during the screening process, but plenty of stories about screeners failing live tests.

But I’ll grant your point that in the 75 years this month since the first recorded hijacking, we’re doing better than four 9s (99.9999%)

As for increasing the hijacking risk, I don’t think so. The fact that others may be armed is enough to deter most — an equalizer. The 19 knew they could control a planeload if they were the only ones with the power. (No need to discuss that concealed weapons States have reduced their violent crime rates)

Unfortunately, the Taking Scissors Away TM bureaucrats think it’s more important to frisk granny for her nail clipper than to profile potential hijckers. That and mandating that Air Marshalls wear their “uniform” when on duty and to board the plane separately from the passengers.

Fortunately for the imaginative, almost every seat contains an assortment of lethal weapons, from bludgeons to slingshots to edged weapons, as well as restraints. That plus there is political talk of allowing those with CCW permits to fly armed, but that pobably won’t happen as long as Norm Pinhead has his job.

The hijackers of 9/11 were armed with boxcutters, and not with guns or knives, but their most powerful weapon was that the passengers and crew believed that cooperation could save their own lives. They didn’t know that the hijackers were on a death mission. But the passengers on the fourth plane knew what had happened to the first two planes, and overpowered the hijackers. They didn’t need knives. All they needed was to know was that the hijackers were planning a death mission, so they had nothing to lose by fighting back. I hope you don’t seriously think we can make our airplanes safer by arming passengers with knives. All that would do is increase hijacking risk.

You are correct, an Egyptian co-pilot deliberately crashed his plane. Aviation security measures wouldn’t have helped, because aviation security is based on the premise that airline personnel are the good guys, not the bad guys. This has been true except for that one flight, and possibly one other that you claim. You are incorrect in your assertion that the Clinton administration covered up any part of the EgyptAir incident. The Egyption government attempted to establish that the incident was caused by equipment malfunction, and has successfully convinced many Egyptian citizens of this incorrect story, but the Clinton administration wasn’t part of this mischief.

I stand by the main point of my previous post: aviation security is extremely critical, something where screening out only 99% of would-be hijackers would be a serious failure. On the other hand, border security is nowhere near as critical, and if we successfully prevent 99% of would-be illegal border crossers, I’d consider it a smashing success.

Just look at the LA County Jail for proof of that.

So, because the other millions don’t kill anyone, that excuses the fact that they already broke the law by coming here? You can’t justify the simple fact that they are called illegals for a reason.

Really, that’s news to me as well as those living down on the border when coyotes invade homes and kill owners. Or how about the thousands of illegals that died at the hands of their transporters over the years. Or how about the victims of auto accidents cused by uninsured illegals. IIRC, there was a major accident a few years back where illegals were running accross the interstate and got hit, which in turn caused a pilup. Yep, exactly 0 deaths. Tuth be told, in the aggregate, more were killed by illegals than on 9/11.

“But we do have 40 years of history of airplane hijackings, and with one major exception in 1991, our passenger screening and x-raying of luggage were highly successful in preventing hijackings.”
Define sucessful. One per year?

How do you know that our screening prevented hijackings? Maybe no one was really trying, other than the occcasional crackpot.

As recently as 1994, I could holster & carry a double-edged 5.75″ knife on board with me (anything over 6″ had to go in checked baggage}. Until 9-11, I almost always carried a knife, be it a buck knife, swiss army or leatherman. Seems to me if the passengers had knives, they could have stopped 9/11.

Also, IIRC within the past 15 yrs there were two flights that originated within CONUS that were crashed by deranged crew-members. One was an Egyptian pilot, which to this day, EgyptAir and the Clinton admin insists was not Islamic related, never mind the blackbox/ground control recordings to the contrary.

The other a disgruntled & fired black steward that overcame the pilots and dove the jet into the ground in CA. He used his badges, which should have been confisticated, to get on board.

We’ve also had several other intra-US hijackings, on average 1 every couple of years, usually someone wanting to go to Cuba or some nonsensical destination.