British terror bust a bad joke

Not to flog the bogus "terror in the sky" bust to death but this is a fascinating read on just how unfeasible the plot to cook up a bomb on board a plane really is. Apparently it's not as easy as Bush and Blair would have you to believe. In fact it's damn complicated and unlikely to work except by mistake.

Which is not to say airlines passengers are not in danger from on board bombs. The money grafs are at the end.

It's a pity that our security rests in the hands of government officials who understand as little about terrorism as the Florida clowns who needed their informant to suggest attack scenarios, as the 21/7 London bombers who injured no one, as lunatic "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, as the Forest Gate nerve gas attackers who had no nerve gas, as the British nitwits who tried to acquire "red mercury," and as the recent binary liquid bomb attackers who had no binary liquid bombs.

For some real terror, picture twenty guys who understand op-sec, who are patient, realistic, clever, and willing to die, and who know what can be accomplished with a modest stash of dimethylmercury.

You won't hear about those fellows until it's too late. Our official protectors and deciders trumpet the fools they catch because they haven't got a handle on the people we should really be afraid of. They make policy based on foibles and follies, and Hollywood plots.

Personally, I'd rather not know how easy that would be. I have enough to worry about with Bush remaining in office for another two years, plying his mad policies and causing mayhem on the ground.

[hat tip Jules Siegel]