Quoted:
If terrorists are having such a tough time getting on commercial flights, I wonder why they dont just BUY an old cargo jet, like an ancient 727 or something.  They only cost like $500,000 or so.  And you could load them with anything you want like chlorine /phosgene gas, ammonium nitrate, maybe just straight diesel fuel for a cheapo instant firestorm. Load 'em up in Canada, a very terrorist-friendly country, fly over the border and hit just about any city within 1500 miles of the take-off point.

That's what I would do.  If they loaded up one of those with ANFO, it'd be like a freaking daisy cutter. Imagine a daisy cutter going off in Times Square on New Years.  Or into the GOP convention at Madison Square Garden.

Quoted:


My guess is that they would shoot down any plane they couldn't identify within minutes of crossing our border, before being a threat to any major populated area... but you bring up some good (scary) points.

Quoted:
They (our government) NEED someone for the sheeple in this country to be afraid of and they have chosen [b]al-Qaida[/b].

As to the Lockerbe incident, check who was on the plane and what they were carring for the real story behind this incident. You might be suprised what a little research will reveal.

rant mode off,
Mike

Quoted:
... Sorry but I have no faith whatsoever that [b]al-Qaida[/b], as a group are anything close to what those in the media and our government are saying they are. ...

Quoted:


My guess is that they would shoot down any plane they couldn't identify within minutes of crossing our border, before being a threat to any major populated area... but you bring up some good (scary) points.

…al-Qaida seems particularly interested in Tappahannock, Va., a tiny town of 2,016 people with no military base or major infrastructure….

June 26, 2003
American Piloted Missing African 727

By Arturo Weiss
Newswriter

As the mystery of a missing African airliner lingers, more details of its disappearance, and a U.S. connection, are surfacing. The missing plane has been the subject of an international search since it vanished after departing Angola on May 25. The last known flight of the Boeing 727 was recorded shortly after it had been repossessed from Angola Air, which failed to make payments on the jet, according to the South African news service News24. A Florida family now claims a relative of theirs was the pilot hired to retrieve the aircraft. According to them, 51-year-old Ben Padilla had been contracted by a Miami-based firm to repossess the jet. They discount suggestions the aging airliner was stolen for criminal purposes. The family fears the jet crashed somewhere in the African continent. Stay tuned...

July 10, 2003
Missing Jet Found In New Colors

By Arturo Weiss
Newswriter

You may recall AVweb's recent coverage of a missing African airliner believed to be in the hands of criminals or terrorists. Well, the Boeing 727 has reportedly been located -- with a new paint job. The Guardian reports the jet turned up last week in Guinea after disappearing from Angola's main airport more than a month ago. The missing plane had been the subject of an international search since it vanished from Angola on May 25. The last known flight of the jet was recorded shortly after it had been repossessed from Angola Air. Bob Strother, a Canadian pilot, reported finding the aircraft, which had been re-sprayed and now sports the Guinean registration of 3XGOM. However, the last two letters of its former tail number, N844AA, were still showing. While the plane is said to be owned by a member of West Africa's Lebanese business community, Strother finds the registration change a bit too expeditious. "Whoever owns it must have some important friends to get it re-registered in two days: going by the book, the whole process usually takes a couple of months," he told the Guardian.

al-Qaida operatives would hijack foreign airliners and fly them into targets in the United States.

Quoted:
[snip] According to them, 51-year-old Ben [red]Padilla[/red] had been contracted by a Miami-based firm to repossess the jet.

Is al Qaeda Threatening a Nuclear Attack?

December 23, 2003

by Jeremy Reynalds

A letter to the Bush Administration containing a list of demands from an alleged representative of the Islamic Jihad Brigade Black Death Squad says failure to fulfil those orders will have deadly consequences.

The document reads in part (sic), "We will give you a prior few minutes notice before our blessed attack so that you will be able to watch your destruction with your own satellite, as we would be by then have passed the skies of the seventh sky to heaven and your nation to the fires of hell."

While this document, written by alleged al Qaeda operative Daleel Almojahid, appears to indicate some sort of nuclear attack, it does seem to mirror closely other terrorist information that is being broadly circulated. On Friday Reuters reported the White House said it had warned security personnel to be on the look out for terror attacks during the Christmas holiday season.

U.S. authorities said they were concerned by what they called the volume of terrorist threats at home and overseas.

"The Department of Homeland Security has sent out several bulletins...(to) security officials and law enforcement personnel, urging all to continue be on heightened state of alert especially as we enter the busy holiday season," Reuters reported Scott McClellan, President Bush's spokesman said.

Almojahid wrote that even though the Bush Administration knows well the demands being made by al Qaeda (sic), "We will put them down again so that the world will forgive us for what will happen soon due to your arrogance and childish acts of dictatorship and your love of being under the Jewish rule being slaved under them under all kinds of names."

Alleged al Qaeda demands made in the letter include a demand that the United States cease "invading" Islamic lands anywhere in the world and return all "stolen" Muslim money, "in gold not in any kind of money note."

Other demands read (sic), "The returning of the old borders known to you and we press on the northern borders, the release of all our prisoners in your jails whom you know and we know only. The dismantle of the so called (United Nations and its council) in an international decision."

Almojahid said his group understands the importance of water and oil and is willing for the current situation to stay as it is, with a qualifier. "The pricing of oil is left to us and we promise you to make it available at a reasonable price for poor and for rich nations."

Almojahid wrote that while the situation is critical it is not too late for the Bush Administration to change the course of impending disaster. However, if the Administration fails to give in to terrorist demands, then his group's apparently predetermined plans will go into effect.

He commented (sic), "We have given you the solution, so either you are with us or against us ... But we know that you are not with us but you will be forced to be (and we have warned). It is not in our morals to attack you with such a big attack without a warning. We won't do what you did to us times and times before ..."

Almojahid continued (sic), "And the outcome of the attack will be unbelievable and unexpected to you ... Any wrong move the administration takes in directing its policy will lead you to the (cave of darkness)."

Almojahid apologized to the American people and the European community for what he claimed will be an imminent attack, writing "The coming operation ... will ... destroy them forever, although we apologize from now to the human race from the hardship that will affect them as an aftermath to the attack. It is a less hardship for us than to see continents slaved, we apologize in advance to the American people and to the European communities but you have stood hand in hand with your governments and let the Jews take control of the rest of the world."

Almojahid appeared to imply that there are al Qaeda sympathizers scattered around America in strategic places. He wrote (sic) "We can tell you that we are people from you and with in you, planning with you and have knowledge of all your planes. We warn you that time is running fast so fast that it's getting harder to turn out the led fire in the wire."

Almojahid made an urgent plea for quick action by the Bush Administration, writing " It is insane avoiding reading the following words without having a clear, wise and fast decision. As soon as possible because time is a critical element in the coming attack and is more important than any time in human history. We can tell you that the wire has been led up and it's in its final stages and nothing will stop it but God and the wisdom of the Arab rules and the non Arab rules,

In an additional e-mail to this reporter he added, "It's time to start taking some back up to save your life. I send you this in respect to the words we have shared."

Jeremy Reynalds

Quoted:


What do you mean by "Not that easy"?  Doesn't John Travolta have his own 727, I'm sure it's not THAT hard.  There are quite a bit of jets listed for sale online, so it wouldn't be hard to find one.