May 6, 2007

Measure For Measure: Air Travel and Terrorists

By Peter B. Martin
Anyone who has traveled by air recently will have experienced the new security directives banning liquids, jells and pastes from being taken onboard an aircraft. These new security regulations came about following the plot to blow up multiple flights over the Atlantic from the UK to the US. This article will examine the issue and assess the effectiveness of the new measures being taken by the T.S.A. in preventing terror plots involving possible binary liquid explosives and others.To begin with, liquid explosives are nothing new in the terrorist tackle bag. In 1987 a bottle of liquid explosive in a carry-on bag brought down a South Korean airliner, killing 115 people on board. In 1994, al Qaeda terrorist, Ramzi Yousef, used liquid nitroglycerine hidden in contact-lens cleaner bottles to blast a Philippine Airliner, killing one passenger and injuring several others. Apparently, that was a trial run for a plan to blowup as many as 12 US-bound passenger planes over the Pacific. Yet again,...(Read Full Article)