Schneier on Security

Man, you are so banned. They're not going to let you even touch a newspaper with a picture of an airplane in it.

@ the other Greg - when I win the contest, yer gonna see just how prescient yer comment was.

@ Bruce - two questions:

1) Is gratuitous swearing allowed? In this day and age it's darned tough to write a movie plot without the occasional expletive. Since I'm plannin' on winning (hands down!) I'd hate to have my entry disqualified due to what I forsee as the requisite use of the vernacular in the contest.

2) For those of us that have absolutely zero desire to ever talk to a movie producer, would you consider making several guest posts on the subject matter and site of choice of the winner?

My movie-plot threat will consist of drugged snakes that will slowly kill off all the passengers, except for the terrorists, who will have anti-venom. Just think about it, "Snakes on a plane"... Oh wait, nevermind.

Synopsys: The year 2007 brings a fresh new perspective to Islam. Young Islamic men and women embrace the Internet and the world at large, seeing beyond the propoganda and lies told to them by radical leaders. As the youth embrace peace and diplomacy over violence their elders begin to see the light and strict Islamic rules are relaxed.

Out of this reborn Islam a new method of spreading peace and love is born, the Islamic Girl Band - the most prominent of which is the band "Unveiled". These bands of beautiful, busty, Islamic babes takes the world by storm, spreading peace and Islam far and wide through their world concert tours. All seems well.

December 24, 2007 rolls around and the airlines are filled to capacity with Christians and non-Christians alike heading home for Christmas with their families. Since there's no longer any fear of flying, and airline security is still in place, the airlines are seeing an unprecedented surge in travel and profits.

To capitalize on, pardon me, celebrate this new peace the airlines accept a proposal by the Islamic Girl Band association to hold live IGB concerts on all flights. The front seats of each section and filled with busty babes playing guitars and sipping Evian while singing songs of peace to the passengers. This is shaping up to be a Christmas that airtravellers will never forget.

Mid-afternoon rolls around and the number of simultaneous flights is at it's peak. The IGB members all take a break from singing to adjust their guitars, visit the bathrooms, and then mingle with the crowd and the frequent fliers they recognize.

Suddenly the attack comes, directed first at the frequent fliers who encompass probable air marshals. The IGB members weren't adjusting their guitars, they were removing the strings and now they're using them as garrotes to stangle the passengers and crew.

Other members, using the heavy underwires removed from their extra large bras, are stabbing the remaining male passengers in the eyes and throats. Finally, with underwires bent beyond usability and guitar strings broken, the IGB members reach into their purses and prepare for the most heinous attack.

Out come the bottles of Avian and numerous boxes of tampons. The members begin to sieze the remaining passengers and, one by one, force tampons into their throats followed by a spash of Avian to cause expansion. Many of the passengers are asphxiated this way before a bold few manage to overpower the tired IGB girls.

Christmas 2007 is marked by horror and sorrow over the deaths of thousands. Only a select few militant Islamists rejoice - as they call for a return to the old ways and for the execution of the IGB members who strayed from Islam in their dress and music.

Islamic girl bands, Avian, bras and tampons - who would have thought...

2008 is marked by presidential canditates promising to ban all water, underwear, feminine hygene products, and music.

There should be an honorable mention for anyone who can force the TSA to perform random stomach pumpings and colonoscopies at all airport security checkpoints.

"1) Is gratuitous swearing allowed?" Sure. But honestly, it really depends on how gratuitous.

"2) For those of us that have absolutely zero desire to ever talk to a movie producer, would you consider making several guest posts on the subject matter and site of choice of the winner?" I'll think about it. Probably not.

"There should be an honorable mention for anyone who can force the TSA to perform random stomach pumpings and colonoscopies at all airport security checkpoints."

Banning partially digested food would indeed by an inspired entry.

The energy contained in the typical laptop battery is approaching the energy densities of dynamite or gasoline.

In fact, its well known that they can burn like torches if a minor electrical short occurs.

The Elite Norwegian terrorist team (attempting to resurrect the legend of the vikings as having found america), decides to hijack two planes in flight. They target JetBlue, because JetBlue has live sattelite TV on the seats.

Once both planes are in the air, the first one is crashed by a single suicide terrorist, due to the effect of 2 laptop batteries (one in the computer, one spare) attached together in the lavoratory to make an incindiary bomb. It burns through the side of the plane (the terrorist also uses a magnesium cased laptop to increase the heat of the fire), causing a crash.

1/2 hour after this plane crashes, the second plane, with a group of terrorists, this time as team, announce their presence. They point to the CNN announcement of the planecrash as proof that they are capable and willing to crash the aircraft. They use this, combined with sharp-endged instruments punched out of the from the laptop cases to persuade the pilots to open the cockpit door.

When the pilots don't open the door dispite the beautiful red blood seeping underneeth, its time for their plan B. To breach the door, they return to the notebook batteries, break one out, break apart the cell, wrap around a piece of magnesium punched out of the laptop case (pre-scored), and use it to burn through the hinges. Taking control of the plane and crashing it into the monument to Christopher columbus.

Then the third terrorst plot, weeks later, has a notebook in checked baggage rigged to catch fire...

The colonoscopy plot:

The terrorists modify their ipod to be a detonator, and smuggle the C4 in packed up their ass as giant ButtPlugs. On the plane, they go to the bathroom, pack the explosive against the side of the plane, and detonate it.

The next plot uses more sensitive explosives, that can be set off by a heavy impact, used as the terrorist butt plug, just so the first reaction of "Banning Ipods" is insufficient.

Summer, 2007CE. A group of Americans go on vacation to India, taking separate flights in the air at the same time. All of these loyal workers have lost their jobs to outsourcing, which caused them to lose their jobs, houses and spouses, but they claim to be happy to have the time for a leisure pursuit. Business Class has many Indians and Pakistanis travelling back to their homes.

While on board, they casually open the free airline magazine and start flipping through the pages. Straining for a better view, they slip off their carefully ground bifocals. Surreptitiously, one passes his to the partner at the window seat, shielding him from view. He takes out a small piece of chemical-soaked flash paper and places it between the pages of the magazine, an end sticking out. Using two pairs of glasses as magnifiers of the cabin light, the flash paper is ignited, setting the magazine aflame. From there, it's easy for the terrorists to set other magazines on fire, creating panic and toxic smoke from their own carry-on sheaf of treated paper.

Six planes are forced into rapid descent due to on-board fires, Twelve people die from the chemical smoke, Fifty-Eight die in the panic, hundreds are hospitalized and one plane is ditched in the ocean.

The FAA bans eyeware (including contact lenses), on-board reading materials, changes all the light bulbs on every airplane to lesser candle-power and searches all suitcases to test for treated paper and everyone who has lost their job to outsourcing is placed on the Terrorist Watch List. All vacationers are suspect.

Under threat of exile or death, Physicists and Physicians in Muslim countries unite to research the possible causes of spontaneous human combustion. They discover and report a unique combination of medication, food, and physical condition that can cause SPH to occur.

Terrorist leaders hatch a plan to dress suitable SPH canditates heavily in polyester and send them aboard random flights. Soon, planes are downed weekly as random passengers break into intense flame - which spreads to their clothes and then the plane.

Unable to discern a pattern since the agent is consumed by fire, government agencies first force everyone to undergo XRay & MRI pre-flight, then ban all clothing, and finally ban humans from flight altogether.

Oh, man, this challenge is a piece of cake.

The terrorist plot is women's maxi-pads and tampons packed with special high explosives.

Heh, heh. Let the TSA deal with that!

I wish I was more of a chemist. I imagine it's bound to be possible to eat some kind of pill that, once the plastic coating wears away, would release some kind of toxic gas into the air, killing everyone on board as the air circulates. Make the coating thicker and you can consume it a few hours before your flight.

Deadly farts. The headlines alone would be great.

And the TSA would have little choice but to ban human beings.

30 blond, very beautiful, young women who look like they should be in the Swedish Bikini Team (who had recently lost their jobs because of outsourcing their jobs to India) fly with nothing prohibited on business class. In the middle of the flight, all of them connect the wires of their bras that are filled with explosives that were not detected in the x-rays or the manual body searches. When the bra wires are connected, the chemical explosives causes not only the bras of these beauties to explode, but also the whole plain.

In another plane on the same time, an ice hockey team (they are all white, claim they play ice hockey, and have all the ice hockey accessories regularly checked in for the national flight within US) has been wearing a thin crotch protector that uses the same kind of explosives and wiring than the bra team does. During the flight, the ice hockey team starts to scratch their .. well connect the wires of their crotch protector, causing the whole plane to explode.

This would leave TSA with no alternatives than to ban beautiful, American looking blond women and men from flying, and to make everyone remove their bra for screening. They would also have to manually check every woman to make sure they are not wearing a bra, and check every man that they are not wearing anything around their private areas.

On a third plane, two weeks later after banning the bras (except for checked in luggage), there is a group of white, Christian tourists flying to a touristic destination somewhere. These tourists are packed with explosive butt plugs ....

And on the same exact day, there are 20 people over 75 and 15 infants flying with their moms to a tourist attraction in Florida. Both the infants and the elderly are wearing diapers that are filled with odorless, colorless, undetectable powder that will explode when they will get wet (pouring water on it, or getting wet the way diapers usually do). This would make a ban on all diapers, and make that the infants would have to be screened thru the x-ray machine prior to flying.

"Majdy, what would the the most unexpected thing to do to the Infidel?"
"Faheem, I do not know."
"Biological warfare!"
"Have we not tried the anthrax before?"
"No no, that kills immediately. And -- it is not funny."
"?"
"Majdy, we will infect ourselves, and fly coach middle seats, the entire summer, to make sure that all seats, all layover airports, are FULL with LICE!"
"They cannot stop it! No one will comb through the groins of the infidel! And they thought taking off their shoes was inconvenient! Faheem, you are a genius! They will have to ban all body hair from planes!"

lol @anna - I think we can all agree that baby diapers are already filled with deadly material. It may not explode, but one sight or smell of it and we'd all be happier if it had.

I've never flown, but is an empty screw cap glass bottle allowed? "We're salesmen for a glass bottle making company and these are our samples." Once onboard all request diet cokes, pour it into the bottles, drop in a few pre-coated mentos, then cap the bottles and wait for the coating to disolve and the pressure to build. If the bottles don't break on their own from the pressure they'll likely explode, sending shards of glass everywhere, when you throw them against a wall.

No more mentos, no empty glass containers, and no sodas - especially diets.

I know this entry won't win because it doesn't fit the criteria, but I'd like to post it:

Objective: To make the TSA severely inconvenience, embarrass and discriminate a sector of the population, hence building anti American sentiment.

Plan: Board the plane wearing a turban. Hice a ceramic knife inside it.

Imagine if the airport authorities started asking people wearing a turban (a semi-religious item) to take it off for inspection.

* Embarrassment and discrimination.

* Will probably tell people that U.S. officials don't know the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh (and some of them actually might not).

Best,
Daniel.

How about using plastic bags to suffocate the flight personnel? Or carrying pens with poisoned needles inside?

How much detail do you want? Can you tell me exactly how you could use 6 men with box cutters to take over a plane? I've never understood this. I'd think that if the cockpit door is closed, a knife won't help you much. If you can tell me how that could happen then maybe I can come up with more detail for either the bags or the pens plan.

July 4, 2007 onboard USAir flight:

"Pssstt, it is time to start humming the anthem Mohammed."

Clean shaven, attractive, Mohammed starts humming the U.S. National Anthem loudly. Preppy engineering students Mahaz and Malik join in. One by one all of the passengers start to join in the humming out of patriotism or peer pressure.

Unnoticed by the passengers the plane is starting to vibrate with their humming, which just happens to be at the resonant frequency of a critical plane component. The vibrations build, the humming sound grows louder, then suddenly the component fails and with a shudder the plane rolls and starts a terrifying dive into the ground....

Ban humming of the anthem (or altogether) or spend billions hum testing all mass transportation?

Why bother with the airplane? Try this one:

It's the day before Thanksgiving at Chicago-O'Hare, which is the principal hub of the two largest airlines in the country, American and United. The latter occupies all of Terminal 1; the former, Terminal 3. A plurality of all AA and UA flights originate or terminate at O'Hare. Each terminal has a handful of security checkpoints just past the check-in counters.

On the day before Thanksgiving, the lines at O'Hare's terminal 1 and 3 checkpoints stretch out into the streets. Even with additional manpower brought in for the holiday, TSA simply can't screen people fast enough.

Add to that, O'Hare on a slow day has one operation (takeoff or landing) every 60 seconds; on holiday weekends, they can crank them out to one every 30 seconds, weather permitting. That's over 3,000 flights on a heavy day.

The attack: Four terrorists simply blow themselves up at the four most-densely-populated security checkpoints using body-strapped explosives and explosive- and shrapnel-filled carry-on-bags, killing hundreds, and causing TSA to shut down every checkpoint in the country for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Total cost is under $50,000, almost all of it for the explosives. Immediate damage is probably 250 dead, 1,500 injured, and $1 million or so in structural damage to the two terminals targeted.

Follow-on damage reaches $500 million as the entire airline system stops until TSA can figure out how to protect their own security checkpoints.

The thing is, terrorists don't necessarily care about airplanes. They care about maximum disruption and (go figure) terror. If you're afraid to queue up at checkpoint designed explicitly to protect you, they've scored a major win.

By the way, with at-the-gate style security as they have in Europe and other places--i.e., security in depth--this kind of attack would not necessarily halt air travel.

An obvious defence against the attack I've described would be to patrol the entryways with explosive-sniffing dogs. So just to make it movie-plot silly, let me add that the terrorists infiltrate the police station and put a canine rhinovirus in the dogfood that causes the dogs' noses to clog up. The movie will heighten dramatic tension by having a vignette of a cop helping his poor, sniffling dog blow its nose.

btw, Bruce, if the TSA knocks on my door because of this contest, or if I get the dreaded SSSS on my next boarding pass, I will not be happy.

The terrorist take shirts, tee shirts, blue jeans and socks - all made of 100% cotton and soak them in a chemical bath. After processing, throughly rinsing and carefully drying, they dress in this apparel. At the airport, they easily pass through the metal detectors. The cell phones they carry have been modified to appear functional. In fact, the phones have the original battery and a small piece of det cord.

On board, they use their clothing (gun cotton) and the small det cord as an explosive. The cell battery is used as the igniter.

TSA bans cell phones and clothing.

Try this on for size...

John Smith starts out in the airport lobby, having just picked up his tickets. He checks almost all of his luggage, taking on only a thick paperback book and a small fanny pack with his diabetes kit. Security doesn't mind the lancette or the meter, but they're a little worried about the small vials and hypodermic needles. Smith explains how he's diabetic, and how the nonstop California-to-New-York flight will necessitate the usage of insulin.

After this set-up, any number of wonderfully amusing things could happen at cruising altitude... Smith has acid in the vials, and takes a hostage with the deadly syringe; or Smith has been voluntarily infected with some blood-borne disease (AIDS, Ebola, what have you) and uses a lancette to prick himself and threaten the infection of others. Or some of the vials might contain some kind of chemicals that quickly vaporise and cause unconsciousness, while Smith injects himself with a counter-agent. In any case, Smith gains control of the aircraft, takes it to New York, and crashes it into the stock exchange. Diabetics are then forever banned from flying.

I think someone needs to come up with a way to create a bomb that looks like a national ID card.

It would be doubly dangerous due to the exploding heads of the various TSA officials as they attempt to come up with a way to ban ID cards.

I heard terrorists plan to dress as bishops and attack a plane with their staffs with crosses on.

Also, I heard about religious symbols with hidden switchblades in them, with a release mechanism complex enough that it cannot be identified with a visual or tactile search.

Terrorists infiltrate well-known restaurants and lounges frequented by airline pilots, hired on as chefs and waitstaff. On the day of the attack, specially formulated time-release poison/hallucinogen/barbituate capsules are mixed into pilots' food/drink, synchronized perfectly with subsequent takeoff times. Other terrorists book flights on these planes, and carry fake credentials as licensed pilots. They proceed to crash planes all over the place, except for the one destined for the White House, which has some badass like Bruce Willis or Sam Jackson flying as a passenger, eventually figures out the plan and fights the fake terrorist pilot for control, with lots of mind games along the way (hero has a tarnished past, terrorist looks credible, who do we trust?, etc.) Film gets a couple of stars and makes a modest $20 million.

I always transport my deadly, aerosol-distributed viruses in fountain pen cartridges, then open them using a normal pen when on the airliner.

And, of course, the possibilities for inside jobs are endless, too.

Saboteurs from an unidentified organization infiltrate airport security -- easily obtaining these low-skill, low-pay, low-appreciation, low-appeal jobs. The Group then perpetrates a number of airline hijackings, in which communications are jammed, and then nearly everyone aboard is killed. A few "hostages" (actually members of The Group) always kept alive; the slaughter of the other passengers are explained as crowd-management to prevent plane takeover. The "hostages" report false information about how the plane was actually taken over -- sending the TSA on a wild goose chase of search procedures that take attention away from looking for real threats. This makes The Group's job of sneaking weapons through the (already compromised) security checkpoints even easier. Eventually, some of The Group's inside men get a little too careless, and are summarily fired for incompetence, leaving the hijacking crew for that day in a bit of an awkward place; they are captured, drugged, interrogated, "persuaded" using questionable techniques, and then sent to a secret prison after spilling the beans about how the plan worked. A counter-operation is set up, and the remaining members of The Group are rounded up out of airport security. Ironically, being an airport security guard now gets you on the no-fly list -- and since nobody is entirely sure about which of the TSA bans were valid, all of the silly procedures and checks concocted by The Group are left in place.

Sorry, my ridiculous TSA response would probably only result in security clearance for all airport foodservice and maybe no meals for pilots.

Perhaps the terrorists tamper with all the Sky Chef meals, then. Passengers, flight crew, and maybe pilots all go crazy from adrenochrome poisoning or slump over and die from cyanide capsules. TSA has to ban all in-flight meals, and all brown baggers get asked, "Has this meal been out of your sight and/or possession for any amount of time?" before they can eat.

The Hershey's Kiss of Death

Terrorists buy several thousand bags of Hershey's Kisses. They unwrap, poison with a slow acting toxin, the re-wrap the kisses in an airline branded foil. These kisses are then distributed via FedEx to all the airline ticket counters with a note on faked letterhead that the candies are to set out for passengers, shared with personel, etc. on Christmas/Easter as part of a brand campaign.

Plot is foiled (hehe) when a couple of overweight employees raid the bags prematurely. Candy distribution is now illegal.

On a related note, has anyone noticed that the FDA refuses to identify the company that supplied the wheat gluten in the pet food and they've only stated that they're not aware of the product making it into human food. Check your labels and see how many food products (breads, cereals) use wheat gluten. This could have been a chinese trial-run on the pets... people could be next, and it all might appear as an error...

William Gibson thought up a good one 20 years ago. In Neuromancer and other stories, the character "Molly" had razor knives embedded in her fingernails that could extend and retract like the claws of a cat. Who needs box cutters when you can carry fingernail onlays reinforced with carbon fiber and ceramic-sharp edges? I can see the TSG now, "all fingernails must be filed to bluntness in the presence of a guard". Some security company will make millions developing an expensive device to measure the sharpness and beyond-fingertip extension of passenger fingernails.

Mr. Schneier:

Please forward your winning selections to me. I'm sure we can weave them together into a new blockbuster by this time in 2009. As for compensation ... well, let's discuss that over lunch some time. Have your people call my people.

Thank you very much for your contribution to the creative arts.

Sincerely,
James

P.S. What day is it again?

Rod: that deadly farts might be released only once. Afterwards the guts might become somewhat interrupted in their duty.

Hm, I don't feel very creative about creating any movie plot, but what about just replacing the knifes by belts? -- If you get the stewards under control by a knife, doing so by a belt would not make any difference. Teamed up with a group of hijackers, there would be no problem with exchanging the hostages for other hostages, even (almost) on the fly.

And, I think, banned belts would make a quite ridiculous future.

Belts banned? Replace them by (cloth) handkerchiefs. Replace these by tshirts wound up. Or any other sort of clothes. -- Hopefully, then 'they' get the ludicrousness they're applying.

(On the other hand, such stupid prescriptions might be the only possible approach if the common mind of the customs (or whomever) is not predictable.)

NB. I think the final/most ridiculous thing to ban would be consciousness. Without that 'they' might be almost save against any terrorist threat (despite of any kind of time bomb). ... But, nevermind.

Friday, December 21st, 2007
(The first day of the busiest air travel weekend of the year in North America.)

TSA security checkpoints are mobbed, operating at their absolute maximum to handle the highest sustained volume of travelers possible. At the busiest airports in North America, lines of travelers double back on themselves as hundreds of people press towards the divestiture tables. (<-- actual TSA terminology)

Around noon EST, somewhere near the middle of the line, a man's cellular phone rings. "What? I'm sorry," he says, "let me try to find a stronger signal." He walks briskly away from the line and his luggage, which momentarily explodes in a hail of ball bearings, nails, and lingerie.

Within the same 60-second span, a similar scene plays out at two dozen security checkpoints located within North America's busiest airports.

The perpetrators disappear.

(Optional sequel: the perpetrators reappear 6 hours later, detonating luggage at the check-in counters of two dozen North American hotels as throngs of stranded travelers attempt to find lodging.)

Total casualty count: under 500, double that for added hotel scenario.

Terror bonus: Christmas thoroughly ruined, joins "September 11" on the calendar of American infamy

Lingering residual effect: TSA bans luggage

Fade to black.

In an attempt to reassure the American people of their safety and his resolve, President George Bush vows to board an unprotected 767 full of radicals and terrorists and successfully fly cross country while discussing his policies with them.

The flight succeeds without a hitch and all disembark without incident. Immediately realizing that they've discovered the ultimate safety solution, the TSA bans all intelligent life from airlines.

This is just too easy ....

One class of passenger already gets an automatic pass on the 3-ounce-limit on liquids -- those with many more ounces inside breast implants.

So the terrorists will exploit that existing loophole.

One bad boob job blows up onboard, and they'll have to ban everything over a B-cup.

We can make them ban laptops, cell phones, PDAs, and the like. It's a simple matter of taking apart one laptop and machining a replacement case out of magnesium. The battery will give enough current to ignite the magnesium, which will then burn fiercely, setting a fire they cannot put out.

We can make them ban all metal, no matter how small the pieces, by having one terrorist with a normal amount of metal -- cufflinks, tie clasp, wedding ring, class ring, pen and pencil set, set of keys, metal eyeblass frames, and a money clip -- which artfully conceal the thermite beneath. A 9V battery and a thin piece of magnesium metal would be enough to ignite the thermite items he's piled into his empty drink cup, and the resulting fire will burn right through the floor and the hull below.

Oh, and ban books. It is hard to tell by casual inspection plain paper from nitrated plain paper, and sniffer-detectors cannot smell the nitration through a thin coating of lacquer, so with a small chunk of azide, a laptop battery, and a four-pound novel -- kaboom!

What about nuns? One person dressed in a full habit, is given a pass on the body search since the metal detector showed nothing, and religious people get special treatment. Once the plane is in the air, the bomber uses a kitchen match to light the short fuse and blow up 20 kg of explosives.

use of radio devices is banned, but laptops are not, nor is it prohibited to have a common pcmcia wireless card.

Antennas are omni-directional but with slight modifications a powerful unidirectional antenna can be made with the metallic coded hood (parabolic shape) of a common ballpen.

From business class, the terrorist can discretely interfere with the cockpit electronics and high-jack the plane without raising any suspicion.

The terrorist will need a window seat in the left side of the plane (if the pcmcia slot is on the left side of the laptop) to unsuspiciously connect the card.

Needed: Electric engineer to design the modified antenna, assembled in air. Computer specialist to write custom software.

Budget: Laptop $2000 (can be done cheaper, but will raise suspicion if the terrorist can affort a business class ticket but not a business class laptopl). NIC: $1000 (includes rewiring to increase output). Business ticket, one way $1000. Suit to blend with business class $1000.

100 computer criminals takes the rest of the money: They will hack into AirBus and Boeing to get blueprints for the different airlines to write the software to attack the crafts navigation systems.

Consequence:

1) Ballpens will be banned. You must bring a laptop if you need to write anything. Migration papers that must be completed with a ballpen will be completed on arrival causing chaos and long delays.

2) New airport scanners needed with special software that will search parabolic shaped objects.

Once ballpens are banned, the terrorists will change tactics and hack computers of all travelers, the flying botnet will attack the flight systems in sync.

Plot 2: Bribe authorized personel to install a backdoor in the new remote control systems installed to prevent high-jackers gaining control of craft in air.

Bruce: I have beyond fear, but it is not signed. Just send me a blank sheet of paper with your signature at the bottom.

Washington (AP) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has uncovered another plot by al Qaeda operatives to down U.S. planes. Two suspected terrorist cells in the Salt Lake City area were raided on Tuesday, uncovering stockpiles of rubbing alcohol, fertilizer, and Brooks Brothers pants.

Instructions on jihadist Internet forums were discovered by the FBI in which would-be terrorists were taught how to treat pants with a concoction of isopropyl alcohol and nitrogren-based fertilizer, thereby making them explosive. The instructions further stated that only Brooks Brothers pants were effective for this treatment as they contain a special chemical compound which is used to make them stain resistant. This same chemical compound can be used as an explosive when treated with household materials.

As a precautionary measure, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) has decided to ban all Brooks Brothers pants from carry-on luggage and on passengers. All passengers going through security checkpoints wearing dress pants will be forced to show the manufacturer of their pants. If they appear to be manufactured by Brooks Brothers, they will be discarded at the checkpoint. Said one pantsless business traveler who wished to remain anonymous, "I'm really glad that we can count on our government to protect us in this post-9/11 world." A representative from Brooks Brothers was unavailable for comment.

@Nicholas Weaver:

So, now the TSA is gonna ban butplugs?

So they banned liquid, but breast implants are still allowed in any size. Feminine jihadists will carry the ingredients needed for a two component liquid explosive as breast implants.

In air they will go to the lavatory with their male companion who will suck out the liquid to make the explosive.

Consequence: Anyone trying to make it into the 35000ft club will be arrested as illegal combatants and sent to Guantanamo.

Terrorists bring powders for bomb production past the security control. They come early excusing themselves that they were afraid to miss their plane because of the extensive security.

Past security, the go to the restroom where the powders are dissolved in liquid and filled on empty water bottles purchased in the airport. The liquid is brought to explosion once on board the craft.

Consequence: The TSA ban the security control at the airport figuring it doesn't work.

The TSA has to FIND the butt-plugs in order to ban them...

Bend over and think WARM thoughts as you pass through security...

What was wrong about the C4 implant recommended in the last contest? I guess it should not be any problem to cover any explosive in a way it will not be detected by the sniffer.

So we have 20 terrorists, buying 40 kg of High Explosives, some stable and some impact sensitive ones. Lets say this costs 200000$ (should be way less, but I do not have a clue how much explosives cost). Now this is packed into packets with a small impact sensitive "igniter" and loads of stable explosive, maybe some flintstones or something similar are added. This all is coated in many layers of latex or something like that to avoid the sniffers. Lets say this costs another 50000$ (very generous tip). Now another 50000$ get spent on 20 Airplane tickets on 20 different flights and transportation and other smaller, less costy things like a nice last meal for the 20 terrorists. The remaining 200000$ are spent on a doctor who cuts the terrorists open and places the explosives in their bodies. Now the terrorists board the flight and at a certain time punch themselves.

Direct damage: 2000 People on the planes + some hit by the falling parts.

Indirect damage: Terrorists get shitloads of money by having airline stock put options (or however it is called), terror, banning of people from airplanes.

Another idea would be way more simple and cause loads of trouble on over 50 airports. The terrorists pose as a TV team and convince other people to take big bags filled with anything (non-explosive), go into an airport, throw them and start running away. Social engineering. A few years ago, you needed a bomb to be a terrorist. Now you need a bag.

Revenge of the Widows

Scene 1: somewhere in Iraq we see the bodies of US soldiers and we follow them back home where we witness several young women crying over them. Most of them got married just before their tour to Iraq so they could make a little more. But -compared to the Halliburton mercenaries - still underpaid and more importantly untrained, under-equipped, they were sent to hunt 'insurgents' againt whom they did not stand a chance.

Scene 2: The young widows organise themselves and try to set up a lobby to stop the war and be compensated for their loss. The army has given them little to nothing while they see people making very much money from the war their husband gave their life for. The camera follows the daily life of a few of them.

Scene 3: After many failures finally the President agrees to meet with the lobby group. From all over the country some 20 young widows plan to fly to Washington as representatives of the whole group. For a moment they have some hope, until a memo leaks that the President has exactly 5 minutes in his scedule to speak to them and will leave the rest to some low level civil servants with no mandate whatsoever.

Scene 4: A small group of the widows has radicalised and start to prepare revenge. We see them obtains explosives, practice with these, we see them obtain chemicals and follow a 'repair your own Ipod' workshop.

Scene 4: The day approaches that the event takes place in Washington. In the week before the event all widows that will fly to Washington receive an UPS package...from the same delivery women in all the different states where they live. The package contains an Ipod, a perfume bottle and a 'wonder bra'. The padding of the wonder bra is in fact filled with some 100 grams explosives with the detonators carefully designed as underwires. The Ipod contains an extra large battery enough to power up the detonators. The perfume bottle contains chloropicrin (or some other nasty agent).

Scene 5: In pairs the young widows prepare to fly from all over the US to Washington. At the security check points the metal in their wonder bra's is of course detected but - while the TSA screeners have their eyes right on the target - none of these voluptuous women has to undergo additional screning. The smile and a 'O, that must be my bra' giggle works as ever.

Scene 6: Once the planes are airborne the widows come into action. They make their way to the cockpit door, any cabin crew member or passenger in the way gets sprayed with the chloropicrin leaving them grasping for air and eventually dying. One of the 'bra charges' is used to access the cockpit, the second to kill the pilots/blow up the instruments. Around approximately the same time some 10 planes on their way to Washington plunge out of the air with no survivors left.

Scene 7: After the incidents the TSA strengthens the security screening by banning all Ipods and perfume bottles from cabin luggage. All voluptuous women are requested to take their bra off to let them be x-rayed.

This would make a great movie I think. Then again.... maybe not in the US.....

Terrorists camouflages bombs as college textbooks, with detonators hidden in the lithium-ion batteries of various electronics. The terrorist nonchalantly wanders up by the cockpit with his armed textbook and detonates it right after the seat belt sign goes off, but while the plane is still over an inhabited area. Thousands die, with most of the casualties on the ground.

One can also easily imagine the threat progression, from shrink-wrapped blocks of C4 with a binding surrounding it, to a full on replica of a normal textbook, complete with fully printed pages. There would be no way to tell the difference between a bomb and a normal book without destructive testing. For bonus points, use mass market paperbacks with duty-free shop sales stickers on them. The detonator can be hidden in any Li-ion battery, used in laptops, cell phones, iPods, etc.

Result: All books are banned, as are all electronic devices. Magazines escape the ban until the follow-up attack uses a stack of thick fashion magazines, then the power lines from the armrest radio. Detonator is hidden as a plain metal ring, which breaks at the score point, is straightened out, and jammed into the magazines.

Tens of thousands of casualties follow as travelers die of boredom on international flights. Sleeping pill sales reach record highs.

Elaborating on Roy's thermite scare:

By electing to sit in the exit rows, terrorists can position themselves above the center fuel tank, where a thermite fire would be assured to catastrophically detonate the aircraft's fuel supply.

----------

Now, back to gaming the TSA:

A bad guy purchases (or forges) a half-dozen boarding passes for different flights leaving the same airport the same day.

He arrives at the airport and clears security with 9 ounces of dangerous liquid disguised as three 3oz vessels of mouthwash, aftershave, and hair gel.

He meets up with another bad guy in the sports bar, and gives over possession of the liquids.

He then exits the terminal, returns to his car, obtains another 9oz of dangerous liquid, and re-enters the terminal using a different boarding pass, and going by way of a different security checkpoint.

He delivers the additional liquids to his contact in the terminal, and repeats the process one more time, accumulating a total of 27oz of dangerous liquid behind the security perimiter.

He then flies to airport X, where he meets five co-conspirators who have each smuggled 27oz of liquid through other airports via the same method.

Between the six of them, they have 162oz of scary liquid. Presumably it blows something up, and TSA is forced to prohibit *all* outside liquids from entering the terminal.

Your entry will be judged on the common item that the TSA has no choice but to ban, as well as the cleverness of the plot. It has to be realistic; no science fiction, please. And the write-up is critical; last year the best entries were the most entertaining to read.
**********************************************

This is not science fiction- This plot was developed form real information. Bruce if you want proof email me and I will send information on what I found.
The TSA will have to Ban travel period, probable they way they operate luggage will have to be banned of dropped off to a decontamination facility and sent on. The cost will destroy the infrastructure alone. Travel for a time will halt and may not even be able to stop the initial spread. The infection rate will be massive.

************************************************

EXT: Vozrozhdeniye Island - Town of Kantubek - Aral Sea - Year 1950's - Hot Zone - Scientists are in BIO Suites with air hoses talking through internal communications devices. This Island is one of the most remote spots on earth. Here is the world's largest biological-warfare testing ground.

INT: Lab Building with small entrance above ground, large underground development center.

Russian Scientists are using rodents and monkeys to develop weapons grade Anthrax,bubonic plague and biotoxins that is resistant to antibiotics and is highly infectious..

Scientist 1 Lev:( Speaking to another) I cannot believe the effect we have achieved with these Boris. If we tested this in a one square kilometer sector about half of the population will die , no questions. For that same area, it costs $2,000 with conventional weapons, $800 with a nuclear weapon, $600 with a chemical weapon and $1 with a bioweapon. One dollar.

Scientist 2 Boris: Why are we developing these weapons when we have superior nuclear weapons Lev.

Scientist 1 Lev:Because that it what our leaders want and I don't have to remind you what happen to Mutov,and Val they questioned, and both were sent to Siberia never heard from again.

We see the scientist come out of the lab and talk off there suites. they now test their subjects. As they walk past each window, monkeys first are seen, the scientists release the anthrax, within seconds the monkeys start acting different

Scientist 1 Lev: You see how fast this is Anthrax is acting, what used to take days for incubation , now seconds, this monkey will be totally infected within 1 hour and stay infectious for approximate 1 month.

Scientist 2 Boris:Short infection time, extended release for maxim infection and spread, with the least possible traceback.

Scientist 1 Lev:Correct, the same with bubonic plague but mix with a hybrid Bio engineered disease. The rats that are infected now are infected quickly like the monkey but will live for a normal lifespan with infection. This allows time for matings and offspring's who will also infect, but the fleas are the key.

Scientist 2 Boris: The fleas, they live on the rats and also get infected and infect any other life they come in contact with. They have a mating every 30 days or so.

( The scientist move to a computer screen and they type in some data.) See the screen with the world on it and a outward moving circle signifying infection rates.) Within 1 month, 2months 3,5,9 total infection of world population probable.)

(Just then a siren and red light starts to flash, the scientist look with disbelieving. )

Scientist 1 Lev: This cannot be happening

Scientist 2 Boris:Why would they do this.

EXT: Cut To a pilot - Markings on plane show Russian: A large bomb is dropped and we see the lab area decimated.

EXT: Vozrozhdeniye Island Year 2000 - Dark and Desolate - Raining - Island is being salvage by various people. 30 or so Men with heavy cloths and faces covered are using rudimentary digging implements. Finally they hit a steel plate, a door. They Speak a foreign language.

Plot develops; they gain access to the old lab, find mummified skeletons allot of damage. As they look around they find various lab petri dishes with labels, they also see rats coming in and out of various places. One of the men signals the others to catch the rats. When they catch them they examine them and signal the leader. fleas, yes they have them.( in English subtitles)

The premises is that these men are going to take the infected rats with fleas and breed them all over the world and the mode of transportation will be to place them on planes. ( they have access as the TSA background checks as superficial and the men have gained operatives in various points in the airports) The fleas will find luggage and breed and spread to humans from their cloths in the luggage, as will the rats breed and colonize all over the world spreading more. Whats can transpire is mass shut down of all TSA transportation, mass panic, people getting infected, overload of health services, no antibiotics will work.

Perhapses we can have a hero who is a scientist type who is racing to find a cure or at least stop the spread. This hero has to go to the Island to examine it to find out what was going on and meets an old Russian Scientist ( Val who was sent to Siberia) together they try to race to stop this pandemic.

References: Internet, NY times, My own imagination.

Max

First of all the 9/11 hijackers were not unskilled, they had extensive flight training. I guess you could say they were unskilled when they started.

My movie plot idea would be breast implants made of C4 or some other high explosive.

To: Max

Wow... that was really good. Someone should really make a movie or a book out of that.

Daniel.

My movie plot involves llamas. That in itself would not be that interesting, if it did not also involve giant squid. Yes, I said both llamas and squid. This is bound to work.

Basically, all that has to be done, is for lots of llamas (thousands) to be bred on a ranch in Montana and then carried by truck to various locations in downtown Boston and released at once .. and night ... each with shiny blinking light-brites on their back.

Given that llamas are inherently funny, combined with Boston's history of bad response to incidents involving light-brites, the threat will not be taken seriously by the public, but will still occupy the Boston bomb squad for the better part of a few days.

However, this is all part of the brilliant plan. It's a distraction for the zodiac boats controlled by crack squads of ninjas. No, pirates. Nah, to heck with that, ninja pirates .. to infilitrate the harbor, sneak in, and leave undetected ... but not before dropping off several hundred cloned giant squid.

It simply cannot fail.

I forgot the airplane, obviously, but the moral of the story is, when you have giant squid, you don't need an airplane. QED.

The terrorist carries a spray perfume bottle full of putrescine or cadaverine ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putrescine , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaverine ). (This bottle is much smaller than the fluids limit.) Half way across the Pacific, they squirt it into the cabin. The stench very quickly permiates the entire plane, incapacitating the pilots with nausea. With nobody on board capable of flying the plane, it eventually crashes.

(Idea plagurised from Neal Stephenson, "Zodiac".)

Alternatively, we could combine this with the Fatal Flatulence and Butt Plugs of Doom scenarios discussed above, enclosing the putrescine in a plug which slowly disolves in warm, moist conditions, effectively producing a time delay mechanism.

Start with a group of terrorists in the woods learning how to best light fires from common items. Magazines, blankets, and toilet paper. They use wal-mart magnesium lighters (From the camping section) and AA batteries to light the fire.

1 terrorist takes an overnight flight that will fly over some city. (for a movie we can assume Boston to Miami will fly over NYC, or you can study flight paths) Terrorist sits near fuel tanks. Everyone but the terrorist goes to sleep as normal - terrorist pretends to sleep.

Terrorist waits until the plane is close to target city, and then builds his fire from the items he finds on the plane (his blanket, clothes from his carry on, all the paper he can find). Ignition is achieved by shorting his laptop battery against the magnesium case. (Either alone would be enough to start a hot fire)

By the time the smoke alarms realize the need to put the fire out it is too late - the fire is uncontrollably large. The pilot announces trouble, but the fire gets to the fuel tanks before he can divert, and the plane breaks up in the sky, landing on the house of some poor widow.

Terrorist leader announces that he will do it again if demands are not met. From here it is a standard capture the bad guy before he does it again plot. Early on investigators only know that the fire started in the middle of the plane, and the suspect it was done from the passanger compartment but aren't sure about that (much less any other details as the crash destroyed a lot of evidence)

From here on it is a pretty standard does the hot shot investigator find the terrorists before the strike again, while everyone else argues if they should give in another plane doesn't crash.

I think the lap-top battery plans are the most likely to work in the real world. I'd like to add an extra booster - pack the laptop with chemicals from an 'oxygen candle'. A source of concentrated oxygen at the seat of the fire will make it work much better, and should make it immune to fire extinguishers for some period of time - hopefully (from the terrorist's point of vew) long enough to ignite too much for it to be extinguished. With several terrorists you can start several simultaneous fires to further strain the firefighting capabilities of the cabin crew.

An unextinguished fire *will* bring down an airliner, given enough time - there are several (non-deliberate) real world examples.

I'm not sure how detectable the oxygen-candle chemicals are. For bonus points, figure out how to use the oxygen candles already present in the plane for the emergency oxygen supply - but I suspect this isn't feasible unless you already have control of the plane cabin.

I think that these chemicals plus powdered aluminium is essentially a recipe for solid rocket fuel.

After sitting in airport security and watching the mayhem an x-ray machine crashing caused last holiday season, this one came to me:

The terrorists have two seperate teams, both strike just before Christmas. Team Alpha installs small EMP bombs into their laptop's CD-bay. The EMP is triggered when it detects X-rays, which disables the machine it is being scanned by. There is mass chaos and near riots as no one can get through security and board their flights. In order to keep let people get on their flights and prevent even more delays, the TSA starts letting people go through with just a pat down and cursory bag inspection. This fails to detect the knives and explosives secreted in the bases of the bags of Team Beta, which has cleverly undergone massive cosmetic surgery so that they all look like football players from Iowa. This group hijacks the flights and crashes them into their high value targets of choice (dams, seats of government, nuclear power stations, research labs, army bases, Disneyland, FedEx processing facilities, etc etc).

Not only is there mass chaos as 9/11 happens all over again with planes being used as weapons, but laptops get banned on flights, effectively decimating the modern business world.

Ok, one more off the top of my head and any further will be fully thought out.

Come the presidential primaries, a group of terrorists, completely unarmed, board multiple airline flights as tourists, infiltrate the Republic conventions as waitstaff, and hollywood and numerous corporate boardrooms as janitoral staff and fat cat cigar lighters. Divided among these terrorists is the $500,000 in $100 bills, wrapped around stacks of ones.

At opportune moments the individual cells activate. The terrorists remove the cash from their pockets, have little insane fits, and begin to rip the stacks of cash to shreds. Tens of thousands of politicians, CEO's, Jewish studio heads, and Republicans in general drop dead of heart attacks at the sight of money being ripped to shreds rather than being stuffed in their pockets.

The American people rejoice, embrace the terrorists and their cause, and the US leads the world into a utopian Star Trek future where money doesn't drive our pursuits.

Underpants of Doom
~
In a world where death and destruction have become commonplace, one Terrorist Society of Activists has the courage to make a difference.
~

Six years after 9/11, times are hard for young terrorists trying to make a name for themselves. Most have been forced underground, sticking it to the infidels through more mundane channels such as rearranging grocery stores and creating faulty scheduling models for cable and satellite television installers.

Enter our terrorist masterminds. Desperate to take more dramatic action, one cadre of intrepid terrorists takes stock of just what they ~can~ bring with them on airplanes. Given their names and ethnicity, they discover this isn't much, in spite of what printed regulations may state. Refusing to give up, they forge ahead night after night until they have developed an ingenious, foolproof plan.

The elastic in underwear is strong. With so many styles from which to choose, a myriad of purposes may be served. Some widths and thicknesses are best for a garrot, while others may be used to quickly secure the hands and feet of flight crews and air marshals.

Through careful research, these ingenious young terrorists determined that thongs are handiest for use in tying things up, while more modest briefs are effective for blindfolds, gags, clogging airplane toilets and of course suffocation. The potential use of supportive undergarments as slingshots (both to cause chaos and to deliver deadly payloads) further convinces our terrorists that they have hit upon the perfect plan.

Fortunately for all Americans, the FBI was monitoring the library records of the fearless terrorists. Immediately suspect was their selection of The History and Romance of Elastic Webbing by Clifford A Richmond (a real book, believe it or not). A quick check of recent credit card purchases revealed that a quantity of underpants had been purchased at a local Target within the last month, and the plot was foiled.

As a result, the TSA now requires all airline passengers to relinquish their undergarments at airport checkpoints. Paper undergarments are issued to all passengers. Sizing is a nightmare, the piles of discarded undergarments are a logistical biohazard. While the ingenious Terrorist Society of Activists was ultimately unsuccessful in their plot to bring down an airplane, they will long be remembered for their role in the fight against the infidels.

El Mariachi II

The bad guy is borrowed from "El Mariachi". He is flying from the UK to the States, which should guarantee the maximum safety.

At the airport: El Mariachi is carrying a guitar case. What's inside? A classical guitar of course, but he must leave it to the check-in desk. The lady assures that his 30,000 dollar guitar will be handled very carefully.

He walks through the metal detector - no beep. Then he's x-rayed. "Sir, what's in your pocket?" A nylon guitar string. Oh my god, this could be used to kill someone! Good catch! Mariachi must put his spare strings on top of the pile of nailcutters and other banned goods.

He is early, and watches the people on the gate. There is a secret agent on the same flight, carrying a gun. He must find out who is it. The agent must be the one who didn't go through the security control. There is a man writing something to his notepad with a ballpoint pen. A ballpoint pen - there's no way to get a ballpoint pen through - he's the agent.

Boarding, take-off, meal, coffee, movie take place as in any intercontinental flight.

Mariachi will act after the secret agent has left his seat. The agent goes to the toilet and Mariachi waits for him outside the door. He's ready to use his deadly weapon: fingernails. Everyone knows how important is for a classical guitar player to take good care of the nails, right hand at least. The agent opens the door and has no time to react when El Mariachi sticks his well-polished thumbnail to his throat. It's easy to take the gun away from a dead agent. The panic starts. Mariachi forces the pilot to make a u-turn to Paris. After he shoots the pilots, the plane will be smashed in France, and the French will join the war against terror.

The lesson: At the security check, use those nailcutters to cut everyone's nails.

I'd also like to give props to Max's idea.

I think it goes quite well with what I read from the non-fiction book Biohazard.

@Erik N
From what I can recall, airplane diagrams are freely available once the airplane is in commerical operation. So you don't need the group of hackers.

hmm.. I could remove the plastic part from my glasses' ear supports and stab the pilot with the pointy metal rod..

Note: this plot doesn't follow the recommendation of using a common item. One could add one if needed, but I don't think it needs one. But this plot would require drastic changes in order to decide whether or not to let people in planes.

Warning! Spoilers !!! ;)

The movie is produced by a team of North African, West Asian & South American countries.

Scene 1: North Africa. Summer 2006. A meeting takes place in a hotel in Morocco. The meeting involves Spanish speaking man and Muslim ones. The difference of behavior of the 2 communities is striking.
Some white powder is taken out of a bag. Bribes of the dialogue is translated and sub-titled "5% loss", etc... The men seem to reach an agreement. The camera escapes from the scene, inadvertently showing a box of condoms laying on side of the table....

Scene 2: North Africa. A small village. A man with a big gold ring gives an envelope to an old man, who hesitates to take it. The sub-titles say: "Take it. It's the best for all of us". The 2 men get out of the building. A young girl climbs into a car, looking extremely sad, followed by the man with the ring. The car starts. The old man runs behind the car and shouts "Aysha!! Aysha !!". The car doesn't stop. The man falls on his knees. Alone. The wind opens up the envelope and some money appears.

Scene 3: Summer 2007. We follow a girl wearing a headscarf in the streets of Marrakesh, buying food in the local markets. She arrives in a beautiful home. She drops the food in a kitchen filled with the latest appliances. She removes the headscarf. We recognize Aysha. She took some weight. She starts cleaning up the kitchen. A young woman, richly dressed enters and talks to her. "How was the market this morning"? " "Crowded, but I still got the things we needed as I left there early". "Good job, as usual, Aysha. When you're finished come and help with my hair". Aysha smiles

Scene 4: Winter 2007. A small house. The rich girl, Aysha and a young man are seated along with another man. A fourth man, older, is seated. The dialogue goes along the lines of: "this is the man I told you about. He will help you realize your dreams. But in return you will have to help him a little bit. " Aysha nods. The young man says: "you don't have to do that you know ?". Aysha answers: "don't you want to live your dream? That's our opportunity".

Scene 5: Aysha gets her hair cut and a picture taken without the headscarf. The next moment, she is in a queue for visa applications in the American embassy. When her turn comes, she answers some questions. Current job: 'assistant'. Reason for the visit: 'honey moon'.

Scene 6: Aysha is in a small room. She sits at a table. A bowl contains some capsules, containing some sort of white substance surrounded by plastic. A man explains explains to her: that's not dangerous. It's going to be easy. There are only 15 capsules here. Girls usually take 60 or more. Aysha looks at the bowl. She takes on the capsule dips it in oil and puts it in her mouth.

Scene 7: Aysha boards the plane with the young man, holding hands. She doesn't wear her headscarf. They sit close to each other. Both look excited. The plane takes off. Aysha looks at the sea through the window.

Scene 8: Aysha looks bad. She sweats. The young man is uneasy. He calls for a flight assistant. "My wife is sick, she needs a doctor". A man in his forties seated some row above overhears the conversation. He stands up and say: "I am a doctor", showing a card.

Scene 9: the doctor examines Aysha. He presses her belly. She reacts with pain. The doctor asks Aysha: "what did you eat ?" Aysha doesn't answer, looking even worse. The doctor asks the young man: "what did she eat?" The man looks down and mumble something. The doctor says "we have to take this out of her body". The attendant asks: is her life in danger? The doctor answers: "No it's OK". The doctor gives a pill and a glass of water to Aysha. She drinks. Half an hour later, she is in the bathroom, ex-purging the contents of her intestines.

Scene 10: Aysha is back on her seat. She is attended by a flight assistant and her young companion. She says to him: "I am sorry, I am so sorry". The man cries.

Scene 11: The doctor is in the toilets cleaning up the capsules. He locked himself in. He opens the capsules one by one and pours their content inside a recipient. One of the capsules has a different color. He opens it last and pours it into the recipient. The plane explodes.

We can end there or just add another scene at discretion.

From 2020, I predict that passenger sedation will be compulsory for any travel. :) In fact the planes will be arranged to have some sort of coffins to place passengers in, having the positive side effect to allow to stack more people into planes.

Too bad giving out this plot discards any chance of making this into a movie, as the end was revealed...

Anyway... (C) me :)

And now for other ideas:

- forget about planes: blow a TGV. 800 seats, 300 km/h at max speed. Not a single security check point. Kaboom

- Destroy tunnels on the way to mountains, just before the holiday seasons.

- sink a ferry in the middle of the night in the North Sea, on the day of the anniversary of the Titanic

- attacks, (suicide bombs or release of biowarfare elements) in places where that would cause massive panick (e.g. in the mekka, e.g. 'blaming Israel for it', or in airports, or in football stadiums, or in a parade, in malls, ....

I am very happy that terrorists are almost all dumb and few, (look at how easily they got caught in Spain after the events in Madrid). Otherwise we could be *really* terrorized.

Now if the governments could react more calmly to terrorrists actions, with the money we spend on preventing bombs in airplanes, we could save more lives in the world, helping those who really need it, making everybody's life better, additionaly treating the causes and not the symptoms of terrorrism. But I guess it serves their [the governments] agenda...

1> Never even enter the infidels country. Simply phone, fax or call in random threats against airports, schools, traffic tunnels, bridges, motorways or any public building. Don't even try to carry out the threat just use the constant disruption as a weapon against the enemy. You could even outsource the threatening phone calls to India to save cash.

2> Get your agent on board a plane and get him to use his clothing to garrote airline staff or passengers. He could use, shoe laces, trousers, bras, shirts etc. All passengers are then required to have ALL clothing in the hold and fly naked.

3> use spectacles with strong arms that can be removed from the frame and used as stabbing weapons. All specs must be stowed.

4> Swallow packages of non-latex condoms filled with petrol or diesel. Poop these out on route and use them as an accelerant on your long hair, or clothing. Your clothing could be doped to produce toxic fumes when burning. Ignite with a flint and steel or a small battery powered hot wire.

OK... Common items. Ball-point pens. Colonoscopy-induced plot. Movie-like. I am sure we can cook something up.

The Islamo-fascist ruling council are starting to get concerned about their image and recruit assorted Europeans to their nefarious purposes. These Europeans are sent on a recruitment run in the US, to lure innocent American survivalists into committing terror, to bring down the Centralist Government.

A group of Missouri survivalists are tasked with bringing down a plane in Washington and do this by first flying on a two-week holiday in the Mediterranean. On the way back, they make sure to equip themselves with Parker steel pens (sharp stabby points) and pre-scored pen inserts (so you can snap them off and have a slight cutting edge).

They also make sure to aquire explosives, moulded into thin strips, inserted into their colon (inside sealed plastic bags, with a draw-string of some sort). The two female team members have tampons, filled with mercury fulminate (a suitable ignitor).

Once on the plane, they make sure to be spread out, rather than seated together (they're not traveling as a group, but as individuals, to make this easier). As food is served, one of them uses a ball-point pen to stab a steward(-ess) in the throat, causing massive blood spill, they then make their demands. Unless the President steps down and electronic voting machines are banned, they will bring the aircraft down.

They extract all the explosives and two pens are modified into cutting tools. They fail to gain entrance to the cock-pit and uses the explosives to cut the lock out. Once in the cockpit, they stab the captain, to force the second pilot to switch the engines off. He refuses, so theykill him too. They fail to dis-engage the auto-pilot, but with no one on board being able to land, the plane flies across the Atlantic on a straight course, continuing to fly over the US west-wards, until the fuel runs out.

Meanwhile, on teh ground, an FBI team discovers that all of the terrorists belong to a patriot group, but decide to try to unravel the whole plot. They find teh link to Europe and via Interpol arrest the EU agents of the ruling council. Most of them keep mum, but the French member is handed over to La Legion, who hose-pipe a confession out of the Frenchman. The evil plot of teh Ruling Council has been exposed and the world is, again, safe for democracy.

Does it have be set ON the plane???

My movie plot involves terrorists with explosives getting into the lengthy TSA screening lines (the ones which snake around and thus clump people together in a tight group. Then, when they're somewhere in the middle of the queue, they set off explosives.

They never actually get to the plane (nor did they intend to) but cause tremendous havoc in the airports.

Thus, the only way to protect people and TSA screeners is to have a separate screening line *before* air travellers can queue up for the TSA screenings...

I still think that the most devastating threat to our airport "security" will be the first time someone packs a carry on with C4 or dynamite or whatever and has a detonator that is triggered by x-rays. The target isn't the aircraft, but the security checkpoint itself. If the methods of imposing "security" are threatened, then what?

Attacking passenger planes is SO 2007... what we need to do is attack interstate commerce. Imagine, for a moment, the effect of explosives shipped via overnight carriers (FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc.) from random sources to random destinations. Could use altimeters or air pressure sensors as detonators. It would only take a handful of successful attacks to shut down air freight. As bad as the air embargo was after 9/11, temporarily eliminating overnight shipping would cripple the economy.

You could have hijackers armed with handguns who harm nobody. But instead insist the plane is parked in the middle of the runway. Then they get out and shoot all the t(y/i)res . Especially a problem with a 747 or A380...

Stolen from H Beam Piper's "Little Fuzzy": Use sharpened zippers like a saw blade to entangle and saw open a flight attendant's jugular vein...

Got one.

19 hijackers board planes and fly them into three landmark buildings in the United States. Remarkably, two of the buildings (among the world's tallest) collapse to the ground. The fourth plane fails to reach whatever target it may have been after thanks to some brave folks aboard.

The greatest movie plot of them all already happened.

Bruce is right about the ridiculous banning of shoes and liquids and guesses about what will happen next, but it doesn't help to throw up your hands and wait for new attacks. What helps is to actively propose ideas and talk about real security.

John Smith, aka Mohamed Terrorist, has secretly replaced the talcum powder for the baby he's carrying with Anthrax. On Superbowl Sunday, he will threaten to douse the passengers and crew unless they give him control of the plane. Instead of some has been gyrating lewdly in the half-time show, Americans will be treated to the spectacle of a fully loaded 747 impacting the stadium.

I first saw this idea on another blog, ages ago, and can not take or give credit.

The war on liquids has shown us that a plot does not have to be implemented, or even feasible, to have a lasting impact on security policy. So the obvious thing to do is to pick an object, any object, and simply _plan_ a terrorist attack and allow yourself to be discovered. The suggested choice of object, via exploding ink, exploding paper, or any other reasonable sounding mechanism: passports and pieces of ID. How do you ban passports from airports? How do you keep ID away from people boarding a plane? How do you prevent the TSA from spontaneously imploding in a cloud of logical contradiction?

Take a standard stamped CD, sharpen the aluminum edge. The CD will still X-Ray as a CD since X-Rays don't detect sharp edges, just shapes.

Take the handle of an umbrella or cane, use a rubber-band and short pencil (put rubber band around pencil, through hole in sharpened CD, around cane/umbrella) to securely attach the CD to the handle.

You know have a fairly sharp and durable axe. Make a couple of them. Take over the plane with them. Kill passengers until the pilots open the secured doors. Or just kill everyone if they refuse.

Obviously we need to ban CD's, umbrellas/canes, rubber bands AND pencils!

Who needs $500,000? This is just a few bucks.

I vote for Baron Dave's eyeglass-and-paper scenario. Even without the treated paper, the panic resulting from a a paper and upholstery fire would suffice. Indeed, since lighters and matches alone are already banned, there must be some perceived need to prevent this.

It would be difficult to start a fire in this way -- you'd need a sun-facing seat, and an accomplice to shield you from notice for several minutes. In contrast, a battery and some steel wool would be much easier.

But the drama of needing to ban eyeglasses exceeds that of batteries. The clincher is that so many people need eyeglasses to function AT ALL -- even if it's to administer medication or just to identify and reclaim the eyeglasses themselves.

I'm also partial to "David in Chicago"'s screening line scenario. The irony that the opportunity is created by the security itself is delicious. However, I'm afraid it fails the criteria of leading to a ban on a common item.

"And the TSA would have little choice but to ban human beings."

Win. I don't think anyone can beat that.

My entry is a mashup of my last one and the first thing that jumped into my head. Coat an emery board (nail file) in crystalline hydrofluoric acid.

Simply dip it in your steaming hot black coffee and wait for the fumes to spread. Oh, and the board to melt, 'cause that stuff is -nasty-.

Depending on release time and ammount successfully dispersed into air, pain can be delayed 1 to 24 hours thus leaving many people around the country getting ill independant of eachother and causing far more widespread panic. Treatment is generally not applied until a lot of damage has already been done.

From one safety guide I have lying around: "Inhalation of HF produces an immediate injury to the lining of the lungs with hemorrhage pulmonary edema and death. It may take only about 5 minutes of exposure to inhaled HF to produce death in a couple of hours."

Relatively cheap (though dangerous) to produce, easy to move (just avoid moisture and heat), and a dozen or so planes contaminated this way would be quite devistating.

[b]Bumps and Parachutes[/b]

The flight begins to encounter moderate turbulence, and passengers are heading for the lavatories as some become airsick.

One passenger is slammed into the cockpit door as the aircraft lurches through the turbulence. The "Emergency Remote Flight" system engages, because it detects an apparent attack upon the cockpit door.

Unfortunately, it's a major holiday and ground controllers have trouble finding someone to remotely pilot the plane. During the delay, the pilots try to regain control of the aircraft, disabling it in the process.

Boeing officials immediately spring into action, activating their golden parachutes to safely escape recriminations as they resign.

Snakes.

I think the best idea is the nitrocellulose clothing, which would cause the TSA to ban all passenger-owned clothing. In addition, one of the terrorists would have a paperback novel made of nitrocellulose.

To get a good explosion out of gunpowder/paper/cotton, you have to contain it - otherwise it just flashes. So of course the attackers would need to put the clothing in a piece of luggage. With a timer, this could as easily be done in the hold as among the passengers - result: the TSA bans not only wearing clothes on flights, but packing them in your luggage as well.

Finally, they'd need something to ignite the clothing when it's inside the bag. A modified cellphone or iPod would be a nice touch, just to complete the inconvenience. Alternately, they could build the igniter right into the handle of the luggage.

Result - passengers are forbidden to bring iPods, cellphones, clothing, novels, and possibly luggage, regardless of whether it is checked carry-on.

Illegal mexican immigrants, hired by terrorists, infiltrate the nation's eight major meat packing plants. Under the threat of harming said immigrants' children, the terrorists give the immigrants vials of Bad Stuff and instruct the poor immigrants to taint the meat supply to the airline food suppliers, one week before Thanksgiving. Each plant is contaminated with a different substance that, when combined with the others, creates a terrifyingly effective explosive. When the airline passengers eat the food and use the restrooms, the airplane toilets become flying bombs. For the entire day, airplanes are exploding in mid air. Make sure to include some adorble curly blond children on the plane. The TSA will have to ban toilets.

Airplanes are made of Aluminum, which forms an amalgam with Mercury, weakening it and causing corrosion. A very small amount of Mercury released inside an airplane can damage the airframe as it slowly spreads through it

Airport security is already worried about this, but I think they're looking for things like thermometers and barometers. What if terrorists smuggled Mercury onto airplanes inside something like fake laptop batteries? TSA would have to ban laptop batteries for sure, and maybe a lot of other things.

Even worse, terrorists could just pretend to smuggle Mercury onto planes and then tell us they did. "Over the past two weeks our agents have released one kilogram of Mercury on 86 747s." We'd have to ground them for weeks to take them apart to see which ones, if any, were dmaged. It would cost billions even if it were a total hoax.

I think Max Bang with the Russian lab has movie all over it. I think the hollywood guys like that stuff and could make a good development. My vote is to Max Bang!

Simple plot: In order to cause maximum disruption, we target laptops. Not being able to take them on business trips by plane will cause countless problems and extra costs to business. The long ranging economic damage won't be assessable. To do this, we need to direct the TSA towards laptops. Here's how we do it:

a) get four cells of dedicated followers (3 each)
b) equip them with moderately used laptops
c) replace the interiors of the laptop with a pc-104 (or smaller form factor) board and software that simulates the screen sequence of Windows XP until the logon screen. It needs to look real, react to the power button and ctrl-alt-del for logon. It does not have to run Windows XP/Vista
d) obtain some regular explosives and equip at least one or two of the laptops with as much explosives as you can.
e) equip two laptops just with traces of explosives.

1) 2 of the cells run test runs with perfectly clean laptops flying from NY to LA or something like that.
2) 2 of the cells run tests with contaminated laptops. If they don't get caught, we go to 3. If they get caught, the TSA will find out that laptops appearing to be functioning could still be explosives, and they will overreact and ban laptops
3) We will use the builtin motherboard to ignite our explosives. We will manufacture a motherboard to be used by a cell, that will prematurely explode in the terminal. The recovered fragments and traces will point to laptops of the same manufacture, which will lead to the discovery of the other cells.

All we need is a laptop that is not a real laptop, that passes explosives security at one time, but not later. It will be enough doubt, that laptops will get banned.

Go back to the basics. Socks and lots of loose change to make blackjacks. Terrorists could each bring a few dollars in coins and pool their change. Optionally you can include the coin rolls (unfilled) to make to blackjack a bit firmer. Just imagine...the TSA saying that you have to leave all your loose change at the security checkpoint, not to mention socks.

If the stipulation to "blow up the aircraft" a requirement? Because if the hijackers need only gain control of the aircraft I'm thinking neckties -- better yet bowties -- to throttle the flight attendants. And maybe tie clasps, tie tacks, or sharpened metal collar stays to inflict injuries. There might be an opportunity here for cufflinks whose end are connected by an unreelable piece of wire to be used as garrots...

BTW, not having been on an airline in a while -- are those little liquor bottles made of glass or plastic?

I like the idea of using mercury, as rhr suggested, but instead of laptop batteries my terrorists will have mouths full of mercury amalgam fillings. The fillings used will have extra mercury to bring its melting point down around 70 degrees celsius. Once in flight, the terrorists drink a cup of coffee to melt the fillings, then go to the restroom and spit out the mercury, where it eventually corrodes a hole in the plane. My terrorists will survive the flight, but eventually develop heavy metal poisoning.

When the TSA realise what's happening they add a dental checkup to the screening process. Suspect teeth are confiscated (ouch!) and returned at the end of the flight.

I don't think they will ban anything unless the public becomes aware of its danger first. The bans aren't for our own safety, but to keep us flying. Government tests prove that most bombs can make it through screenings, so why would they worry about this? Unless you can find a way to hack CNN's website, or convince Fox News to run the piece, I doubt a ban will incur. However, thinking about it, I bet one of you could get it on Fox, they rarely check their sources. Or better yet, it should be written as a news story instead, and the winner will be virally spread around the web. Someone will pick it up.

People board planes with bibles, crucifixes and Christian rock music in an attempt to incite non-Christians to commit acts of religious hatred.

Supporting news stories : -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=410299&in_page_id=1770&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=NEWS&ct=5

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16559713&method=full&siteid=62484&headline=british-madland-name_page.html

Before the flight, the terrorists empty their bladders and get a catheter with a large balloon tip threaded into their bladders. In the bathroom before going through security, they pump in the ingredients of their weapon in liquid form (we've all been told how dangerous it is get allow random liquids onto the plane) into their empty bladders, then cut the tip of the catheter off so nothing shows at the end of the penis.

On board, they pee into a bag, combining the ingredients and then bad things happen. A small group can bring several litres of binary explosive or toxin on board.

The TSA is forced to ban people with full bladders from boarding aircraft, plus does an X-ray search to look for a catheter.

If the binary ingredients will not kill you within 2 hours, the catheter is not needed. These terrorists don't care if they are slowly poisoned by what's in their bladder; as long as it doesn't irritate so much they can't hold it for an hour or two.

June 19, 2009. 3:45 AM, Pacific Time.

American Airlines flight 238 from LA to New York.

The early morning flight seems strangely packed, a dozen or so young men and women taking their seats scattered randomly (or so it seems) across the airplane. Headphones on, eyes forward, they brush off the stewardesses with a curt wave and a glance at their iPods.

One of the stewardesses notices something strange--amongst all the twentysomethings in headphones, there's not a single booming bass note, no thrash or scream, no jazz, no nothing. Either the volume's universally down, or--

Synchronized watches tick forward to the appointed time. A dozen headphones come off two dozen ears. Trained hands pull cords away, ripping apart the headphones to get two meters each of simple wire. Careful eyes find courtesy power outlets, holes get punched in overhead lights.

The wires find their marks without hesitation, shorting across the remains of lights and in-seat TVs. Sparks fly, starting a dozen separate electrical fires. Stoked by napkins and small piles of facial tissue, the fires burn higher while what's left of the headphone cord is used to strangle the flight attendants and passengers who might have gone for a fire extinguisher.

The plane crashes in flames in the Nevada desert, the video claiming responsibility already airing on CNN.

The terrorists intercept the route of M&Ms from the factory to the flight food service companies and substitute M&Ms with the usual melts-in-your-mouth-not-in-your hand outer candy coating for ones with cores not of chocolate but some kind of pressure activated explosive like -- if 8th grade chemistry serves me correctly -- postassium iodide. This blows off the pilots jaws and incapacitates them. I suppose this could work with any candy with an expected "crunchy" factor.

Our group of terrorists in the US infiltrate the Duty Free Shops at Major International Airport. On the appointed day the terrorists happily fill the duty free orders for their compatriots, who with a single password order up several bottles of "Scotch", which provide the makings for Malotov cocktails when on the airplane.

The Duty Free infiltrators have refilled bottles of premium Scotch with even more flammable liquids, and provded a wicking material in the packing in the bag in which the Duty Free items come. Perhaps a pack of matches is thoughtfully included in the box of Toblerones that was in the Duty Free order.

Ingvar said: " The two female team members have tampons, filled with mercury fulminate"

I really, really can't believe that someone beat me to this one. I had exactly the same idea.

I'm a terrible writer, but the gist of the plot is thus: one row of seats worth of terrorists take the same plane. Their shoe-laces have a non-metallic garrote wire threaded through the middle of the lace. Undetected at security 99 times out of 100 (and this low estimate is probably way higher if they look like American businessmen), they plan this attack in parallel hitting as many targets in parallel as they want. The wires on their own are hard to handle lethally, so they ensure that they have water bottles or something to tie them to.

During the flight, they remove the wires from the laces and use them to overpower or kill as many of the crew as needed to get into the cockpit where they take over the controls and lock the door, free to crash the plane into anything they want.

Sequel: if the TSA bans or inspects laces, they can repeat the act with any electric wire like iPod headphones.

I once had the opportunity to pick the brain of a middle manager of the TSA, and they know full well that the security is for show. They do as little as possible to make the public feel as secure as possible. Their guidelines are to guard against what's already been done- they know that there are an infinite number of possible terrorist vectors that they could never legally protect us against.

If airplane terrorism became such an economic drain (instead of the economic cash cow it currently is) that the government felt they had to reduce it, the only way to eliminate the easy and cheap vectors is to put each and every traveler under complete anesthetic for every trip. Even that would not prevent dedicated terrorists from inserting someone into the air industry where they could crash planes as a pilot, a crew member, a mechanic, or a bag handler.

This contest is so five minutes ago. Really. Here's how it all went down. Five minutes ago.
'My guy' that I buy weed from came to me with a proposition.
"Hey man, I know some guys who want this thing done. Are you up for it?"
He told me what it entailed and I asked how much it was worth to them. 400. Dollars.
You pay how much for a ticket so that they can treat you like crap? I would have done this for free.

I majored in typography in college. There is absolutely nothing a person can do with this as a major except to fuck with airlines. I mean really why wouldn't you if you could?

Here's the gig. I made a trip to see my parents via plane. I went to all the bookstores in the vicinity of my gate and purchased a book at each one. Three in total. Plus one magazine (It had an article about what in the hell is happening on Lost). I paid cash.
My parents are well thank you. I made the return trip to my own home and started my plan.
Luckily for me I realized that a typography degree was bullshit early so I minored in botany. I was planning to make hollow books to transport weed in. Eh. I came up with this too.

Short version. They'll be back soon.

I recreated the books I bought in triplicate. I started from scratch making my own paper out of oleander. Oleander is the most poisonous plant in Texas.

The plan, which until 5 minutes ago was working very well, was to buy a morning ticket from Dallas to Chicago. Window seat on the East side.
I was going to use my glasses to burn the books causing poisonous fumes to overtake the plane.
Where I screwed up was in placing the extras in the bookshops. They thought I was stealing and now I'm in a little room. Naked.
Dumb asses left their laptop in here though. WiFIIIII!!
500 grand sounds a little better than the 400 bucks I've already spent.

Hopefully this will take care of everyone with glasses, books, and the bookstores. Bitches.

Aight so get this, a normal American family with a mom a dad and a kid right?

The twist? The kid's a great midget actor with a stuffed toy filled with explosives.

Last I checked, kids don't have to go through airport security.