Schneier on Security

Richard Steven Hack • August 23, 2011 3:52 PM

Despite all the alleged impediments to the execution of this sort of attack, a properly trained team could undoubtedly pull it off.

As Clive suggested, you simply grab the pilot as he emerges from the john. Then he has a simple choice: open the door or die. If his colleagues in the cockpit need to open it from the inside and won’t, he dies. His colleagues then need to explicitly sacrifice him (as well as the flight attendants who are now also under control) in order to prevent losing control of the plane.

If the terrorists are well trained in martial arts, especially using found objects, they can then proceed to start killing passengers. It may turn into a free-for-all and the terrorists might lose once the passengers rushed them en mass (there are ways to deal with a large group of attackers in martial arts), but it would be nearly as effective a hijacking as gaining control of the plane as far as the effect on the flying public is concerned.

It wouldn’t be hard to find terrorists willing to go this route. What WOULD be hard is finding terrorists with sufficient martial arts training emphasizing the ability to use common objects as weapons. Most terrorist “training” is as crappy and incompetent as most military or corporate “training”.

The smart move, as Matt indicates, is to simply forbid the pilots from emerging from the cockpit for ANY reason, including a cabin emergency of ANY sort. Simply stash a porta-potty with a screen in the cockpit for long distance flights. If you have room for drop-down seats for deadheading pilots, you have room for a john.

But as the article indicates and I’ve said repeatedly, there are a lot more effective ways to stop the airline industry from flying. So, yes, the alarmism over this tactic is ridiculous.

Richard Steven Hack • August 23, 2011 5:06 PM

Also, there was a story about a group of weapons dealers who would buy freight aircraft, load them up with explosives, and dive them into various targets such as the Federal Express hub in order to do stock manipulation of airline stocks.

I think this book came out after 9/11 IIRC, though.

The importance of the Lone Gunmen story, however, was the coincidence of the plot precisely mirroring all the “conspiracy theories” which came out after and the precise nature of the attack being mirrored in those theories. It wasn’t a general “airplanes used as weapons” story, it actually involved a government faction using a plane against the 9/11 target AND doing so precisely to stimulate the arms market – which is exactly what Bush and Cheney proceeded to do.

It’s enough to make you wonder just what Chris Carter knew and when. Or whether someone saw the episode and thought, “Hey! We could do that!”

Richard Steven Hack • August 23, 2011 8:15 PM

“Storming Heaven” – yup, that was it. Pretty good read.

That One Guy: As I recall, the primary motivation of the group was money, not terrorism. Although the leader did get ticked off at being pursued and vowed to raise a terrorist army by invading the White House and raping the First Lady. His associate proceeded to shoot him for that notion. 🙂

Galt: I wouldn’t count on it never happening again, regardless of the passengers. Plus, you can always use freight aircraft like the Storming Heaven book.

Richard Steven Hack • August 24, 2011 3:43 PM

Anon e mous: A guy well trained with one of these really tiny but razor sharp steel folders you can hang around your neck on a lanyard can slice you to ribbons in seconds. With enough blood flying around, passengers would be really hesitant to keep pushing forward.

Getting one for each member of a terrorist team on the plane would be quite feasible assuming you can get them past the magnetic detectors by bypassing them via some other channel.

Ceramic blades would work, too, and be easier to get past the magnetic detectors.

Rookie: Nice reading Condoleeza’s mind. Not buying it. The specific attack WAS identified by a variety of intelligence agencies as a feasible attack – and indeed is obviously feasible to a five-year-old. There were specific warnings given to the US intelligence agencies by other countries concerning an aircraft-related terrorist attack.

As FBI agent Colleen Rowley put it, “jokes were actually made that the key FBIHQ personnel had to be spies or moles, like Robert Hanssen, who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden to have so undercut Minneapolis’ effort.”

She also said “In all of their conversations and correspondence, HQ personnel never disclosed to the Minneapolis agents that the Phoenix Division had, only approximately three weeks earlier, warned of Al Qaeda operatives in flight schools seeking flight training for terrorist purposes!”

There is no question that Rice was being disingenuous at best and covering up at worst.

Also, Bush/Cheney and the neocon crowd had stated much earlier in the PNAC documents that they had to be prepared for a “terrorist Pearl Harbor”. Given that Bush had a plan to invade Afghanistan developed BEFORE 9/11 and Cheney had a plan to divvy up Iraq’s oil BEFORE 9/11, I’d say they very definitely had plans to take advantage of the 9/11 attack.

And the stimulation of the military-industrial complex is obviously a part of that. The US defense budget has DOUBLED since 9/11.

And nothing has changed under Obama. He continues to push Iran about its nuclear program despite ZERO evidence that Iran has or ever had a nuclear weapons program of any kind. This is being done solely to set up the US for yet another “endless war” to keep certain segments of the US corporate elite (and in Obama’s case we know exactly who – General Dynamics among others) flush while the average US citizen see his segment of the economy evaporate.

As General Smedley Butler once wrote, “War is a racket.”