Kentucky plane crash (headline changed per Moddy) ....

I know I've recommended the 12-page cover story in the September edition of The Atlantic, and I believe Luggy also recommended it. The author makes a very strong case for the view that al-Qaeda has been broken down to the point that it is no longer a true threat to the United States. Since 11 Sept 2001, the organization has lost its refuge, its main training base, its command structure, its ability to use electronic communication systems, and its senior members' ability to travel freely. From an operational point of view, bin Laden is irrelevant --- al-Qaeda has become a philosophy rather than organization, as Caleb Carr (the author of The Lessons Of Terror) put it in a quote in the article: "'It's like the difference between Marxism and Leninsim, and they're back to being just Marx.'"

The World Trade Center was their high-water mark.

 

speculation is that they took off from the wrong runway, a 3,500-foot daytime aux runway instead of the normal 7,000-foot runway. at least, it seems like the wreckage was at the end of the shorter runway, which was too short to accomodate that equipment

horrible.

 

That's not just speculation. Here's the graphic the Lexington Herald-Leader already composed and put on its website ...



... and the story on the very subject: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/15375985.htm

 

But does it matter? All it takes is one or two madmen with easily-constructed dirty bombs in backpacks in Times Square or the subway.

There are still plenty of people who hate us, want to do harm and have an effective template to follow.

The last time I was in NY, I had occasion to walk through Penn Station. Tens of thousands of people are passing through there every hour, practically everyone carrying some sort of bag. No metal detectors, no bomb-sniffing dogs, nothing.

If three fanatics from Queens want to create chaos in the name of their cause, they can easily do it. They don't need a central organization. The philosophical divide between us and them still exists and we seem like we're always widening it.

 

The CNN hairdo just said this is the worst plane crash in the U.S. in six years.

Um, excuse me? This is 2006, right?

 

And that's what all the Lexington TV stations keep saying. I guess they're counting 2001 as a full year. 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06...six years.

 

TV station math.

 

9/11 isn't considered by many a crash since, well, it wasn't exactly an accident.

And 2MCM, I still agree with what the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak said before we went into Iraq: "This will create 100 more bin Ladens." Just because Osama can't plan, it doesn't mean others can't pull off spectacular tragedies.

 

I think they mean commuter. I'd have to go back and look, I'll check later.

 

That's not being a dick, just an excellent moddy.

Now, your shot at me on the split board threads. Wonderfully dick-ish!

 

But there was Queens in November 2001.

 

There was, mark. I mentioned that originally but somehow deleted it from my post.