EXPLOSIVE CHEESE?
Don't panic.
THERE WAS A POSSIBLE TERROR ATTACK REHEARSAL AT GENERAL MITCHELL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN MILWAUKEE.
WASHINGTON -- Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September.
The unclassified alert was distributed on July 20 by the Transportation Security Administration to federal air marshals, its own transportation security officers and other law enforcement agencies.
The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern."
Security officers were urged to keep an eye out for "ordinary items that look like improvised explosive device components."
The 13-paragraph bulletin was posted on the Internet by NBC Nightly News, which first reported the story.
A federal official familiar with the document confirmed the authenticity of the NBC posting but declined to be identified by name because it has not been officially released.
The document hasn't been officially released so the idiots at NBC released it.
Although this was an unclassified document, it still bugs me that the lib media like to tip off terrorists about what the government knows.
"There is no credible, specific threat here," TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said Tuesday. "Don't panic. We do these things all the time."
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke described the notice as the latest copy of a routine informational bulletin for TSA workers, airport employees and law enforcement officials.
A statement posted late Tuesday by the TSA on its Web site confirmed that "a routine TSA intelligence bulletin relating to suspicious incidents at U.S. airports" had leaked to news organizations. The statement added, "During the past six months TSA has produced more than 90 unclassified bulletins of this nature on a wide variety of security-related subjects."
The bulletin said the a joint FBI-Homeland Security Department assessment found that terrorists have conducted probes, dry runs and dress rehearsals in advance of previous attacks.
It cited various types of rehearsals conducted by terrorists before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings; the Aug. 2, 2006, London-based plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights using liquid explosives and the 1994 Bojinka plot in the Philippines to blow up multiple airliners over the Pacific Ocean.
The bulletin said the passengers carrying the suspicious items seized since September included men and women and that initial investigation had not linked them with criminal or terrorist organizations. But it added that most of their explanations for carrying the items were suspicious and some were still under investigation.
The four seizures were described this way:
• San Diego, July 7. A U.S. person — either a citizen or a foreigner legally here — checked baggage containing two ice packs covered in duct tape. The ice packs had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.
• Milwaukee, June 4. A U.S. person's carryon baggage contained wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese. The bulletin said block cheese has a consistency similar to some explosives.
• Houston, Nov. 8, 2006. A U.S. person's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a 9-volt battery, wires, a block of brown clay-like minerals and pipes.
• Baltimore, Sept. 16, 2006. A couple's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellular phone charger.
Read the TSA government advisory.
Read the TSA statement regarding the intelligence bulletin on suspicious incidents at U.S. airports.
So should we be freaked out by this?
The government says no.
That's much easier said than done.
4 comments:
1) The question is why did NBC have it in the first place unless someone gave it to them. Their job as a media outlet is to share information with the public unless it is secret. And compared with other "leaks" this is hardly so.
2) The very fact that this is now public tells the would be terrorists that "we are on to you" and perhaps would discourage such a method of attack. Surely this is better than if they sneak a live one through?
1) I said, "Although this was an unclassified document, it still bugs me that the lib media like to tip off terrorists about what the government knows."
Did you miss that line?
I am making a clear distinction between this incident and others when classified anti-terrorism programs or other methods we employ to track terrorists are revealed by the media.
Should the media, like the New York Times, inform the public if sharing the information will actually put the public at risk?
That's not journalism. That's sabotage.
2) I highly doubt that this bulletin will "discourage" the terrorists. They are willing to kill themselves to kill us.
And of course, it's better that we're told of possible dry runs than actual attacks.
What's really frightening to me is that 39 U.S. senators, including Wisconsin senators Kohl and Feingold, voted to discourage citizens from reporting suspicious activities.
I can see why the terrorists would want to target Milwaukee. If I lived there i would be very afraid. In fact, I would start avoiding cheese from now on.
And darn those liberals at General Electric. Now the terrorist know we're on to their cheese tricks.
Sorry, sarcastic Peter B.
I refuse to avoid cheese.
If we avoid cheese, then the terrorists win.
They'll have to pry my cheddar from my cold, dead hands.
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