Fri, Sep 05, 2003
...Than Hijackers
Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, told a radio audience
earlier this week that he fears missiles more than hijackers, as
potential threats to commercial aviation. "We live in a world where
these things are threats we didn't dream of a few years ago, but we
have also got to get on with our lives and not become neurotic
about it," he said.
He said he thinks that a defensive system similar to that on Air
Force One and some Israeli airliners might provide some protection,
against at lest some types of missile attacks. Some onboard decoy
generators, for instance, "...have the effect of sending the
missile off-course so it doesn't hit you."
The PM noted that all these systems are expensive, and that each
is effective against only a particular spectrum of threats.
Andrew Tongue, Australia's answer to the TSA's James Loy, said,
"The... question is, does al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiah, their
associates, have the intent to get these weapons?" He implied that
they do, alluding to last year's unsuccessful missile attack in
Kenya: "In the most recent recorded example of somebody trying to
use these weapons... they failed because they didn't use the weapon
properly, which is an indicator that training may not be as
up-to-date as some are predicting," Mr. Tongue said.
In only peripherally-related news,
The Australian reports that, "A former Qantas baggage
handler named by the CIA as an al-Qa'ida member has been linked to
an alleged Spanish leader of the terrorist network," but later
added that terrorist activity seems pretty sleepy in Australia:
"Only one person, Perth man Jack Roche, has been charged with any
links to terrorism since the September 11 attacks."
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