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Forums - General Discussion - Flight 253: "The system worked"?

CommunistHater on 27 December 2009

System worked to give this guy the jail cell to meditate and pray in for the rest of his life.

He used to live in a million dollar apartment but he found no purpose in that life.



Repent or be destroyed

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Sqrl on 27 December 2009
famousringo said:
Homeland Security's system seems a lot like copyright DRM to me: It mostly increases costs on legitmate users rather than impeding criminal behavior.

To a large degree I agree...security is at least as much about making people feel safe as it is about actually making them safe.  Some argue it has more to do with appearances than anything else, but I'm not quite that cynical...though I'm probably not far off as of late =P
To Each Man, Responsibility
Sqrl on 27 December 2009
vlad321 said:
Sqrl said:
Sqrl said:

...

It's pretty obvious that if we want to catch these things security measures need to be tighter and as always there is a price to pay for that extra security, which means its not as easy as "yes or no". 

...

@vlad,

On the Franklin quote:  I covered that a bit as quoted above, but thread wasn't really about that so I didn't delve into it further.

On the Al Queda link: The link was established before this terrorist plot occurred from what I've read.  Basically it sounds like his name was already on a terror watch list (which makes me wonder how he got a US Visa), so whatever they used to link him to Al Queda it had nothing to do with a detonator, failed or otherwise.  That of course doesn't mean they are 100% right about the link, just that the bit you're questioning wasn't a factor in this case.

Anyways, the topic was really more about the reaction of the DHS secretary than it was the plot, it's classification as a terror attack, or anything like that.

I watched some news this morning with some commentary. They said he was on a list of 500,000 people. I mean call me crazy, but somehow I don't think Al Queda has half a million people, I'm just thinking they were spreading FUD, but then again he could legitametely be a part of them. Though I don't think he aced on their behalf if the reason the plot failed was a failed detonation.

 

Also sorry for derailing the thread. It was the only thread that had to deal with this thing that I could see on the off-topic board. It is pretty surprising that they can say that the system works, uless their system relies heavily on luck.

Well like I said, it doesn't mean they are right, they just weren't basing their decision to add him to the watch list on the detenator obviously.  I'm sure within those 500k people they have different risk classifications and if he was at a lowest or low level your point definitely holds, but if he were in a high risk category I think the opposite is obviously true.  Either way, as many others have now said, the system can't be said to be working as intended here.

No, it was tangentially related so I don't mind a small side discussion on it so long as the underlying topic isn't lost (its mostly that the first couple of replies really shape a discussion and I didn't want the topic to get lost).
To Each Man, Responsibility
TheRealMafoo on 28 December 2009

This guys father went to the US embassy just a few weeks before, and told them he was involved with a radical group, and to watch out for him.

The US then says they didn't have enough on him to warrant event being pulled from the line and searched? BS.



Tyrannical on 31 December 2009

The system worked almost as much as the bomb did.



Yet, today, America's leaders are reenacting every folly that brought these great powers [Russia, Germany, and Japan] to ruin -- from arrogance and hubris, to assertions of global hegemony, to imperial overstretch, to trumpeting new 'crusades,' to handing out war guarantees to regions and countries where Americans have never fought before. We are piling up the kind of commitments that produced the greatest disasters of the twentieth century.
 — Pat Buchanan – A Republic, Not an Empire