Terrorists might use Lasers US govt says

just read this on yahoo news... Guess they are really drawing for straws now..

read link here story.news.yahoo.com.../ap/20041210/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/terrorists_laser_beam


whats next, disturbing drivers with loud noises... makes me laugh!!

whats next, disturbing drivers with loud noises... makes me laugh!!

This type of thinking is partly responsible for 9-11 happening.

I'm sure there were numerous officials before 9-11 that were saying there's no way hijacking a plane and using it as a weapon will happen, lets just dismiss the idea.

In order to be better prepared you need to think of all possibilities because thats what the terrorists are doing, they are thinking of ways to attack us that we have not even thought about.

The bulletin notes they are "relatively inexpensive, portable, easy to conceal and readily available on the open market."

For some reason after reading this I imagine some terrorist with like 250 laser pointers aimed at a plane. I have a hard time imagining that the standard commerical laser plugs into a normal electrical outlet. I sometimes wonder where these people get their information.

Skibum-Actually in reference to hijacking planes, there was a book by Tom Clancey about it, someone under torture said somethign about it(around 1995), and a few years before it happend there was a defense dept. report about it. I think the remark about the loud music has a little bit of truth about it. I would be more worried about some terrorist pretending to be migrant works and poisoning our food supply before a bunch of dudes with lasers trying to take down a plane, it all about numbers. A single plane crashing is nothing compred to people being scared to salads for the next 3 years.

bentov

[edit on 9-12-2004 by bentov]

What can I said, terrorist are becoming so high tech and well funded that is going to make our government bad with all these technology that they can get their hands on.

Whoa, bin ladden is spending some millions alright to target our airplanes with sophisticated lasers.

People laser will be banned so leave your personal lasers at home.

[edit on 9-12-2004 by marg6043]

please say your joking Skibum

It might not be as far fetched as you might think...

A pilot flying a Delta Air Lines jet was injured by a laser that illuminated the cockpit of the aircraft as it approached Salt Lake City International Airport last week, U.S. officials said.
The plane's two pilots reported that the Boeing 737 had been five miles from the airport when they saw a laser beam inside the cockpit, said officials familiar with government reports of the Sept. 22 incident. The flight, which originated in Dallas, landed without further incident at about 9:30 p.m. local time.

A short while later, however, the first officer felt a stinging sensation in one eye. A doctor who examined the pilot determined that he had suffered a burned retina from exposure to a laser device, the officials said.

washingtontimes.com...

Not saying that the above was done by terrorists, just saying that they may also could concievably be used as a wepon...


[edit on 9-12-2004 by Jedi_Master]

I will be more affraid of some guys with an AK-47 or some RPG's near a runway.

Modern commercial aircrafts have auto landing programs if I am not wrong. So even when the terrorists are extremely lucky and they blind both pilots, the aircraft can still land on autopilot.

Blobber

you would have to have a very very steady hand, be able to compensate for the movement of the airplane have super long range vision and be able to aim at a pilots eyes.
what total rubbish will they come up with next?

[edit on 9-12-2004 by Natorman]

Originally posted by Natorman
you would have to have a very very steady hand, be able to compensate for the movement of the airplane have super long range vision and be able to aim at a pilots eyes.
what total rubbish will they come up with next?
]

Apparently the world's militaries don't think it's total rubbish, as there is a ban in effect on laser weapons designed to blind pilots. The Human Rights Watch has been concerned that weapons in development could subvert that ban.

www.hrw.org...

[edit on 12/9/2004 by eaglewingz]

Originally posted by Blobber
I will be more affraid of some guys with an AK-47 or some RPG's near a runway.

Modern commercial aircrafts have auto landing programs if I am not wrong. So even when the terrorists are extremely lucky and they blind both pilots, the aircraft can still land on autopilot.

Blobber

Yeah, but it still is terror to the crew with the burned out retinas. OUCH!!

Originally posted by Blobber
Modern commercial aircrafts have auto landing programs if I am not wrong. So even when the terrorists are extremely lucky and they blind both pilots, the aircraft can still land on autopilot.

Blobber

Interesting...

What happens if they are hit with the lasers on approach, before they have time to hit the autopilot ?

And how are they going to see to turn on the autopilot, if they have burned out retinas ?

Originally posted by marg6043
What can I said, terrorist are becoming so high tech and well funded that is going to make our government bad with all these technology that they can get their hands on.

Whoa, bin ladden is spending some millions alright to target our airplanes with sophisticated lasers.

I am not sure if you're beig sarcastic or not Marg. Anyway the scary thing is Bin Laden only has to spend a few hundred dollars to buy these lasers off the shelf. A typical laser sight for a gun has a few km range.

You would have to somehow aim the laser into a pilots eyes otherwise it would be ineffective. How they would do this with a plane moving at speed I don't know.

if i recall correctly russians had the laser tech & supposedly used it on 2 american helicopter pilots & they have migraines & chronic pains to this day with their sight, but im not too concerned on that i just saw some idiot thats with bush say "we don't know why the terrorists havent attacked the food supply yet" what a moron

Terrorists using lasers to blind pilots, thus bringing the airplane down. Hmmm...

There was a pilot flying into Salt Lake International a few months ago that got lazed in the eye and had to be treated for retinal burns. I guess this is happening more often now.

Still, I really don't think that lasers blinding pilots is what we should worry about. If a terrorist can get hold of a laser that will project a beam strong enough not to diffuse over long range and blind a pilot, this is the least of our worries.

If they can get this size and strength of laser, there's nothing stopping them from getting a laser that they could use to cause the wing of an airplane, which carries fuel, to explode.

I still don't know if I believe that there are terrorists experimenting with the use of lasers to blind pilots and subsequently bring down planes. Laser light diffuses pretty quickly in the atmosphere, so they would have to be in relatively close proximity to the inner perimiter of the airport, which should be patrolled all day and all night. I would imagine that these pieces of equipment are not cheap, especially for outlaws, and it just seems to me to be too much to risk the confiscation of expensive equipment and incarceration of personnel for the purpose of 'seeing if they can bring down a plane by blinding a pilot with a laser.'

Unless they really are that stupid, that is.

[edit on 9-12-2004 by DeltaChaos]

you guys need help.
what terrorist would risk being caught on a landing field to try to bring down a plane with a laser?
what kind of percentage chance does it have of actually working.

What?! So, we are supposed to start worrying about terrorists using lasers and other high tech weaponry now? If you believe this nonsense, you deserve a laser into the head.

Terrorists don't exactly use state-of-the-art methods if you haven't noticed...

[edit on 9-12-2004 by Thorfinn Skullsplitter]

Well...Natorman...

What terrorist would chance getting cought trying to smuggle a bomb on a plane, and having it actually work ?


[edit on 9-12-2004 by Jedi_Master]

Originally posted by Thorfinn Skullsplitter
Terrorists don't exactly use state-of-the-art methods if you haven't noticed...

A laser powerful enough to burn a hole in the wing of an aircraft isn't exactly state-of-the-art anymore, either. For that matter, a small nuclear device isn't state of the art. Just about any post graduate team of an engineer and a chemist could make a half decent nuke, if they were to get hold of the materiel.

The gap between low-tech and somewhat high-tech is closing rapidly.

It might not be able to take down a plane but I am sure it could cause some damage in a crowded area. Especially after reading about the military weapons being developed to blind people. Just imagine if someone used a blinding weapon on a large crowd of people. It would have a bad impact on those peoples lives and all those they come into contact with thereafter. But I agree there are easier ways they could kill people. That's why they use bombs. They are cheap and they kill a lot of people.

Originally posted by DeltaChaos

Originally posted by Thorfinn Skullsplitter
Terrorists don't exactly use state-of-the-art methods if you haven't noticed...

A laser powerful enough to burn a hole in the wing of an aircraft isn't exactly state-of-the-art anymore, either. For that matter, a small nuclear device isn't state of the art. Just about any post graduate team of an engineer and a chemist could make a half decent nuke, if they were to get hold of the materiel.

The gap between low-tech and somewhat high-tech is closing rapidly.

Oh come on people, think.

For groups of terrorists that supposedly strap homemade explosives to their chests, who use box cutters, who run around with Ak-47's and RPG's still wearing towels on their heads, we are gonna believe that they are gonna start burning holes into planes or blinding pilots from the runway?

Could it be perhaps that this "memo" could be nothing more than BS being fed to us?...naaaaaah...it's easier to believe even the most ridiculously stupid of ideas that have no factual basis what-so-ever...