Pope's Funeral: The Ultimate Target?

I really hope security is on top of there game Friday, at The Vatican, because I can’t think of a more opportune time for a terrorist attack. I haven’t really heard any of the news channels talking about it. Not only is it The Pope’s funeral, the leader of a billion Catholics but there will be close to a million people there. Foreign leaders including three United States Presidents will be in attendance. It’s kind of funny because Chris Matthews was just commenting today about how surprised he was to see that the people that stood in line for hours seemed relaxed and somber. I hope it stays like that. Can you imagine something happening in the square and thousands of people panicing? God I hope not. I really hope everything goes ok. I know I’ll be praying for a peaceful event.



[edit on 6-4-2005 by Event Horizon]

You can bet your life that the security will absolutely tight on the day. They are not going to mention how tight it is for obvious reasons.
There are too many high ranking names attending for there not be high security.

I sincerely hope that nothing happens. That would just be plain sick and an act of cowardice in the extreme.

Security measures in Rome are insane. They showed it last night in the news.

I think about 15,000 (?) people as security (police, military, etc, etc), a no-fly zone, check points everywhere, anti-aircraft and anti-*something else* ( I not a weapons expert) on several places in the city, boats patroling the river and on friday the whole city of Rome will be a no-drive zone, not a single car on the streets.

Wow, I guess I have been disconnected for the last few days. Sounds more like the inventory of someone getting ready to go into battle. Thats good. Im glad.

Well it's still possible that someone realised earlier that the pope was going downhill and planted explosives in advance.. I still remember the bombing in (man I really have a hard time spelling this) chechnya where the explosive had been built into concrete quite some time before the actual bombing. Tricky to find it then..

You know I have heard of stuff happening like that.

Not to get to far off topic but there was this guy that planted bombs in track homes as they were being built. Then he would rig it to a watch or timer with a specific date, sometimes a year later, and it would explode while the family was inside.

Im sure anything is a possibility when terrorist is involved and Im sure nothing is to far out of the way to complete the objective.

Well, at least (to my knowledge) there seem to be no `predictions` or prophecies pertaining to a massive terrorist attack in Rome.... Let`s really pray that nothing horrible happens.

Yes it is a sad fact that the funeral of the Pope would present a target so great, it is unreal. It would be the perfect cover to carry out a Biological wepons attack where hundreds of thousands would or could be exposed until it was too late.

Some thing as high profile as this is bound to attract some kind of terrorism. Hence the amount of security they have got.

As i said before, i hope this doesn't happen.

Thats scary stuff.

(removed terror plot)


Maximu§




[edit on 033030p://444 by LA_Maximus]

Originally posted by paperclip
Security measures in Rome are insane. They showed it last night in the news.

I think about 15,000 (?) people as security (police, military, etc, etc), a no-fly zone, check points everywhere, anti-aircraft and anti-*something else* ( I not a weapons expert) on several places in the city, boats patroling the river and on friday the whole city of Rome will be a no-drive zone, not a single car on the streets.

Not only that, the Vatican still has the Swiss Guard. LOL , can you imagine getting whacked with an Halberd ?

Blobber

Terrorist? Do you guys all still believe in the tooth fairy?

Nothing will happen in Rome, After all the majority of the people are not Americans, the ones the supposed terroist hate so dearly.

Originally posted by Lanotom

Nothing will happen in Rome, After all the majority of the people are not Americans, the ones the supposed terroist hate so dearly.

Yep, they used to have that same relaxed opinion in Spain up until last year.

Just heard that the population of Rome has doubled from what it was last week. Hopefully nothing will happen. The Pope deserves a peaceful funeral, but we should be prepared.

Originally posted by dbates
Yep, they used to have that same relaxed opinion in Spain up until last year.

Is that a relaxed Spaniard in your Avatar?

I also hope that nothing happens and do believe nothing will as there is an awful lot of awareness in that area and I'm sure if anything happens to rasie suspicion it will be squashed immediately.

That place is locked down. The cut off the line yesterday, I didn't hear how that went though. Someone told me that the people who got cut off like rebelled against the police but I don't think thats true. And also did you hear that the Presidents secret service men had to drop their guns. Though I'm sure they still got to keep some for protection matters. I hope all goes well over there tomorrow.

P.S. And how sweet are the Swiss guards? I'm glad they have like midievil dress....makes it more authentic.....

I just don't see a way to make anything fully protected, especially with that amount of people. Suffice to say, I can think of a myriad of ways to pull off something here, so I'm sure they can too. And no, I'm not going into them..just talking about that kind of stuff can likely get you arrested nowadays....

Now a days I wouldn't put it past any terror group not to think about targeting any large event.

Whether you believe in the tooth fairy or not, the Pope's funeral is still a major target and needs protecting. They don't just have those Swiss guards for show you know.

I wouldn't expect anything to happen but after 9/11 you can never be too careful.

[edit on 7/4/2005 by gowain]

Well, it is over. Nothing happened.
We can go back from overly paranoid to our normaly paranoid lives.