Pre-flight announcement needs to include passenger intervention

I said this on Sept 12/2001. I said this after the shoe bomber. I said
this after the "liquid" bomb threat.

Now I'm saying it after the crotch bomber.

The single most effective deterrent to keeping the "bad guys" (tm) off
the plane is to alter the pre-flight passenger announcement along these
lines:

"Passengers are requested to inform the crew of any suspicious behavior
they see or may be called upon by crew to subdue or incapacitate persons
that are threatening the safety and security of the aircraft."

When you hear that day after day, reconnaissance flight after
reconnaissance flight, it beings to sink in that you won't be able to
plan an effective in-flight catastrophe when that becomes the mindset of
the travelling public.

It's not tbe point that most passengers *ALREADY* are thinking along
those lines. The announcement is not really for their benefit. The
announcement is meant to spook those that are thinking about doing
something nasty in the future, and are themselves or sending out other
operatives to test various security proceedures, etc.

Just like the security theater that is performed not for the benefit of
the average passenger - it's performed as show of strength to spook the
would-be bad-guy, get him to sweat, act nervous, etc.

If security screeners really thought that they'd be discovering bombs,
explosives, etc, then they'd be dressed in bomb suits as they rummage
through gramma's purse at the security arch.

What surprises me is that we haven't really seen something that in
theory is more effective - which is to plant a bomb in a checked bag,
which could be set off via a timer or by a radio signal from the
bad-guy. Even during the much-publicised period during 2003 when it was
announced that much more invasive screening of checked bags was going to
start in Jan 2004, no bad-guys took advantage of that window of
opportunity to check a bomb for their suicide flight.

A bigger question is - why blow up a plane? Unless you own stock in
companies that make security scanning equipment (or are running a gov't
black-ops project to get congress to force these body-screeners into
airports), it's not clear what exactly the allure is in blowing up a
plane.

I wonder why the crotch bomber wasn't tasked with simply flying to
Detroit with the bomb safely in his pants, walk off the plane and head
the nearest shopping mall and blow himself up along with a few dozen
shoppers. Maybe while holding an iPhone in an Apple store screaming
"God is Great!" while those around him can capture his performance on a
camera phone. Maybe don't even fly him to the US - put him on a cruise
ship instead.

The moozlem idiots need to start leaving planes alone. They need to get
a clue that it's not working. And do it before air travel becomes an
absolute pain in the ass for everyone (pun intended).