It's Just A Matter of Time

I’m a little late getting this posted but here goes. I was thinking about this this morning and wondering how long it would be before reporters in all fields start discussing at length the methods the terrorists used to circumvent any security measures in the London bombs. I have noticed that reporters think they need to reveal every aspect of how things work, even if it is going to place lives in the balance. I was guessing that by 0930 the endless stream of talking heads would be pontificating on exactly what went wrong and how security measures were avoided.

On another thread one of the posters questioned the ability of terrorists to bring down airplanes by placing a bomb on one of them. For a minute I thought about answering him but realized that my answer could place others in danger. I can think of at least a dozen ways of bringing down an airplane but why would I want to publish those ideas where bad guys can read them?

Did we really need to know that the reason the cell phones in London were not working was because the government had them shut down. This was done so if bombs were set to be detonated by cell phone they would not be able to do it. Now the terrorists know this and if they did not plan for it this time they can have an alternate fuse set for the next time. I was listening to the radio news a few minutes ago and it was reported that two devices were found that did not detonate. Was this because they shut the cell phones off? I hope we never find out because we just don’t need to know that level of detail.

Far too many talking heads are getting on TV and running off at the mouth. Blair and Bush ought to get on TV immediately and tell our respective populations that no security information is going to be released to the public and ask the press to keep their mouths shut. I wonder if a retired military officer who goes on TV and discusses at length security issues could be prosecuted for aiding the enemy? I have heard too many ex-military types speaking of specific tactics that our forces use to combat enemy situations. If the information is bogus that’s fine but if what they are saying has some truth to it they should shut the hell up.  

When the President came to speak at Veterans Memorial Coliseum here in Phoenix no security information was released to the public. I was fine with that. It makes it very hard to plan to attack someone if you don’t have any information about how they are armed or how many personnel they have. Some of that information is available but it’s something you have to go looking for and I’m not going to tell you where.

It won’t surprise me when the press starts prattling on about exactly which cameras were evaded while terrorists planted bombs. They will get on TV and tell exactly how, where, and what was done to blow people up. They will discuss any disguises used by the terrorists and exactly what it was they did to avoid being caught. This will help the terrorists the next time as they can then focus on what they did right and what to avoid the next time they decide to kill innocent people.

The terrorists don’t need an after operation debriefing they will be able to watch the evening news and let the talking heads (liberal and conservative) define what worked and what could be done different. One of the talking heads is sure to analyze how the bombs could have been placed in a better position that would have killed hundreds more. They will get a structural engineer or chemical engineer on TV to explain just how they could have turned that tank of chlorine nearby into a deadly secondary killer, or how to collapse the tunnel more thoroughly to kill many more people and make rescue impossible.

Its just a matter of time…