September 11, 2001: Terrorists and hijackers run up a bill they cannot possibly pay

December 7, 1941: destruction of the U.S.S. Arizona It was fun for the perpetrators while it lasted...	... but the final bill was pretty expensive, wasn't it? (Nagasaki, 1945)
Online Memorial to Osama bin Laden (Added as U.S. and Northern Alliance troops surround his last rathole) January __   2002	George Bush: "I want bin Laden dead or alive." I think Patrick McGoohan put it much better as Edward Longshanks in Braveheart: "I want him alive; dead will do just as well." (Bin Laden is, however, no William Wallace.) What to do with bin Laden's remains: "Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms." ---Clint Eastwood as the Outlaw Josey Wales

This page

• Letter to the editor
• Write to Congress and the President
• This is not Patriotism: these people and organizations are doing the enemy's work for him, even if it's unintentional.
• Gun control advocates: where do YOU stand?
• Terrorists: what you accomplished
• How to kill "Shahids" on airplanes. (Does not constitute professional martial arts advice.)
• Capture or kill? Should passengers and crew try to capture hijackers alive?
• Poetry for the terrorists

Relief efforts

• Donate money to the New York chapter of the American Red Cross to help the victims. I gave $100.00 on 9/12/01.
• President's online American relief program (American Liberty Partnership)

Other pages: Omdurman.org:exposing the threat of militant "Islam," a defilement of mainstream Islam.
The Stentorian

• Downloadable royalty-free cartoon: "The Vermin Mock the Eagle's Wounds." Palestinian militants celebrate terror attacks.
• Downloadable royalty-free cartoon: "A Shahid (martyr) Gets His 70 Virgins"
• Downloadable royalty-free leaflet, "Helping the Enemy." Gun controllers make terrorists' jobs easier
• Downloadable royalty-free leaflet: "Not Here, You Don't." The Second Amendment versus terrorists
• Downloadable royalty-free leaflet: "Dial 911..." They dialed 911 and died.
• Downloadable royalty-free leaflet: "The Left Wants a New National Symbol." The Bald Eagle is too warlike, the gutless sheep, white-livered rabbit, and belly-crawling spineless worm are more to the Left's taste.
• Downloadable royalty-free leaflet: "Which Vision Statment Matches Yours?" The Left's involves Americans dying on their knees, ours sees them living on their feet.
• Know the enemy. Telling the good guys from the bad guys.
• Gun control: whose side are YOU on?
• Why the PLO and other terrorist groups consist of war criminals. Facts about the Middle East.
• Humor: George Bush's other panel of advisors, "Cowboys and Taliban," and more

Other people's pages:

• Column by Duncan Maxwell Anderson
• Open letter to terrorists
• Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
• Osama bin Laden, wanted by the FBI (click here for description)
• Karen's page, with some excellent commentary
• Mommy Liberty packs a gun

Letter to the Editor
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, 9/13/01

We should not succumb to impulse; we should maintain our perspective

The Palestinians who celebrated the recent destruction of the World Trade Center and Pentagon made a hateful and loathsome spectacle of themselves.

It was probably within our power to launch a warplane from an aircraft carrier and drop a laser-guided bomb into their midst. Doing so would have been an emotionally gratifying object lesson but our country does not punish people for what they say - and those cheering Palestinians knew that.

 Violent actions are, of course, another matter and the perpetrators of Tuesday's events deserve extermination as soon as we identify them. The world should remember what happened to the last group of people who did something like this to the United States on December 7, 1941. Our government's actions must remind the world of that, "pour encourager les autres." (The actual meaning is "as an example to" as opposed to "encourage.")

We must also remember that Tuesday's events were not perpetrated by Islamic militants, but by terrorists and war criminals who call themselves Muslims. They are about as Islamic as the Spanish Inquisition was Christian.

Technology exists for remote-control piloting of aircraft. It is probably within our ability to fit commercial aircraft with devices that could allow a pilot on the ground to override a plane's controls and land it safely no matter what the people in the cockpit did. This would deprive hijackers of their strongest threat, the ability to crash an aircraft by overpowering the crew and seizing the controls. It is probably within our ability to fit commercial aircraft with devices that could allow a pilot on the ground to override a plane's controls and land it safely no matter what the people in the cockpit did. This would deprive hijackers of their strongest threat, the ability to crash an aircraft by overpowering the crew and seizing the controls. It also might be offered as an option for private aircraft, e.g. to save the plane and its passengers if the pilot becomes incapacitated.

William A. Levinson

Write to the President and to Congress

Subject: Terrorist attack of 09/11/01
(1) Presidential Medal of Freedom for Flight 93 heroes
(2) Opposition to curtailment of civil liberties and privacy
(3) Recommendation: remote piloting capability for commercial aircraft

Dear President Bush, Rep. Kanjorski, Senator Specter, Senator Santorum,

(1) I believe that the passengers, both known and unknown, who attacked the hijackers on United Airlines Flight 93 should receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously. (I am aware that the Congressional Medal of Honor is reserved for military personnel.) Although they failed to save themselves and their fellow passengers, they prevented the terrorists from using the airplane to achieve their primary objective. They also set an example to be followed by passengers who find themselves in similar circumstances.

• Decorations might also be considered for New York City emergency workers who risked, or lost, their lives while responding to the World Trade Center attacks.
(2) I am absolutely against intrusive measures like gun control, national identity cards, authorization of law enforcement agencies to monitor E-mail and telephone conversations (without warrants), and the like. If out government invades its citizens' privacy and restricts their freedom then our enemies have won, even if we hunt down and exterminate every last one of them— a course of action I happen to favor, by the way.
• I am in favor of putting armed law enforcement officers on aircraft. Pilots and copilots also could be armed if they received specialized training on how to use a firearm safely in an aircraft that is full of innocent bystanders.
(3) The Federal Aviation Administration should investigate the feasibility of requiring remote piloting capability for all commercial aircraft.  (This also could be offered as an option for private aircraft.) In the event of a hijacking or other emergency, a ground-based pilot could take control of the aircraft and land it safely no matter what happened in its cockpit. This would deprive hijackers of their strongest threat, the threat of crashing the plane and killing everyone aboard. It also could save private (single-pilot) planes in the event of the pilot's incapacity due, for example, to a heart attack.

On gun control and our current situation:

The terrorists deliberately used aircraft that were full of unarmed men, women, and children, as suicide missiles with which to kill other civilians. There are obviously no compunctions that would stop these monsters from shooting up a hospital, church, synagogue, day care center, school, nursing home, shopping mall, or similar building or area. One of these "shahids" (martyrs) could do a lot of damage before police arrived and dealt with him. An armed citizen with a CCW (carry concealed weapon) permit, or a neighbor with a firearm in his/her home, could intervene far more quickly.

As far as I am concerned, any politician who still advocates more gun control is (through misguided actions as opposed to intention— terrorists have no friends in any American political party) aiding the enemy by making it easier for "shahids" to kill our citizens. The same applies to the following organizations (by no means a comprehensive list), and I hope they will at least stand neutral on the Second Amendment if they cannot bring themselves to support it:
 

• American Jewish Congress *‡
• American Medical Association President Richard Corlin, MD*
• Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (CPHV), aka Handgun Control Incorporated, aka Brady Campaign
• Doctors Against Handgun Injury (DAHI)
• Million Mom March (to merge with the CPHV), currently opposes CCW permits even for citizens who pass a background check.
• Physicians for Social Responsibility
• Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) *‡
• Violence Policy Center*


* believed to be 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
‡ As a Jewish American, I encourage these organizations to understand why Ma'alot was the last notable (or even the last) school shooting in Israel, even though there are plenty of "shahids" who would doubtlessly shoot up an Israeli school if they could. Hint: it doesn't involve gun-free school zones.

Regards,
 
 

William A. Levinson
 

The following people and organizations are doing the enemy's work for him. The following are malicious and they are outright scum.
 

• War profiteers
• The gas stations that raised their prices to $4 or $5 a gallon on the day of the attack. I would have photographed them (business name and price) and posted the photos on the Internet (while giving copies to their competitors).
• People who attack Arab-Americans and American Muslims (perhaps not malicious, just grossly ignorant and brutal)
• Who are they really helping by lashing out, sometimes violently, at fellow loyal American citizens?
• It's cowardly; their victims are peaceful people, not terrorists or terrorist supporters..
• For those calling for internment or expulsion of Arab-Americans, remember what we did to Japanese-Americans in 1941? Our country is ashamed of that, and rightly so.
• Identity thieves
• They asked for social security numbers for World Trade Center bombing victims, on the pretense of trying to help locate them!

THEY detest war as a very brutal thing; and which, to the reproach of human nature, is more practised by men than by any sort of
beasts. They, in opposition to the sentiments of almost all other nations, think that there is nothing more inglorious than that glory that is
gained by war. And therefore though they accustom themselves daily to military exercises and the discipline of war-- in which not only
their men but their women likewise are trained up, that in cases of necessity they may not be quite useless--yet they do not rashly engage
in war, unless it be either to defend themselves, or their friends, from any unjust aggressors; or out of good-nature or in compassion
assist an oppressed nation in shaking off the yoke of tyranny.

-Sir Thomas More, Utopia

MARY LEIGH BLEK, Million Mom March:  "The gun lobby has been talking for 40 minutes.  During that time, 40 people have died from the use of small arms and light weapons in this country.  That figure, not the statement of those representatives, is further proof that this country is at war."

I know you would not knowingly help the enemies of the United States; the scum who perpetrated the terrorism have no friends in this country. You might do so through misguided actions. For example, during the Second World War, a stranger who asked when a certain ship could be a Nazi spy who would then tell a waiting U-boat. That's why Second World War posters said, "Loose lips sink ships."

Think about the subhumans who perpetrated the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. They thought nothing of hijacking airplanes full of unarmed men, women, and children, and then flying those airplanes into buildings full of more civilians. Do you think that anyone like them, e.g. sleeper agents in the United States, would have any qualms about walking into a school, hospital, church, synagogue, nursing home, office, or shopping mall, and opening fire? If you agitate for disarmament of your fellow citizens you will make that monster's job all that much easier.

The heroes on Flight 93 didn't survive, although their courageous actions may well have saved others on the ground. That armed citizen with the CCW (Carry Concealed Weapon) permit might be tomorrow's hero when some monster starts shooting (or knifing, or bombing). Do you want to be responsible for disarming the hero/heroine?

Terrorists: what you accomplished

You killed several thousand of our citizens, about twice as many as the treacherous Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. These are our only irreplaceable losses.

1. Do you remember what happened to the perpetrators of that treacherous attack on our military forces? Yours murdered civilians: unarmed men, women, and children.

You caused perhaps $15 or $20 billion in damage. To a country with a gross domestic product (GDP) on the order of eight trillion dollars, that is negligible. $15 or $20 billion is pocket change to the mightiest economy on earth.

1. You even created construction jobs to stimulate our economy, we will have to repair the damage you did.
2. You've also increased sales of American flags, firearms, and ammunition. Just what we need to get our economy going again!

Unlike the Japanese, you did not injure any part of our Armed Forces... the ones that will soon be coming to kill you.

You destroyed the tallest buildings in the world. We will replace them or even build better ones. You will not be alive to see them.

"As for what a true martyr can expect, Chief Mufti of the Palestinian Authority Police, Sheik Abd Al-Salam Skheidm, spelled it out in 1999. "From the moment his first drop of blood spills, he feels no pain and he is absolved of all his sins; he sees his seat in heaven; he is spared the  tortures of the grave; he is spared the horrors of the Day of Judgment; he is married to 70 black-eyed women; he can vouch for 70 of his family members to enter paradise; he earns the crown of glory, whose precious stone is worth all  the world." (Mona Charen, "U.S. needs to  recognize differences between Palestinian, Israeli responses.")   Click here for FBI "Wanted" information for Osama bin Laden. Warning: he is presumed to be armed and dangerous.

Q: How can you tell when a terrorist is well hung? A: You can't get your finger between his neck and the noose. Given the popularity of the Lord of the Rings movies, I couldn't resist the following. Given the amazing effectiveness of Yankee technology and innovation, you realize of course that we COULD have something like this:

How to Kill Terrorists on Airplanes

First, adopt the right mindset:
 
The press, academe, and the law enforcement establishment preach: Do not fight back! On the street, in your home, on the airplane, on the high seas, anywhere, anytime. Do not fight back! You may be hurt.
Of course you may be hurt. You may be killed. As my daughter put it just last week: "Big deal. You expect to live forever?"
---Colonel Jeff Cooper, To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth
 
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
...Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height.
---King Henry V, Act III, Scene 2

The following does not constitute professional martial arts advice, I am not a professional martial arts instructor.

Several things should be available in magazine racks and carry-on luggage that, while they do not constitute weapons by any stretch of the imagination, can be converted into such for use against hijackers. Note that the FAA is now banning pocket knives of any kind, although a formerly legal pocket knife (under 4 inches or 10 cm) is more a tool than a weapon.

It certainly lacks the stopping power to deliver an immediately incapacitating wound unless its user gets very lucky. If a hijacker stabs you with one you are very unlikely to die or suffer permanent injury, and the sight of your fellow passengers beating the hijacker to death should take your mind off any discomfort for a while.

This information should not be helpful to "shahids" because they will be far outnumbered by their intended victims, who will have access to similar items. And that is the idea. It's doubtful that anyone is going to brandish a laptop computer, camera, magazine, etc. and announce, "This is a hijack!"  

• Heavy items like laptop computers and cameras can be turned into weapons. A metal camera can be held in the hand and used as one might use a rock. Drive the edge of the laptop into the terrorist's head. A blow to the throat may crush the hijacker's windpipe and result in death. A blow to the base of the skull from behind also is good. Remember (when hitting with anything) to hit through and not at the target. If you aim at the throat, for example, pretend that you want to hit the back of the hijacker's neck.
• A tightly rolled-up magazine might be useful for thrusting (whacking the hijacker is unlikely to do much good), especially into the face and throat. A rolled magazine into the hijacker's eye will cause considerable pain and may incapacitate him long enough for someone to finish him. (So will the points of most writing instruments.) A thrust anywhere into the face is likely to cause considerable pain and distraction, although it is not likely to put him down. The idea is to give another passenger a chance to get him from the side or from behind.
• If you get an opportunity to jump a shahid from behind, consider taking off your belt (men) and making it into a noose. Throw it over the hijacker's head and pull tight with both hands while keeping a foot or knee in the middle of the terrorist's back. (This may also keep some distance between you and him if he has a knife.) Keep pulling until he goes down and stops moving, and then perhaps another minute or so to make sure. Other passengers should cooperate by occupying his hands so he can't get the belt off his neck.
• If a hijacker is brought down, he may be stomped to death. Remember to stamp as if you're aiming at the floor of the aircraft, not at the hijacker's body. Always remember to hit through, not at.
• It is illegal to carry pepper spray, tear gas, or spray paint into the passenger cabin but spraying anything into the hijacker's face will slow him up for at least a few seconds, whereupon he can be mobbed and beaten to death. Even a drink (preferably alcoholic or carbonated) will disorient him for a moment. Powder (e.g. foot powder) should have the same effect as dust or dirt in the eyes.
• TSA regulations do not allow spray paint in carry-on luggage, or even in checked luggage (probably because a container with compressed gas is a hazard).
  
• If the aircraft has a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher, this may be sprayed into the hijacker's face. The discharge is extremely cold and it should cause temporary blindness, while inhalation of the carbon dioxide will have unpleasant effects as well. If the horn can be broken off the extinguisher first, this is even better. I was told in a laboratory safety class that the discharge from that can cut flesh.
• A cane (e.g. borrowed from a handicapped person) is probably more effective than a knife. Thrusting, as if with a bayoneted rifle, is likely to be more effective than cutting. Remember to hit at an imaginary target inside or behind the hijacker's body. Metal-tipped umbrellas can be used similarly but are likely to buckle if thrust into the body. The face is a better target.
• Your seat's flotation cushion can be used as a shield against knives, if the hijackers have them. Its two straps can, in fact, probably be held on your weaker (usually left) arm like a medieval shield.
• Remember, the human is by instinct a social herd animal-- or pack animal. Hijackers can herd docile passengers like sheep but passengers who adopt the mindset of a pack of wolves can maul and kill hijackers. Col. Jeff Cooper's To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth says that passengers of an Air Iberia flight killed two hijackers, whose bodies were moved out of the way by the crew. The flight attendents then passed out free drinks ("Now comes Miller Time"). Give way to the mob instinct, remember that there is sometimes "a time to kill."
• Don't take the law into your own hands if you render a hijacker totally helpless but don't give him the benefit of the doubt either. Many of them are willing to blow themselves (and you) up if their mission is obviously failing. Don't endanger your fellow passengers or your flight crew by taking unnecessary chances. Furthermore, it's doubtful that any jury will convict you of "excessive force" no matter what you do to them.
•  A commercial pilot's advice, from The Washington Times www.washtimes.com 19 Sept 2001 "Aboard Flight 564," Peter Hannaford Published 9/19/2001: "If someone were to stand up,brandish something such as a plastic knife and say 'This is a hijacking' or words to that effect here is what you should do:  Every one of you should stand up and immediately throw things at that person - pillows, books, magazines, eyeglasses, shoes - anything that will throw him off balance and distract his attention. If he has a confederate or two, do the same with them. Most important:  get a blanket over him, then wrestle him to floor and keep him there. We'll land the plane at the nearest  airport and the authorities will take it from there."
• Letter to the editor from Brad Rohdenburg, Captain, American Airlines, Wall Street Journal, 9/21/01: "As We Become Sheep, Wolves Will Eat Us." He says that other pilots are sharpening belt buckles, screwdrivers, and pens "so that they might have a prayer of defending their $30 million jets from guys with boxcutters." My comment: you don't need to sharpen the screwdriver to have an effective penetrating weapon (and you can reverse it and hit the bad guy with the handle, sort of like using a roll of quarters). Also, they're illegal in some jurisdictions ("dangerous devices/ instruments"). A sharpened screwdriver has no conceivable legal purpose but an unsharpened screwdriver is a tool. (As I understand, however, the TSA does not allow passengers to carry tools of any size, so don't bring any kind of screwdriver aboard. The tiny jeweler's screwdrivers that are found in eyeglass repair kits are listed as an exception.)
• Sporting goods such as golf clubs, ski poles, and baseball bats are not allowed as carry-on items. Martial arts weapons are not permitted either.
  
• From talk.politics.guns: 12-ounce soft drink cans (preferably full and unopened) become 3/4 pound missiles when thrown at the hijackers. [Update 11/07/03. The Transportation Security Agency's site says that soda cans may NOT be brought aboard aircraft. I assume the reason is that the can might contain something other than a beverage, and the contents cannot be seen in an X-ray.] They can also be put into a sturdy garment (jacket, shirt, trouser leg... I'm not familiar with nylon stockings, how strong are they???) and wielded as a club. A new graphic to add to the pictoral safety instructions in airplanes:

Per Marc "Animal" MacYoung, a bar of soap inside a sock also makes a good sap or blackjack.

 A heavy, shapened belt buckle. A belt. Many synthetic material shoe and boot soles have steel reinforcement inside that can be revealed by removing the insole. A high heeled woman's shoe to the temple. Order a whiskey or a rum straight, if availabrle, and save to use as a flaming weapon. Spitting a
high alcohol drink into a flame is pretty impressive. Carry a well used smoking pipe with you  that has a sharp pointed metal filter. I used to own one that had a needle point sharp piece of steel inside. Carry a cane. Select brief cases with easy to reove metal trim that can be used as weapons. Pack
clothing that is highly flamable in carryon luggage. Burning nylon flung overhead releases burning blobs of melted nylon.

Carry a roll of quarters. A leather belt wrapped around the knuckles of your hand, or used as a garote. A pair of panty hose asa a garote, or as a sling
for that can of soda or roll of quarters. [Update 11/07/03. The Transportation Security Agency's site says that soda cans may NOT be brought aboard aircraft. I assume the reason is that the can might contain something other than a beverage, and the contents cannot be seen in an X-ray.]

Sharpen the edges of an inactive credit card. [Personal comment; I would be reluctant to carry anything that authorities could justifiably construe as having no legitimate purpose.] Carry items made of hard plastic that can be broken to form sharp edges. Pour that mini bottle of whiskey onto a magazine, light the magazine on fire and throw it at the hijacker(s) to distract him(them). You'd be surprised how sharp even soft plastic is if it is torn. Ever slice your hand tearing the soft plastic top off of one of those water cooler bottles?

Cayene pepper. Black pepper. Salt. All of these are great if you throw them in an attacker's eyes.

• Sap or blackjack: a bar of soap inside a sock. A shoe also works in this role. Even a blow from a tennis shoe is painful and can stun if it strikes the head, and a leather shoe hits even harder.
• Yawara stick: "a hand-held hunk of hard wood or iron that increases the hardness of the hand when striking." A hairbrush, roll of coins, or lipstick container can fill this role. (Other items mentioned, like pipe fittings, socket wrenches, and steel dowels may be perceived as having no legitimate purpose in carry-on luggage. I think TSA regulations prohibit any kind of tools in carry-on luggage.) The author says that a blunt yawara stick can be used for a "spike punch," which concentrates the blow's force in a one square inch area (or less): "Be careful of these blows to the head. The spike punch can literally punch a hole in someone's head. If they die, it could mean a murder rap for you." Of course, in the case of a hijacking, we are talking justifiable homicide (protecting dozens of innocent passengers and crew members), so a fatal outcome is desirable.
• Ripper: Keys between the fingers (with the keys protruding). (Fighting rings also are effective but I wouldn't vouch for their legality in all jurisdictions, or of their acceptability under the new FAA security standards. These are heavy metal rings with eagle faces that have beaks and talons, or Vikings with horned helmets and forked beards.)
• Garrotte: A man's tie can be used to give a terrorist the equivalent of what was once known as a "necktie party" (hanging). So can a shoelace or belt. Caution: the hijacker can defeat this by putting his chin on his chest if you're not fast enough.
• Playing cards: "Playing cards, believe it or not, can be frisbeed pretty hard. In fact, you can actually kill people with them if you get good enough. It's a matter of speed." The reference says that a man could throw cards at two hundred miles an hour, and that he succeeded in killing an antelope with a card. Any ultimate frisbee players out there want to give it a try against targets and let me know? (UncleRomulus "at" stentorian.com). Probably something you want to practice before you really need it.
• Liquids: Any drink, thrown into the hijacker's eyes, is good. If you don't have a drink, spitting into the hijacker's eyes is a good way to introduce yourself.
• Peanuts: the salted kind, thrown into the hijacker's eyes.

Capture or kill?

(This is not legal advice, I am not a lawyer.) It's illegal to take the law into one's own hands, e.g. by lynching a hijacker who is obviously unable to offer further harm. "Obviously unable to offer further harm" is, however, a big requirement:
• As shown by suicide bombings in Israel and four airplane crashes on September 11, 2001, I think a "reasonable person" (the standard for justifiable homicide) can assume that the hijacker will kill himself and as many nearby people as possible rather than be captured. He may have a bomb with which to do this if his mission is going bad. An attempt to take him prisoner could therefore endanger you and everyone around you, if not the entire airplane. As I see it, no one has a moral obligation to take that risk and, if I was on a jury, I'd say no one has a legal obligation to take that risk. Conclusion: KILL.
• See above. During the Second World War, Japanese soldiers would sometimes feign surrender. When they got close to their prospective captors, they'd take out grenades and blow themselves up with as many Americans as they could get in the lethal radius. To take a Japanese prisoner, therefore, the Americans would keep him out of grenade range, probably with a couple of M-1 rifles aimed at him in case he tried anything. Then they'd tell him to strip to the waist (and possibly remove his pants) and turn around so they could see that he didn't have any explosives. Only then was he allowed to approach the Americans. On an airplane, you have no firearms with which to hold the hijacker at thirty or forty paces, which you don't have either. Conclusion: KILL, even if the terrorist says he surrenders.
• Since he knows your first inclination will be to pinion or tie his hands if you capture him, he may have a way to set off his bomb that you cannot possibly imagine. Killing him endangers you and the bystanders only if he has a dead-man switch, one that functions when he dies. One that senses his vital functions (heartbeat, respiration, temperature) and sets off his bomb if he dies is an example, but this would have to be pretty sophisticated. I'd suspect that letting him live is even more dangerous because, even if he doesn't have a dead-man switch, he might easily have a manual trigger.
• Remember that President Bush has authorized the Air Force to shoot down any commercial planes that are apparently going to be used as kamikazes. You cannot afford to let the hijackers get control of the airplane. If they have control you must take it away from them as quickly as possible, with no nonsense and no delays. If some prosecutor actually objects to your actions, the President's order can be introduced as evidence in court (to show that a "reasonable person" would indeed be in fear of his/her life). Conclusion: KILL.
• NEW (9/6/04). An account of the destruction of two Russian airplanes by terrorists says that at least one of the aircraft transmitted a hijacking alert, after which it was destroyed by an explosion. This suggests that the terrorist(s) tried to take over the aircraft but was defeated by the passengers, whereupon he/they executed their "Plan B"-- blow up the aircraft to kill everyone on board and avoid being taken alive. (If the terrorists had just wanted to blow up the aircraft, they would not have announced a hijacking.) This reinforces the undesirability of risking the aircraft and all aboard by trying to take the terrorists alive. Conclusion: KILL.
  

The Dead-Man Switch: Your Worst Nightmare

The worst case hijacking that I can envision is one in which a hijacker has his hand on a button that (he says) will explode his bomb if he releases it. If you rush him and get him (he says), you'll be blown up, and so will the airplane. The following is not macho talk (macho is really an immature form of what Machiavelli calls virtu, or decisiveness and resolution) but simple engineering/ managerial decision science.

There is a saying in chess that the threat is stronger than the execution. Consider the following possibilities if you rush him with the intention of killing him:

• Worst case: his bomb is real. You are no worse off than you would be if you allow him to complete his mission. Maybe the airplane survives, maybe it doesn't. It depends on how big his bomb is and where it explodes. That's better than letting the terrorists use the plane as a bomb or deliberately fly it into the ground (as they did when they were losing control of Flight 93) because that leaves zero chance of survival.
• Best case: he was bluffing. You live, he dies, and the airplane, flight crew, and your fellow passengers survive.

My inclination would be to ask the pilot to descend to a fairly low altitude, equalize the cabin pressure with the outside, get a door open, and throw the terrorists overboard in case one is wearing a time bomb. (He doesn't need to be free or even alive to set it off!) This might be safer than trying to undress them to search for a bomb... and what do you do if you find one? Remember, if they plan to crash the plane into some buildings, they don't intend for the plane to land safely at its destination.

 

"Ten Little Terrorists" (per "Ten Little Indians") Ten little terrorists went out to dine; A round of .223 hit one, and then there were nine. Nine little terrorists sat up very late; An F-15 strafed one, and then there were eight. Eight little terrorists dreaming of Heaven; A laser-guided bomb sent one there, and then there were seven. Seven little terrorists chopping up sticks; A Gatling gun chopped one in half, and then there were six. Six little terrorists playing with a hive; A Zuni missile stung one, and then there were five. Five little terrorists going in for law; A Marine bayoneted one, and then there were four. Four little terrorists going out to sea; A Los Angeles-class torpedoed one, and then there were three. Three little terrorists walking in Kabul; An Abrams tank crushed one, and then there were two. Two little terrorists sitting in the sun; Napalm frizzled one, and then there was one. One little terrorist left all alone; A cluster bomb buried him, and then there were none.

Click here to hear Osama bin Laden speak!

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