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A comment on Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic Explosives.

Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by pmichaud on Friday December 10, 2010 @07:16PM (#1993739)
Would it be difficult to simply shape the plastic explosive around a part of your body to make it blend? I don't mean to be crass, but for example, what if you created a penis shaped sheath around your real penis? Wouldn't that just look like a larger penis to the scanner? Breasts would be easier maybe. But what about just fat rolls on the belly of a fat man?

This technology is unworkable in practice.

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Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by Estragon on Friday December 10, 2010 @07:52PM (#1993794)
Anyway, this is ignoring the obvious hiding place which the backscatter machine can't possibly resolve: the rectum. You could store a huge amount of plastic explosive in there in a form which would be very easy to retrieve (just shape it like a stiff shit.)

Can't wait till they plug this hole. (So to speak.)

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Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by tptacek on Friday December 10, 2010 @10:01PM (#1994019)
Christopher Hitchens wrote an article for Slate a week ago pointing out that a recent (successful) assassination in Saudi was carried out with a body cavity PETN bomb.
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Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by slug on Friday December 10, 2010 @11:32PM (#1994173)
If it's I think it is, it was an unsuccessful attempt of assassination of a Saudi prince, with a high rank in the anti-terrorism agency, although he barely escaped.

Supposedly the assailant was thoroughly searched and finding nothing suspicious , the security people let him approach the prince. The bomb was detonated by remote control, through a message or call to his cellphone.

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Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by scdlbx on Saturday December 11, 2010 @04:12AM (#1994516)
The assailant's body did a pretty good job of containing the explosion. The assailant didn't make it, but everyone else relatively okay.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/28/eveningnews/main53...

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Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by lkoujhghjk on Friday December 10, 2010 @10:09PM (#1994029)
why bother when you have 1000s of cleaners, baggage handlers, caterers etc who are allowed onto the plane unsearched and unchecked.

Of course they are subject to extensive background checks = are you willing to work for less than minimum wage?

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Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by yummyfajitas on Saturday December 11, 2010 @09:08AM (#1994814)
I don't know about the other job categories, but fast food workers on the wrong side of the security checkpoint do get screened every day before work.
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Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by lkoujhghjk on Saturday December 11, 2010 @11:43AM (#1995114)
They go through the security checkpoint though - have you ever seen an xray machine and metal detector at the road entrance that all the tankers, food trucks, fedex and baggage arrives through?
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Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by gojomo on Friday December 10, 2010 @08:41PM (#1993887)
Thankfully, Al-Qaeda has no familiarity with heroin smuggling 'mules'. Wait, what's that you say? They've got base camps in the world's major heroin-producing region and make money from heroin? Hmm.
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Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by mahmud on Saturday December 11, 2010 @09:48AM (#1994884)
Heroine is not smuggled out of Afghanistan through rectums, no, it goes out in caravan trucks with security detail.
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Re:Backscatter Machines Not Effective at Detecting Plastic E... by jonhendry on Friday December 10, 2010 @11:38PM (#1994185)
Why bother removing it?

Given the clueless people usually used for bombings, the guy would probably drop it down the airplane toilet by accident and lose it.

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