[funsec] Fun with (In)Security

[David Lodge]

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 00:09:23 -0000, Drsolly <drsollyp at drsolly.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Jan 2006, Paul Schmehl wrote:
>> I don't mean to minimize the threat.  There are definitely bad men who  
>> want
>> to sneak into the country and kill a lot of people (as London  
>> unfortunately
>> learned)
> If you're talking about the 7/7 bombings, we learned nothing of the kind.
> The bombers were British born. Indeed, one of the most chilling things
> I've ever heard, was the video tape made by one of the bombers. The scary
> thing wasn't what he said, that was the usual stuff. The scary thing was
> the very distinctive and totally Birmingham (Brummy) accent he spoke  
> with.

As DrSolly said: the 7/7 and 21/7 bombers were British born - from Brum or  
West Yorkshire. The difference between the two attacks was that 7/7 was an  
organisation linked to Al Qaeda; the 21/7 was a copy-cat attack from a  
non-Al Qeada organistion.

The other thing to note is that the attacks could have been *much* worse.

What I have a problem with is the UK's reaction to the attacks - we have  
lived under a terrorist threat for over 35 years (the IRA), this has  
caused a larger loss of life than was caused in 7/7, and a massive amount  
of property damage and disruption (anybody remember the Manchester bomb -  
it took over 5 years to recover from that). So, why are we panicking now?  
AQ et al are a subtly different tactic and different aim from the IRA,  
this does not mean that all of a sudden we should drop our civil rights.

The terrorists made one other mistake: after 35 years bombs don't really  
scare the UK people. Firearms, on the other hand, freak the shit out of us.

dave