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To: KLP who wrote (2742)	11/9/2002 9:41:11 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6901

Hi again KLP. CB had written: <I just woke up from a nightmare. I dreamed that Al Qaeda's next big hit was a bunch of nuclear power plants all over the country, and world wide. In my dream, they had nuclear weapons. > I was pointing out that the terrorists were not too bright [as she commented about Richard Reid] and did very well. I don't think they'll do so well again. So far, they haven't. Bali was pretty nasty, but such numbers have been killed in bombings for decades. The Jews did as much in the King David Hotel. Tim McVeigh as many in Oklahoma. There have been many, many bombings with greater or lesser results. They don't have nuclear weapons [not from all indications so far anyway]. They certainly can't damage a bunch of nuclear reactors. It's important to keep them in perspective as more of a public nuisance than a public nightmare. Sure, we need to take reasonable care to reduce their opportunities and to catch them, but we don't need to go nuts. For example, putting a Sky Marshall on every flight is ridiculous. There isn't going to be another sky-jacking. Sky Marshalls are a waste of money. Better to give the pilot a gun if people are that worried. But the pilots have an axe in the cockpit and now that they have done what they should have done years ago [shut the cockpit door], there aren't going to be any forced entries. Especially with the doors strengthened and the passengers attacking the hijackers and the co-pilot swinging an axe as they try to get in. It used to amaze me that I could be sitting right behind the pilots, with the cockpit door open. I could have just stood up and been in the cockpit in charge of an aircraft. I didn't say anything at the time because aircrew are notoriously stupid and take any such comments as being a potential threat and rather than do the sensible thing which is figure out that yes, the door should be shut and locked, they'd probably attack me for drawing attention to a weakness and making a threat. In the name of safety and security, all sorts of stupid things are done, while they leave the stable door wide open in obviously risky places. While they had ridiculous levels of security on the ground, the stable door to the cockpit was open. Now they've shut the door since the horses have bolted and the Twin Towers have gone. Homeland Security could become Homeland Nightmare if the price of liberty is not paid [which is eternal vigilance against bureaucratic authoritarians using any excuse to get everyone goose-stepping and giving Nazi salutes]. Democracy should give adequate safeguard against excess [once the population notices that things have become excessive - if they do]. Mqurice