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Man Charged in Model Airplane Plot To Bomb Pentagon
garymortimer writes "A 26-year-old Massachusetts man with a physics degree was arrested and charged Wednesday with plotting an attack on the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol with remote-controlled model aircraft, authorities said. Rezwan Ferdaus, a U.S. citizen from Ashland, Massachusetts, planned to use model aircraft filled with C-4 plastic explosives. As a result of an undercover FBI investigation, Ferdaus, who has a physics degree from Northeastern University in Boston, was charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda for attacks on U.S. soldiers overseas. His federal public defender couldn't be reached immediately for comment."
Well shit does this mean I have to get groped before using my RC airplanes? I hope they are willing to at least give me a happy ending if so. I'm tired of them being teases.
I have to wonder the nature of the situation when the charges are for, "attempting to provide material support", as in, was he in contact with anyone who was actually planning to bomb anything, or was everyone he interacted with affiliated with law enforcement, and they took a disgruntled man and groomed him into the position they're not charging him for.
We'll probably never really know, which is why I really dislike conspiracy type charges when there aren't several people charged.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
A real, full-size airliner barely put a dent in the Pentagon. A remote controlled plane the size of a Cessna full of C4 would break a few windows.
This guy was a physics major and can't calculate how much C4 it would take to punch a hole in a solid concrete building?
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
It's too bad that a fun hobby like RC aircraft was co-opted by the military for use in target drones and later surveillance aircraft and now weapons platforms. Of course one understands the reasons - they are cheap, well no now they are $100 million each but they used to be cheap, they are quiet, and you don't need to put a pilot in danger or have the whole logistical set up of a full airbase to support one. At some point the airbase itself becomes a target that needs to be defended. A drone can be launched or recovered from almost anywhere - depending on the drone.
It was an idea that made sense. But ideas grow, just like the concept of lighting gunpowder behind a ball of lead inside a tube. The basic properties of drones remain - almost anyone can fly one. They are cheap. They are quiet. And you can't put a hellfire missile on one but you certainly could put a couple pounds of explosives, and fly it absolutely anywhere. And I mean anywhere. If the military can do it, so can you. Because of this innate problem, my prediction is that RC aircraft - owning one, manufacturing one, or flying one, is about to be grabbed by the government and handed to the military. Just like today guns are under strict control, RC aircraft will soon be under strict control. And that's sad because the vast, vast majority of RC aircraft are flown by hobbyists for fun.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Because denying religious people an education will make the world a safer, more peaceful and forward thinking place? I seriously doubt that.
I'm more inclined to think equal opportunities and education for all, regardless of their beliefs, is a very positive step forward.
Well some remote controlled airplanes are actually pretty big. Here is one with a 12' wing span. It could lift say 7 kg with no real problem. http://www.hobby-lobby.com/telemaster12.htm Maybe cut that to 4kg and use electric power and if you covered it in light grey you no one would see it until impact. but 4 or 7 kg would kill anyone outside near the impact point. You would aim it at an entrance time the impact for say 5:50 pm in the winter so that it is dark, Sure it wouldn't blow up the entire building but it would still suck to die or have your arm or leg blown off.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
A clear triumph for America's powers of cultural assimilation! While our barbaric foreign enemies carry out suicide attacks, our beneficent influence induces the local ones to attempt a weaponized UAV program! Heck, one more generation and they'll probably be saving the bombs for use against Planned Parenthood, and exercising their second amendment rights against other targets, just like the good, god-fearing folks at home who are sensible enough to fear the right god...
Clearly a mentally disturbed individual, targeted, groomed and his mental delusions preyed upon to create a opportunity for public terrorism promotion and of course prop the ego and future careers of a couple of agents.
Real indicators of delusion, using a $6,500 dollar model aircraft, grandiose plots with little action (the agents did pretty much everything) and, no indication of employment whilst living with parents.
The really disturbing things about the way it is being presented are, ohh look he had a physics degree (smells of targeting all university students in science areas as potential threats) and, he took photos of buildings (why he didn't just use street view remains or the thousands of available photos on line are further indicators of deranged thinking). Also they were careful to exclude from the press releases any indication of mental disturbance in the individual, even though it seems pretty obvious.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
As I understand it, all Islamic terrorists arrested inside the U.S. were put up to it by the FBI.
You see, the FBI prefers to train it's own terrorists because doing so is far easier than catching the real deal, who might be dangerous, or hard to find, or worse not exist at all. Don't you feel safer with the FBI making sure there are terrorists to catch?
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Well, I just watched the video on CNN. The "models" were 1/10 scale replicas of an F4 Phantom and an F86 Sabre. The plan was to use them as drones, and the explosions were mostly just a decoy. He and his helpers would then use the assault rifles to fire on people while they left the buildings, since you can bet your butt the pentagon and, especially, the Capitol building have evacuation procedures and that people would be coming out.
Besides, the goals of "terrorism," ever since the Anglo-Irish War, has always been to cause the enemy to grossly over-react, thus causing domestic support for your oppressors to erode. Example: in 1922, the IRA assassinated 6 British special police within the span of about an hour. The auxiliary police and army then shot up a gaelic football match, killing civilians. There was then backlash in England and a loss of support for continued occupation of Ireland.
This plan really wasn't that bad, all things considered -- especially when you realize that any semblance of a successful attack on those two targets would bring down a crack-down on civil liberties so fast we'd all start reminiscing about when we had all those freedoms left under the PATRIOT ACT.
So in other words, you feel your atheism gives you superior morality.
His atheism allows him to question morality, his own and others, as opposed to morals dictated by a religion that must be adhered to without question.
--
Religion is regarded by the common people as true,
by the wise as false,
and by the rulers as useful.
— Lucius Annæus Seneca.
Terrorism, the new religion.
you feel your atheism gives you superior morality
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.