LAX To London Flight Delayed Over "Al-Quida" Wi-Fi Name

linuxwrangler writes A flight from LAX to London was delayed after a passenger reported seeing "Al-Quida Free Terror Nettwork" as an available hotspot name and reported it to a flight attendant. The flight was taken to a remote part of the airport and delayed for several hours but "after further investigation, it was determined that no crime was committed and no further action will be taken." That seems an awfully low threshold for disrupting air traffic, since wireless access points can be had for just a few dollars these days.

Comments

This was no AP.

[tibit]

wireless access points can be had for just a few dollars these days

What? I very much doubt this SSID was broadcast by a stand-alone AP. It was, likely, due to default behavior of old versions of Windows, setting up an ad-hoc network with an SSID of the last seen access point. Someone somewhere has jokingly set their SSID to "Al-Quida ...", and there was that one Windows-running laptop that someone had that picked up on that SSID and kept broadcasting it. Even if someone set such an SSID on purpose on their mobile device, it's still irrelevant and inactionable.

Delaying a flight over this shows how much technical ineptitude is there.

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, blame Microsoft for this.

Or, you know, every smartphone made in the last 5 years.

Re:This was no AP.

[AmiMoJo]

The image in TFA shows a phone seeing the network as an AP. Chances are someone with a phone set up AP mode (fairly standard on Android devices).

The whole thing is dumb. The name clearly states that the network is "Al-Quida Free", as in there is no Al-Quida in it. Incredible that they managed to spell "Al-Quida" correctly but misspelled "nettwork".

Re:This was no AP.

[marquisdepolis]

Maybe they were scared, scared I say, over the terrible spelling.

Re:This was no AP.

[bill_mcgonigle]

What? I very much doubt this SSID was broadcast by a stand-alone AP

Brace yourself: defending @timothy for a moment. *

His point wasn't that you need a certain piece of gear, but that for a few dollars (or as others are pointing out "zero dollars", which a few dollars approaches asymptotic to zero) you can incite bureaucrats to attack the air traffic system.

Which I guess is the major strategy of Al Qa'e'da - asymmetrical attacks - so timothy can expect Hydra to be by momentarily for relocation and reeducation.

* someday Slashcode will catch up with the aughts and the at-tag will link this comment as rendered from the database

Re:This was no AP.

[Lazere]

Wow, you must use a cheap airline.

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

No. They will ignore the fine itself as they likely can't pay, and if their stuff starts to be taken from them, they'll declare bankruptcy. They'll thus move from being an immature idiot to an immature idiot who has nothing left to lose.

I.e. precisely the opposite of the most beneficial outcome, which is to educate the guy and those who would do similar.

Punishment doesn't work. It is sadism for the punisher.

(And, yes, this is wrong behaviour. Even Alan Partridge got the terror squad arriving at his hotel when he registered under the name "the real IRA", because, well, some nefarious people tell the truth and speech has consequences. But those consequences don't have to themselves cause harm.)

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Delaying a flight over this shows how much technical ineptitude is there.

It also shows, however unfortunately, the futility of trying to protect everyone against everything all the time. Who needs to blow themselves up, or even risk the explicit criminal sanctions you'd face for making a bomb threat, when you can just co-opt some unwitting and otherwise innocent traveller's personal device somewhere outside a travel hub or other likely target for an attack?

If our threshold for fear has become so low that some kid's not-so-funny practical joke can now result in several hours of delays to long distance transportation, then apparently in a very literal sense the terrorists have already succeeded. Next you'll be telling me we spend time and money prosecuting angry travellers over tweets sent in frustration when airports are closed.

Re:This was no AP.

[Redmancometh]

Or rather the airline should have to refund a portion of everyone's ticket for the sheer ridiculousness of delaying a flight over this.

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

No shit, if that was Air Canada they'd take your house just for collateral.

Re:This was no AP.

[unixisc]

Ain't there 2 ways of parsing this? One is 'Al-Quida Free', but the whole name was 'Al-Quida Free Terror Nettwork'. In other words, it could easily be parsed as 'Al-Quida: Free Terror Nettwork'. In other words, terror is available for free. The misspellings don't mean much, since English usually ain't the first language of Jihadis.

Re:This was no AP.

[ameen.ross]

This is something that a 10-year old would do.

Re:This was no AP.

[king neckbeard]

How about they fine the idiot that reported a Wifi network as a terrorist threat instead?

Re:This was no AP.

[Z00L00K]

That's just stupid.

It's like stopping a flight because someone carries a newspaper with the headlines "Terror actions imminent" and then it's revealed that it's 10 years old.

Re:This was no AP.

[fastest fascist]

Which I guess is the major strategy of Al Qa'e'da - asymmetrical attacks

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WO... Per Osama Bin Laden, their goal is to bankrupt the USA. They seem to have achieved a pretty good ROI if the returns are counted as dollars spend by the US fighting Al Qaeda. They don't even need to do anything these days, just having their name mentioned can cause costly countermeasures to kick in.

Re:This was no AP.

[ZorroXXX]

Yes, that would be the real solution adressing the core problem.

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Losing what he has" is not a natural consequence of setting a stupid AP name - it's someone else making the separate, conscious decision to take stuff from him. They can tell him they're taking all his stuff because he set a stupid AP name, if they want, just as I can say I'm cutting off your arm because you're wearing blue, but it still is still a cruel non sequitur. It doesn't explain to him why he shouldn't be setting a stupid AP name. It doesn't enable him to be a more responsible, well-integrated member of society - in fact, it does precisely the opposite.

Pretty sure you're troll with the sexual assault would fix him bit, so I'll ignore it :D.

Re:This was no AP.

[MrNiceguy_KS]

The image in TFA shows a phone seeing the network as an AP. Chances are someone with a phone set up AP mode (fairly standard on Android devices).

That was my first thought. I know when I'm running my phone as a hot-spot, I have the SSID set to "FBI Surveillance Van 42".

Re:This was no AP.

[Richy_T]

Is that free as in beer or free as in speech?

Re:This was no AP.

[freakmn]

Which is exactly why it won't happen.

Re:This was no AP.

[tibit]

Very true. What should have happened, in an ideal world, and I'm not sarcastic here, was that a flight attendant would react to this "revelation" by looking at the customer and telling them "Are you fucking stupid?", perhaps in a more politically correct way. And that should have been the end of it.

Re:This was no AP.

[MrNiceguy_KS]

... for a few dollars (or as others are pointing out "zero dollars", which a few dollars approaches asymptotic to zero) you can incite bureaucrats to attack the air traffic system.

Cheap phones in AP mode with maliciously-chosen SSIDs, randomly distributed at airports = instant DoS attack against the US air travel system.

Doesn't really seem like Al Quida's style, but I imagine people at Amtrack and Greyhound might be interested.

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

Incredible that they managed to spell "Al-Quida" correctly but misspelled "nettwork".

It's also redundant. Al-Quida means "The Network", I've seen several cases were people jokingly set their network name to Al-Quida because of this.

Re:This was no AP.

[meta-monkey]

So you're saying Al-Qaeda is Cobra?

Re:This was no AP.

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

And real terrorists would broadcast they are in the vicinity by stating so loudly, of course.

Now do have a concern if the access point had been named "Good On You England No Terrorist Here".

Re:This was no AP.

[bruce_the_loon]

They didn't spell Al-Qaeda correctly at all. That looks like the spelling of someone who's only ever heard the name and spelled it the way they were taught English.

Re:This was no AP.

[codeButcher]

The third meaning. See my sig for details.

Re:This was no AP.

[NatasRevol]

The core problem being what?

Idiots scared of obvious troll APs?

Re:This was no AP.

[NatasRevol]

Who says they plot elaborate schemes that rarely come to fruition?

Those going bankrupt, or those sending up wild goose chases?

Re:This was no AP.

[NatasRevol]

I like the direct route. Many people don't get the subtlety of 'politically correct'.

Re:This was no AP.

[TheGratefulNet]

sounds like it could cause a tainted colonel, to me...

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, but who put a 10 year old in charge of security at LAX ?

Re:This was no AP.

[TheGratefulNet]

actually, we need more of this.

why?

we are being desensitized to sensibility. the 'zero tolerance' world we now have - the so-called 'new normal' is BULLSHIT and needs to end.

the more we call attention to stupidity (no, not the wifi name but the airlines, in this case!) the better. we need to have more and more of these incidents to make us re-realize that stupid things are not going to hurt us. jumping at every bump-in-the-night is a failwhale.

we need to grow some balls. if it means that more 'authorities' have to start THINKING on their own instead of covering their asses, so be it. but zero-tol is not working and needs to end asap.

some kid takes a PBJ sandwich and eats part of it so that a shape of a gun is made; and he's sent home or expelled. this is just more of the same zero-tol CYA bullshit that also has to end immediately. if we don't come to our senses, we will be ruined (we're long on our way to ruin, as it is; due ENTIRELY to our own fear level).

Re:This was no AP.

[pem]

Original:

That seems an awfully low threshold for disrupting air traffic, since wireless access points can be had for just a few dollars these days.

Parent:

If our threshold for fear has become so low that some kid's not-so-funny practical joke can now result in several hours of delays to long distance transportation,

Me:

Don't scare the horses.

Seriously. Even before 9/11, any joking about a bomb in an airport would be problematic. You can't expect everybody in a position of power to be intelligent, so don't frighten the ones at the airport.

Now, you can argue it shouldn't be that way, and you may well be right. That's just like arguing you ought to be able to walk anywhere in Chicago any time of the day or night. True, but immaterial to reality.

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

They didn't spell Al-Qaeda correctly at all. That looks like the spelling of someone who's only ever heard the name and spelled it the way they were taught English.

Right. "u" and "i" should not be in Al-Qaeda.

Re:This was no AP.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Al-queda opposes beer, free or not, and free speech.

Re:This was no AP.

[Archangel Michael]

Zero Tolerance is simply lazy judgement policy. Instead of having rightful judgment everything is viewed in the eyes of Lawyers suing people for shit beyond anyone's control, so you do everything (zero tolerance) in your power to stop everyone doing anything resembling the thing you're trying to stop. This catches a shit ton of false positives, which seems to be the "choice" we would rather make.

That being said, my solution to all of this is simply incarcerate the bastards and feed them all pork products until they starve themselves to death.

Re:This was no AP.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

... It was, likely, due to default behavior of old versions of Windows, .... there was that one Windows-running laptop that someone had that picked up on that SSID and kept broadcasting it...

No wonder they say future airliners will not have any windows....

Re:This was no AP.

[91degrees]

Remember this story from shortly after 9/11?

It was a book rather than a newspaper, and only he was prevented from boarding rather than the whole flight being cancelled, but on a stupidity scale, pretty much the same level as your hypothetical.

Re:This was no AP.

[Archangel Michael]

Political Correctness is stupidity dressed up as reason.

Re:This was no AP.

[AmiMoJo]

In other words, terror is available for free.

That's probably it. They didn't want people giving away the airline's product for free. It costs money to provide airline food and airline toilets and airline seats.

Re:This was no AP.

[timothy]

Huh -- I've always heard it translated as "The Base" (which is also what Wikipedia says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...); I think there was an SNL episode in which GW Bush referred to his "base" as his "al-quaeda," which I thought was a clever language joke ...

Re:This was no AP.

[Jason Levine]

My father likes to tell the story of his and my mother's honeymoon. The whole thing was a disaster (my mother ended up with an injured neck during a hike). When their return flight was rerouted to another city entirely, my father had enough and loudly complained to a flight attendant about his wife's injured neck. The plane landed but didn't go to the hanger. Instead, the plane was surrounded and people boarded the plane, came to him, and asked if they were the ones who needed medical attention. As they left the plane, my father whispered to my mother "I guess they found the bomb."

Turns out a passenger heard this and reported it. When my parents went to collect their checked baggage, they found it on one side in chains. After the "bomb threat" and luggage turning up that nobody claimed (my parents having gone right to the hospital), the police suspected their suitcase of containing a bomb. After examining it, they let him go with his luggage. Nowadays, he'd probably be arrested for making a terrorist threat or would have his luggage blown up as a "preventative measure."

Re:This was no AP.

[tobe]

Seeing as it's a transcription from Arabic there's some leeway for spelling. How many ways have you seen Gadaffi spelt, for instance.

Re:This was no AP.

[TangoMargarine]

Incredible that they managed to spell "Al-Quida" correctly but misspelled "nettwork".

They didn't. Back at 9/11 they spelled it Al-Qaida, and then since a few years later it's been Al-Qaeda. Not aware that a 'u' was ever involved.

Re:This was no AP.

[TheCarp]

Then perhaps we should jail the idiots who think that AP names matter so much? I would love to see some of these idiots who think that its A-OK and unintended consequence free to deal with the public, a public that is supposed to be free people capable of saying what they want and representing any ideas they want, in a ham handed fashion?

Re:This was no AP.

[TangoMargarine]

I'd phonetically spell it Al-Kyda, but hey.

Re:This was no AP.

[TangoMargarine]

The whole process of losing what he has would make him wiser.

Or, y'know, just angrier. If I had my life ruined due solely to making a joking name on my computer, you'd better believe I wouldn't be getting all introspective about how dare I attempt to make a politically incorrect joke, I'd be thinking the rest of society is fucked in the head.

Re:This was no AP.

[TangoMargarine]

* someday Slashcode will catch up with the aughts and the at-tag will link this comment as rendered from the database

You can keep your Twitterfication (twatification?), thanks. I don't come to Slashdot for hashtags and 140 characters.

Re:This was no AP.

[Noah Haders]

lose-lose. what kind of mofo joins up with a terror nettwork fighting against beer? Now free beer is a cause I can get behind. Free beer and titties. Where do I sign up?

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's more than that. Zero tolerance is a systematic attempt to brainwash people away from using rational thought. They want you believe the world is black and white, instead of shades of grey. They want you to stop thinking for yourself.

Re:This was no AP.

[TWX]

Sounds like a mobster name.

Re:This was no AP.

[bruce_the_loon]

The transcriptions I've seen have all maintained the phonetics of the Arabic word al-qÄÊidah as al-KY-dÉ(TM)

What we have here is

al-kwid-a

, as in quid pro quo or the slang for a British pound.

Re:This was no AP.

[itzly]

Free as in terror.

Re:This was no AP.

[stealth_finger]

The image in TFA shows a phone seeing the network as an AP. Chances are someone with a phone set up AP mode (fairly standard on Android devices).

That was my first thought. I know when I'm running my phone as a hot-spot, I have the SSID set to "FBI Surveillance Van 42".

Mine is simply 'Virus.net'. Best I've ever seen though is 'It burns when IP'

Re:This was no AP.

[TheCarp]

Serve them right for what....offending your sensibilities? Doing something you can't understand that caused you to jump to idiotic conclusions? Yes, clearly the problem is them.

Re:This was no AP.

[stealth_finger]

Was assuming a smaller passenger load. Then I read the article and looked up the plane type. 777-300ER, depending on configuration could have a 3 class load of 350 pax. No telling how full it was, assume 85%. Planes run pretty full these days. So doing some math...

Oh fuck it. Who the hell cares. I am so sick of you fucking nit-picking slashdot morons. The point is a fine proportional to the impact on the airline and passengers would make the fucktard think twice about doing it again. $100K, $500K. Either would do.

The fine should be given to whatever dickhead decided an obviously shady network name was enough grounds to delay a flight for several hours. You know, when you idiots run scared from every little boo the terrorists have won. Once you introduced TSA they had you on the backfoot and now this. America is shitting it's pants while the rest of the world looks on in disbelief and the actual terrorists are pissing themselves laughing.

Re:This was no AP.

[ColdWetDog]

Foolish persons, it's free as in 'Socialist' - they're terrorists. Say's so right there.

Re:This was no AP.

[ColdWetDog]

I knew it!

It's Bush's fault.

Re:This was no AP.

[oobayly]

About as bad as the guy not being allowed to fly because of his optimus prime t-shirt, picture of him wearing it.

Re:This was no AP.

[oobayly]

I know, every time I read about something like this I think "these idiots are really opening themselves up for a massive DOS attack". It probably means a whole load of overtime, so maybe that's why they do it.

Re:This was no AP.

[tburkhol]

It isn't even that. The ineptitude of those looking for the AP is astounding. You stop the plane. You open up your wifi analyzer app and walk down the isle. Then you check all the devices in those few rows (4 tops) , and boot the asshole playing the joke. 1/2 hour tops.

Why on earth would you make 200 people sit on the tarmac for even half an hour? This kind of event requires absolutely no response. Any acknowledgement of goofy AP name, even out of "an abundance of caution," amounts to hysteria.

It seems we've forgotten, but it is actually possible to have no official response to trivial events. It is possible for law enforcement not to "do something." Picking on the methods used in tracking down the offending wifi is like criticizing the validity of polygraph testimony at a witch trial.

Re:This was no AP.

[imikem]

And in unrelated news, the makers of "Depends" announced record profits this week.

Re:This was no AP.

[fustakrakich]

Panicky people are fun to watch. Your"douchebag" is merely pointing it out. I think mocking hysteria is a good thing. It has a chance of knocking it out of the morons out there who make life miserable for the rest of us.

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine's CIA Surveillance Van 37.... Hmm......

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

I do that too to screw with the neighbors. It's called "FBI low side" (because in gov circles you have "low side" which is unclassified, "High Side," which is classified). Another neighbor responded renaming their SSID to "FBI Unmarked Van," a few days later.

Re:This was no AP.

[davidwr]

some kid takes a PBJ sandwich and eats part of it so that a shape of a gun is made; and he's sent home or expelled.

Or: Some kid takes a PBJ sandwich to school and the kig gets expelled and the cafeteria undergoes an expensive ebola-style decon just because his mom was out of town and she forgot to tell his grandma that someone in the school was highly allergic to peanuts and peanut dust and as a result the whole school is a peanut-free zone, nevermind that the kid with the allergy would only suffer if he got close enough to smell it.'

Okay, I'm exaggerating only slightly here. More realistically, the sandwich is confiscated, put in an airtight bag, and thrown away and the parents are sent a reminder to never let that happen again.

Re:This was no AP.

[Noah Haders]

trolling has its place, but making jokes about terrorism on a crowded airplane is not the place to do it. That's just common sense. At least the plane was on the ground at the time so it didn't have to be diverted.

Or maybe you also think that it's funny to be doxxing women who speak out on cultural issues, because panicky people are fun to watch.

Re:This was no AP.

[IANAAC]

Yes, there's leeway, but depending on which English-speaking country is talking about them, their respective government (and to a lesser extent, media) have settled on an established spelling. In the US, it's usually defined by a three-letter organization.

Re:This was no AP.

[sbaker]

Yeah - but a net twerk ?

Re:This was no AP.

[flu1d]

Weird, I just saw a similar (or same) SSID in my neighborhood... Do you live in Denver?

Re:This was no AP.

[Garfong]

I would say at least three. An alternate parsing is as Al-Quida Free Terror Nettwork. I.e. if you're looking for a terror network, use this one: it's free!.

Re:This was no AP.

[pooh666]

The sad thing is that this is now taken to be, "common sense", instead of acknowledging the environment of fear created, NOT by the terrorists.

Re:This was no AP.

[fustakrakich]

We've done this already. You don't believe in free speech. I don't care.

Re:This was no AP.

[xaotikdesigns]

So, using the same logic that makes an SSID into a terrorism threat, I should report you for pretending to be a law enforcement agent.

Re:This was no AP.

[yacc143]

Sorry, since when is naming a WLAN grounds for criminal action? And what consists an "illegal" WLAN name?

Is it illegal to have a WLAN "Honeypot" because a group of "people strongly allergic to honey" start to go into panic seeing "Honeypot" on their phone?

Re:This was no AP.

[yacc143]

Not for a WLAN name. It's one thing to try to impersonate somebody, but having some name in the WLAN, ...

Ok, guess it's a serious crime to have a WLAN called "I'll kill you if you use me"?

Re:This was no AP.

[jfengel]

It depends on how you count the return. The US GDP is still going up. Perhaps it would be going up faster if we weren't jumping at our own shadows, but it doesn't appear to be bankrupting us.

We do a much better job at it ourselves. A graph of GDP shows only one visible hitch, the 2007 crisis. That had nothing to do with terrorism, unless you want to call the widespread fraud by the major investment banks "terrorism" (and I bet you could find some people to agree with you if you wanted to). It certainly wasn't Al Qaeda's fault; any hitch in the graph around September 2001 is lost in the noise.

Re:This was no AP.

[digitalPhant0m]

Are we sure this wasn't a Free hotspot only for Al-Quida Terror Network members?

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

Home for the brave indeed more like home of the fucking pussies

Re:This was no AP.

[sjames]

Personally, I blame the pathetic cowards who shriek, hike up their skirts and do the mousey dance every time someone sneezes at the airport.

Re:This was no AP.

[jason.sweet]

Oh fuck it. Who the hell cares. I am so sick of you fucking nit-picking slashdot morons.

"Who the hell cares" should end in a question mark, even if it is only rhetorical.

Re:This was no AP.

[AmiMoJo]

English spelling rules mandate a 'q' is always followed by a 'u'.

Re:This was no AP.

[morgauxo]

I see your point. But, the world has far too many panicky people. Maybe it is time to decide that nowhere is sacred. Maybe they should be trolled into panicking until enough of them finally wise up and stop running around yelling that the sky is falling every time something seems a little off.

Re:This was no AP.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can also DoS someone financially by "claiming" terror when no sane person would even feel threatened in a given situation. For a person holding enough seniority I could see them bankrupting someone by claiming that their slightly-too-pink-salmon could indicate their involvement in a terrorist organization.

This terrorist thing has gone entirely too far now. Everyone is a terrorist. Everyone is waving fingers at everyone else decrying their "terroryness". We're already past the point of sane argument. To end a political debate you use "because terror" in exactly the same way you end a religious debate with "because God". It's that intangible thing that nobody questions because it's some higher authority and it's beyond all logic, question and reason.

It's a witch hunt for the 21st century.

Re:This was no AP.

[Swave An deBwoner]

"I have a gum."

Re:This was no AP.

[The Ickle Jones]

The real douchebags are the cowards who freak out over things like this. Sometimes they even end up infringing upon people's fundamental liberties to make themselves feel better.

Re: This was no AP.

[TheGavster]

I think Leo McGarry had a few things to say about the correct spelling of the former Libyan dictator's name. And he's ordered airstrikes against the man's house, so he knows!

Re:This was no AP.

[Darinbob]

Free as in bird.

Re:This was no AP.

[GrumpySteen]

Here's something fun you can try: Buy a bottle of nitromethane (model aircraft fuel, also Top Fuel racing), put it in a plastic spray bottle, and spray it on seats where departing passengers are likely to sit. Then get arrested because you're in a crowded fucking airport spraying nitromethane on the seats in front of hundreds of witnesses.

FTFY

Re:This was no AP.

[TheCarp]

WTF do these have to do with eachother?

In one case you have a small sample (given the size of the public from which they are drawn from, a puny number) of people who actively work to stifle speech of individuals. This doesn't sound like trolling at all to me, it sounds like personal harassment.

This person made no threat at all. All negative consquences were the result of people overreacting based on nothing but a name on a device. It barely even qualifies as a joke.

Frankly, this is a prime example of why orgs like the TSA need to be held financially responsible for the damage they cause. Oh Delayed flight? Take the cost of every ticket on that plane out of TSA salaries. See if that shit happens again.

Re:This was no AP.

[Darinbob]

Welsh spelling rules mandate several more soft consonants.

Re:This was no AP.

[The Ickle Jones]

so don't frighten the ones at the airport.

If they're frightened, they're cowards and deserve to be desensitized.

Re:This was no AP.

[The Ickle Jones]

Once again, the asshole isn't the one making the joke, but the cowards who take it seriously.

Here's a series of steps that they should have taken in response to this:
1) Don't do anything, and continue as usual.

Re:This was no AP.

[The Ickle Jones]

If it was just someone having a laugh, it wasn't a very good joke.

Because you're a coward.

This may seem like an overreaction, but if I were on that flight I'd rather have been delayed for a few hours, than have one of these self-radicalized nut-jobs take over the aircraft and point it at some monument or other hard object that ends with me being part of a fireball.

Then you're a coward, too, and part of the problem. The reality is that, regardless of whether or not they use the name of some bogeyman group, everyone has a chance to be a terrorist. Using your logic, you should never be able to do anything ever merely because some people might be terrorists.

But that's not how 'the land of the free and the home of the brave' is supposed to operate. Quit being a little wimp.

Re:This was no AP.

[sjames]

I don't recommend starting a panic, but if you want to get away with it, apply the nitromethane to the seat of your own pants and contaminate the airport seats that way.

Re:This was no AP.

[MemoryAid]

...as in Iraqu and Quatar. But those are Arabic words, not English.

Re:This was no AP.

[fustakrakich]

I just saw the perfect name for these people:

The Bedwetter Caucus... It's a very influential group. Let's promise them free diapers if they go away.

Re:This was no AP.

[GuB-42]

And real terrorists would broadcast they are in the vicinity by stating so loudly, of course.

Yes !
Terrorists, by definition, terrorize. Killings are just a mean to an end. As such, loudly announcing their presence before they attack may be an effective strategy. The goal would be to make people panic at the slightest hoax by making a few hoax-like events real.

Re:This was no AP.

[TangoMargarine]

List of English words containing Q not followed by U

qi, qat, niqab...

Next we'll be complaining that we should spell Deutsch as doych.

Re:This was no AP.

[Noah Haders]

In both cases, you have people getting some lulz without considering or taking responsibility for the fact that their actions have great consequences.

Re:This was no AP.

[Sperbels]

And yet someone with decision-making powers shat themselves

The same kind of brilliant decision makers who suspend 1st graders for pointing their fingers at other students in a gun like manner.

Re:This was no AP.

[Sperbels]

Let me guess, you play Words with Friends or Scrabble.

Re:This was no AP.

[Sperbels]

I like the cut of your jib. We should put you in charge of something where idiots are currently likely to be in charge...such as a school or airport.

Re:This was no AP.

[TangoMargarine]

Nah. For one thing, I'd have a difficult time convincing myself to use a Zynga anything, even if it was free. Not really that good at Scrabble either, but I'll admit I'm something of a grammar Nazi.

Re:This was no AP.

[DroolTwist]

Free Hat! Free Hat!

Re:This was no AP.

[dgatwood]

Here's something fun you can try: Buy a bottle of nitromethane (model aircraft fuel, also Top Fuel racing), put it in a plastic spray bottle, and spray it on seats where departing passengers are likely to sit. Then get arrested because you're in a crowded fucking airport spraying nitromethane on the seats in front of hundreds of witnesses.

Wouldn't work anyway unless those passengers were subjected to enhanced patdowns; walking through a metal detector or body scanner doesn't usually subject you to a sniffer, AFAIK.

Re:This was no AP.

[dgatwood]

lose-lose. what kind of mofo joins up with a terror nettwork fighting against beer? Now free beer is a cause I can get behind. Free beer and titties. Where do I sign up?

Your nearest U.S. Army recruitment office?

Re:This was no AP.

[R3d M3rcury]

And real terrorists would broadcast they are in the vicinity by stating so loudly, of course.

While I agree, remember that the guys who tried to bomb the World Trade Center back in the '90s were caught when they went back to pick-up the deposit on the rental trucks they used as bombs.

Sometimes people make stupid mistakes which gets them caught.

Here's a fun one to try: Set up a Wireless Access Point with an arabic name and see if people freak out.

Re:This was no AP.

[R3d M3rcury]

Or it is a terror network that is Al-Quida-free. Because you know those Al-Quida people are always downloading porn...

Re:This was no AP.

[Archangel Michael]

2) Something happens to the plane.
3) Sue the Airlines
4) ???
5) Profit (mostly lawyers)

If you don't do something, and something bad happens, because you didn't bother, are you liable? Of course you are, and you'll go out of business. Brilliant Business Plan.

Re:This was no AP.

[techno-vampire]

All a terrorist had to do was create the AP on a phone, wait until somebody noticed and reported it, then delete the AP and watch the fun as everybody runs around trying to find it. All the disruption of a bombing without the inconvenience of getting yourself killed or arrested. If that's not what happened this time, it soon will be.

Re:This was no AP.

[Noah Haders]

you seem to think that free speech means you can spout your mouth off whenever you want. I know that free speech means protection from unreasonable government interference. I got news for you, you keep spouting your mouth off and somebody's gonna bop you in the nose, and the government isn't going to interfere with that, either.

Re: This was no AP.

[fastest fascist]

Increased military spending wouldn't cause a drop in gdp if the funds are largely spent domestically, would it? It would instead decrease funding available to other, more long-term constructive uses and contribute to debt accumulation.

Re:This was no AP.

[cusco]

More like they were trained by the CIA. How many failed attempts did they make to kill Castro?

Re:This was no AP.

[The Ickle Jones]

If you don't do something, and something bad happens, because you didn't bother, are you liable?

That's a problem with our system, not the person making the jokes. Most Americans are so retarded that the concept of probability seems to completely elude them. And the fact that our legal system is sometimes completely absurd and... the results aren't good.

Re:This was no AP.

[SgtAaron]

Huh -- I've always heard it translated as "The Base" (which is also what Wikipedia says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...); I think there was an SNL episode in which GW Bush referred to his "base" as his "al-quaeda," which I thought was a clever language joke ...

The terrorist network's name does mean "The Base". It's used a lot, such as in "miltary base", "base of operations". Heck, even a meeting place can be qaeda. Like "Al qaeda is at the store 1pm". Let's meet at the store at 1pm.

I have no idea what Al quida is supposed to mean. I suspect it's a typo, OP says it's network in Arabic, but my check says it's "shibka". I studied arabic in the army but I had to google that, it's been awhile.

Re:This was no AP.

[SgtAaron]

That's only three syllables. The original arabic is tough to phonetically spell because there are two letters not in our alphabet. For instance, the "Q" is used because the first letter is a hard K, which you use your throat to pronounce. And in the middle is the "ain" letter, which also one uses the throat. The word is prounounced *something* like "al QAA ih duh". There's actually an official government transliteration alphabet that is used when that needs to be done. But I can't remember it and it wouldn't help you :)

It always grated my ears when I heard Bush call them "Al kayda". It offended my arabic language neurons every time!

Re:This was no AP.

[RollTRS]

Incredible that they managed to spell "Al-Quida" correctly but misspelled "nettwork".

But they didn't. Al-Qaeda would be the correct spelling.

Re:This was no AP.

[TangoMargarine]

I hope you'll understand if I don't feel like spending a lot of effort on pronouncing their name correctly...

Re:This was no AP.

[TangoMargarine]

The first guy to actually draw blood

Now I'm picturing some Oxford-educated guy going around with a rapier, provoking people into challenging him to a duel over his obscure (yet correct) English usage.

I'd watch that show.

Re:This was no AP.

[TangoMargarine]

Salameh had reported the van stolen, and when he returned on March 4, 1993, to get his deposit back, authorities arrested him.[23]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1...

Even if it *was* stolen, why the heck would they give him his deposit back? "Oh, I'm sorry, I lost your vehicle somewhere...can I have my deposit back that I gave you to cover this exact eventuality?" Maybe if the cops recovered it somewhere, fine, but that obviously wasn't going to be the case.

Re:This was no AP.

[fustakrakich]

Yes, it's very powerful that. But in humans it shouldn't be involuntary, because if it is, it's time to rethink how "advanced" we really are. Civility needs a thicker skin.

Re:This was no AP.

[unixisc]

Or non-Muslims wanting to join a terror network, and can't join Al-Quida since it is Islamic

Re:This was no AP.

[david_thornley]

Their actions have essentially no consequences. The actions of people who get panicky when somebody whispers something scary like "Ebola" or "Al-Qaida" or "Kim Kardashian" are their own.

You can't have a functioning democracy without shaking some people up.

Re:This was no AP.

[david_thornley]

Is there an accepted English spelling (like Cairo for a city whose inhabitants call it something similar)? I've seen Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaida, for example. Given that, I'd say that phonetic pronunciation is as good as we're going to get, and that you can't really misspell it in any script but Arabic.

Re:This was no AP.

[Noah Haders]

well the govt has laws against speech that incites danger or violence. These laws are constitutional, say the supremes. They ruled in the 60's that speech that can be reasonably expected to cause imminent danger is not protected by the constitution. so go ahead and do what you want but sux for you if you get arrested.

Re:This was no AP.

[david_thornley]

You have to figure out who made the stupid decision, and fine that person or persons. Using the name of a terrorist organization as an access point name isn't necessarily too bright, but it isn't a threat. Reporting the name to the authorities should be harmless. The real culprits are those who took that to be a threat.

Re:This was no AP.

[MrNiceguy_KS]

Not even close. Looking at the other responses, I'm clearly not the only one who's thought of this joke.

My personal favorite SSID that I've seen was when I was eating at Buffalo Wild Wings. I went to connect my phone and saw their public hotspot, but someone nearby had set up one called "pubes in my bww". I'm assuming it was just some customer with a sense of humor, but I like to think it could also be either an unhappy neighbor or a semi-disgruntled staff member.

Re:This was no AP.

[wellsdm]

Right, any smartphone with the FoxFi app could have done this in about 2 seconds.

Re:This was no AP.

[clanrat]

I thought it meant 'the base' ?

Re:This was no AP.

[david_thornley]

Sure. What imminent danger is caused by the naming of a WiFi access point?

Re:This was no AP.

[Noah Haders]

panic in an enclosed space. if it hadn't been detected on the ground, panic in an enclosed space 30k feet in the air. what's the imminent danger of somebody shouting ebola on a crowded bus? That's not protected either.

Re:This was no AP.

[Noah Haders]

sorry, wrong link. Here you go.

Re:This was no AP.

[TheCarp]

Seems to me like blame should be placed where it is deserved....with any people who freak out and panic. It is their panic which creates unsafe situations. See something, say something, get removed from society for the good of everyone around your paranoid delusions.

Re:This was no AP.

[jmcvetta]

Mine's 'Big brother is watching'.

Re:This was no AP.

[jmcvetta]

Personally, I am terrified of my wrists...

Re:This was no AP.

[jmcvetta]

How about we fine the dunce in charge, who decided a humorous wifi name was a good reason to go into ape-shit public panic mode.

Re:This was no AP.

[RockDoctor]

The misspellings don't mean much, since English usually ain't the first language of Jihadis.

... Except for those jihadis for whom English is their first language. (Though they tend to have averagely execrable spelling anyway,)

Re:This was no AP.

[RockDoctor]

It isn't even that. The ineptitude of those looking for the AP is astounding. You stop the plane. You open up your wifi analyzer app and walk down the isle. Then you check all the devices in those few rows (4 tops) , and boot the asshole playing the joke. 1/2 hour tops.

Why on earth would you make 200 people sit on the tarmac for even half an hour?

Indeed. You alter the set-up of the several WiFi repeaters on the route from the plane to the customs post (you may need to have the plane go on a short magical mystery tour of the outer reaches of the field while doing this) so that they listen for WiFi hotspot's names. At the same time, you use the existing CCTV coverage to notice which passengers are passing each WiFi repeater when the rogue name appears. You may wish to fiddle with (programmable) signs to stir the passengers around a little. Direct them to different belts, or put up "HOLD - re-assigning baggage belt" type messages ; to generate turbulence in the pipeline of passengers. When you've idenitified the person carrying the offending item, you flag them for excessive duty-free as they're going through the customs post and ... in the back room, the rubber gloves come out, then plunge out of the light of day.

wireless access points, what is this? 2002?

[miknix]

since wireless access points can be had for just a few dollars these days.

Every major phone nowadays allows setting up a softAP, you do not need a frigging wireless AP to send a few "Al-Quida" Wi-Fi beacons..

But

[Anonymous Coward]

What are Bennett Haselton thoughts on this? I'm sure he has an opinion. He's a frequent contributor.

Funny

[DaMattster]

I read about this on CNN and just about had an asthma attack from laughing. You know this was a distinctly American joke because it was misspelled - it should've been spelled as 'Al Qaida Free Terrorist WiFi Network.' That's what made me even laugh harder. People are living life with their assholes puckered. I'm sorry to have to put it that way but it's true that Americans are living in a constant state of fear. If it isn't terrorism, it's Ebola, if it isn't Ebola, it's the weather. Good gravy people, the sooner you get that life constantly changes and is impermanent, the better you'll be able to deal with it.

Re:Funny

[Anonymous Coward]

> Americans are living in a constant state of fear. If it isn't terrorism, it's Ebola, if it isn't Ebola, it's the weather.

I am a cord-cutter and I mostly consume pirated media which means no commercials and very little video news (i do read stuff off news.google.com but I block cookies so google doesn't put me in a news-bubble).

Occasionally I will use the over-the-air antenna to watch a little bit of broadcast news. And oh my fucking god it is terrible. Non-stop fear-mongering. Even the PBS Newshour has unrelenting coverage of fear with ebola as the lead story. I can't believe how out of control it is. It makes me wonder if it has always been that way and I never noticed it until I got out of it, or if something has changed over the last decade.

Re:Funny

[Anonymous Coward]

Ooh, how about Al Qaeda is spreading ebola using wifi, but you can only get it by using wifi during a thunderstorm, because the system needs the extra lightning power to move the virus.

Re:Funny

[TheGratefulNet]

I know you were being funny, but take australia as an example. its often said that everything that moves around down there with more than 2 legs is ready to kill you. all kinds of dangerous venemous creatures in oz; and yet, they are just as afraid of their shadows as we yanks are. they are being terorized by their own people just like we are (ie, the 'authorities').

we have little to fear about the big bad foreigner. we have much more to fear by our own lawmakers and those who carry guns under color of law.

but terror 'sells' and every country has pretty much realized that by controlling people via fear, they can pass any restrictive law they want, spy on anyone they want and get huge 'toys' budgets passed. this never would have happened a few decades ago, but now, we are all pussies - the whole world, pretty much. cowering over shadows in the night.

this is not at all a funny matter.

Re:Funny

[PolygamousRanchKid]

just about had an asthma attack from laughing.

Maybe that was the intent of the terrorists . . . !?!? They are now going at us using "Joke Warfare": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

I think the NSA needs to hire more Joke Analysts to carefully monitor this danger on the Internet!

Re:Funny

[Jason Levine]

Jokes aside, that was the intent of the terrorists - to scare us and make us afraid of them.

Unfortunately for them, we wouldn't have been afraid (for long) with just the one attack on 9-11. Fortunately for them (and unfortunately for us), the government and media has latched onto the whole "scare the people" routine and are playing it for all it's worth.

Re:Funny

[T.E.D.]

There's no such thing as "misspelling" an Arabic-transcribed word. They don't use the Latin-1 character set, and what they do use doesn't have a one-to-one mapping to it. Any supposed spelling using Latin-1 characters is just an approximation to how it is pronounced in Arabic. That's why you'd see all kinds of creative spellings for the name of the former despot of Libya back when he was alive too. (Gaddafi? Khadafi? Something with a Q perhaps?). So a person can do a good or bad job of rendering an Arabic word in Latin-1 characters, but there's generally no one "right" way to do it.

Re:Funny

[fustakrakich]

...we have much more to fear by our own lawmakers...

So much so that you are compelled to reelect them or their corrupt party over and over? Don't fear the lawmakers, fear your neighbor that votes for them. He is the hangman that makes it all happen. He is the guy who flips the switch, pulls the trigger, pushes the button.

Re:Funny

[The Ickle Jones]

Overreacting to jokes is the problem. Someone using the name of some bogeyman group does not increase the probability that they're part of it, and probability is what matters.

If you were scared of this, never get into a car again, coward.

Oh ho, hilarious, life is tenuous, bad things happen. Yep, that's a nice and carefree way to live, as long as your value on your own life extends exactly as far as "well, whatever, if someone wants to kill me I suppose I'm done."

Except that's not how it is, or what anyone thinks, you ignorant fool. People with brains just take into account probability and don't overreact to jokes. Just because you're mentally retarded and bought into all the nonsensical fearmongering doesn't mean it's a good thing.

But hey, if you're really so scared of this, you should also be scared of everyone on the planet. After all, even people not using the name of some bogeyman group could be terrorists! If you're not panicking, you obviously take a carefree approach to life and don't care if you get killed! Sound logic, dipshit.

Re:Funny

[The Ickle Jones]

Far more important than safety (in this case, safety from a nonexistent threat) is freedom, but that seems to be lost on you fools.

Re:Funny

[dgatwood]

There's no one right way, but there are plenty of wrong ways. A transliterated word is considered misspelled if the transliteration cannot possibly be pronounced in a way that sounds similar to the original. The spellings "Al Qaeda" and "Al Qaida" are considered correct, because it is typically pronounced "Al Kah ee dah" or "Al Kie dah". You might even consider "Al Kaida", "Al Kaeda", "Al Caida", or "Al Caeda" to be plausible transliterations, albeit highly nonstandard ones.

However, "Al Quida" is not correct, period. In English, that would be pronounced "Al quid uh", or if you assume it was a borrowed Spanish word, "Al Kee duh", neither of which is a reasonable approximation of the original pronunciation as far as I'm aware.

That said, at least they didn't transliterate it as the "Al Pastor Terror Network". I mean, that is by far the tastiest terror network of them all, but it is clearly not a correct transliteration.

A Pox on Both Your Houses

[jratcliffe]

Overrreaction? Yes.

Really dumb SSID name choice? Yes.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[cdrudge]

I'm not sure how much it was an over reaction. Seemed reasonable to me. It's unfortunate it happened, but TPTB were screwed no matter what they did.

If it was reported, and did nothing, then it gets out that authorities didn't investigate a possible threat and are inept.

If it was reported, dismissed, and something bad happens, then it was something that was preventable.

If they did what they did, it's labeled as an overreaction.

It's not like passengers were ordered off the plane, stripped searched, and received a free body cavity search. They were inconvenienced for a few hours before a 11 hour flight. It happens.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[LWATCDR]

True but I have used some SSIDs like FBI4395, NSA02395, and BugsBunny as SSIDs.
Some kid with a cellphone hotspot set it up as a joke and forgot that it was still on the phone when he got on the plane.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[king neckbeard]

I'm not sure how much it was an over reaction. Seemed reasonable to me. It's unfortunate it happened, but TPTB were screwed no matter what they did.

If it was reported, and did nothing, then it gets out that authorities didn't investigate a possible threat and are inept.

If it was reported, dismissed, and something bad happens, then it was something that was preventable.

If they did what they did, it's labeled as an overreaction.

It's not like passengers were ordered off the plane, stripped searched, and received a free body cavity search. They were inconvenienced for a few hours before a 11 hour flight. It happens.

Everything beyond a mild chuckle was an overreaction.

If it was reported, and did nothing, then it gets out that authorities didn't investigate a possible threat and are inept.

Unless they stuck to their guns and pointed out, like most of the posters here likely will, that it's incredibly stupid to ground a plane over a joke SSID.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[pauljlucas]

[I]t's incredibly stupid to ground a plane over a joke SSID.

It's incredibly sad is what it is. What if the SSID were "There is a bomb on this plane"?

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[SuiteSisterMary]

If so, then shhhhh, don't tell anybody who cares to that for the investment of several throw-away Wi-Fi routers, and several cheap digital timer-enabled powerbars, they can utterly fuck up any airport they choose to, for potentially years to come, with a few hours work of plugging the aforementioned bits in out-of-the-way places.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[Archangel Michael]

Here's the reason for the "overreaction". Lawyers. Suppose, just for a second, that they ignored the SSID and the plane fell out of the sky. End of that Airlines (multi-billion dollar business). Risk / Reward analysis is you don't risk the entire company on something that might be a joke.

The issue isn't the overreaction (it is), the issue is that there is an asshole who thought the whole thing was funny.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[joe_frisch]

I know terrorists aren't the brightest bulbs in the chandelier but they know enough not to name their networks after a famous terrorist group. What exactly is the threat that caused the delay?

A "few hours" X 400 passengers IS a big deal - and delayed flights mean missed connections, The aircraft my not be available for its next schedule flight etc.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[tburkhol]

If it was reported, dismissed, and something bad happens, then it was something that was preventable.

This is the single worst notion that ever wormed its way into a decision-making process. It is the foundation of authoritarianism. It justifies any excess. It provides a cover of legitimacy for any surveillance or intrusion. It is the cancer that is killing freedom in the US.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[king neckbeard]

A sane risk/reward analysis would say that this risk is acceptable because there's no real chance of this happening.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[The Ickle Jones]

Really dumb SSID name choice? Yes.

No more dumb than any other.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[The Ickle Jones]

Nope. The answer would still be "do nothing." Stop giving in to fearmongering.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[elgatozorbas]

A agree. How is this different from making "bomb" jokes at the airport. Everyone knows "bomb"-jokes are not taken lightly by serucity personnel. Same holds for using such stupid SSID. I *also* know this does no actual harm and, most likely, real terrorists would not use this name etc, but broadcasting such an SSID in an airport is just not a very smart thing to do because it can be expected to trigger security folks. Note that I am not defending them, just saying that their reaction is not completely unpredicatable. If you value such a joke more than your time, go ahead, but I don't.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[sootman]

> I'm not sure how much it was an over reaction.
> Seemed reasonable to me.

No, this was an overreaction. Raise your hands if you *really* think Al-Quida would NAME THEIR ACCESS POINT "Al-Quida". I'm not a member, but I'm PRETTY SURE they're into secrecy, and wouldn't do something so obvious. I'd bet my next paycheck that you could walk by their headquarters with a laptop and not see that SSID.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[Archangel Michael]

That's what they said about Ebola. And they are planning on expanding Ebola in the US even as they prove they cannot contain even one nurse. Brilliant!

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[slew]

Really dumb SSID name choice? Yes.

Depends on what it was: a law enforcement honey pot for terrorist wannabes or a snot nosed trouble maker...

Well... okay, maybe you're right, it was a dumb choice either way ;^)

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[david_thornley]

I went to the doctor today for a routine checkup. At check-in, the receptionist asked me if I'd traveled outside the country in the previous twenty-one days. She sounded annoyed by the requirement when I mentioned it.

At least we aren't quarantining people from West Africa in an unheated tent (Minnesota policy is to quarantine people traveling from affected countries in their homes for three weeks).

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[Archangel Michael]

That works, until Doctors and Nurses refuse to be quarantined, claiming civil rights or some such shit.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[jmcvetta]

Really dumb SSID name choice? Yes.

NO. It's NOT a dumb SSID name. It's a FUNNY name. When most people see an SSID with a funny name, it makes them chuckle. It takes a special kind of fucktardedness to call in the Gestapo because of someone's mildly amusing joke.

Re:A Pox on Both Your Houses

[jmcvetta]

Should I live in terror of an anvil spontaneously falling thru my ceiling and crushing me? 'Cuz there's no real chance of that happening either.

Free Terror, what a bargain!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a wonderful future we live in. No purchase necessary. Terror is Free!! It's all over the news! BE TERRIFIED!

Re:Free Terror, what a bargain!

[Jason Levine]

It's a wonderful future we live in. No purchase necessary. Terror is Free!! It's all over the news! BE TERRIFIED!

Yes, but is it open source? I refuse to use any closed source terror.

LAX?

[Anonymous Coward]

What is LAX?

Re:LAX?

[RadioTV]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

Re:LAX?

[Hognoxious]

Yo mamma so lax...

Re:LAX?

[wonkey_monkey]

Once the plane leaves, is it EX-LAX?

Re:LAX?

[SeaFox]

*golfclap*

Where is that surveillance van?

[portwojc]

I've had the FBI parked outside my house for seven months now. I just can't figure out where "FBI surveillance van 42" is at.

Low threshold = enormous rate of return

[stritt]

We will be defeated not by force but by our own fears.

Re:Low threshold = enormous rate of return

[camperdave]

This is the way America ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

BOO! TERR'ISTS! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

[Thud457]

what, no clever copyeditor threw out "BROWN TROUSER TIME AT LAX" ?

congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[nimbius]

Regardless of all that freedom-isnt-free these-colours-dont-run support-the-troops rhetoric, 13 years after the original terrorist attack on America this is still happening. Terrorists have succeeded in doing what they sought to achieve: terrorizing. liquids are treason on airplanes, nail clippers are an assassins blade, and full body virtual nudity is encouraged prior to boarding. Now, a simple SSID is cause to lock down an entire flight. For all your achievements, oh how the mighty have fallen. We once sent real people to the moon and laughed at the vacuum of space. Lawn darts existed for a decade before their retirement. even a 9 year old can have access to a fully automatic machine gun. however the minute someone breathes an utterance of terrorism its secret prisons, wiretaps, indefinite detention, extrajudicial rendition targeted killings, and secret courts. and you know whats hillarious? Heart disease kills 600 million americans a year. thats 150 times the number of people who died in the world trade center but we still sell sandwiches called the baconator and a small or as we rebranded it 'regular' drink is still 22 ounces. smoking kills almost 400,000 americans a year, or roughly 32000 times the number of people who died in the pentagon on 9/11 but we still sell vape kits and marlboros and 5% of the states in our union still permit indoor smoking.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[meta-monkey]

however the minute someone breathes an utterance of terrorism its secret prisons, wiretaps, indefinite detention, extrajudicial rendition targeted killings, and secret courts

The response is so out of proportion to the threat, it makes you wonder if there's an ulterior motive for stripping people of liberties and increasing the power of the government and military, merely using islamic terrorism as an excuse?

Nah, that's crazy talk.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[tehcyder]

Heart disease kills 600 million americans a year.

Out of a population of 300 million, that is pretty horrendous.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[RaccoonBandit]

Or via really short gestation periods and reproduction at a young age.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[TheGratefulNet]

if they need a volunteer, I'm happy to join in.

you gotta go somehow. if I die by bacon, at least I die happy.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[joss]

Fair point generally, but..
> Heart disease kills 600 million americans a year
600 thousand, not million

> we still sell vape kits
vape kits reduce smoking deaths

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[NeutronCowboy]

Considering the over-reaction we're getting from a lot of people around Ebola - and that includes people who laugh about bureaucrats' overreaction to blinking lights in Chicago and WiFi network names - I'm going to guess that most people are just scared shitless of stuff they don't understand and willing to sacrifice everything to feel safe again.

That doesn't make it any better, but it gives us a better shot at fixing the issue (educate people) than the conspiracy theory approach.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[Kaptain Kruton]

400,000 / 32000 = 12.5 So twelve died and one is mostly dead?

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[wvmarle]

I'd call that good riddance.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[meta-monkey]

Ssshhhh! You're going to ruin my tinfoil hat business!

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[Lemmeoutada Collecti]

He dies at midnight on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day, of course, so they weren't sure what date to put on the certificate.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[hey!]

I went through a period of my career where I was taking two, sometimes three business trips per month. I was supposed to fly on one of the planes that flew in the WTC on 9/11, but my trip was cancelled a couple days earlier so I could attend a meeting up in Nashua with Oracle. I've never been hijacked or crashed, but I've been in more than one near-miss, which takes a lot of flying. I've also been stranded by missed connections multiple times. Take it from me, Chicago Midway is the worst airport hub to spend a night in.

One day I was stranded at Phoenix Sky Harbor by a missed conection. Standing in the customer service line, watching the passengers ahead of me yell at the woman behind the counter about things she couldn't fix, I had an epiphany: air travel sucks, *and nobody's going to fix it*.

So here's my strategy when it comes to flying: minimize my exposure to the system by taking an alternative whenever it is remotely practical. Rather than fly to Sacramento, which involves at least one flight change from where I live, I fly direct to San Francisco and drive for two hours each way. Rather than take the shuttle from Boston to New York, I take the bus which costs only $22. Spending four hours on the bus is not *safer*, and it's certainly not *faster*, but it sucks soooo much less. On a recent business trip to Blacksburg VA (in the middle of nowhere), I took Amtrak and drove the final two hours, anticipating that 12 hours in the rail system would be *much* preferable to four hours in the air travel system -- and it was.

When I *do* have to fly, I try to do it in cheerful acceptance that the experience will be uncomfortable, inconvenient and possibly personally degrading. It doesn't matter how mad you get, the system isn't going to respond *as long as you continue using it*. The only thing it *will* respond to is more people opting out whenever they have *any* feasible alternative.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[koan]

Who encourages this sort of thinking? The media, who controls the media... see now you're getting some where.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[meta-monkey]

Sure, that's part of it, but there's clearly an agenda being pushed by TPTB.

Look at what happened in Canada. One guy runs through parliament and shoots a soldier (terrible tragedy, heart goes out to his family, etc etc) and immediately Harper says they've got legislation already written that gives them more power to spy on people and even pre-arrest people "to keep you safe!" A few months back one nationalist nut killed three mounties, but nary a word about how this is "an attack on our institutions." Doesn't fit the narrative.

They've got the laws already written. They just wait for an excuse and bam, cameras up your bum.

Re:congratulations america, theyre still winning.

[Rich0]

Heart disease kills 600 million americans a year. thats 150 times the number of people who died in the world trade center but we still sell sandwiches called the baconator and a small or as we rebranded it 'regular' drink is still 22 ounces.

What evidence is there that drinking a 22 ounce drink or eating a "baconator" increases your risk of heart disease compared to drinking a 12 ounce drink or eating a sandwich not called a "baconator" - or heck, not containing bacon at all? I just had a baconator for lunch today and I've lost 50 pounds in the last year, and my 16 oz drink contained no calories.

I won't argue that people eat a lot of unhealthy stuff, but I'm not convinced that bacon is necessarily among the worst of it.

um

[Charliemopps]

LAX To London Flight Delayed Over "Al-Quida" Wi-Fi Name...

You mean...

LAX To London Flight Delayed due to Authorities being morons...

Re:um

[Sperbels]

I expect there would be far fewer incidents if the news media started covering them like this.

Re:um

[SuiteSisterMary]

Flight Delayed when excited man greeted his friend, Jack Plainsman, at the gate.

Aaaand...

[Anonymous Coward]

the terrrrists win again.

America's auto-immune disease: Terrorism.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

When the body mistakenly believes a substance to be a pathogen, it kicks its immune system in high gear and starts attacking it like Don Quixote charging the windmills. That over reaction harms the body more than what the substance could have caused.

America's overreaction to ISIS, al-queda etc fall into this category. We are doing a lot more damage by such over reactions than what these entities could do to us. We need a strong dose of anti-histamines. (Of course there will be people protesting the discrimination against the histamines)

Re:America's auto-immune disease: Terrorism.

[Jason Levine]

We see this response in other areas - such as the Ebola "crisis" also. So far around 9 people in the US have come down with Ebola. In all cases, the people were working closely with people with Ebola. So far, none of the Ebola victims' friends, family, or random people on the street that they bumped into have gotten Ebola. Any yet, many people are acting like it is the zombie apocalypse. Did that man just sneeze? Does he have the Ebola? I feel a little warm, I must be coming down with Ebola!

Politicians looking to use fear to secure themselves more political power and media outlets who use fear to get more viewers are just exasperating the issue.

Re:America's auto-immune disease: Terrorism.

[Tanuki64]

We need a strong dose of anti-histamines

Hopefully you Americans won't have these "anti-histamines" for quite a while, else your leaders have to send a few more planes in some of your buildings.

Re:America's auto-immune disease: Terrorism.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

"I am a histamine, you insensitive clod" is the canonical response.

Re:America's auto-immune disease: Terrorism.

[koan]

I don't know anyone even remotely concerned with Ebola, you must be surrounded by idiots.

Re:America's auto-immune disease: Terrorism.

[david_thornley]

Nine people in the US coming down with Ebola? As far as I know, the only people who have caught it in the US were the two Dallas nurses, and four cases have been imported. Am I behind the times?

Re:America's auto-immune disease: Terrorism.

[Jason Levine]

I'm counting the people who began showing symptoms while in the US but who actually caught it abroad. You're right, though, calling this a "crisis" looks even more ridiculous when you notice that only 2 people have caught it while in the US and those two people were closely working with someone who clearly had Ebola.

So if you're going to an area where Ebola is running rampant? Be very concerned and take all available precautions.
If you're treating someone who clearly has Ebola? Be very concerned and take all available precautions.
If you're Joe Citizen walking down the street? Don't be worried about Ebola (despite the politicians foaming at the mouth about it or the media trying to whip up a panic over it) and go about your business.

expensive "free wifi"

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh, my android phone's hotspot SSID is "$12.99 per minute". Which never ceases to give me a chuckle when I hear someone muttering "how expensive the free wifi is" in that location.

In the programming world...

[OldIsCool]

...this is what we call bounds checking. Watch your 6!

Zero Tolerance

[linuxwrangler]

I have zero tolerance for zero-tolerance policies.

The "terrorist" won...

[koan]

The goal of terrorism is to disrupt life and create fear, so when you look at how we have to live now it's clear they won.

Whoever "they" is...

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,

[nedlohs]

O'er the land of the DHS checkpoint/asset seizure/SWAT raid and the home of the easily scared?

Free Public WiFi

[Aaden42]

Imagine if the bug that used to rebroadcast SSID’s in WinXP was still prevalent in widely used systems? All it would take was one of these in an airport, and it would be bouncing around for days...

So what should we say?

[davidwr]

Hola Jack?

No, then the right-wing-nuts will think we are illegals from South of the Border and insist that we be deported immediately.

*sarcasm*
I can't wait for someone to pull a gun on a city bus and say "Everyone freeze, this we are hellojacking this bus."
*/sarcasm*

Puckered

[ThatsNotPudding]

People are living life with their assholes puckered.

Well, I'd certainly hope so.

Importance of hyphenation

[DavidHumus]

Clearly this would not have been a problem but for someone's ignorance of hyphenation. If the intent was to declare the network was free of "Al-Quida", the proper spelling would have been "Al-Quida-Free Terror Network", but someone with that level of sophistication would probably have spelled "Al-Qaeda" correctly as well.

This is the like the difference between "high-school boys" and "high school-boys".

Re:really

[Jiro]

Terrorists are often stupid. Remember the first World Trade Center attack, where the terrorist was arrested when he tried to get his $400 deposit back on the truck he used?

Also, people tend to do stupid things in high-stress situations, and bombing a plane is a high-stress situation. People also joke about high stress situations, and I could easily see an actual terrorist doing this as a joke.

Luckily the network wasn't named "ebola"

[Anonymous Coward]

.. or all the passengers would now be quarantined for 21 days.

Re:This was no AP. But what it's Ebola?!?!

[sjames]

If someone sneezes blood and has a fever, feel free to quarantine them and whoever they sneezed on.

Or ...

[MichaelJ]

Another way you can view this is as a very successful terrorist action: it was effectively a proof-of-concept of a denial of service attack.

What about Al-Gebra?

[Sri Ramkrishna]

Just think the terror when I type use a hot spot called 'Al-Gebra'

Re:really

[jmcvetta]

Remember the first World Trade Center attack, where the terrorist was arrested when he tried to get his $400 deposit back on the truck he used?

That part of the Official Mythology has always seemed a wee bit implausible to me...