(edit title) Missile Battery over Olympic Site: Please Explain World's Best Case of Cognitive Dissonance? Options

[*Trowbridge H. Ford*]

I know that the Brits are a pretty loony bunch, but this IMHO takes the cake.

How can spectators be enjoying The Games under such conditions?

Be my luck if I went to be watching some rinky-ding game when the big showdown overhead occurred, and be killed by the falling debris.

Think I shall stay home.

[byke]

Wouldn't any terrorist looking to use airspace to enter the UK fly into Birmingham?
I personally endorse the idea of missiles aimed at Birmingham, purely for national safety ... Obviously

[teslar]

They're merely doing it to set the background for both a new James Bond movie and a Dr Who season finale next year. In the former, so me evil North Korean will take over the missile controls. In the latter, they will turn out to be under Torchwood control and be eminently useful when it turns out the Sontarans want to participate in the Games.

More seriously, it's nothing new. Similar defenses were also in place during the Athens games for instance. Of course it does kinda go against the entire spirit of the Games.

[Yorkshireman]

How can spectators be enjoying The Games under such conditions?

By knowing that every effort is being made to protect them from potential threats.

Remember, in 1996 in Atlanta olympics there was a pipe-bomb, 1972 Munich. The only reason there are so few incidents is because for each Olympics the hosting nation places great emphasis on Security, so the terrorists probably look for easier targets.

For large public international gatherings, especially with such Huge media attention, it would be
irresponsible not to provide security.

As CIA Director Ezra Kramer said "My number one rule is hope for the best, plan for the worst."
(The Bourne Ultimatum)

[*Trowbridge H. Ford*]

Still don't understand.

Seems drastic overreaction to me.

What terrorist group has some kind of ICBM or IRBM which can hit London and it planning perhaps to do so?

Are the North Koreans planning something big or is it really the Iranians this time?

I don't any basis of fearing so.

And the missile I have in my backyard will only go as far as Stockholm.

Seems just a panic idea to me.

[John.Smith]

I would say that they knew that it would attract media attention and got the result they wanted... i.e. London will be well defended during the Games... don't even think about it..

[Yorkshireman]

Trow, for someone that knows everything about the world of conspiracy
You are a little out of touch.

At the last Athens olympics, deployed was:

- Patriot Missile Batteries
- Co-ordinated multinational armed security team
- Biological and Chemical weapons detection specialists from Czech Rep.
- Multinational fleet of boats patrolled the Greek coastline
- approx 400 US Special forces troops, technically under NATO command
- NATO Radar planes patrolled the skies above the olympic sites
- 300+ special surviellence cameras

And everything being linked together by a complex security system
designed by San Diego-based firm Science Applications International Corp.
(which also created the security network for the Winter Olympic Games
in Salt Lake City in 2002)

And of-course the Greek armed police and Military!

[skogsbo]

Patriot and rapier missile systems are anti aircraft too, as proved when the USA took out a British jet by mistake in gulf, some years. They could prevent another 9/11.

[John.Smith]

Maybe they aren't really Missiles at all... could just be a guise to install brainwashing equipment over London.

Time for the tinfoil hat methinks...

 

 

[*Trowbridge H. Ford*]

Still think its nuts - throwing money around, and causing concern about preventing an attack which simply won't happen.

And it does no good to cite the Athens example where the organizers so overspent with The Games, and their vast protection that the country is now pretty much a basket case, largely because of it. It cost about 15 billion.

Quite right to bring out a tin foil hat sign with organizers dreaming about what it will take in, and the counterterroist people spending money to meet any threat like there is no tomorrow.

Cannot think of a better example of institutionalized cognitive dissonance.

[The Nine]

Still don't understand. Seems drastic overreaction to me.What terrorist group has some kind of ICBM or IRBM which can hit London and it planning perhaps to do so?Are the N ... (show full quote)

Still don't understand.

Seems drastic overreaction to me.

What terrorist group has some kind of ICBM or IRBM which can hit London and it planning perhaps to do so?

Are the North Koreans planning something big or is it really the Iranians this time?

I don't any basis of fearing so.

And the missile I have in my backyard will only go as far as Stockholm.

Seems just a panic idea to me. ... (hide full quote)

And once again you display that blind ignorance to the obvious. You might recall that 11 years ago some dudes flew some passenger jets into NYC and parked them in the 88th floor of the WTC.

I think the glaringly obvious reason for putting a missile battery on top of a tall building close to the Olympic site, might be as a deterrent aimed at any group who might have ideas of a plane attack. With numerous press and TV helicopters / planes likely to be in the air during the Olympics, it isn't that much of an over reaction to consider that some terror group might think they have a chance of flying into the air space in a light aircraft liveried up with a fake FOX NEWS logo emblazoned on the side.

IF I was a terrorist with designs on causing chaos at the Olympics, it would be an obvious idea. Similarly, if I was a counter intelligence officer, I wouldn't be a very good one if it hadn't occurred to me too.

Think about it. You can buy 2nd hand light aircraft from Exchange and Mart. Someone could have bought a little Cessna, months ago, parked it up in some rented factory unit in rural Kent, and had it painted up with BBC-Sport logos and a tail number copied from a real BBC-Sport aircraft. On their chosen day of action, they only need to drive it out to a field in a tow trailer and take off for East London, some 15 minutes flying time away.

That isn't a lot of time for the authorities to check and identify the aircraft. Remember the confusion on 9/11. Air traffic control weren't sure that it wasn't a drill or a military exercise.

If I can invent that scenario in the time it has taken me to write this post, I'm sure a dedicated and well organized terror cell can do the same.

[Yorkshireman]

Still think its nuts - throwing money around, and causing concern about preventing an attack which simply won't happen.

Hmmmm ... You didn't happen to be working as an Intelligence Analyst advising the German government and Olympic committee for Munich 1972, by any chance?

Terrorist threat ... No, why cause concern about about preventing an attach which simply won't happen.

Though I do advise You to strengthen the foundations of the arenas in case the US use it's Super Laser Earthquake Generator if they dont get enough golds, and plop a few sandbags in the streets in case of Man-made natural disaster flooding!

(Was it 1973 that You were retired?

The whole point is to deter, and protect, just in case!

I guess You don't wear Your seatbelt in a car, Trow, since You haven't ever crashed? Why scare the passengers?

Jeez!

[*Trowbridge H. Ford*]

If a terrorist cell is about to do all the things you imagine, there is no snowball's chance in hell of it being stopped by any missile battery.

It must be stopped or discovered in buying such an aircraft, preventing the cell from getting in the plane, taking off, flying into central London, and doing its damndest. There is no way that it could be separated from the other airborne vehicles at the last minute before it crashed.

If these same steps had been carried out on 9/11 - and they should have been because Tenet and the CIA knew who they were but preferred to come up with a covert solution to what they apparently threatened - the destruction would not have occurred.

Now counterterrorists call for everything, and are allowed to have it just so another cock-up doesn't happen.

P. s. Yorkshireman, in case you haven't noticed, I have given up trying to correct your vast false statements about the world at large, and myself in particular. You just engage in gibberish while acting as if you are an authority in anything.

[entry]

Still don't understand. Seems drastic overreaction to me.What terrorist group has some kind of ICBM or IRBM which can hit London and it planning perhaps to do so?Are the N ... (show full quote)

Still don't understand.

Seems drastic overreaction to me.

What terrorist group has some kind of ICBM or IRBM which can hit London and it planning perhaps to do so?

Are the North Koreans planning something big or is it really the Iranians this time?

I don't any basis of fearing so.

And the missile I have in my backyard will only go as far as Stockholm.

Seems just a panic idea to me. ... (hide full quote)

No Trow, I do not believe that there are any terrorist groups using ICBMs today for the Brits to worry about for the Olympics but it would not be too far fetched to think that some limp minded individual could not load up a prop plane in a nearby field and take off and head for the Olympic grounds. The small surface to air batteries on roof tops in the surrounding area is a prudent strategy. -Paul

[*Trowbridge H. Ford*]

Don't agree, Paul.

The Brits are preparing a defense for a repeat of the 9/11 suicide bombings, with fighters flying overhead, snipers in helicopters to shoot down highjacked airliners, and 6 batteries of missiles around the Olympic Stadium to shoot down anything else that gets through.

It's concentrating on preventing the cockups which should and could have been stopped with normal counter intelligence work. It wasn't followed on 9/11 though, and their coverup have British authorities trying too many ways to stop another since they do not really understand why the disasters happened.

Think something else, if anything, is more likely to occur.