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U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

thedailybeast.com

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Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#51

Post by dom0 »

vivekd wrote: post #42

A lot of comments very critical on the ban. America has intel - and good intel from a raid - that shows that ISIS has the capability and intent to hide a bomb inside laptop batteries to blow up passenger planes containing lots of people. Don’t the American people have the right to take steps to protect themselves from this? This is a simple requirement that laptops be checked baggage and not carry on. That hardly see…

> America has intel - and good intel from a raid - that shows that ISIS has the capability and intent to hide a bomb inside laptop batteries to blow up passenger planes

That's false, it's the best intel.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#52

Post by RangerScience »

One of the advantageous to living in California is that when I go overseas, I can tell people I'm Californian, rather than American.

Because people's ideas of CA is 1) LA/Hollywood, 2) SF/SV, 3) Yosemite / Tahoe, you get a pretty different response.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#53

Post by vivekd »

dom0 wrote: post #51
vivekd wrote: post #42

A lot of comments very critical on the ban. America has intel - and good intel from a raid - that shows that ISIS has the capability and intent to hide a bomb inside laptop batteries to blow up passenger planes containing lots of people. Don’t the American people have the right to take steps to protect themselves from this? This is a simple requirement that laptops be checked baggage and not carry on. That hardly see…

> America has intel - and good intel from a raid - that shows that ISIS has the capability and intent to hide a bomb inside laptop batteries to blow up passenger planes That's false, it's the best intel.

So your argument is that when the US says they raided an ISIS compound in Yemen and discovered plans to hide bombs inside laptops to blow up planes - this does not qualify as good enough intel to act on? You seem to be using snark as a substitute for defending your proposition through thoughtful analysis and argumentation.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#55

Post by arethuza »

mirimir wrote: post #38
stevenwoo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you're joking but it seems like it is possible that Richard Reid the shoe bomber could have inserted the explosives inside a plastic bag and then put that inside himself (either swallow it or in the rectum) and then remove the explosive in the airplane bathroom and ignited it. Not sure why they have not done this already.

In Gibson's Count Zero , Turner was almost killed by a "Slamhound", an exploding dog trained to find him. I vaguely recall that the dog's liver was replaced by explosive.

Sounds vaguely like the Soviet anti-tank dogs from WW2:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#56

Post by mcv »

Considering your laptop was already going to be searched and probably have all your data copied, I'm not sure this ban is terribly harmful anymore. You're probably better off leaving the laptop at home (or securely locked, encrypted, etc in checked luggage) anyway.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#57

Post by openplatypus »

frisco wrote: post #24
captainmuon wrote: post #21

Who enforces that ban? It's a bit sad that the European countries will go along with the ban. If they were a bit more confident, they could say "nope". Or give out a directive that every passenger must be sternly reminded that Laptops are banned, and they the (EU) security personel shall turn a blind eye. Europe doesn't have to go along with every crazy idea, it is (at least still) stronger than it thinks.

The airlines enforce it, who must if they want to keep being allowed to operate flights to the US.

Yet they also operate under EU law so it would be enough to make this practice illegal.

I am afraid that EU goverments will bow to US rules. Or maybe this will be the final straw?

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#59

Post by gambiting »

captainmuon wrote: post #21

Who enforces that ban? It's a bit sad that the European countries will go along with the ban. If they were a bit more confident, they could say "nope". Or give out a directive that every passenger must be sternly reminded that Laptops are banned, and they the (EU) security personel shall turn a blind eye. Europe doesn't have to go along with every crazy idea, it is (at least still) stronger than it thinks.

Uhm that's not how it works. US can enforce a regulation saying that any aircraft entering US airspace cannot have laptops in the cabin and if an airline wants to fly to US they would have to comply with that regulation. FFA can easily impose fees and bans for airlines which don't comply.

Basically US has full control over their own airspace and can control what enters it - just like EU does with their own airspace. US cannot order EU airlines to do something, just like EU cannot order US airlines - but both can enforce restrictions on what enters their own airspaces.

Re: U.S. To Ban Laptops in All Cabins of Flights from Europe

#60

Post by mcv »

ithkuil wrote: post #27
emptybits wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bomb hidden in the cargo hold is effective if the intent is to simply blow up the plane by timer/remote/altitude. But if the goal is to hijack the plane, then a bomb in hand could be a more convincing negotiation tool.

How to you convince the crew that the laptop you're holding is actually a bomb?

Display a scary bomb image with timer on the screen, of course.
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