Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks • Hacker News Board

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#191

Post by dchesterton » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:31 PM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #67

jonatanheyman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to BBC the explosion are believed to have been in the checkin area, i.e. outside of the security screening.

This is a clear weakness of airports: where people regroup even before reaching the terminal, with no surveillance or security checks whatsoever. And that's not just in Brussels.

I traveled through Baku airport in Azerbaijan last summer which had body and luggage scanners at the entrance to the terminal. I wonder how long before this becomes the norm?

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#192

Post by Zigurd » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:32 PM UTC

rawTruthHurts wrote: post #154

DoubleMalt wrote: post #136

What I find reassuring in the midst of this tragic mayhem however, is how little actual damage the terrorists could do. They had explosives, weapons, the resolve to sacrifice themselves and tried their best to do as much damage as possible. And they managed to to kill less than 30 people (provisional count). Of course every death that brought on by this fanatic mob is too much, but we should keep our perspective. A b…

Comparing terrorist attacks with traffic accidents is quite a display of originality.

A million people worldwide die every year in collisions with cars, half of them pedestrians and cyclists. Millions more are injured.

Compared with traffic regulation and enforcement, the response to terrorist events like this are vastly out of proportion, and well into the range of irrational response that the terrorists know is the only way to really damage a large powerful nation - by making it turn on its own people and put them in a security-state panopticon.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#193

Post by sjg007 » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:32 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #101

creshal wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France has had the most extensive surveillance system in continental Europe for over a decade and it has helped roundabout nothing.

Indeed. It seems to be the prevalent opinion among European counter-terrorism experts that the most effective policies are: - Bringing more eyes and ears in the form of social workers and community policemen in problematic neighborhoods. - Provide better education/work opportunities for immigrants. - Better cooperation between municipalities and Muslim organisations/mosques. - Deradicalization programs. Of course, im…

Here's a weird idea. What about cutting benefits and forcing people to get jobs? Would it prevent terrorism? If everyone is too busy working??

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#194

Post by grp » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:33 PM UTC

DoubleMalt wrote: post #136

What I find reassuring in the midst of this tragic mayhem however, is how little actual damage the terrorists could do. They had explosives, weapons, the resolve to sacrifice themselves and tried their best to do as much damage as possible. And they managed to to kill less than 30 people (provisional count). Of course every death that brought on by this fanatic mob is too much, but we should keep our perspective. A b…

They seek fear, not the maximum number of deaths. Victims are not the goal but a way.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#195

Post by kbart » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:35 PM UTC

matthewaveryusa wrote: post #117

We havent seen a group of 50 militants take over a city and reck havoc because our surveillance systems can detect such levels of organization. As horrible as this sounds, anyone with an IQ above 60 can plot and kill 30 people because there's not enough signal in the vast noise our communication networks generate to pick up on it. If we can prevent terrorist attacks that kill thousands of individuals we've won.

If entering a major airport strapped with explosives undetected and blowing up twice killing tens of people isn't a spectacular security failure, I don't know what is. I agree that it's nearly impossible to detect/prevent random shootings/stabbings (like in Paris attacks), but this is not such case.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#196

Post by ascorbic » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:35 PM UTC

george_soros wrote: post #100

raverbashing wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Local", yes, keep telling yourself that 2nd generation immigrants I'm not against immigration per se, but there's a lot of problems coming from people who fail (because it's mostly their responsibility) to integrate

They don't fail to integrate, they don't want to. Big difference. I believe there will be a time in Europe, when people will have enough and will demand deportation of every muslim. So 99 good muslims will be deported for every 1 bad muslim. I'm not saying I want this time to come, but what else can happen ? Drastic times == drastic measures.

More people die in the average week from car accidents in Europe than from terrorism in the whole of last year (which was mostly the Paris attacks). I'm not saying we should ban driving, but drastic times etc. Most of the terrorists speak French. I'm not saying we should deport all Francophones, but drastic times..

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#197

Post by Zigurd » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:35 PM UTC

twoodfin wrote: post #175

Zigurd wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many commonplace chemicals, such as hand sanitizer, confound the explosives detectors used at airports. Dogs can only work a very limited time before their sense of smell gets fatigued. Moreover, the bomb was set off outside the secure area. It is VERY likely that existing security measures got more people killed because there are dense crowds waiting to clear security. This exact type of attack, outside the secure a…

Without better information on the whereabouts of the explosion, it's hard to draw any conclusions. But from the photos I've seen, any crowds targeted by the bomber(s) would not have been due to security lines, but rather the densely packed lines at the various airline checkin desks. Unlike most American airports, where broad desks face the outer wall, at Zaventem they're arranged in facing rows like booths at a conve…

So perhaps the security lines need to be outside the check-in area? See what I did there?

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#198

Post by Bard7 » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:35 PM UTC

pluma wrote: post #156

creshal wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France has had the most extensive surveillance system in continental Europe for over a decade and it has helped roundabout nothing.

Even more blatant: Exhibit A: The Mossad is generally considered one of the best intelligence services world-wide. Exhibit B: There are still frequent terrorist attacks in Israel.

Please take a look at a map of what countries border Israel and what borders Belgium. This a highly misinformed comment.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#199

Post by qb45 » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:36 PM UTC

DoubleMalt wrote: post #136

What I find reassuring in the midst of this tragic mayhem however, is how little actual damage the terrorists could do. They had explosives, weapons, the resolve to sacrifice themselves and tried their best to do as much damage as possible. And they managed to to kill less than 30 people (provisional count). Of course every death that brought on by this fanatic mob is too much, but we should keep our perspective. A b…

Accidents, which everybody strives to avoid, and intelligent agents actively seeking to kill you are two different classes of danger and people react differently.

With accidents, you can kinda hope they won't be happening too often because nobody benefits from them. Not so much with violent conflicts, though.

Re: Brussels Rocked by Terrorist Attacks

#200

Post by Cenk » Tue, Mar 22, 2016, 1:36 PM UTC

tobltobs wrote: post #45

Cenk wrote: post #29

Facebook has activated Safety Check. — https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/brusselsexplosions-marc... I guess it’s official. Facebook Safety Check is for terrorist attacks in white, western countries only. Good to know. Edit: I was wrong and I take back what I said: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Safety_Check#Other_de...

https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/ankaraexplosion-feb17-2...

You are 100% right, Facebook Safety Check was in fact deployed during both Ankara explosions this year, and for an attack in Nigeria late 2015. I take back my (unnecessarily snarky) comment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Safety_Check#Other_de...