The Groin-Bomber

January 6, 2010 by Noisy Dove

I don’t think trying the groin-bomber in a military court is willy-nilly throwing out core principles of the United States justice system or would be motivated by officials liking or disliking an accused criminal, person, or action.

I see such measures as military trials, and even Gitmo, as a necessary part of our justice system.

It would also be helpful in stopping attacks to be able to interrogate terror suspects like this fellow. We were lucky this time. He was stupid and there weren’t nine other guys trying the same thing – that we know of. A lot could be happening while the detainee chats up his lawyer and a plea deal is settled.

I understand the reasoning in fighting this thing like it’s a crime wave. We want to be a fair and just society that isn’t willing to compromise our morality when it counts: under pressure. And if our enemy were simply committing despicable acts of violence that made me angry and not like them – or if our primary goal was capturing people responsible for attacks – I’d absolutely agree and be proud of our treatment of this now-hairless-assed kid. Indeed, we don’t want to allow the terrorists to destroy our justice system the way they have our air travel system.

That’s not the situation though. The situation is: We’re trying to stop attacks. The situation is: We are dealing with a large and dedicated group that intends on, is able to, and is currently destroying our society. And it doesn’t matterhow moral our society is if it’s destroyed.

What I don’t understand is why our enemy is taking so long. My only conclusion is they generally aren’t too awful damn smart and don’t see our glaring vulnerabilities. Likewise, our leadership isn’t too awful smart to assume this was a primary attack – let alone a lone non-terrorist non-Al Qaeda attack.

When you’re dealing with tactics and counter tactics, you have to constantly ask the question: What would the other guy do. In this case, I wouldn’t assume the other guy is making yet another attack on an airline with such an unreliable and borderline retarded weapon. (yeah, the kid had enough explosive to turn the plane into a fireball. But that’s only if it’s packed – it wasn’t – and in the right place, not on the idiot’s lap.)

What does our enemy know about us? Well, they know from the shoe bomber that an attempt on air travel causes what? Yeah – a huge bottle-neck of humanity on the unprotected side of the airport.

No good general sends his forces against an evenly defended rampart. He sends a faint here and his primary forces there, forcing the defender to disrupt and unevenly distribute his defense. The Groin-bomber (I’m trying to get this to catch on) could have been a precursor to some actually effective attacks.

Here’s what I would have done as a terror leader: The Groin-bomber would jam up the airports. Somewhere along the remote fire-breaks where the high-tension power lines are built that feed power to New England and DC, a guy would cut into their bases fare enough to weaken them significantly, probably three in a row on all the main trunks. A few guys would pack some luggage full of semi-auto rifles, ammo, and improvised shrapnel grenades and go find a comfy corner in the most crowded area of the unsecure side near the entrance of their favorite New England airports.

The airport gunman could then trap a group of people between themselves and security, depending on facility layout, easily more than would fit on one airplane. Once the first-responders are en rout, the high-tension lines would be finished off – blacking out and freezing New England with first responders having to mine their way through crippled traffic.

Details would depend on man power and finances of course. But three guys and $5k would manage it easily including a cigarette budget. The way to stop such an attack would be with quick interrogation of the first suspect captured, And I don’t mean ‘torture’ or advanced interrogation. A decent interrogator should at least be able to extract whether or not this was the primary attack and where or where not the actual attack is planned just by asking questions and studying the suspect’s reaction.

Of course, I wouldn’t let the Groin-bomber know any details anyway. I would have sent the dumbest member of the team for that job and convinced him he was the primary attack. And this would have totally destroyed our economy, not to mention the numerous people being killed, freezing, and starving to death. And I imagine public support would abruptly shift away from any type of soft handed, just, or moral approach to fighting terrorism after such an incident. In other words, the best way for our society to keep its convenient morality is to not screw around with dangers that can in them selves cause revolutionary change.