Word: planes
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...None of this is to say homegrown terrorism isn't a danger. Take, for instance, the firing device that nearly brought the Northwest plane down. It was a chemical initiator, four common chemicals that progressively speed up the detonation. Any competent chemist can build one. Only small quantities of the chemicals are needed, and they can be easily smuggled through airport security. As for the explosive used in the Christmas attempt, PETN, it's everywhere and difficult to detect with the current airport-security systems...
...each. Producing the fish isn't easy; eggs are often held inside a male dragonfish's mouth until they hatch. When they're sold, Yap implants a microchip in its belly and delicately packs it in pre-oxygenated cold water, often to be sent north to China by plane...
...that would be virtually impossible today, as hordes of counterterrorism officials scrutinize financial transactions and cell-phone calls, and drones track al-Qaeda leaders around the clock. And while government no-fly lists remain flawed, at least they exist. Today, the number of suspected terrorists prohibited from boarding a plane in the U.S. is about 4,000. Before Sept. 11, according to al-Qaeda expert Peter Bergen, it was 16. (See pictures of a jihadist's journey...
Armed guards have policed American aircraft since the first hijacking of a U.S. jet, in 1961--when a Miami man took over a plane bound for Key West, Fla., and demanded that it fly to Cuba--and subsequent incidents prompted President Kennedy to declare that a "border patrolman" would be placed on a number of U.S. planes. The program was expanded following a flurry of hijackings in the late '60s. In 1970, U.S. Customs sent nearly 1,800 men and women to the U.S. Army's Fort Belvoir for "sky marshal" training. But as the attacks continued unabated, critics slammed...
...attack on a Detroit-bound airliner by a suicide bomber allegedly trained in Yemen, the U.S. has ramped up its counterterrorism aid to the government in Sana'a--courting the ire of militants there. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group that claimed responsibility for the plane attack, threatened to strike against foreign officials in Yemen, prompting the U.S. and British embassies to close. The buildings reopened on Jan. 5, after successful raids by Yemeni security forces on al-Qaeda hideouts and the subsequent arrest of three suspected terrorists. Several other embassies have kept some restrictions in place...