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| Latin America |
| Bolivia Detains 16 Muslims on Terror Tipoff (possible hijackers) |
| 2003-12-04 |
| Bolivia’s state news agency said authorities in La Paz detained 16 Muslims on Thursday after a tip-off from French police that some of them were planning to hijack a plane and attack targets in the United States. It quoted Interior Minister Alfonso Ferrufino as saying most of those arrested were Bangladeshis and that they were detained at Viru Viru airport near the southern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz on Thursday morning. "(Ferrufino) said that the tip-off from French police said that the 16 Muslims were planning to hijack a plane en route from La Paz via Santa Cruz to Buenos Aires to attack targets in the United States," the news agency report said. |
| Posted by:TS |
| #2 Well, they could have tickets that put them on multiple, connecting flights. Theoretically, they would go through security in Bolivia, then switch from plane to plane until they got to the one they intended to hijack. I'm pretty sure that if you come in on an international flight and are leaving on another international flight, you don't go through customs or immigration -- that gets you through most of the screening. Any weapons they needed could either come with them or be pre-positioned by support teams in the US or another intermediate stop. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-12-4 11:58:42 PM |
| #1 Let's see. I get out my trusty atlas to find Santa Cruz in southeastern Bolivia. Examining the distance to Buenos Aires, and therefore the likely amount of fuel carried by the plane, I make it that they would get as far as, oh, Ecuador before running out of fuel and crashing. It's also possible that the plane carries enough fuel for a round trip (i.e., from Buenos Aires back to La Paz). In which case they might make Mexico before going into the drink. Why is this?: 1) My navigation is off. 2) Our clever jihadis have secured refueling stations along the way. 3) They're real stupid. Someone help me out here. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2003-12-4 11:41:50 PM |