Thomas, perhaps you missed the story in yesterday's Telegraph, wherein Muntadhar al-Zeidi's brother was quoted as stating that his brother has been so badly beaten (broken rib, broken arm, shattered hand, etc) that the Iraqi prosecutors refused to produce him for his initial court appearance.

That he's been so savagely and grotesquely beaten for "insulting a foreign head of state" that he's not presentable in a country where a majority of prisoners are beaten prior to their first court appearance, says something.

His fellow Iraqi journalists have publicly pleaded for Bush to make a statement of forgiveness and call for al-Zeidi's release and the dismissal of the charges, but our wise, charitable and sympathetic President, the great born-again Christian that he is, has refused to make any public comment, either way, whilst a man is tortured for throwing a pair of loafers at him.

dvtedgar wrote:

My suggestion was that the Flight deck be inaccessible from the Passenger area. Make a separate outside door in the airliner for the flight crew to access the flight deck. This door would be guarded and highly secure. Flight attendants would enter the regular passenger area.

...

Is this workable?

In a word: No.

What happens when you have an 6+ hour cross-country flight? Or a 12+ hour tran-oceanic flight? Flight crews need food, beverages and lavatory access, not to mention crew swap-out on long-haul flights.

--

The real solution to secure cockpits is to implement what the Israelis had in place even prior to September, 2001: a cockpit vestibule/"airlock" system. On El Al aircraft, the cockpit sits behind two doors and only one of them can be opened at a time, with access controlled from the cockpit. If someone manages, somehow to actually get past the first door, they find themselves in a very small area -- to small to get a running start, or use a galley cart, to try to break down the second door.

Of course, implementing this on U.S. airliners would have meant giving up a row of passenger seats, so the idea was never given reasonable consideration -- all of this is theater and window dressing.

Mark my words, as a former counter-terrorism analyst: as a result of incompetent policies and security theater, the most dangerously vulnerable, insecure leg of airline travel is, now, the wait in line before you reach the TSA screeners.

Tom In Central Illinois wrote:

Many of the people who killed in the Civil War (1860's) were killed by 'friendly fire'. (The black gunpowder used at the time would produce large clouds of dense smoke, and after a couple of rifle volleys, both sides would be unable to see anyone).

There's a marked difference between the military technology (and tactics) of today and those of 1863. (Hell, there's a marked difference in the technology between today and Desert Shield/Storm.)

Data links, secure radios and thermal imaging/FLIR are supposed to provide battlefield commanders (whether it's a platoon sargeant or a batallion commander) with a "God's eye view" of the battlespace, and the M1A2 is one of the most network integrated components on the battlefield. If the tank commander didn't know who/what he was firing at, someone was highly negligent. Yes, war is nasty, dirty and confusing as hell, and communication breakdowns happen, but after years and years of emphasis on MOUT training, this shouldn't happen.

RGRT wrote:

People are running around shooting guns. Why cover up an accident?

People cover their own asses when something goes pear-shaped due to mistakes or negligence, whether it's an webserver failure due to inadequate network security or someone dies because a M1028 round is fired in the wrong direction. Military mistakes, particularly those resulting in avoidable deaths, have a habit of working their way up the chain of command, ending careers along the way -- no one wants to lose their rank, career or benefits, or end up in Leavenworth, KS for 15-20.

Paul Boyce, U.S. Army wrote:

Though, even in that concession sentence, the story still doggedly refers to this as fratricide, contrary to the Army’s thorough and detailed investigation performed shortly after the two Soldiers deaths and at the scene...

Paul, as an Army public affairs officer at the Pentagon, you know full-well, why this is still being discussed, despite the "Army’s thorough and detailed investigation" -- Pat Tillman, Abu Giraib, Walter Reed, GITMO Camp Echo, extraordinary rendition to blacksites, Brewster-Jennings & Associates and the assets and operatives that disappeared after its cover was blown by a playground slight against a former ambassador (and those are just some of the current administration's "issues").

Perhaps linking to local coverage of the story, from the cited paper, rather than a Fox affiliate 1,500 miles away would provide a little more detail:

• http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/1273910.html
• http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1274504.html

The signs were placed on land that the neighborhood believed was community property -- it isn't, apparently, due to oddly drawn property lines -- but that hasn't stopped the community from landscaping it.

The nine year-old boy had pulled apart his parents' Obama sign moments before trotting across the street, to his neighbors' electrified McCain signs. (Because, everyone knows that all nine year-olds have political agendas.)

Turschak claims he's an electrical engineer and that the signs included small warnings that they were electrified. Either way, it's still an asinine move, in my book, considering that the neighborhood is, apparently, full of small kids.

Chambliss joins not-quite-neighbors Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.)...

Gabriel, I suggest you study the map, again; North Carolina does border Georgia.

In fact, the location of the border has been a contentious issue since 1804 (there were actual gun battles), which has been raised again in the past year, over moving the border one mile north, to allow Georgia access to the Tennessee river, an additional source of drinking water.

http://picasaweb.google.com/fwodarcz/ATGeorgiaMay07#5064982029251710962

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM11VH