Disappeared News

Now that US authorities have pressured the British into arresting the soft-drink terror suspects (see this NBC News article), we must be sure that our state government protects us adequately in the aftermath. There are important lessons to be learned from the British action--and our safety depends on how we react.

Drinks, hair gel or anything liquid are now banned from airplane cabins. Good, I feel so much safer because of that (at least until terrorists discover solid explosives). But wait--what will they do now that all the liquids they have been stockpiling can't be taken on airplanes? My fear is they will use them elsewhere. Hey--an explosive is an explosive, and we have to be careful now that the sinister potential of these substances has been revealed.

According to the NBC story, the British had their suspects under surveillance for more than a year and didn't plan to arrest them yet. The US applied pressure, maybe in the wake of Lieberman's defeat in Connecticut. But hey, our government was right on it. They moved quickly to protect us. But now it is up to us to appreciate fully the vulnerability that these arrests have demonstrated and move to eliminate it wherever it raises its ugly head.

I want to point out that there are currently no restrictions on the amount of liquid that can be carried into Aloha Stadium. This clearly deserves rethinking.

Also, Ala Moana Shopping Center is full of foreigners, and some of them are certainly carrying concealed hair gel, not to mention the aforementioned soft drinks. Any one of those suspicious-looking foreign types carrying a shopping bag could have sinister designs against this country. A shopping bag is such an obvious method of concealment I am surprised that no one has looked into their potential use by those who hate our freedom.

At airports they make us take off our shoes, but at Aloha Stadium footwear simply passes unchallenged. A dirty little secret is that some shoes contain gel. Worse, some shopping malls actually require shoes! What can they be thinking?

Stadiums, shopping malls, the Waikiki Shell. These places are about as crowded as an airplane. Aside from loss of life, what would be the effect on Hawaii's economy, dependent as it is on tourism, if some hair goo should be detonated, say, at a Sunset at the Beach event?

This all sends shivers down my spine. I'd actually feel safer at the airport than at a ball game! Aloha Stadium, Kahala Mall, Ala Moana Center, all of them have been left totally unprotected against this new threat. Why? I want this looked into.