The surreal US security machine

[Jacks Complete]

Police Aviation News December 2003

METROPOLITAN POLICE: <snip>

The first public airing of the new colours was during the recent 4-day State visit to the UK by the
President of the United States George W Bush. This event thrust unprecedented levels of
security on the UK, including air support managing to make available all three of its AS355Ns at
the same time. One is usually permanently in maintenance so the availability of all three caused
some juggling and no doubt some loss of cover at other times. The security levels for the US
President far exceeded those afforded to any other heads of state - including The Queen [who
lives in the same area daily].

Central areas of London were cordoned off and one of the main helicopter routes [H4] was
placed off limits for part of visit. This again is of course the same airspace that is deemed quite
sufficiently secure for the Queen and Government 365 days a year.

The controlling authority for the airspace closure was the Metropolitan Police and they told both
of the main newscopter operators [BBC and Sky] they were not welcome. It was rumoured that
the BBC offered to carry a member of the security services to allow them to fly in the closed
airspace but was turned down. If true, that accommodation had been quite good enough for the
Pope but not for the US Security machine.

Bush, travelling on Air Force One with his wife Laura into a Heathrow airport that itself had
taken on a higher state of security than normal for the visit.

Prince Charles greeted the President before they boarded the US presidential helicopter --
specially imported for the visit -- for the flight to Buckingham Palace.

Ed: Just to underline the effect of the visit, a week later it was reported that Street Crime had
leaped by 25% during the period officers from other areas of London were concentrated on the
security task.

--
As a further note, the US security team also wanted a mini-gun in a truck! That was deemed too far, though.

[Bert]

If Caesar is assassinated, no one will vote for Cheney. He must be preserved at all costs.

Heck, I want a mini gun on a truck too- Any red blooded American would.

[vulture]

Reporter: Mr. President, don't these huge security measures ever disturb you?
Dubya: Well, that'sssss the priccssseee you gotta pay for visssiting the unsssscccivilisscced part of the USssss.
Reporter: But this is Great Britain Mr. President...
Dubya: Ofcourssssccee I know Tony Blair isssscc the Governor of Great Brighton, the 52ssssnd ssssccctate of the USssss! You're overunderesssstimating!

EDIT: Try reading this out loud while "chewing" the "s" like a real texan would do. :p

[Mike76251]

There are two or three Miniguns in 7.62 NATO for sale in the US.
Last I heard they were going for $100,000 USD each.

Reload your own rounds with the cheapest stuff out there and it will still cost you $400 a second at their rate of fire.

[Anthony]

Wouldn't that be more like $400 a minute?

I can see the point of sucking up to foreign heads of state, and spending loads on their visits to impress them, IF there's a big return to be had. So far I don't see a huge return for being in GWB's favour...

[PHAID]

There are several places you can get miniguns.
They have several at the machinegun shoot each year.
If you can find 7.62 rounds for .25 cents each it would be $25 per second and $1,500 per min.
That is if its going at its full rate of 6,000rpm

[Jacks Complete]

Anthony,

well, GWB hasn't invaded us yet...


Top notch 7.62 costs about 50p a round, so in "high" (10,000 rounds per minute, 166 a second) that works out to be £83 a second. That means with all that I can legally hold, I could fire for a fraction over 3 seconds... At £5000 a minute, I think that would be enough!

Even dirt cheap Arab surplus shite is 15p a round now, so "just" £24.90 a second, or £1200 a minute!

[xyz]

I thought they had a maximum of 6000rpm, not 10000

Guinness world records says 6000.

Anyway, IIRC they can be fitted with regulators to bring it down to a more manageable 2000rpm but it would still be bloody expensive.

[Jacks Complete]

http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Firearms/Machine-Guns/GE_XM214_Minigun.htm and http://world.guns.ru/machine/minigun-e.htm say up to 10,000, and that's what I thought originally. The exact rate of fire is largely dependant on the power of the battery involved.

The limiting factor is the melting point of the barrels, and the power requirement, combined with the weight of the ammo.

I would definately have some kind of pressure sensor on the trigger, so the harder I squeezed it, the faster it went!

[James]

OT: Recently I traveled (via air) across part of the us with some of my friends. I blew through each of the five security security checkpoints without incident. Three of my friends ran into trouble though. One of my friends, was got pulled out at four of the checkpoints and wanded. Another friend, had her keychain confiscated. A third friend, had one of his (carryon) bags check several times because it contained odd shaped stuff. As (probably) the most likely person (I thought) to get pulled out and checked. :p Our bags were checked twice for suspicous chemicals (once on the way out and at another point on the way back).

[Bert]

They took her keychain? Didn't they check her for a cunt bomb? (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/content_objectid=13777201_method=full_siteid=89488 _headline=-AL-QAEDA-IN-PLOT-TO-BLOW-UP-BA-PLANE-name_page.html)

[thrall]

Sounds interesting;)!, BTW 404

[Bert]

The link doesn't work any way I've tried except through rotten.com.
Go to rotten.com news (http://www.rotten.com/news/) and look at the first entry for January 5th to see a useable link to the cunt bomb story. Rule #1: Follow All the Rules (http://www.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=31825&lang=en)

[Jacks Complete]

Wow, I just read the front page of Rotten, and do they have a lot of stuff about the insane (inane?) american security situation...

The link above ("Rule #1") is also incredibly accurate.

The "scissor babe" who "cut through security by being cute" and caused a big fuss, was, in fact, armed with a pair of MANICURE SCISSORS! Oh my god! The babe in question, by the way, was a member of the AIRPORT SECURITY!!!! Like, WTF? How stupid is the average american? Most of the long-standing frequent posters here are quite intelligent, so please, spill the beans on your fellow americans - I could do with a laugh.

And to think, I really used to admire the US, and wanted to move over there...

[Bert]

There's plenty of Americans who believe what they see on American TV is reality, and they watch a great deal of TV... Does that help answer your question?

[vulture]

And to think, I really used to admire the US, and wanted to move over there...


Didn't we all, untill they started lying so squarely and it became apparent that the only thing that was really BIG in the US were the governments lies. And the stupidity of the sheeple ofcourse.

A dumb retarded ape like GWB would be laughed at if he applied for presidency in Europe.

[Bert]

Well, it's getting even more surreal here...
Glass seen as potential threat aboard planes (http://www.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=38129&witharticle=1&comments_threshold=0&comments_offset=0&comments_sort_mode=points_desc&comments_maxComments=10&lang=ru)
Apparently, they now will want to keep us from bringing any glass bottles on an airplane. I can just see what would happen to anyone DUMB enough to crack a bottle and start trying to hijack a plane with it. What happened to Richard Reid would be mild in comparison. For God's sake, hijacking with an edged weapon is a thing of the past, anyone trying it will go down under a human wave attack before they can finish making their demands known.

[Tuatara]

9/11 succeeded beyond anyones wildest dreams. The US sheeple have surely never been in so much terror for so long.

As for the glass - does that mean I have to leave my spectacles at home too?

[Flake2m]

Bert that link uyou posted is funny.
Be seriously I have no idea why anyone would try hijacking a plane now as all the passengers would simply revolt against hijackers.
Even if the hijacker had AKs they still wouldn't be a match for 100 passengers. As for box cutters anyone with a days hand to hand combat training could disarm a man with box cutters and three people rushing him would disarm him pretty quick.

[infernal]

heh they should start the "war on terror" in the US white house...

[Jacks Complete]

Shit, that article is funny... A few converted lighters would do a great job as mini flamethrowers, and I had the idea about the molotov after I saw James Bond do it in a car.

But TWEEZERS? Perhaps for stupid torture, but not for hijackings! Good god! Funny that they have taken boxcutters off the list, and allow them in checked baggage in the hold, though. That leaves them in the same class as sidearms!