real knowledge? Here's one collection witnessed statements of opinion and
analysis.
>
> * how difficult it is to pilot a Boeing
There have been wildly varying estimates in media coverage, and I think the
variation stems from different preconceptions regarding the terrorists'
(ain't calling these guys guerrilas) organizational base. What has not been
disputed is the great difference between flying an already airborne jet and
getting it off the ground/landing it. After that, some people say,
particularly regarding 757s and 767s, they are not hard to fly, and that
flight-sim work would be enough, and others claim full training would be
required. The interviews I watched have started to blur, but I think I saw
one pilot in the "wouldn't be hard to fly it" group. I speculate that this
is one reason why they went for 757/67s and not the larger, but harder to
fly 747s.
> * what makes steel-frame skyscrapers fall down
I've seen interviews with three different structural engineers who say that
the huge loads of jet fuel would be enough to sustain a fire that would burn
through the insulation around the steel beams and cause them to melt. From
there, as one nicely put it, the stored energy ("when they built those
buildings in the 197x, they stored a lot of energy") was released. I
believe that a key additional element is that the impact of the jet would
screw up the sprinkler system enough to allow the fire to work on the
insulation more powerfully. Of course, it's only speculation now that the
terrorists selected LA bound planes because of the greater fuel on board,
but that makes sense.
> * what the FBI, CIA or any other confidential agency knew at any time in
the last year.
What they knew and what they could get noticed within the government are two
separate questions. I was surprised (I still have some capacity for it) to
see a posting of the Scheer article on Bush giving the Taliban over 70
million for drug suppression. = a big, powerful agency covering for them
in policy circles ---> warnings get ignored, sent back for confirmation,
buried under optimism about growing US influence/cooptation. Some boring
political science classes may have me too primed to look for the influence
of bureaucratic politics and inertia, but with regard to the War on Drugs,
it has to be a factor.
re
>
> =====
> ... in countries which do not enjoy Mediterranean sunshine idleness is
more difficult, and a great public propaganda will be required to inaugurate
it. -- Bertrand Russell
>
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