04/25/24
April 20, 2004
Terrorists plan to blow up Old Trafford, home of Manchester United: . Police have narrowed the number of suspects down to 40,000,000 people.
Scary stuff, though not entirely unexpected. I've long thought that sports stadiums and commuter trains were the obvious places to attack, once airline security was beefed up. The trains have already been done in Madrid. I hope it's not a matter of time before we see something in a packed sports stadium. I'm sure al-Qaida's "holy grail" (as it were) involves the Superbowl. I notice the story didn't go into specifics as to how the suicide bombers intended to smuggle their bombs in. Any time I go to a match wearing a coat or loose clothing I get frisked.
posted by salmacis at 05:18 AM on April 20, 2004
In other football news, a man has won the right to sleep during a football match. Yes, he's a middlesbrough fan.
posted by BigCalm at 07:36 AM on April 20, 2004
One can hardly blame the man. Boro would send me to sleep as well.
posted by salmacis at 11:23 AM on April 20, 2004
I really wish I had the capability to watch today's match.
posted by jasonspaceman at 12:09 PM on April 20, 2004
Don't we all jason? But here in England we have to suffer the inconsequential Champions League Semi Final between Monaco and Chelsea instead. Life's so hard.
posted by squealy at 01:29 PM on April 20, 2004
I just successfully double posted this as a "Culture" topic instead of soccer. Damn fool. I'm kind of surprised you guys aren't taking it more seriously. I mean, I am in attendance at games a lot. I spend a lot of time observing people and behaviors when I am in large crowds. Sometimes, I am surprised by how lax the "searching" is at events. Are stadiums safe enough? Are search efforts diligent enough? Do you feel safe attending games?
posted by jerseygirl at 10:08 AM on April 21, 2004
I think part of the reason is that it's an article from the Sun, a newspaper which frequently publishes stories without a shred of evidence to back them up - the story itself is, if not untrue, then grossly distorted by the Sun's reporting. That said, it's a potentially huge target for terrorists - 60,000 people all gathered in one place at a time. Our friend Osama is thought to be an Arsenal fan too, though I doubt this has any bearing on the situation. Security is fairly tight at football grounds here in the UK (always a large police presence, searches of fans that go through the turnstiles, etc.), and the larger the club, the better the security - but I'd imagine a bit of ingenuity on the part of the terrorists would soon circumvent that. It's perhaps a question of laughing at it because we can't really do much about it - what would you propose? A sort of airport-style checking in process? 60,000 fans in one hour?
posted by BigCalm at 10:32 AM on April 21, 2004
CNN is more credible than the Sun. I don't know what to propose. I don't have the answers, I can only observe from what I've seen. I'm certainly not trying to be a wet blanket in here. I understand its kind of a helpless situation. I'd guess if 3 years ago, someone said "wow, can you imagine if they crashed planes into the skyscrapers?" people probably would have responded similarly "hey, what can you do?" Of course, that seemed so out of the realm of possibilities too. At Fenway, there's an okay police presence. It's ramped up for Yankees games, because the fans get rowdy themselves. This year they started using those wands to search people at all games instead of the half-assed pat down, and they still do a half-assed peek into bags. A lot of times, my bag has been searched and my person gone unsearched, or vice versa. Generally, they won't ask for pockets or zippers in bags to be opened. I pretty much offer that up right away, hoping it sort of triggers the attendant to look in other pockets... but i doubt it. Maybe I look too innocent or maybe they assume I couldn't smuggle anything in. but that always unnerves me a little because you can't assume, especially when it comes to the safety of tens of thousands of people - families - just minding their own business. Just knowing the structure of that park in specifics, I know that if someone was so inclined, you could target the outside structure of the park (the supports outside the Monster on Landsdowne for example) and cause a decent amount of damage/fatalities too.
posted by jerseygirl at 10:58 AM on April 21, 2004
if you talk like that too much, jg, I think some black helicopters will be visiting you soon.
posted by gspm at 11:14 AM on April 21, 2004
Clammy? Searches of fans? I haven't been searched going into Saint Andrew's since it went all-seater.
posted by squealy at 11:36 AM on April 21, 2004
In my view, the pat down and random bag search seem to be more for show so that someone thinks twice about bringing something in. It's my guess that the smallest of explosions is all that would be needed to create pandemonium in a large arena. The real tragedy starts when people all rush to the exits at the same time and trample each other. Some of the worst footage I have ever seen is when people get crushed against the barricades during a soccer riot. It really makes me worry about the Olympics in Greece, not only do they not seem to be able to build everything in time, but it makes me wonder how much security is a priority too.
posted by usfbull at 11:50 AM on April 21, 2004
The American Airlines Center is the only arena/park that I'm really familiar with. They do a pretty good job of ensuring that everyone goes through the metal detectors and all purses/bags are at least checked in a cursory manner. I don't recall if I was patted down when I went to St. James' in Newcastle, but that was pre 9/11. The thing I'd be most worried about is a drive up van bomb. You can get pretty darned close on the East side of the Arena. Then again, maybe I've just got the OKC bombing on my mind.
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:27 PM on April 21, 2004
ufez, they found 5 such bombs in Saudi Arabia last week alone, so its good you have that on your mind. I know Saudi Arabia isn't anywhere near DFW, but I'm just saying its a very popular m.o.
posted by garfield at 01:56 PM on April 21, 2004
jerseygirl, remember that here in Britain, we've lived with terrorism in the shape of the IRA for decades. You can't give in to it by allowing it to affect your daily life. Remember, even at the hight of the IRA bombing campaign, you would have been far more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the match. You've got to put these things in perspective. That's why Israeli citizens still use the bus, even after all those suicide bombings.
posted by salmacis at 04:53 PM on April 21, 2004
Sucky bloody internet newspapers who want subscriptions - sorry, went through google and didn't get problems. Try the Sun story instead.