If we put aside the probable and obvious cause for disrupting the air traffic - namely, introduction of the permanent emergency state (in the future 2-3% of all flights may be affected - small price for maintaining the power), I wonder what are the logistics of injecting false information into the snooping systems.
It sure looks Al Qaida et al have already figured this out. There just so happens to be "chatter" indicative of a major attack before every major holiday. This seems to lead to three possibilities:
a. AQ has worked out that it's cheaper and safer to disrupt life in the US by "chatter" than by actually trying any attacks here, and disrupting holidays is more fun.
b. There really have been attacks planned, but they've either been foiled actively (e.g., the terrorists got arrested or shot or something before the attack took place) or passively (e.g., the higher alert status, changes to security procedures, etc., have made the terrorists postpone their attacks.
c. There really isn't much useful information about AQ plans in the available intelligence, and what we're seeing is the intelligence community's priors (in the Bayesian sense; their prior assumptions are swamping the effects of their meager data).
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--John Kelsey, [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP: FA48 3237 9AD5 30AC EEDD BBC8 2A80 6948 4CAA F259
