Dear friends,

In the light of last weeks foiled bomb plot in Britain, I want to share certain deep concerns about public safety with you, and suggest some possible solutions.

As British homeland security (god bless the queen!) exposed clearly, these terrorists have developed a sophisticated understanding of chemistry and electronics, which allow them to make bombs out of almost any sort of publicly available liquids, and trigger mechanism from "consumer electronic devices such as iPods". This means that they are not only capable, but also determined enough to carry out their actions, even at the expense of destroying their iPods. I mean, they could use any other consumer electronic device, or basically a small AAA battery (which you were allowed to carry on board without the electronic device surrounding it) would be enough for the job. But, no! They are using "devices such as iPods" to prove the level of their sophistication and dedication. I mean, have you ever tried to open an iPod and pull the battery out? Man, that needs some courage and some skills! I bet, they would prefer to use U2 Special Edition iPods, for some of the early U2 songs exhibited a spirit not different than those of the terrorists at all. I'm wondering, if Al-Qaida supplies these fancy gadgets to its cadres as a part of the standard equipment. Could that be an incentive for innocent poor young immigrants to join the organization? Authorities should tackle this question seriously. They should also take some preventive measures against the proliferation of iPods to third world countries and among muslim immigrants. Apple must do a background check before selling these gadgets to certain type of youngsters -- and perhaps they should sell it only with a license in general. I mean, what do these certain type of youngsters really think? Do they believe they will look unsuspicious if they carry an iPod? Do they sincerely believe that they look like normal people, like the ones in the advertisements, just by attaching the thing on their belt? Hah!

But, there's an extremely important issue I want to address here, which, albeit their alertness, somehow managed to escape from the attention of authorities. Yes, obviously you can make a bomb by mixing this and that liquid in a beverage cup, break apart your iPod to trigger it etc., and a prohibition of these things on board may partially prevent from terrorist activities. But apart from these, there's a necessary ingredient common to most types of explosions, which is, unfortunately, still available on board plentifully in any commercial airliner... the oxygen! This odorless, colorless reactive chemical is what makes the fire and explosion possible in most cases, and it is already present in the air around us in a gaseous form --which approximately constitutes as much as %20 of its mixture. If you are skeptical, just take an innocuous looking, publicly available piece of match, strike it and see what happens!... Will we ever be safe, as long as the we are surrounded by such explosive substance? I believe, if the terrorists are excelled in techniques at such level, no air travel will be safe unless we find a radical solution to evade from oxygen.

Now, once we became aware of the real source of imminent threat, the problem still remains complicated. The complexity originates from the fact that, besides terrorist activities, oxygen is also useful for humanitarian purposes, such as respiratory activities publicly known as "breathing". The situation is challenging. One easy solution that comes to my mind, which I want to propose here, is to alienate the air in the planes from oxygen through advanced filtering systems, or by making the cabin totally airtight (since the rest of the air is not useful for respiration anyway). In the absence of air, it wouldn't be possible to cause any chemical reaction leading to an explosion on the planes easily, no matter which liquids you mix, or which model of iPod you break apart. Simple and smart, right? But this measure alone would give the passengers utter discomfort, make the respiratory activity impossible as well, and would not allow distant travels which take longer than 3 minutes. Simple as it is, the security solution would bring a "breathing problem" (if you want to call it that way) as a side effect which would diminish the value of air travel for customers, and in the end, would also effect the share holder value adversely and jeopardize the business at large. In order to prevent this, the necessary air for respiration can be provided to passengers through compressed air cylinders and masks/mouthpieces (like the aqualungs of scuba divers) in an entirely safe way. By this way, passengers may breathe safely, without worries during the flight. Moreover, the compressed air provided on board may vary in quality, and even add extra value to flight experience depending on which class they fly. For example, the first/business class passengers may be given a higher density of oxygen, like 35-40 %, which will make them high and nice during the whole flight, whereas economy class may be given only enough oxygen to survive -- or, alternatively, may be given the option to bring their own tubes through security controls.

I hope my humble suggestions find their address and will be taken into consideration. The main idea behind terrorism is to disturb people's everyday lives, scare them and create panic --so that they comply with the authoritarian rule they want to bring instead of freedom and democracy. But, if we take all the necessary precautions (like this one I suggest here), be alert and ready all the time, constantly watch our back for anything suspicious, approach even the most ordinary things in a cautious way --and cooperate with the authorities, there is no reason to be scared at all!

Raising public awareness is highly important in this respect. But despite all the efforts to draw the attention of the public through an extensive media coverage (and the chaos that inevitably gripped social life following the disruption of the plot), I believe what has been done to raise public awareness on the issue is not enough. In the face of such imminent thread, the public is still being distracted with various unimportant issues. Moreover, some of these distractions even have demoralizing effect due to their content. For example (as those who paid attention may also have noticed and got distracted), exactly on the same day the plot foiled, there was still some piece of unworthy news on the papers about some irrelevant situation in Afghanistan. The news --which, at that moment, became a minor issue of course, but still able to divert people's attention from the main problem-- was about the British troops in Afghanistan who started to face extreme difficulties to contain the resurgent Taliban. The British General of NATO forces quoted saying that the British troops were enduring "days and days of intense fighting, being woken up by yet another attack, and they haven't slept for 24 hours", and "This sort of thing hasn't really happened so consistently, I don't think, since the Korean War or the Second World War." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4779321.stm)
It almost sounds like a drastic news that is capable of shaking the government --if it would have appeared on a regular day. Now, is this really the right time to disturb peoples concentration on their own security with such demoralizing news? It makes one think that such news articles were planned ahead of time by sources sympathetic to the terrorists, and have been waiting to be released at that particular moment. Today, less than a week after the plot was discovered, before having enough time to fully comprehend what the threat was really about, the papers are already shifting their focus to other things and breaking more spirit: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1219260.ece

Some go even further to question the nature of the issue and dismiss the factuality of the threat: http://www.counterpunch.org/reed08142006.html

And as if such nonsense is not enough, I heard that some people started to ridicule the whole situation and make a mockery of security concerns. Can you believe that? I wouldn't like to scare anybody off, but these people do not grasp the seriousness of the threat... In these times, the air you breath, the earth under your feet, the water you drink, everything can explode at any moment!