Missed opportunity for Terrorists?

AARRRGH

Obviously I think terrorism is wrong.

But I was thinking (or rather someone else was thinking and I was stealing), how come Al Qaeda didn't take the opportunity given to them: every catholic leader under one roof for 2 days.

Now that would be a world **** if they had of flown a plane into that building...

ApeXaviour

That'd be like america invading iraq as 9/11 retribution.. Complete nonsense. What do they have against a bunch of cardinals?

also

Weren't the italian airforce on high alert? I know they were constantly circling while visiting heads of state attended the popes funeral.


In summary: this is a dumb thread

Pet

What do they have against a bunch of cardinals?

They're the figureheads of Catholicism, an enemy of Islam?

flogen

Pet wrote:

They're the figureheads of Catholicism, an enemy of Islam?

Al-Quaida don't care about Christians, they just hate westerners.

Whatever made you think A;-Quaida followed Islamic law and belief anyway?

ApeXaviour

Pet wrote:

They're the figureheads of Catholicism, an enemy of Islam?

You just making things up now?

Anyway, same reason america didn't bomb the vatican city:

"They're figureheads of Catholicism, an enemy of Freedom!"

Static M.e.

I saw a news article on Rome during the pope's death and that place was locked down tight with HEAVY security, SAM site's all over the place. An Airplane wouldn't get even close to Rome

VATICAN CITY -- Computer hackers, electronic bugs and supersensitive microphones threaten to pierce the Vatican's thick walls next week when cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel to name a papal successor.
Spying has gotten a lot more sophisticated since John Paul II was elected in 1978, but the Vatican seems confident it can protect the centuries-old tradition of secrecy that surrounds the gathering.
Vatican security refused to discuss the details of any anti-bugging measures to be used during the conclave. But Giuseppe Mazzullo, a private detective and retired Rome policeman whose former unit worked closely with the Vatican in the past, said the Holy See will reinforce its own experts with Italian police and private security contractors.
"The security is very strict," Mazzullo said. "For people to steal information, it's very, very difficult, if not impossible."
Thousands of reporters will be watching as the 115 cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel on April 18. Hackers and government informants may also be monitoring the conclave.
The temptations to spy will be immense. The papal election will likely see keen competition, notably between reformers and conservatives. It is also expected to witness a strong push for the first non-European pope.
Revelations of the proceedings could prove embarrassing to the Vatican. For instance, sensitive discussions on a papal candidate's stand on relations with Muslims or Jews, recognizing China rather than Taiwan or views on contraception would be sought after by governments or the press.
John Paul was sensitive to meddling from outside. He spent his formative years in Nazi-occupied Poland, then lived in a communist state under pervasive government spying. The Turkish gunman who shot him in 1981 was suspected of ties to the Soviets, a regime later brought down by forces the pope openly supported.
In 1996, John Paul set down rules to protect cardinals from "threats to their independence of judgment." Cell phones, electronic organizers, radios, newspapers, TVs and recorders were banned.
The ban on cell phones and personal data organizers makes sense, security experts say, since they can be hacked and used to broadcast the proceedings to a listener.
"An eavesdropper can reach into those devices and turn on the microphone and turn it into an eavesdropping device," said James Atkinson, who heads a Massachusetts company that specializes in bug detection. "It's extraordinarily easy to do."
Another worry for the Vatican will be rooftop snoops with sensitive microphones. Laser microphones can pick up conversations from a quarter-mile away by recording vibrations on window glass or other hard surfaces. The Sistine Chapel has windows set near the roof.
"You focus the laser on a window or on a hard object in the room, like the glass on a picture," said a New York-based security expert with Kroll, Inc., who asked that his name not be used. "When people are talking the glass will modulate with the sound of the voice and they can recover the audio."
Laser microphones can be thwarted with heavy drapes and by masking conversations with ambient noise.
Tougher to root out are tiny bugs: transmitters or recorders as small as a coin.
To handle those, bug-sweeping teams — acting on the pope's 1996 orders — will need to mount complex sweeps of sensitive meeting areas, taking out carpets, poking through chair cushions, opening heating ducts, testing electrical wiring, light bulbs and water pipes, Atkinson said.
The late pope deemed the threat to the conclave serious enough to decree that those who break their oaths of secrecy can be cast out of the Roman Catholic Church.
In a sign of nervousness about maintaining secrecy, the College of Cardinals decided Saturday to suspend interviews with the media. Cardinals had been giving interviews, and the clampdown is believed unprecedented.
"They've assured us there are ways to block all communications and conversations," Chicago Cardinal Francis George told reporters earlier in the week.
But even with precautions, foiling a spy inside the Vatican — perhaps an unwitting one — is probably the toughest threat to block, experts said.
A spy could import a listening device, or even signal people outside the Vatican by a color-coded message. Atkinson suggested using colored smoke or by flushing dye down a toilet with a discharge pipe that could be monitored elsewhere.
"Are they going to search all the cardinals to see whether someone bugged their spectacles or crucifixes?" asked Giles Ebbut, a surveillance expert with the London consultancy Jane's. "The imagination can run riot."

Kingsize

I'd imagine alquaida have their sights set on what they'd see as more "relevant" enemies.im sure the vatican is on the list but not at the top.
(thats if alquaida exist at all & are not just a global bogeyman invented by the u.s miltary/industrial sector to scare us into more pointless wars)

AARRRGH

Yeah, I agree that they would see something like "America" as much much more dangerous than the Catholic religion... but the west is sort of a Catholic/Christian group while they're a Muslim group (as in, it could be symbolic to **** up the Catholic Church.)

And we never know, maybe someone did try to do something, but the media just don't know about it...

_blank_

It takes a lot of planning to do something like that.

What, you think someone woke up a couple of days , even weeks before 9/11 and thought "I know, lets fly a couple of planes into the WTC in a few weeks". Nonsense.

Fair enough, it was looking like JPII was on the way out for a while, but no exact date was known, but even still, it took a year or more of planning to bring 9/11 about, and it really only looked like he was about to kick it in the past three or four months or so, not enough time.

Anyway, as already stated, it's not the Catholic Church these terrorists have the beef with, it's Western Culture.

stevenmu

Muslims actually respect christians as people of the book, and they respect the pope and clergy a lot as devout followers of God. IF AQ, or any other Muslim group, had carried out an attack it would have been a huge PR disaster with their own people.

ferdi

Muslims would respect christians as they are followers of the prophet Jesus, they have a problem with godless westerners not catholics.

Gurgle

dublindude wrote:

how come Al Qaeda didn't take the opportunity given to them: every catholic leader under one roof for 2 days

Because its several centuries since christian leadership was directly involved in the butchery and mass murder of muslims ?

I thought PJP2's funeral would have been the ideal time to park a plane in the VIP area, seing as hundreds of world leaders were there.