In Mark Boal’s
“The Hurtlocker,” Sergeant James befriends a
young boy during the beginning of the movie, named Beckham. Later in the movie, James believes that the boy has been made into a body bomb. In
the Iraq war children were used as bombs. The Iranians cut open dead kids and
implanted a bomb into them. It was almost as though
they were suicide bombers.
InReview America, Jim Kouri explains this by saying,
“While ‘The Hurt Locker’ is a work of fiction, the concept of body bombs is
considered a very real threat to U.S. national security.” The American
government feels like the Iranians will surgically implant bombs into normal
citizens. These body bombs could truly harm American citizens; they could
implant them, for example, in a passenger of an
airplane. Review America also has this to say regarding body bombs, “ In August 2009, an al-Qaeda suicide bomber,
Abdullah Hassan Tali Assiri, attacked and injured Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef
with a bomb concealed in a body cavity after passing through two airport
scanners, Rep. King said on Fox News.” American Security can never be too sure,
the terrorist managed to get through airport security just fine. The government
should require more strenuous security.
August
9th of this year, concern was raised again about body bombs and
America’s safety. Four years after the first hype,
the security was still not up to standards of
the Iranians. Elite Daily News states this about the security: “U.S. intelligence officials revealed that
al-Qaeda’s chief bomb maker, Ibrahim al-Asirir, has developed explosives that
can be concealed inside the body and avoid detection by even the most advanced
scanners. They also said they have reason to believe that al-Qaeda has created
an undetectable liquid explosive that soaks into clothing and can detonate when
dried.” Airport security can never be too cautious. After troops have been
taken from Iraq, Americans are still at risk of terrorism. Should the American
government close down certain entrance to the U.S? What security would help
keep American citizens safer in airports?
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| Security machine so that they can see inside body |
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| Body bomb after |
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| Results of an explosion due to a body bomb |
Interesting post, Mary-Elizabeth! I didn't really think about this topic until after we watched the movie in class. It truly does pose an entirely different threat than normal set bombs. To answer your questions at the end: I'm not quite sure as to what can really be done. The terrorist that you spoke about made it past two airline security desks unnoticed. That's a pretty bad sign! Perhaps greater technology might soon let us fix that issue and find these bombers before they reach their target.
ReplyDeleteAs far as shutting down certain clearance to the country, I'm just not sure that's possible. We need to take every precaution necessary to ensure our safety. The security in airports should be stepped up by all means. We cannot have terrorists slipping through the cracks and being able to detonate bombs in public places.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sam, shutting down certain entrances to the country would be pretty tricky. Airport security needs to be made tougher for potential passengers, now that terrorists are able to make body bombs/other types of bombs without detection. Security teams need to come up with new protocol screening plans to better enhance the detection of items that could harm innocent people.
ReplyDelete