I wonder how she would have done in some other country’s airport.
Ya know, like maybe an airport in Israel. How far would she have gotten and what would have happened to her after airport security saw her?

Quote:Original post by Mithrandir
Since when does a circuit board and LED's look anything like a bomb? Seriously, some people need to get a grip on reality.

I don't know, maybe you could fill me in on what a bomb is supposed to look like? Because clearly everyone in this thread has some predetermined notion of what a real bomb looks like versus a "fake" bomb. And of course this difference must be easy to spot from however many meters away.

Quote:Original post by Mithrandir
In someone was going to make a bomb and smuggle it into the airport, they would
A) HIDE IT, and

Um, why? Read Avatar God's post. At my hometown airport, LAS, which is the 5th busiest airport in terms of movement and 11th busiest in terms of passenger traffic worldwide, there is literally only a few dozen meters between the area where you drop off passengers and the ticketing counters. On any given day there are always hundreds if not thousands of travelers densely lined up waiting to check their bags in that terminal. Why would a potential suicide bomber need to hide the bomb if his target is only a 5 second run from where he's dropped off? My point is that you're basing your assumption on the fact that the bomb actually has to be smuggled somewhere over a lengthy period of time, or that a bomber wouldn't want people or authorities to see it - not always true.

Quote:Original post by Mithrandir
B) ACTUALLY HAVE A BOMB

Well of course, but you wouldn't actually know that until it blows up in your face, or you're able to subdue the person (preferably without lethal force) and determine whether or not they really have a bomb.

What's with all the assumptions in this thread about what bombs are supposed to look like, or how suicide bombers are supposed to behave? Is there some standard operating procedure for suicide bombers that you're all privy too and I somehow missed? Everyone here is against racial profiling (myself included), which is making assumptions about who is more likely to be a threat based on race, however no one seems to have a problem with assuming a suicide bomber wouldn't actually wear a detonator (i.e. circuit board with LED's) on their person or carry the explosive (i.e. Play-doh) in their hand. I mean, who would do that, right?

Let's just hope they don't call our bluff.

At first I thought it was yet another ridiculous overreaction like the Aqua Teen Hunger Force "bomb scare", but the article has this sentence: "Simpson had Play-Doh in her hands, he said."

Then it's harder to tell whether the device is a bomb or not; to a paranoid security guard, the Play-Doh could be plastic explosives. When you add fake explosives to the circuit board, it seems more reasonable to confront her and make sure she doesn't "trigger the device".

I think it would be possible to make a detonator that looks like that. I don't know how much energy is required to ignite plastic explosives, but even a few capacitors from disposable cameras can give you a pretty big energy pulse, and they could be charged from a 9V battery. That said, I don't see any capacitors like that on a circuit, but I wouldn't expect a security guard to know the difference.

That said, after it was clear that it wasn't a bomb, arresting her and pressing charges is still a huge overreaction.

I'd expect a real bomb would be a few simple components linked to the explosive. It could easily look like what a 10-year-old would make on a breadboard.

Arresting the girl is extreme, but she should have been stopped and checked out. You can't count on bombers to be sensible and hide their bombs...

As a side point, how does anyone make it to the airport wearing circuit boards without getting beaten up?

Of course it looks like a bomb. It was meant to look like a bomb: she wanted to get a reaction, and that's exactly what happened. This is exactly the thing that terrorists do - they scare the living shit out of people. And while she may not be comparable with those who actually do carry out destructive things and kill people mercilessly, she certainly did try to create a nuisance and a scare.

No jury is going to believe that this this little rich MIT brat is innocent and is the victim of a misunderstanding - they're going to see her for what she is and the DA is going to do everything they can to paint it that way.