From: eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com To: eskrima-digest@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Subject: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V8 #409 Reply-To: eskrima@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Errors-To: eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Precedence: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest Fri, 14 Sept 2001 Vol 08 : Num 409 In this issue: eskrima: Why someone should be armed on the plane! eskrima: From Tuhon McGrath eskrima: A, B, C, D, E, F, Gee...hey, that's me :-) eskrima: knives on planes eskrima: . ========================================================================== Eskrima-Digest, serving the Internet since June 1994. 1200 members strong! Copyright 1994-2001: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The premier internet discussion forum devoted to Filipino Martial Arts. Provided in memory of Mangisursuro Michael G. Inay (1944-2000). Replying to this message will NOT unsubscribe you. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe eskrima-digest" (no quotes) in the body (top line, left justified) of a "plain text" e-mail addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. To send e-mail to this list use eskrima@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of the Eskrima-Digest at http://MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Eric Primm" Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 21:35:57 -0500 Subject: eskrima: Why someone should be armed on the plane! By allowing no weapons on a plane you are making the situation a lot worse. Now, terrorrists might have to deal with knifeweilding individuals. If no one is armed on the plane, then biological weapons WILL be brought into play. It would seem easier to sneak the chemicals on the plane and dispense them in an aerosol can or spray bottle. Then, same result. If an airline security guard is hidden on the flight with a sidearm or knife, biological weapons can be neutralized. For the terrorrist to fly the plane, it would have to be a contact toxin. A firearm from a distance could neutralize this threat. The bottom line is that terrorrists think about these ideas to kill Americans. Disarming the passengers just makes everyone on board less able to defend themselves or save others. Just my thoughts; back to school. Eric Primm _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ From: "BILL MCGRATH" Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 23:04:40 -0400 Subject: eskrima: From Tuhon McGrath I received a call today from a ED member. He told me that several people had expressed concern on the digest as to my safety knowing that I am a NYS court officer. I'm fine. For the last few years I have been assigned to a courthouse about two hours north of the WTC. We did lose three of our officers though. They were from one of our Manhattan facilities who went to give aid after the first tower fell and were caught when the second tower collapsed. I knew one of those guys. We went through firearms instructor school together. A real gentleman and class act. He was a captain, but you wouldn't know it unless you saw his ID. He treated the rest of us as equals during the training. We went to dinner a few times together. I remember him talking about his kids with great pride. I can see him being one of the first out the door to offer help as soon as he heard what happened. In addition, I am still waiting to hear back from two students who work in the area. I needed to blow off some steam, so I wrote a letter to my reps in congress. I would like to share it with you. Perhaps you would consider writing your own congressmen and senators to let them know how you feel and what you would like done. Please pray for the families of the victims of Tuesday's attack. Tuhon Bill McGrath Dear Congresswoman Kelly, Let me preface my remarks by saying that I am a NYS Senior Court Officer. I am a defensive tactics and firearms instructor for my agency and have worked the metal detector detail at several court facilities. Last night I heard the Secretary of Transportation say that security procedures at US airports were going to receive a complete overhaul, including the banning of all knives and increasing standards for security screening personnel. What worries me is that the Transportation Secretary is ordering procedures that would have had no affect on Tuesday's hijackings. It is becoming increasingly clear that getting the weapons on board the four aircraft was a coordinated inside job perpetrated by people who were (or had the false ID cards to pretend to be), members of the night maintenance or cleaning crews at two separate airports. Only if we did what El Al does, namely keep two plain clothed and armed security men on board every single flight, could we have prevented these four hijackings. We need to bring back the Sky Marshal program in full force (The program still exists, but not in its previous numbers). Currently, Federal law enforcement officers can carry their firearms on board domestic flights, but the paperwork process they must go through to notify the pilot that they are bringing a loaded firearm on board is cumbersome (and the time I witnessed it, was handled by the flight attendant in such a way that notified anyone within earshot that an armed Federal agent was coming aboard). Perhaps this process can be streamlined to encourage more Federal officers to fly armed. It will take a great deal of time and money to bring the Sky Marshal program up to its former levels and even more time and money to bring it up to El Al levels. In the interim, perhaps other airlines could do what Continental Airlines already does in Texas. Currently, any Texas law enforcement officer flying within the state of Texas can carry his loaded firearm concealed on his person when flying on Continental Airlines. Perhaps this concept could be expanded to all U.S. law enforcement officers on all domestic flights. There is ammunition available that is designed specifically for use on board aircraft to reduce the risk of damage to the aircraft should a round miss its intended target and officers could be required to have this ammunition in their weapons while flying. The Trans-Sec is going to have a hard time preventing a terrorist from getting a knife aboard an airliner. Having worked the metal detector detail at several court facilities I can emphatically state that these devices are very limited in what they can accomplish. Any terrorist with even a cursory knowledge of their function can get a variety of knives past a metal detector ("metal detector" is a misnomer. They detect a limited number of metals having very specific properties). The news media has already mentioned hard plastic, ceramic and titanium knives that are for sale that can not be detected by a metal detector. But even if we were to ban such items, making a knife is such a simple process (ask any corrections officer) that the only way for such a ban to be even partially effective would be to ban the sale and confiscate from existing private stock ALL items made from hard plastic, ceramic and titanium, etc. The only way to be 100% sure that a passenger is not bringing a weapon on board an aircraft is to not only x-ray his luggage, but to x-ray the passenger himself (such technology is being used on a limited basis at U.S. airports, but to use it on each and every passenger on each and every flight would be prohibitively time consuming and expensive). Another problem is that no matter the security level we bring U.S. airports up to, that will not stop a group of terrorists from getting on board a plane in a third world country with poor security and hijacking the plane once in U.S. airspace. There were apparently two reasons the four planes hijacked on Tuesday were boarded by the terrorists from U.S. airports. One was that the plan seemed to require that the planes crash within a short time of each other and the other was that the planes had to be full of fuel to cause as much destruction as they did. However there is nothing we can do in the way of increasing airport security unilaterally within the U.S. that will prevent a single plane flying in from overseas from being hijacked and crashed into a target in the U.S. Unless every single airport in the world is brought to the levels of security we are proposing for U.S. airports, nothing we can do here will prevent a future terrorist group from using a plane bound for the U.S. as a flying bomb. There is a better solution and I believe President Bush is looking in this direction. In past administrations there seemed to be a tendency to think of tactical solutions to problems like these when we should be thinking strategically. We often had a tendency to add better locks to our doors after a burglary, when what we should have been doing was increasing the penalties for burglary. In the 70's we responded to gunpoint airplane hijacking by screening passengers for guns with metal detectors. When terrorists found that they couldn't get in the front door, they simply went around to the back door and began to place bombs in checked-in luggage. Instead of being kidnapped to a foreign country for a few days, passengers were now being blown out of the sky. We then increased security screening for all aircraft luggage. "Well, if you can't get a bomb on board a plane why not turn the plane itself into a bomb", one terrorist planner must have thought and Tuesday we saw the result. In the past, when we have identified the organizations responsible for these atrocities, we went after the surviving foot soldiers, arresting them as if they were domestic criminals and went after their foreign leaders with "surgical" strikes. I honestly don't see much deterrent value in threatening a suicide bomber with imprisonment or death. Do we really think the Osama Bin Ladens of the world are afraid to die? Unfortunately the only deterrent effect we have available to us is with the governments and people of the countries hosting these terrorist organizations. The hard reality of the situation is that the only long term deterrent to terrorism is to make our retaliatory strikes so utterly devastating to any country harboring terrorists that the government and people of those countries will expel or crush any terrorist organization in its infancy rather than face the wrath of the United States. While you may find a handful of men in a city willing to commit suicide for a cause, you won't find a whole city willing to do so. President Bush needs to make it unmistakably clear through military action in the coming weeks that, that is precisely the choice the people and governments who harbor terrorists make when they allow such men to operate from their country. In the meantime, there is one thing President Bush can do immediately to "stick it" to the terrorists and their supporters. One of the stated reasons Islamic terrorists attack the United States is our support of Israel. I would like President Bush to send this message to these terrorists: "Each time you attack us, not only will we do something far worst to you via our military, but we will do something good for Israel." I would like to see the President announce that he is ordering the move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem immediately and tell the world that he is doing so in response to the WTC and Pentagon attacks. Sincerely yours Bill McGrath Fishkill, NY ------------------------------ From: Stickgrappler Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 00:16:21 -0400 Subject: eskrima: A, B, C, D, E, F, Gee...hey, that's me :-) hello, >From: "Pentjakker" >Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 18:51:51 -0400 >Subject: eskrima: Gee [Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V8 #408] > >Glad to "hear" you're safe Hyman. How the work broker's license coming? > >Regards, >Travis thanks brother! i am fortunate that i am here after that tragic attack. i was there. i will never be able to forget it. luckily (if i could use that word) i did NOT witness both planes crashing first-hand, nor the 20 or less people jumping. those images would haunt me forever if i saw it first-hand. unfortunately, i have seen the news footage countless times. i just remember coming out from the train station being pushed by a panicky mob anxious to leave the station to get to street level. i never imagined i would see the sight of a big, burning gaping hole in the side of 1 WTC. i did feel the boom of the 2nd plane crashing and luckily (there goes that word again) decided to get out of there. much more to say, but will leave it at that. again, my condolences and prayers to any victims from that infamous day and hopes and prayers for finding more survivors. FYI, i also called up Guro Nick "Raw Dog" Sacoulas, and his student Danny answered saying he and the rest of his students were OK. very best regards, hyman p.s. i must give credit where credit is due, my subject line, i shamelessly used it from one of Guro Crafty's posts on Dr. Gyi (no relation :-). "Stickgrappling is a bit like a pinball game when 3 balls get going. There is the grappling, the stickfighting, and the stickgrappling all going on at once and what is sound in one, may be quite vulnerable in the context of one or both of the others." - Guro Crafty Dog ------------------------------ From: Pete Sampogna Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 09:22:21 -0400 Subject: eskrima: knives on planes And on this same note: Why shouldn't every law abiding person be permitted to carry a legal blade on their body while flying? I, for one, would feel much more comfortable knowing that I was surrounded by people who had weapons on them now I while I was appauled at the assualt rifle ban, I think that everyone carrying a blade whould scare the !@#$%^&*& out of me Although most of us on the planet are human there are a few who are not. A knife without training is a way on opening mail, a way to chop vegies, a deterrent. what if the person next to you has the temperment to do ill harm while typing on your laptop will you be ready for the attack? it's kinda nice to have a place to kick your feet up and only worry when the flight attendent will get you your next drink Pete Sampogna ------------------------------ From: Ray Terry Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 7:59:20 PDT Subject: eskrima: . ------------------------------ End of Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V8 #409 **************************************** To unsubscribe from the eskrima-digest send the command: unsubscribe eskrima-digest -or- unsubscribe eskrima-digest your.old@address in the BODY (top line, left justified) of a "plain text" e-mail addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2001: Ray Terry and the Martial Arts Resource Standard disclaimers apply.