Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

We Haven't Seen Anything Yet

Like many others I have been following with interest the mystery of the vanished airliner over South East Asia. This morning it was finally announced that the airplane had been hijacked ... Duh! When the aircraft drops off the radar and the engines keep sending out an electronic "Ping" for another eight hours what else is there to conclude?

The next question will be, was the hijacking motivated by a potential ransom demand or was it to get a delivery platform for a Weapon of Mass Destruction?

1. Ransom: If this was the reason it is not unreasonable to conclude that the passengers have been dispersed, so when the ultimatum is eventually delivered a commando like rescue will be next to impossible. It is likely that the logistics and excecution of the dispersal would take some time. A month is not an unreasonable period before hearing about it.

2. Delivery System: If this is the purpose then the hackers made a huge error in timing by not making this action the final piece in the puzzle. Dragging this out will not play to their advantage. I would not be surprised to see the Israelis prohibit the entry of this type of aircraft into their airspace. Everybody, including (especially) the US needs to be preparing for a worst case scenario.

Facts:

Nobody is taking credit for the Hijacking. (An ominous sign)
The airplane is big, numerous, ubiquitous and easy to fly.
Some sophisticated tinkering was done to shut off the aircraft's electronic emitters.
There are plenty of places the aircraft could have set down.
We have had since 911 to prepare for this scenario.

Assumption: Our President...? (Complete the statement in your own words.)

Note: These two possibilities are not mutually exclusive. The first could be a cover for the second or a funding mechanism. If #2 we may never learn the fate of the passengers.

Our Government's intelligence agencies are no doubt working overtime with plans for how to deal with the looming and inevitable crisis.