Salon.com News | The air industry’s worst nightmare
The war on terror took an unsettling turn last week with the resurfacing of Osama bin Laden and the FBI’s announcement that al-Qaida is planning “spectacular attacks … [with] high symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the U.S. economy, and maximum psychological trauma.” The FBI identified the U.S. aviation industry as a prime target for al-Qaida, and although critics have complained the bulletin was vague, Salon has learned that in the days before it was issued, national security executives met secretly with top airline officials to discuss the risk that high-tech portable missiles might be used against commercial jets.