Saturday, March 22, 2014

MH370 and terror link

MH370 III
Two hundred and thirty-nine people of various nationalities have been missing for nearly two weeks, and yet Malaysian politicians from Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat are continuing to bicker to look like heroes.

That’s how I perceive the so-called leaders of our country. Shameful to the highest degree. It shows how low these political vultures have stooped to gain some brownies from a tragedy.
Please stop and find a solution to the problem. The Chinese government and the relatives of those on board the missing plane are not interested in our gutter politics. They want answers, and they want them quick.

The shock of MH370′s disappearance has now evolved into anger and desperation amongst anxious relatives and others watching the developments.
Our ministerial “experts” are dishing out the same tune on a daily basis at press conferences. The inconsistent and conflicting statements have only shown us to be international stooges and incompetent fools in managing a crisis of this magnitude.
For sure we have perfected the art of pussyfooting, even when lives are at stake or lost.
“Unprecedented” has become the most abused word by our honorable ministers and experts and the only common factor in all oral and written statements made so far.
We cannot rule out terrorism as the primary suspect in the MH370 incident.
Obviously no country will want to claim that any of its citizens on the ill-fated plane is in anyway affiliated, no matter how remotely, with terror groups or their offshoots. That will only subject the country to scrutiny and investigation by foreign intelligence agencies.
No nation would like its backyard probed, especially a nation like China or India, which have so many skeletons to hide—or Malaysia, for that matter.
Terrorist organisations work discreetly and plant their seeds well before activating their cells. This is a known fact.
They have become masters at obscuring their modus operandi (MO). Nurturing their implants with hatred, disgust, anger and anti-establishment feelings takes years of persistence and perseverance.
The facts have established that flight MH370 was deliberately taken over. This can only be done by a person or persons from among the 239 on board.
There is no way an alien would have quantum leaped into the flight. Similarly, it is inconceivable people were hidden in parts of the plane way before takeoff.
A precise takeover when the plane was in the grey sector of the air border between Malaysia and Vietnam could only have been executed by an aviation expert or one who has been drilled thoroughly over time to handle a Boeing 777.
This is not a remote possibility. One need not be an academically qualified pilot to fly a plane. Thus every person on board is a suspect, as correctly said by some intelligence experts.
Malaysia cannot strike that out and indeed should treat it as the priority theory.
No house rules
Terrorists work according to a simple algorithm: source the least expected and a weak link and use the least expected weapon, one that can inflict the maximum damage. The idea is to send a message.
Intelligence experts have yet to make a sensible link via the established mapping methodology on how terrorists work. But then, there are no house rules governing terrorists. There is always a first time and a new MO.
There is a glimmer of hope that whoever took over MH370 has brought it to a terrain that could miss the eye of the various satellites in the skies.
Bear in mind that technology, no matter how sophisticated, is still man made and can be outsmarted. Otherwise, Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden could not have escaped their hunters for so long.
According to experts, a satellite last detected MH370′s position around 8am on March 8. Now keeping 239 people from breaking into pandemonium is not easy.
The only plausible explanation of how the hijackers kept the passengers quiet is that they took over the cockpit discreetly.
That could be possible only if the pilot and or co-pilot or both of them had permitted a third party into the cockpit, voluntarily or otherwise. Since the 9/11 tragedy, cockpit doors have been made virtually impenetrable.
So either the pilots worked in cahoots with the hijackers or were under threat. We can only speculate. A factor to consider is that the co-pilot has a history of allowing unauthorised persons into the cockpit during flight.
Flying 35,000 feet above sea level at that ungodly hour, the passengers could have had no inkling that they were off-course and not heading for Beijing. And to quell any suspicion or panic, MH370 could have been kept in air deliberately with all communications disabled.
Terrorists do their homework well in advance. The psychology and weaknesses of each critical point or subject must have been analysed thoroughly.
Any woman could have been used as bait to put the pilots out of their norms. Thus the mumbling heard by the pilot of the plane that was 30 minutes ahead of MH370 when he made contact with them could provide some leads. The authorities claim to be still investigating that recorded conversation.
While our air force was busy making boardroom decisions on whether the unidentified plane on its radar was “hostile”, whoever was controlling the plane most probably knew how our air defence system works and cunningly maneuvered it out of radar in a timely manner so as not to arouse further suspicion.
MH370 may well be grounded in a remote, least suspected place. No doubt it requires a runway one kilometre long to land a 777, but then with exhausted fuel and no worries for aggravated damage to the plane, one cannot assume that it was not landed on an abandoned airfield with a much shorter runway.
Let it not slip our mind that both pilots have textbook landing skills.
The terrorists may well be marking time before making their demands. The heat is too intense at this moment.
As I have said, terrorists may have historical patterns in carrying out their MO, but then again they have not made vows not to break these.
If negotiations are on the plate, it is a good sign for those patiently waiting for their loved ones. But if this is indeed true, the authorities are morally obliged not to keep it secret.