Lead Editorial
En Route from
Urumqi to Beijing:
Xinjiang extremism
threatens the world stage
by Philip Baum
n 7th March 2008, it is concerned about the amount of time she casualties (interesting also destroyed by
O
alleged that a 19-year old had spent inside, noticed a distinct smell of gasoline when a passenger named Zhang
woman by the name of gasoline and decided to search the toilets Pilin, suffering from cancer, set fire to the
Guzalinur Turdi intended to where, in the rubbish bin, they found the cabin having purchased up to seven life
blow up China Southern empty cans. They restrained Turdi and the insurance policies before boarding), there
flight CZ6901 operating flight eventually diverted to Lanzhou where is little media focus on such disasters. If it
between Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang she was arrested and later confessed. were to have happened in the United
Province, and China’s national capital and It should be noted that some reports States we would be witnessing a raft of
2008 Olympic host city, Beijing. cite an accomplice whose task it may new security measures being introduced
Turdi managed to infiltrate gasoline onto have been to ignite the gasoline, whilst globally but, hey, it’s only China where
the aircraft in cans of fizzy drink, having others state that her “minder” did not quarter of the world live!
filled them by syringe via small holes made board the flight on the day in question Indeed, remember the alleged 2006
through the aluminium tops which were but had flown with her previously on two liquid explosive plot in the UK? We are
later sealed to prevent seepage. Like the surveillance missions. witnessing the effect at checkpoints
9/11 hijackers, simplicity was the order of The lessons are plenty. For the worldwide every day. 7th March 2008
the day with permissible everyday items international aviation security community was no plot; it was real, yet the response
being utilised as potential weapons of we have been reminded, once again, of the was zilch!
mass destruction. The traditional fact that terrorists operate the “keep it In terms of media dual standards, the
Improvised Explosive Device, with its four simple” approach. Gasoline is even easier comparison is somewhat akin to the tragic
component parts, was further consigned to to obtain than homemade explosives and disappearance of a four-year-old on holiday
the history books and replaced by a simple the use of such a fuel in the Glasgow with her parents in Portugal remaining in
schoolboy Improvised Incendiary Device Airport attack of 2007 demonstrates the the international headlines for months on
working on the principle of the Triangle of desire of terrorists to render out-of-date end, whilst hundreds dying in floods in
Fire: Heat + Fuel + Oxygen = Fire. many of our state-of-the-art screening Bangladesh being assigned a one-off
Incident reports vary yet it would appear technologies. For China, since plagued by paragraph in the middle pages of the press
that our female suicide bomber was a media coverage of the Tibetan crisis, it and never making the television news.
frequent flyer who arose from her seat and, sounded a pre-Olympic warning shot that We might yet be forced to pay attention to
much like the Chechen Black Widows who their impending few months in the global regional conflicts. As the athletes and
had caused the destruction of two Russian spotlight could also encourage spectators, including prominent politicians,
airliners in 2004, made her way to the over- beleaguered nationalist entities to use the cross the “Free Tibet” picket line, this August
wing toilets of the B-757. She then closed world’s premier sporting event as a way to could see Xinjiang politics come into focus, in
the door behind her and emptied the highlight their cause. the same way that Palestinian terrorists
contents of the cans on the floor and Unsurprisingly, the world press corps utilised the 1972 Munich Olympiad.
fittings. According to current reports, it paid scant attention to the China Southern Turdi is supposedly from China’s Turkic
would appear that Turdi fortunately incident. Like the aforementioned Muslim Uighur minority and ascribes to the
suffered a bout of nerves and failed to sabotage of Sibir and Volga-Aviaexpress belief that Xinjiang Province, which has a
ignite her highly inflammable deposit. As aircraft in Russia, with a cumulative death predominantly Muslim population, should
she left the toilets, crewmembers who toll of 87, or the destruction of a China become an independent nation called East
were standing by having become Northern flight in 2002, with 112 Turkestan. Whilst Xinjiang’s Uighur
2 April 2008 Aviationsecurityinternational
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