> To return to the world of tangents... what
concerns me is how easy the planes were to
hijack. It seems that at least one short term
solution is to begin to post an armed police
officer (with incredible background
credentials) on all commercial flights for now
on. Knives are always going to get onto
planes - but there's no reason that they should
be a threat.

I certainly don't claim to know what went on on
board those planes; no one knows or will
know until and unless the black boxes and
flight recorders are recovered. However, I
highly doubt that the passengers on those
flights knew what the hijackers were planning
to do. They probably didn't have a clue that the
planes they were on were going to be used as
missiles. If they had, I just can't imagine a
hijacker, or even two or three hijackers, being
able to keep that many people at bay with just
knives.