Originally Posted by Chimbu chuckles
..when it would be so easy to smuggle a dozen MANPADS into SE England and sit in a tree copse in the middle of an otherwise empty field within 5nm of LHR, Gatwick, Stansted or Manchester and simply shoot down airliners as they file past between 4000 and 8000' on arrival/departure...a much more powerful statement than 3 or 4 widebodies blowing up over the Atlantic out of view.
MANPADS are too expensive and too complicated to obtain on the blackmarket. The market is full of undercover operatives luring Islamic goons into a flytrap aswell. Nor are MANPADS guarranteed airline killers.
Tracability a factor too. Iranian supplied SAM's say, in an actual or foiled attack, would give a nice excuse for punitive strikes against her nuclear installations.
Topping off with the fact, suicide bombing chills the Western pysche more effectively, according to Al Queda. Hamas has been quoted as saying this aswell; life loving Jews fear the suicide bomber concept more than any other form of terrorism.