Andrew Gideon wrote:

Michael Nouak wrote:

Simply become an air marshal. On the day you get the call from Osama,
simply board your flight, maybe with another air marshal. At the
appropriate time, get up, scream "US Marshal, freeze!" and shoot the
other marshal, or any random passenger if you're alone, in the head.

Sigh And I thought I was devious.

This doesn't even require knowing the other Marshal(s). They'll pop up
immediately.

After reconsideration...

This requires that the terrorists smuggle weapons on board. Most of our
discussion of determining the marshals' identities was aimed and not
smuggling weapons, but grabbing theirs.

So this doesn't really apply to the discussion of how putting marshals on
board might decrease security (by making weapons available).

However, what would occur if one unarmed terrorist popped up yelling "I'm
the air marshal". The marshal would subdue him/her, yes? The other
terrorists would then know the identity.

Hmm. Marshals would have to be trained to interfere only in extreme
cases...which means that the first terrorist might have to be a little more
extreme. But this does appear to be a potential vector for breaking the
identity of the marshals.

- Andrew