Intelligence: June 28, 2002

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The War on Terrorism is sending intelligence specialists to places they never thought they'd be. For example, once it was accepted that al Qaeda could muster a lot of imagination, the intel people had to start thinking about all manner of tricks terrorists could use. This has led to an investigation of the use of magic tricks and artificial limbs for getting weapons and explosives past airport, and other kinds of security. This has been a rather frightening experience, for the misdirection and deception used by a trained magician proved capable of defeating all manner of security. It's not known of the communications monitoring system of the NSA is now watching out for references to magic and artificial limbs.