who thought of this one. If you have 32 buses and only one of them does not have a flag, isn't that essentially the same as having the flag on it? Now if all the buses in the city are the same color, I would understand . . . but I don't get that impression.

Seems to me the best thing to do would be to take the flags off of ALL the buses. But now that wouldn't be fair to everyone else, lol.

U.S. team bus will not bear a flag for security reasons

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FRANKFURT, Germany -- The official team bus to be used by the United States during the World Cup will not bear a flag for security reasons.

The 32 official buses were presented Thursday in Frankfurt, and the other 31 buses have large national flags of their teams painted on the rear sides.

German and U.S. security officials decided to leave the flag off the U.S. team bus, an official of the German organizing committee said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the topic.

The bus is predominantly blue in color.

National teams use their buses to go from their hotels to practices, games and airports. They will have police escorts, and the Americans' exhibition game at Dortmund on March 22 was used as a test of security plans.

At the 2002 World Cup, the United States was among the most heavily guarded teams. When the Americans arrived at Incheon International Airport, about 500 police formed a corridor the players walked through as they came out of customs, with SWAT team commandos mixed in.

When the team's charter flight landed at Daegu Airport before a game against South Korea, two tanks were on the runway. Metal detectors were placed at the entrance of the team hotel throughout the players' stay in Seoul.

Officers of the U.S. State Department routinely travel with the U.S. team when it plays outside the United States.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
It actually makes it easier to pick them out, having to count only to 1.
Good for laugh though.

Does it eliminate the threat? No.

Is it more likely that people will miss a nondescript bus over one with an american flag wrapped around it? Yes.

I'm not sure how much the blue plays into this, but just because the threat is not completely eliminated doesn't really give me the urge to talk about how 'stupid' the decision is...

It's more of a general critique than anything... not worth much time.

Sox

$20 says this was Beckenbauer's idea.

quote:

Originally posted by Chicago:
$20 says this was Beckenbauer's idea.

LMAO!!

The way to best reduce the threat would be to take the flag off all of the buses. But they won't do that. The other answer would be to put them in a bus that is completely anonymous, perhaps even disguised as a common tourist bus. But to have 32 identical buses and take the flag off of one of them is not much of a response.

Maybe they should paint the bus to make it look like a big giant Cohiba!!