Security around Pope Francis is being tightened as fears of an assassination attempt grow, or so Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera reported today.
If an attack on the Pope were to be made, the worry is that it could be carried out by a drone. Not one of those huge Predator drones used to take out terrorists, but one of those smaller, innocuous looking camera carrying drones, maybe.
Instead of a camera, such a drone could carry a hand grenade. At the flick of a remote control switch, the pin would be pulled from the grenade, the drone engines would cut and what would effectively be a bomb could be dropped silently into the Pope’s lap. Alliteratively, the drone could be flown to the Vatican window from which the Pope addresses the faithful.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Who might carry out a drone based attack? A lone assassin acting upon the orders of the ISIS is one possibility. Then again, seeing as the Pope has been railing against the corrupt, someone else who does not want corruption brought to an end could mount an attack which could then be conveniently blamed upon the ISIS.
Will such an attack happen? Who knows, but the technology to mount a drone based assassination attempt on the pontiff certainly does exist. Shooting tiny camera drones out of the sky would not be at all easy, though one imagines the Pope’s security team is probably practising hitting moving targets just in case.
Do you think the Pope’s life is at risk or has Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera merely engaged in a little science-fiction inspired speculation?
