Originally Posted by
coyote
No problem - that's what happens when you (I) write what attempts to be sarcasm without fully explaining yourself.
Regarding your last point. This is the most frustrating thing about the TSA for me personally. In reality, the "terrorists" that have been in the news in the last 10 years are ultimately a bunch of idiots who had no clue how to actually bring down a plane. The people who are smart enough to plan these things have, in the grand scheme of things, been too hard pressed (on the run, other priorities, who knows) to actually plan a real "attack". Or maybe they just don't have the ability to do so - I don't know.
The TSA just seems to want to take every "close call" and then make up rules to "prevent" that from ever happening again. When, in reality, the risk to the public from that "close call" was extremely low (or non-existent) to begin with.
I'm all for smart security - its just that what we have is the farthest from that as you can get.
Sarcasm is fun if I recognize it!
I don't agree with some of the policies we have either, but I tend to refrain from beating the drum against my employer, and lobby for change from within. I think that one problem that will crop up, is the evolution of the bad guys, they are not going to stay unsophisticated forever. It is only a matter of time before someone with the smarts to do real damage finds the correct path to walk - that is simply the law of averages catching up. That is where the intel groups come into play, the more of the smarter ones they take out of the equation, the better the odds are in our favor.
One thing that we don't add in much of the time is the fact that some of the publicity surrounding minor catches is hyped by more than just TSA or DHS or even the White House. Anything that has a small chance of causing Mom and Dad or the Baby serious bodily harm, is blown so far out of proportion by ALL of the media outlets that TSA (or whomever) doesn't even have to try to inflate the story. In the current news climate, if we caught a kid with 6oz of explosive material in his pocket, that would be the biggest terror catch since bin Laden. When the real story could be something as simple as : it was an 5 year old kid that has a dad on the EOD team, went to see him at work, picked up the explosive thinking it was playdoh and stuck it in his pocket. Admittedly this is not what would be going on in 99% of the cases, but with the leap first and repent later attitude of most news sources nowadays, TSA doesn't have to sensationalize things, the media will do it for them.