vicemagnet

Popehat, a legal blogger, did a nice post on "security theater" in his blog. The link is http://www.popehat.com/?s=%22security+theater%22

I'm middle of the road as far as treatment goes. I've been given the freedom fondle before, but only a couple of times. I wonder if the inconsistencies between airports is by design, to catch a potential terrorist off-guard. I don't really think all of these procedures are effective against a true terrorist threat. In my opinion, the taboo profiling would be a more effective method. I don't think it's foolproof either though; look at all the white guys shooting up theaters and congresswomen and schools.

jonsg

Real life.

I've sat down and worked through the exercise of how I could defeat security, if I were a terrorist: avoiding being noticed throughout the full distance from preflight pax screening all the way through to onboard precautions. Without going into detail, it was depressingly easy, and there was a range of possible threat modes at each level. None of this should be new news to the security services: it's hard to believe they haven't done the same exercise I did, thousands of times.

Admittedly, some of those threat modes would require levels of screening that would be politically impossible to employ, and possibly a political decision has been made to ignore them and hope the terrorists do too. Of course, it's conceivable that they're not being ignored, for at least a couple of possible reasons: to provide "red flags" to bring hidden terrorists investigating them onto the radar, or (cynically) to give them a few avenues to exploit, so as to continue justifying incursions into freedoms and privacy that would otherwise be unconscionable. A scared population is a malleable population.

The types of screening being performed are an admix of genuinely effective, seen-to-be-effective, and a politically-driven theatre of the ineffective, and it's difficult to see how it could be otherwise. Anyone who doesn't understand this hasn't thought through it fully.

As to the terrorists, most are pretty dim. When you completely switch off that part of you that says killing anyone, particularly the innocent, is bad, you're already at a point where you've delegated most of your intellect to someone else. The dangerous ones are the ones who've been through a rigorous Developed World education, are "under the radar" of the watchers, and who are regular enough flyers that they can spot the same loopholes. We have to hope that there are few enough of those that our continued flying remains as safe as it is.

Athena53

No text boxes. I hate surveys with no text boxes. Yeah, they're a little harder to compile but you'll do it if you really care. There's also some pretty good text-mining software to help.

I really wanted to tell them about our last flight, when I found after arriving at home that a small bottle of shampoo had gotten out of my Freedom Baggie and was in my carry-on, and my husband had a large (over 3 oz.) tube of hydrocortisone ointment in his carry-on that he hadn't put into his Freedom Baggie. The TSA didn't catch either of them.

But we were Nude-O-Scoped so I guess we should feel safe.

T8191

@ jonsg ... Interesting post, espcially later on when you mention the "dim terrorists". During the many decades of IRA Terrorism in the UK it was called the "Paddy Factor", but it still didnt prevent them from being rather effective and killing many hundreds of passers by ... Innocent civilians, if you will. Especially clever when you consider that 2 of their main players now hold high office in Northern Ireland. Dim, eh? Perhaps not.

There are many players in this "game" ... Some are clever, some innovative, some careless and some just want their 40 virgins ( or whatever the scale of issue is these days). I never under-rate any of them, nor the risk that they represent. I've survived 2 bombings, and had a good friend murdered on his front doorstep. TSA or whoever is better than having to experience that again, thank you.

x1achilles

I travel 8-12 times per year and though it is a moderate amount, I do feel that the TSA earns a passing grade. Of course it is a pain in the a**. But what really is the alternative?
What gripes me are the people who bait the TSA with their toddlers. Then they post a video how the agents "abused" their child. To be honest, why wouldn't a terrorist use a child to smuggle an explosive or weapon inside a teddy bear?

zombietooth

I am glad that you are comforted by their ineffectual procedures. However, as someone who previously worked in extremely high-level security operations, I can assure you that you are not significantly safer for their actions.

Why, pray tell, don't the Israelis emulate TSA procedures if they are so good?
The reason, as the head of EL AL's security recently said, is that the TSA procedures won't work against well-motivated and/or well-trained murderers/terrorists/assassins.

I will trust the judgement of the head of EL AL security over any kibitzer, any day of the week.

mahler58

The Israelis have a perfect track record for airport security and they do not employ any of the screening techniques used by the TSA or other western airport security agencies.
They ask simple questions and pre-screen even before you reach the airport to weed out any potential risks. The Israelis think it's too late to start screening when you are already in a crowded airport with hundreds of innocent people just waiting to board a flight. As a previous post states, it's all theatrics at the airport. No standardized rules. Some days you have to put your shoes through the x-ray machines, other days you don't. On my last trip, my 11 year old daughter was pulled over for questioning and had to be test for explosives. What a huge waste of time, money and effort that distracts from the real job of preventing terrorism.

Chaos.Defined

.. if the BDO "chat-downs" of a few minutes are an egregious assault on freedom...and one of those headlines now in the news is those BDOs apparently targeting ethnicity. I'd love to see how Israeli security would play out here.

spd476

I don't think profiling itself is the issue in the Boston case. It's the fact that they are profiling certain groups for things like drugs and arrest warrants to meet a quota. They aren't profiling for terrorism.

puddinhead

The Middle Eastern men in their mid-twenties profiled themselves.

This morning I had an ID screener that didn't know what a Passport card was and had never seen a NEXUS card.

Gee, those are items 2 and 3 in the list of TSA accepted documents (Passport is first).

Who trains these people???


The real core value of the TSA is money (follow the money). Look at how much is spent. Remember those puff blowing machines? They are all in a warehouse - millions wasted, Chertoff is now a consultant for security suppliers, do you think he does that for free???

maxschnell

TSA personnel not allowed to use their judgement and many may be incapable of that.
I could take aboard weapons if i was a terrorist but will not outline how or it will give info to wrong people.
Bottomline, TSA only catches idiots.

If God wanted you to fly, he would never have invented the TSA.

Carl Johnson

False dichotomy. There are more alternatives than [any randomly proposed action] and being blown up.

I have an anti-terrorist rock that I carry with me; it prevents terrorists attacks on my flight. Giving one passenger on each flight an anti-terrorist rock would do as good a job as the TSA. Staffing an agency with smarter clerks and ending the war on liquids so that the clerks could think about objects that might present a threat might do even better.

Carl Johnson

I can think of lots of alternatives. If you can't, maybe there's something the matter with you.

People who "bait" the TSA with their toddlers? Bait them to do what?

chollie

It didn't play out too well when TSA in Fayetteville allowed two bricks of nasty stuff to remain in a bag that had been pulled and searched - a bag that had a live grenade in it.

TSA 'profiled' the soldier as a 'good' apple. Do you really think the outcome would have been the same if he'd fit the physical criteria used in BOS?

sst36

To put it bluntly, I believe the American people have been sold a bill of goods. We have people thumping their chests blattering about our "freedom" and yet see nothing at all wrong or paradoxical with the invasiveness of the TSA. And specifically, in regards to carry on liquids, there were already rules in place before the events of 9/11 allowed additional rules all in the name of safety. The notion that somehow a person can concoct an explosive from the mixture of liquids simply defies scientific fact. Of course, it's easy for me to grouse about this because as a wine representative, I can no longer carry on bottles of wine. I will always remember the sickening experience of having to hand over bottles of some very nice wines to authorities. Benjamin Franklin said it best: "Those who are willing to sacrifice freedom for a little bit of safety deserve neither freedom or safety."