Background Checks for Passengers
 

I wrote about this in my blog, and I'm predicting that we're going to see this on a wide scale as a result of 8/10.

A few preliminaries:

1) The current situation can't hold. The airlines won't be able to handle the loss of business if the government dissallows any hand luggage in the cabin. Yes, that's only in London, but if the threat is as real as they say, then the only solution is to extend the ban in the UK to everywhere. A day later they had arrests all over Italy "in connection with" the UK plot. Eventually we'll be stripped of our ability to bring anything into the cabin, and that's when people will have had enough of flying.

2) Even if they do that, the terrorists can just go to the next step. The liquid explosives that wouldn't have been detectable in a sports drink bottle wouldn't have been detectable in the hold either. Or the terrorists will just implant the explosives under their skin.

3) No matter what physical security the airlines impose, someone willing to kill themselves to bring down a plane can probably do it.

The only solution is to keep the terrorists off the plane. That's going to require some sort of background check/licensing procedure to make it safe. The authorities are going to have to investigate air travellers and find out if they are a risk. Right now, anyone with money and an id can buy an airplane ticket. That just can't continue.

That's a horrible situation, but can anyone think of another solution?

Heil Boondoggie!

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Government or private sector background checks on tens and hundreds of million of persons just because they want to get on a plane? Sounds like a nightmare that won't accomplish anything useful.

How extensive will the background checks be? How often will they be done? Who will pay for them? What happens to people who "fail"?

This sounds like an invitation to an even greater surveillance society. No thanks. I'm not thrilled about dealing with the state DMVs a good part of the time. I certainly don't want to deal with a monster-size federal-equivalent of the DMV. Isn't the IRS enough for the average citizen/traveller? :eek:

sounds like a great idea to me. but let's think about this a bit..........

what happens when you, boondoggie fail, and cannot leave your house, or get a plane ticket because your name is smith,, or jefferson(more common than smith in usa) or mohamed ben aziz, or khan, or kim.

It is after all, a well known fact, that all muslums, packistanians and north koreans are dangerous.

we also know that anyone the united states of america government states should not fly, should not be on an airplane. the united states government does NOT make any mistakes.

what your name?

Good grief, are you serious? Setting aside for the moment all the legitimate concerns about an intrusive police state, how about the opportunities afforded by identity theft? Just kill some upstanding citizen and assume his identity. Problem solved, right? Not all that hard to get an ID in his name, and it might take forever for the "authorities" ( :rolleyes: ) to learn that he's dead, if ever.

Bruce

Read my post. I never said I was in favor of this, just that it looks like it's inevitable.

Anyone have any other ideas? Keeping "things" off the planes won't work, there will always be a way around it. They'll have to get around to keeping the terrorists off the plane.

Overall, they do have to start focusing in on people and behaviors. It's what El Al does; I think it's a better way to go.

Even as El Al does it, it couldn't be done and sustained in the US for any time and have meaningful effectiveness (without having substantial longer-term counterproductive impact).

I have heard some reports that by most accounts the terrorists were considered nice guys and caused no problems. I would have to say they would pass a background check. :(

The P word
 

I am torn on this issue. A US or UN universal ID card is a world police state beyond 1984 standards, comrads. I am afraid they might get to try it soon, unfortunate for any last gasps of privacy or individual freedoms.

OTOH El Al does not have the US limitation on what is probably one of their most useful tools, focus of resources by using the P Word--profiling.

MSNBC just published a list of those arrested. Last names Ali, Hussain, Islam, Kayani, Khan, Khatib, Patel, Rauf, Saddique, Sarwar, Savant, Tariq, Uddin, and Zaman. Apparnetly all but one male, the oldest age 35.

In the Politically Correct USA, the TSA must pretend that these are VERY common last names of native Norweigian grandmothers and will continue to strip search Swedish grandmothers to prove they are NOT profiling. (US eduquacin is so bad, most high school students don't know the difference between Norway and Sweden and could not find them on a map anyway, so they just might be in south west Asia.)

If and when they can recruit a cell of 20 native Norweigian grandmothers for a suicide mission they will have to be added to the profile group.

Until then, the TSA resources currently available are being wasted in the name of PC. This type of profiling is not discrimination against race, religion, or origin. It is simply a fact that will narrow the focus to have the highest chance of correct screening. It will not be perfect, and there have been at least one European female bomber, the two plane bombers in Russia, and a few female bombers in Israel. But 99.99% of bombers have been male, under 40, and of a SW Asia ethic background, even if perhaps second generation British. Not a native Norweigian granny in the lot.

funny kind of nice guys
 

I read a report where family members said they were nice guys, but police said one brother was a suspect in a murder and they were also suspects in a murder during a riot in 2005. Don't know about you but I've managed to live a pretty long time without anyone in my extended family being investigated for two murders! No way these men could have passed any background check.

Agreed. El Al has very few airports to watch over compared to the US. Besides, psychological screening is a very complicated subject and requires extensive experience and training. Also consider the passenger volume. El Al runs a flight or two a day out of their non Israeli airports. That is not TOO hard to cover. Try an all day affair at how many airports?

So, if I'm reading your post correctly, you are saying that we should be singling out young SW Asian males for additional security screening?

Young people fresh out of school (or still in school) fly through background checks usually -- at least in the absence of a criminal or bad financial record. And the majority of those detained in the UK in relation to this latest UK matter would not be flagged by a background check.

Also, once background checking become a more basic societal requirement to function or have social mobility, the end result will likely be that more people will find ways to seem "clean" for purposes of the background check, thus making background checks even less effective than already.

How extensive will the background checks be? How often will they be done? Who will pay for them? And what happens to people who "fail"? The answers to those questions are important to justify such a path in this game of risk management.

That's how I read it, except it seemed like a bit more fence-sitting with an increasing willingness to simply say "I surrender as long as this nonsense that affects me currently is scrapped".

Push enough security nonsense, and tolerance for even greater nonsense increases. Given a process of desensitization over time, it's not surprising that it becomes increasingly popular to advance even more extreme measures -- especially as long as I'm exempted. :eek: