alanR

Sorry for the lack of detail but I was driving home when I heard it & writing things down is a tadge incovenient. So also excuse if I got the detail wrong

Anyhow a case has just finished in the UK where drugs where being smuggled from the US to the UK.

The smugglers relied on a scheme where companies sign up, get checked & then they can send cargo without it being security checked just by putting a number on it.

The smugglers had got the numbers from a DHL employee.

So what's to stop a bomber doing the same?

Spiff

Nothing.

TSA would rather harass passengers than actually implement measures designed to prevent such scenarios.

You can BYOB (Bring Your Own Bomb) on board by putting the plastic explosives in your underwear or body cavities.

Comrade Kip Hawley has a sick little shoe fetish and relies on the x-ray to detect explosives in shoes. Only 2 problems:

1. The x-ray does not detect explosives

2. His decision not to use ETP/ETD so that he can strip search people means that explosives in underwear/body cavities will never be detected.

Comrade Kip Hawley is an idiot and is completely unqualifed to secure a paper bag, let alone have anything to do with airport security.

alanR

Found a link to it - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6059742.stm

The latter is worrying as cargo planes don't have secure doors to the cockpit & so is accessible to any attacker who can get on board

Travellin' Fool

but somehow, the media would rather do puff stories about madonna's stupid adoption.... what a world we live in...

alanR

There's 1.5 MILLION companies in the US alone that have this "known shipper" status - how hard would it be for "An Evil Person" to get a job with one of them & slip something into a package?

thegeneral

"Nothing.

TSA would rather harass passengers than actually implement measures designed to prevent such scenarios.

You can BYOB (Bring Your Own Bomb) on board by putting the plastic explosives in your underwear or body cavities.

Comrade Kip Hawley has a sick little shoe fetish and relies on the x-ray to detect explosives in shoes. Only 2 problems:

1. The x-ray does not detect explosives

2. His decision not to use ETP/ETD so that he can strip search people means that explosives in underwear/body cavities will never be detected.

Comrade Kip Hawley is an idiot and is completely unqualifed to secure a paper bag, let alone have anything to do with airport security."

True, there are additional measures that need to be taken to ensure that planes are closer to 100% safe. Screening everything that goes into the hold is one of those. That being said, nothing will ever be 100% safe. Your post makes it sound like the things we do now for security are not necessary. By your logic, there should be no security checks and we should be free to bring what we want on board. This is clearly not the case.

Spiff

Your contention is foolish and you know that I am not in favor of completely eliminating security at airports. If you want to discuss the matter, don't tell me that I said something or concluded something when clearly I did not.

Many of the things done currently for "security" have nothing to do with security are indeed not necessary. These individual forms of harassment should be eliminated, as should those who mandate and maintain them. Sensible security should be retained, though there is precious little of it in existence currently.

ralfp

I think carry-on pets would be easier. Just a little bit of pre-flight surgery to add the device being smuggled...

Spiff

If you're willing to go down with the ship, you can do that to yourself.

Sadly, Comrade Hawley would rather look at people's feet like the sick, disgusting little pervert that he is instead of addressing real, credible threats.

I'll be so pleased to meet you someday, Comrade Hawley.

ralfp

There are no do-overs when doing surgery on yourself. The terrorists may be willing to die in a bomb blast, but they probably aren't too willing to die in surgery.

Spiff

Are you kidding me?

When someone has committed their soul to Heaven (at least their version of it), do you think they give a damn about whether the person doing the surgery on them is competent???

All they need is a few hours at most. And even I, without a medical degree, could offer them that. I suspect a real surgeon could do much, much more. Comrade Hawley could care much, much less.

ralfp

No. Next question.

They would care because a botched job would lower the chance of completing the mission. If the "pet" dies it still functions. Besides, doing it with a pet means one less person needs to be involved.

Spiff

My money would still be on someone putting explosives in their underwear or own body cavities.

Loren Pechtel

You can hide explosives on your person. The problem is the detonator is metallic.

superbad

Yeah, or you could just send a few dozen nice big bombs via USPS Express Mail, rigged with barometric pressure sensors so they go off after takeoff. Or maybe accelerometers so they go off during takeoff. Or combine it with a clock so you get nearly simultaneous detonation, the way Al Qaeda likes to do it. Anyway, get your timing and routes right and you could take down a lot of planes before they manage to ground the commercial aviation fleet, and you don't even need to kill yourself. The fact that this hasn't been done yet suggests to me that either there are no real terrorist cells in the US, or they're saving up for the Bomb. But hey, as long as my toothpaste is in a ziploc bag, I feel safe.