tlr

And I thought that reading labels counts as advanced technology at TSA...

GUWonder

LOL ^^

muddy

well, there is the puffer ...

Apparently the TSA's stance on the subject of detection technologies is that the current available offerings result in unacceptably high false alarm rates. http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/15299726.htm At least they are looking at it.

My hope is that all the visible stuff is just is just a fluffy attempt to make the public feel better (kinda like the guys in Middle Eastern hotels that check your glove box every single time you drive into the hotel parking lot, and require you to recite your room number ) and that there do exist security measures that are so good that we never see them.

GUWonder

That's not being used on the liquds/gels.

As I noted earlier, at US airports, there's no enhanced technology now being used on any wide scale that wasn't being used the day before the governments got their story out in August 2006. Since the governments got their story out, the only large-scale "enhancement" has been a ramping up of the dog and pony show and other knee-jerk, misdirected overreactions.

DHS/TSA management have evidenced their impoverished thinking yet again with this. This is not a new potential threat. This is even something for which they were earmarked money before but failed to spend. Idiots.

It's interesting that DHS/TSA takes issues with some false alarm rates but willfully ignores the false alarm rates that are generated by the blacklist implementations and haraSSSSment flagging. Of course they wouldn't so readily limit those false alarm producing engines known as blacklists and CAPPS & Sons since it requires them surrendering control tools/power.

Wishful thinking. The same potential bombing methods that existed on July 4, 2006 remained on November 7, 2006. Nothing serious has been done on the aviation security front .... except that the dog and pony show has been increasingly globalized and ramped up. No additional real security has been deployed on any meaningful scale at US, UK or other EU airports in relation to the more realistic "potential" liquid threats. Instead we have the ridiculous dog and pony show that make some feel good while not delivering anything useful.

muddy

Yeah, I had thought about that too. The theory that much of the August threat containment bulla was the current administration trying to convince us that they are keeping us safe sounds plausible to me (though I doubt it will ever be proven even if it is fact). I agree with you that the timing seems to support the theory though.

muddy

From the previously referenced article: "Theoretically, the puffer could detect liquid explosives security officials are worried about. The machine does not recognize the physical form, only the chemical, McGann said. It could detect liquid explosives like Nitroglycerin, or dynamite. But liquid is more challenging because it is easier to conceal."

An honest question for everyone: If the TSA is so inept, and the US has enemies so determined to do harm, why hasn't something really bad happened to a flight in the US since 911?

muddy

That was a very interesting point!

GUWonder

There simply haven't been that many "foreign terrorists" in the US willing to kill Americans for the bulk of that period. And until our governments' own serious series of strategically stupidity moves, the only "foreign terrorist-related" threatening individuals of substance inside the US were rather reliably idiots (with some exceptions).

Of course, the government stupidity related to Fall '02/Spring '03 and Summer '06 was yet further manifestations of government stupidity that will -- in the future -- come again to haunt the many for the stupidity of the few, the interests of the some, and that apathy of most.

No one has increased the threat of terrorism more than our own governments acting foolishly. We've globalized it ... just like the aviation security idiocy.

muddy

this rings true ... even parts of the government itself realize this: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n2036338.shtml

muddy

I just find this hard to believe ... obviously, I dont personally know of anyone fitting the description, but out of the millions of people in the US I find it hard to believe you couldnt find a handful at least that do fit that description.

GUWonder

It not only rings true, it is true. And the most pitiful thing is that this was not only predictable but that it was predicted -- including by parts of the government itself.

GUWonder

There weren't hundreds of "foreign terrorists" in the US on September 10th, 2001; there weren't hundreds of "foreign terrorists" in the US on September 12, 2001; and there weren't hundreds of "foreign terrorists" in the US on September 11, 2006 either. If you find that hard to believe, that speaks volumes.

A handful I don't consider many. And there haven't even been a handful of competent "foreign terrorists", committed to killing average Americans, running around in the US for the better part of the last few years.

muddy

The only minor point I would disagree with (thus the "rings true") is "No one ... has increased more ... than the government." I think that Osama probably has the government beat on that one.

I do agree that the actions of the current US administration have significantly increased terrorism, though.

muddy

how did we go from a handful to hundreds? Whatever the number you put forth it is no more than a guess. The theory that their have been no foreign persons in the US that were/are willing to harm people as a terrorist act over the last several years is a bit Pollyanna IMHO.

GUWonder

OBL doesn't have the government beat on this one either. The US government & Co. made OBL initially; and the US government made him bigger more recently -- by making him into a more serious global figure than he could ever have hoped for before. Without US government nonsense, he would never be able to do it on his own like this.

No one has increased the threat of terrorism more than our own governments acting foolishly -- not even OBL. I recall OBL was a discredited figured in most of the world after 9/11. (Even his own son was quite annoyed with his dad's nonsense -- for "waking up a big devil" and "destroying and leaving 'us' without al-qaeda".) Today, OBL's discredited in fewer people's eyes than at any time ever since we made him a figure, regional, global or otherwise. Why is that? Our own governments' foolish actions.

The Fall '02/Spring '03 and Summer '06 Administration actions increased the threat of terrorism more than the OBL could ever dream. Every time OBL & Co. is about to be dealt a coup de grace or commit proverbial suicide, the government revives him. Idiots.