“Airports worldwide tightened security a day after the passenger tried to detonate a device that contained a high explosive on a flight into Detroit. After that attack, passengers have had to contend with extra pat-downs before boarding, staying in their seats without blankets or pillows for the last hour of the flight and more bomb-sniffing dogs.”
I’m SO sick of these reactive measures! Why not just look at the damn terrorist database for every traveler and pull out those who throw out a red flag? Whenever they put in these reactive measures, the terrorists just have to find another way around it. No more shoe bombers now, but eventually someone might figure out how to impregnate their hair with explosive materials, so we might all have to go Brent Clayton/Scott Manlin/etc and shave our heads before we fly.
The new terrorist on flight 253 apparently had his bomb sewn into his underpants. So, are we going to have to fly commando from now on? I think we will eventually be flying naked.
I’d be all for full sedation of all passengers for the duration of the flight. I sleep anyway, why not just knock everyone out like in The Fifth Element?
What sucks is now I’m gonna have to drink the swill they serve, as I’m sure they’ll address everything in the 1 Quart plastic baggie. Shee-ite. There go my mini-tequila’s disguised as clear shampoo’s. Farkers!
Cause then we’d hear ALL about “racial profiling this…racial profiling that”.
Shee-ite…didn’t the bastard’s own FATHER notify the authorities in Lagos, Nigeria and told them his son was becoming more and more radicalized!!! What other “warning signs” did the authorities want?
Exactly! Someone dropped the ball. Next time I fly (tomorrow) I’m gonna take a big 'ole Cleveland Steamer in my pants, and then give everyone THIS look…
Guess where you can find a thread with hundreds of posts on this in vogue topic?
I’m not flying internationally till summer, unless of course there’s one of those mistake fares.
Ha ha, I hear ya Dan. I just don’t want to have them shake their fingers at me tomorrow - got 3 legs and want it to go smoothly! (would be smoother with my mini’s). At least I got my upgrade LAX - IAD!
Love Flyertalk BTW! Would spend more time there than here (I just don’t have the time!)
The DHS and airline security suddenly changed when Napolitano was put in charge?
The problem I have with the blog post is that the author wants a system that is perfect, yet doesn’t inconvenience him. One of the big challenges is to develop a system that Americans will tolerate. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we tolerated a lot of inconvenience and intrusive security. But that didn’t last very long.
Profiling is great and it’s used in the current system, albeit maybe not with that label. There are already close to half a million people in the various “terrorist” databases and they are obviously incomplete. This fellow was ignored in large part because he was viewed as one of the minor risks. But I think the biggest problem with relying too heavily on profiling is simply that it provides a clear strategy to the terrorists.
Pardon my French, but Napolitano is full of BS. The system did not work. The detonator malfunctioned and those people on the plane were very lucky. Good thing the passengers were proactive in subduing the guy.
As liberal I may be, I have no problem in the profiling and taking the extra security measures, as long as they work. What gets me is alledgedly, the dude got on the plane from Amsterdam to Michigan without a passport (according to a report from a passenger on that plane). Amazing.
Precisely. Oh and that blog piece? is inherently political. Quick, go Google what he said about Richard Reid. Was he calling for the DHS head’s job then? Or is that different because the president and party were different…?
The fact is that we can’t design a 100% secure system with zero false positives. I’ll deal with a 1 in 10 million chance - I don’t want to be the one, but I also don’t want to see freedoms eroded to the point where we really are perfectly safe.
NOTE: he’s right in that the system didn’t work, just as it didn’t for Reid. The problem in both cases was that we failed to detect explosives on someone. It’s less acceptable this time simply because we’ve had more time to get detectors in place… but I can’t lay the failure to do that at the feet of someone who’s been in DHS for a year.
No system designed my humans will be perfect. You might as well accept that fact. Perhaps we can make some improvements to the current system, but frankly, I suspect that we’re already past the point where the marginal cost of those improvements (in terms of wasted passenger time, and infringement of our freedoms) isn’t worth the small gains in security.
As for “safe traveler” cards, I think that they create more problems than they solve. What makes you think that some al Quaida sympathizer can’t get one? Surely some of them travel by air? Surely many of them have travel without incident many times, I would imagine? The entire premise behind such a card is to reduce the current level of screening for the holders of such cards. Seems sort of foolish to me.
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