The Sensible Body Scan Alternative 354
An anonymous reader sends in a CNN article that looks at airport security from more reasonable point of view, suggesting that looking for every last micro-gram of potentially explosive material is a waste of time, since very small quantities of explosives are unlikely to significantly damage a plane. The author also recommends incorporating parts of the Israeli method of securing airplanes — look for the bomber, not the tools. Quoting:
"Clearly everything should be done to prevent explosives getting on board an aircraft in quantities sufficient to cause structural failure and bring the plane down. But is it worth chasing lesser quantities that would result in zero or minimal damage? The enhanced pat-down that some find so offensive is designed to search for these small amounts. It often ends with a swab being taken to test for explosive residues. Technology does have a role to play, but imaging is not the solution. Operator fatigue sets in after short periods of time staring at computer images. That's why there are reports that contraband items have been smuggled through X-ray units used to scan carry-on bags. The aim should be to detect high explosive in quantities that are sufficient to cause significant damage. We don't need a machine that takes pictures of the human body. It makes more sense to develop a detector that clearly discriminates between high explosives and human tissue or water."
Easy (Score:1, Informative)
Have sexy agents of the opposite sex do the manual tapping method.
People will line up for the privilege. Some of them will even stand up for it.
Re:Not profitable enough (Score:2, Informative)
Does anyone else sense something strange is going on with the apparently spontaneous revolt against the TSA? This past week, the media turned an "ordinary guy," 31-year-old Californian John Tyner, who blogs under the pseudonym "Johnny Edge," into a national hero after he posted a cell phone video of himself defending his liberty against the evil government oppressors in charge of airport security.
So far, all we know about "ordinary guy" John Tyner III, the freedom fighter who took on the TSA agents, is that, according to a friendly hometown profile in the San Diego Union-Tribune, "he leans strongly libertarian and doesn't believe in voting. TSA security policy, he asserts 'isn't Republican and it isn't Democratic.'" [Emphasis added.]
Tyner attended private Christian schools in Southern California and lives in Oceanside, a Republican stronghold next to Camp Pendleton, the largest Marine Corps base on the West Coast.
At least one local TSA administrator wondered if Tyner hadn't come to the airport prepared to create a scandal. Tyner switched on his recording device before even entering the checkpoint—and recorded himself as he refused to go through the body scanner. Most importantly, Tyner recorded himself saying, "If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested!"—which quickly morphed on blogs into the more media-savvy tagline, "Don't touch my junk!"
According to the Union-Tribune, when asked if the TSA was set up by Tyner, the local administrator coyly replied, "I don't know that it was an actual set up—but we are concerned that this passenger did have his recording [on] prior to entering the checkpoint so there is some concern that it was an intentional behavior on his part."
Tyner scoffs at the suggestion of a set up. "I can't set up the TSA side of this action," he said. In an interview with The Nation, Tyner said he doesn't belong to any libertarian organizations and did not have any contact with anyone mentioned in this article until after he posted his encounter with TSA agents.
Strangely enough, just a few days before Tyner's episode, another self-described "libertarian," Meg McLain, went online telling almost the exact same story of oppression and attempted sexual molestation at the hands of TSA agents. McLain is an occasional co-host of a libertarian radio show out of a libertarian quasi-commune located in Keene, New Hampshire. As reported in the Washington City Paper, the libertarian "Free Keene" movement where McLain makes her home is yet another libertarian project tied to the billionaire Koch brothers, the prime backers of the Tea Party campaign, through the Koch-funded Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Meg McLain almost became a national celebrity as the first victim of the body scanner/TSA molesters. On November 8, McLain was preparing to fly out of the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, airport, when she claimed to have been the victim of invasive TSA molestation. According to McLain, when she refused to have her body scanned, the TSA agents supposedly started screaming "Opt out! Opt out!" and pulled her aside and "molested" her—specifically, they "squeezed and twisted" her breasts so hard that "it hurt." ("OptOut" is the name of a "grassroots" protest movement designed to tie up airports during the holidays—more on that later.) As she described it, "It's getting to the point where I feel more physically molested [by the TSA agents] than if some random guy actually came up and molested me. It's more intrusive than that." McLain also claimed that she was made to stand in an open area next to the metal detector, where every passenger could look at her while a TSA agent "screamed" at her, until, finally, she was handcuffed to a chair by a "dozen cops." McLain immediately called into the Keene libertarian radio show to tell her awful story, which was posted on YouTube, and spread virally after it was promoted on Drudge Report.
There was only one problem with McLain's story: she made it up. The TSA released video evidence showi
Peter Rez (Score:3, Informative)
The author of the editorial is Peter Rez, a physicist at Arizona State. As someone who has had an opportunity to take a couple of classes from this guy, let me say that he is very smart and reasonable, and while I don't always agree with what he has to say, I think it's definitely worth a bit of your time to read what he has written.
great analysis, slashdot terrorism expert (Score:1, Informative)
The underpants bomber was black, not Arab.
I'm surprised that a security expert like yourself doesn't know that. It almost seems like you are an ignorant know it all talking about things you don't understand.
By the way, engineers have been carrying out many terrorist attacks lately. Maybe we should profile people who have engineering degrees. Or libertarians.
Bottom line, I agree with you that we should single out races and and political ideologies for scrutiny and discrimination.
Professionals (Score:3, Informative)
The long lines are going to stay, as this gives observers time to analyze the people, and the people to get jittery. The person who checks tickets will stay, as a well trained skill worker there is the best line of defense. The current protocol is quite useless, as at least a minute of questioning will be necessary.
Bag scanners with neutron bombardement will detect explosives and weapons. We must invest in software to make these detections automatic and reliable.
Full body scanners are useless. The underwear bomber would have been caught if professionals were observing and procedures were followed. Random nuetron scans of humans will detect explosives.
If we want security, there is simple means to minimize explosions. Cargo holds can be kept in vacuum or flooded with Argon. If as the DoHS says passengers require assurances, we can all fly sedated in a 10/90% oxygen argon mixture.
Otherwise, cockpit doors must remain closed. Passengers are not going to scared by a few people with knives knowing they are going to die anyway. Small quantities of explosive may cause panic, but won't take down a plane if the pilots are secure.
Re:That's because profiling (like that) fails. (Score:4, Informative)
Except none of the two more recent trerrorists were Arab.
Shoe bomber : Richard Colvin Reid, father black Jamaican, mother white English. Born in the UK.
Underwear bomber : Umar Abdulmutallab, both parents Nigerian, born in Nigeria.
Re:Not profitable enough (Score:3, Informative)
Big deal.
The only way they can make the scanners work, legally speaking, is by the passengers "consenting" as a condition of boarding the plane. Either you let yourself being scanned, or you don't board. I see no reason why swapping "either you let some TSA perv see you naked or you don't fly" with "either you let a TSA dog sniff you for two seconds or you don't fly". And the latter option will bother far fewer people.
Moreover, a few minutes on google, snopes and wikipedia couldn't confirm either your claim about Iraq or your claim that muslims find dogs unclean. The fact that dogs are kept as pets in middle eastern nations would seem like an obvious rebuttal to the latter. In religious dietary laws "unclean" means "don't eat this", not "don't let this anywhere near you". I can well believe that there's some muslim rule about not eating dog meat, as opposed to a rule against dogs period.
Now, that was only about ten minutes of searching; I might have simply missed it. So, I would ask for a citation on your point. And by "citation", I mean something reputable and first-hand, like a news site.
Profiling fails [Re:ACLU will never let it happen] (Score:4, Informative)
The only way to do security of this type effectively IS the way other countries (like Israel) do it - and that is with profiling
Except that Israel does not use profiling for airport security.
Israeli security experts have repeatedly emphasized that, in their view, profiling is an open invitation to terrorism. Terrorists need only to find out what profile is being used, and then they're in; they just use a terrorist that doesn't fit the profile. Profiling fails.
The Israelis use questioning. 100% questioning.
The US, on the other hand, does use profiling. The last time I was detained for detailed questioning (because, for reasons beyond my control, I'd bought a one-way ticket at the last minute-- a profiling flag), every other person in the group was a middle-Eastern or Indian male. It was pretty darn obvious what the profile was.
Re:The shoe bomber. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:That's because profiling (like that) fails. (Score:5, Informative)
The crotch bomber was Nigerian, not Arab. Timothy and the Unibomber were both US and white. Jim David Adkisson was both white and in his late 50's. The McCamy Law Firm bomber and the Well's Fargo bomber were also white.
There are active terror groups in Spain, Ireland, Japan, China, India, The Former USSR, etc etc. Profiling just Arabs leaves out huge swaths of potential killers.
Not Arab. (Score:1, Informative)
as you recall both the shoe bomber and captain underpants were young Arab men, as were all the 9/11 terrorists.
The underwear bomber was African. The shoe bomber was half English (caucasian) and half Jamaican (African descent). As such, neither was a young Arab man. Perhaps you confuse "Arab" with "Muslim"?
Re:Not profitable enough (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not profitable enough (Score:3, Informative)
Did you read any of that?
The Quran also tells that it is permissible to eat what trained dogs catch (5:4). Nevertheless, many Islamic teachers state dogs should be considered unclean and that Muslims licked by them must perform purification. According to a Sunni Islam Hadith, a plate that a dog has used for feeding must be washed seven times, including once with clean sand mixed with the water, before a person may eat from it.
According to the majority of Sunni scholars, dogs can be owned by farmers, hunters, and shepherds, for the purpose of hunting and guarding.
Another exception appears to be made by the Bedouin in the case of the Saluki. They are allowed in the tents and considered special companions.
So don't let it lick them, and they can't eat it. Not that they cannot be around them.
Re:That's because profiling (like that) fails. (Score:3, Informative)
as you recall both the shoe bomber and captain underpants were young Arab men
I forgot to mention that Richard Reid - the shoe bomber, was a jamaican/white mix. [wikimedia.org]
So even your historical justification for racial profiling doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
Re:Israeli system cannot work in the USA (Score:4, Informative)
This is the truth. Terrorism can't be completely stopped without turning the US into a police state, with cameras inside every home. Therefore some terrorist attacks are part of the price of freedom.
Reasonable searches are fine, but machines that take naked pictures of passengers and invasive physical searches are not reasonable.