Enhanced Airport Security

PolitiSUCK
1

Has anyone been though the back-scatter or pat-downs yet? I haven’t had the privilege.

It’s making a lot of news but I honestly don’t care about an x-ray unless there are health hazards involved.

It’s also interesting that based the 2001 law, airports can opt-out of using the TSA staff and hire private security… although they’d still have to have an “equal to or greater than the level that would be provided at the airport by Federal Government personnel.”

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s107-1447&version=enr&nid=t0:enr:269

2

I think I went through the one where they see your junk. Had to stand sideways with my hands over my head. Aside from the female security officers going “ooooh!” I didn’t know anything different had happened.

The principle of it is really the core of the argument. At what point do we say enough is enough? How far diminished are the returns on this level of privacy invasion in the name of security?

3

One of my buddies has been ranting about this and I got into it with him over IM yesterday. Typical nonsense from him. Lots of noise about how it’s an invasion of privacy, but he has no response when you bluntly ask, “ok, so how would you stop someone from boarding a plane with a PETN bomb woven into their clothing”. He’s got no answer there. When I basically told him, “ok, then STFU about scanners/patdown or take a car” he finally came back with, “well Israel doesn’t use them”. No, they don’t. Israel has a much smarter system where they properly analyze the risk based on passenger behavior, background and <gasp>RACE!

Yep, Israel racially profiles anyone getting on a plane. If you’re a single Muslim man getting on a plane in Jerusalem you can pretty much guarantee airport security is going to have more contact with you than the Jewish guy flying with his wife and kid. Putting their security to work on what statistics have proven are higher risk passengers instead of our “everyone gets treated equally” method is why their security works so well. With our system you have to treat the 5 year old kid traveling with his family just as suspiciously as anyone else or risk being sued for discrimination.

4

Like on a boat, you have no rights on a plane. The captain/pilot is legally the supreme commander while underway. As I see it, that process begins at boarding and security check is part of boarding.

The problem is how far does that extend? Look at my nuts on my way to the plane? OK. Tap my phone without a warrant once I buy a plane ticket? No. It’s a balance. You’re trading security for liberty, and you can’t let the security thing become a free pass for taking liberty.

I don’t think that the magical xray vision scanners are a problem, but I am glad that Ron Paul is already pushing back because since 9/11 fighting for a pound of liberty at the cost of an ounce of security has not been popular.

5

Airline security in the US is entirely reactionary.

They take over a plane, we install reinforced doors.
They try and blow up a pair of shoes, we all get to take our shoes off now.
They try and smuggle in a multiple part chemical bomb, now we can’t carry basic toiletries in our carry on.
They weave a bomb into clothing, we get x-ray backscatter machines and pat downs.

So it begs the question, what happens when some terrorist sticks the bomb up his ass? The scanners won’t catch it, neither will a pat down. Will we all be doing the “strip naked, squat and cough” dance just to get on a plane?

6

I think when they disrupt our everyday activities to the point where we stop doing them because the security involved is just too obnoxious, that’s as much of a “win” as the terrorists are going to get.

7

keep your nailclippers @ home.

8

My mother in law just went through it last week. She didn’t really seem to have a problem with it. She did have a problem with the 90 yr. old woman that they had holding her arms out while she could barely stand there.

I could care less about the invasion of privacy, if you want to see my anaconda cool whatever. But enough is enough Fry mentioned Diminishing returns, and Jays mentioned reactionary. Both of these statements combined make a really strong argument against this system. I would like the TSA to publish a list of all offenders captured by these security measures. Something as simple as Sex, Age, Race (yes race), offense, punishment. Then the public would have a pretty clear idea of how much this is doing. I have a feeling that the publication would be loaded with “confiscated lighter”, “confiscated nail clippers” “confiscated swiss army knife that couldn’t kill a newborn cat” etc…

9

https://youtu.be/mVvwxaX3Zlc

10

this entire argument sucks. airport security needs to fuck off. flying domestically in the states is a fucking breeze, and for intrntnl travel, sort that shit out at customs since everyone getting naked anyway. that first check in is fucking useless. making old ladys unpack their whole shit is just cruel. if they just hired flight attendants with the same system clubs hire bouncers, we could do away will all this nonsense security.

11

lol yeah this thread sucks we should like totally just do security after the flight and stuff

12

first of all, they are dangerous. A scientist from Johns Hopkins university says so, http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/body-scanners-dangerous-scientists/ second of all, you guys dont really need to ask how I feel about them do you?

13

Here’s a solution to all the controversy over full-body scanners at the airports:

All we need to do is develop a booth that you can step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have hidden on or in your body. The explosion will be contained within the sealed booth.

This would be a win-win for everyone. There would be none of this crap about racial profiling and the device would eliminate long and expensive trials.

This is so simple that it’s brilliant. I can see it now: you’re in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter an announcement comes over the PA system, “Attention, standby passengers! We now have a seat available on flight number…”

TAKEN FROM A SPAM EMAIL THAT MY MOTHER SENT ME

14

The entire thing is gayer than aids. Dogs are the simple and waaaaay more effective answer and the govt knows that. They are fucking with you… period.

15

I was thinking this might push more people to get pilots licenses and just fly themselves. There are several inexpensive, non-complicated planes in development to make use of the new sport flying license that doesn’t take extensive training or time to get.

16

^That is the other part that makes this a joke, terrorists can fly a Cesna full of explosives anytime they want. Yeah, the govt needs to violate me to make this country safe.

17

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/forget_the_porn_machines_NQAJ5DOzf187gdRQnLURlO
Little more detailed experience with the Israeli system.

Forget the ‘porn machines’
How Israelis secure airports
By MICHAEL J. TOTTEN

Last Updated: 4:40 AM, November 19, 2010

Posted: 10:05 PM, November 18, 2010

Air travelers in the United States are now given two options at the security gate – be groin-groped by gloved Transportation Security Administration agents, or photographed “naked” in the back-scatter X-ray device that Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic calls “the porn machine.”

You can thank failed “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for this one. While armies tragically tend to fight the last war, the TSA looks for the item the most recent terrorist used.

After 9/11, everything sharp – even tweezers – was banned. Ever since Richard Reid tried and failed to light his loafers on fire, security agents have forced us to take off our shoes. British authorities rounded up terrorists who planned to bring liquid explosives on board, and we’ve all been prohibited from carrying shampoo through the gate ever since.

Security theater: A TSA officer “organizing” passengers at JFK. By contrast, Israeli airport-security agents screen for dangerous people. Terrorists have yet to use the same weapon twice, and the TSA isn’t even looking for whatever they’ll try to use next. I can think of all sorts of things a person could use to wreak havoc on a plane that aren’t banned. Security officials should pay less attention to objects, and more attention to people.

The Israelis do. They are, out of dreadful necessity, the world’s foremost experts in counterterrorism. And they couldn’t care less about what your grandmother brings on a plane. Instead, officials at Ben Gurion International Airport interview everyone in line before they’re even allowed to check in.

And Israeli officials profile. They don’t profile racially, but they profile. Israeli Arabs breeze through rather quickly, but thanks to the dozens of dubious-looking stamps in my passport – almost half are from Lebanon and Iraq – I get pulled off to the side for more questioning every time. And I’m a white, nominally Christian American.

If they pull you aside, you had better tell them the truth. They’ll ask you so many wildly unpredictable questions so quickly, you couldn’t possibly invent a fake story and keep it all straight. Don’t even try. They’re highly trained and experienced, and they catch everyone who tries to pull something over on them.

Because I fit one of their profiles, it takes me 15 or 20 minutes longer to get through the first wave of security than it does for most people. The agents make up for it, though, by escorting me to the front of the line at the metal detector. They don’t put anyone into a “porn machine.” There’s no point. Terrorists can’t penetrate that deeply into the airport.

The Israeli experience isn’t pleasant, exactly, and there’s a lot not to like about it. It can be exasperating for those of us who are interrogated more thoroughly.

The system has its advantages, though, aside from the fact that no one looks or reaches into anyone’s pants. Israelis don’t use security theater to make passengers feel like they’re safe. They use real security measures to ensure that travelers actually are safe. Even when suicide bombers exploded themselves almost daily in Israeli cities, not a single one managed to get through that airport.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/forget_the_porn_machines_NQAJ5DOzf187gdRQnLURlO#ixzz168Yzo1Bu