Posted on 02/07/2005 2:47:08 PM PST by visagoth
The Homeland Security Department's No-Fly List has always seemed a bit absurd to me. Only the stupidest terrorist would try booking a flight under his own name (or his known aliases) three years after the 9/11 attacks, and one thing I hope we've all learned is that our most dangerous enemies aren't stupid.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.msn.com ...
1. John Evildoer purchases a ticket for a flight under a false name (using a stolen credit card naturally) and on the day of the trip, prints his boarding pass online with the airline's online checkin service.
2. Mr. Evildoer then fires up his trusty image editor and changes the name in his HTML boarding pass to his real name.
3. When he goes through security screening at the airport, he shows the second boarding pass (the one with his true name) and his real ID. The name on the boarding pass and the ID match, so he is admitted. At this point, the no-fly list or other watchlists are not checked.
4. When he goes to board the flight, he hands the gate agent his first boarding pass (with the fake name). The pass is real, so the barcode scan detects no problems, but since no ID is required at the gate, there is no actual confirmation that he traveled under his real name. If John Evildoer were on the no-fly list, the TSA never would have known.
Oh sure. It's "John" Evildoer, never Mohammed Evildoer.
Axel O'Evil
(IRA terrorist)
It doesn't make a lot of sense to post in a forum the way to get around airline security.
...Or we can just stick our heads in the sand.
This way around has been on the Internets since last year, and I am posting a relevent article. Hopefully more awareness will lead to loophole fixing.
I'm sorry, but loophole fixing is not done by posting it in FR.
If you want to fix a loophole, tell homeland security, don't educate the public on how to do it.
I did a quick check through the blogs I frequent and found the same 'directions' on most them.
The toothpaste is out of the tube, and there is nothing either of us can do about it.
A loophole that the average home-schooled eighth grader could see? Come on, the thrust of your objection is based on the premise that the airport debacle has something to do with homeland security, rather than bread-and-circuses and establishing who the masters are.
Bomb sniffers? Sure. But the rest of it is nonsense.
If you find things like that, you should report them to the FBI or Homeland security, not repeat them.
I had no knowledge of how to get on board an airplane if I were on the list, until I read your detailed instructions. I'm sure I'm not the only one that is reading this first.
Right after 911, somebody was publishing instructions on how to put anthrax in a building. If I remember right, the FBI put a top to that crap.
With all due respect, this back and forth is getting us nowhere. We will have to agree to disagee.
Just so you know, the original story was was broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR) for millions to hear, it was then picked up by numerous news outlets, and commented on by Slate.com, and is being circulated throughout the blogosphere as we speak.
Just so you know, I wrote SLATE and told them how I felt about this article, too.
What still bugs me, is...last time I flew, no one looked at the baggage area.
I can came and went as I pleased, bringing my bag out then back in.
What if I had boom sticks in my bags and enter the baggage area from outside while it's busy?
who is going to notice that i never got off a plane ?
Taking out an airport terminal will get more people, say on a thanksgiving holiday getaway day, than trying to take over a plane.
Several airlines that I fly on don't allow you to use HTML boarding passes to get past security into the terminal gate area. If you try, they will send you back to the ticket counter or to a kiosk to print an appropriate boarding pass on perforated paper with the magnetic bar strip.
If any do, please don't say who and where they are.
I think all we've really learned post 9/11 is that even with Republicans in charge the federal government is still stupid.
All the games in the world with more barcodes and ID checkpoints won't stop terrorists. Only a federal PR man would claim they will. But they do give the public image of trying to do something, and they give the surly and otherwise unemployable (and registered to vote) a cushy federal job.
Safety from hijackers begins and ends with a fight-back mentality.
I could tell you stories from firsthand experience when I was with DHS that would scare the crap out of you. Let's face it, anyone can still bring weapons of all types into an airport ticketing area. Many people do. No matter how far back you push the protection perimeter, there will always be a zone where people congregate for a security check and where they are vulnerable.
Recently going thru security at LAX..they were not verifying identy versus the boarding pass after check in.
No double check of idenity at the plane either.
This makes it possible for anyone to use a valid boarding pass.
Looked to me like it was intentional. I pointed the breach out to the Security Supervisor..and he just shrugged.
Guess they got to get all those illegals on the flights somehow.
The sad point is that the TSA and other airport security is impotent. There are more loopholes and screwups than most frequent flyers would care to know about and it doesn't take internet publicity or an IQ over 90 to figure them out. In fact, I'm sure most frequent flyers could spot a weak point in a minute.
The terrorists are either stupid or non-existant. If this weren't true, then it's a wonder why nothing has happened lately.
My money is on non-existant. The USMC and US Army have been killing them at high rates every day for the last three years.
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