Posted on 01/14/2004 10:08:32 AM PST by NorCoGOP
LOS ANGELES -- Last Friday I was again reminded of how visiting the United States has begun to resemble entering a police-state. As I waited in line to check my bags at Heathrow Airport, a couple behind me joked about playing the "spot-the-sky-marshal" game. Like many others, I find the concept of plainclothes, gun-carrying officers aboard aircrafts more alarming than reassuring. And my anxiety is further compounded by the fact that, due to U.S. pressure, government ministers in Britain and other countries have rushed into plans for American-style sky marshals policing their airports and flights. The unilateralist U.S. administration is once again exporting its policies and deciding how the world is to be policed.
The sky marshals, however, are only one component of the new measures introduced to strengthen U.S. security. United States authorities have also ordered airlines entering its airspace to ban passengers from waiting in line to use the lavatory -- a disturbingly paranoid edict.
And the unpleasant ordeal of 11 hours spent panicking about the possibility of being on board a plane with a man with a gun, and whether or not you can use the restroom does not end upon landing. On Jan. 5, the Department of Homeland Security initiated a vast scheme for monitoring travelers to the United States with digital fingerprinting and photographs. The policy applies to all but 28 countries, mainly European, and all people who require a visa to be in the United States. Thus, because I possess a student visa, my name, photograph, fingerprints and movements are now on record on a national database. The troubling thought is that this information could one day be abused.
For some, such as Brazilian judge Julier Sebastio da Silva, the decision to photograph and fingerprint visitors is more than an embarrassing and inconvenient experience. Da Silva told The Guardian that the decision was "absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis." He commanded that the same be done to Americans arriving in Brazil.
I do not, however, find the fingerprint and photograph policy nearly as threatening as the combination of a pressurized cabin and a gun. There is every reason to be cautious about potential terrorist threats, but the U.S.-favored policy of guns on planes is not the answer. I would prefer to see my flight cancelled if there were a specific threat than allow it to go ahead if a sky marshal was deployed. Not only do sky marshals threaten the authority of pilots, but I can see little that can be achieved by having an armed person aboard a plane.
Similarly there have been countless incidents of police officers' guns being used against them on the ground, a situation which could just as easily arise in the air. A more sensible option would be to introduce tighter checks on baggage and passengers on the ground. Yet, apart from a few staunch countries -- Portugal, Denmark, Sweden and Finland -- it seems most countries will bow to American pressure.
Currently, these policies are caught amid a storm of controversy over the grounding of British Airways and Air France flights. Earlier in the month British Airways Flight 223 to Washington was grounded for three days while waiting for clearance from U.S. authorities.
Flight 223 was reportedly delayed both because of suspect passengers and the airline's reluctance to allow sky marshals aboard its flights. Similarly, many in the French media opined that the six cancelled Air France flights from Paris to Los Angeles this December were a "punishment" for France's opposition to the Iraq war.
Even if this was not a conscious U.S. policy, there is no doubt that the United States is pressuring other countries to follow its strict security lead.
The United States is trying to rule though fear -- the intent of widely publicizing terrorist threats is to frighten. Publicizing the threats against Air France and British Airways justified somewhat suspect policies. It allowed the United States to decide how the world was to be policed and to ensure that their policies were accepted on a global scale.
U.S. demands for the introduction of sky marshals only add to the burgeoning fears and anxieties arising from President Bush's "war on terror." The U.S. administration has harangued countries into its version of "protecting" the world, one from which we may in fact need protection.
IDIOT! We are protecting ourselves from the world! NEWSFLASH! There are people who want to kill us. They are willing to take large airliners and fly them into buildings. They are willing, given the chance, to disperse chem or bio agents into our cities, even willing to detonate, God forbid, a nuclear bombb. THEY WANT US DEAD! They don't want to be friends. We will never make them happy. THEY WANT US DEAD!!!!!
What part of THEY WANT US DEAD do people not get?
I'm sure we can find him a box-cutters-only flight. Try Air France.
I wonder if this pinhead realizes just how idiotic he sounds here - as if being on a plane with an armed federal agent is somehow more of an ordeal than being on a plane being flown into a building.
Un-friggin' believable.
Cabin pressurization 101. First forget what you see in the movies. Airline cabins are constantly leaking, this is how you get fresh air in them (I know it doesn't seem like it by the air quality, but it happens). Several air pumps supply fresh pressurized air to the cabin at the rate needed to maintain cabin pressurization. In the case of a bullet hole in the cabin, the pumps simply put more replacement air to the cabin.
Yes it'll be loud and a few people might lose some napkins to the bullet hole, but otherwise the passengers will be safe and pressurized, and the aircraft will continue to fly normally.
Friggin' ignorant fear mongers with an agenda piss me off.
The author obviously wrote this before last weekend. Myth Busters showed that a bullet is not going to cause explosive decompression, even if it goes through a window. Another show, on Fox I think, as well as a story in USA Today, told of the very specific information received about the flights indicated.
The author also forgets that he/she is a visitor to this country, with no absolute right to be here. We can apply and always have, as have other countries, conditions for permission to enter our country.
Oh, yeah, just like the Nazis. F*&%##) idiots.
Air Marshals and armed pilots are de rigueur for many foreign airlines and have been for years. We are at WAR with an unseen enemy who knows people like you will whine and complain none stop, hoping some politician will lift security just a bit for your vote, then the murderous terrorist can get next to you undetected and blow you and those around you up!
Rosamund de Sybel...sounds a little French or maybe Spanish...I could be wrong, maybe likes turbans.............
Actually what would happen is that the cabin pressurization outflow value would close down somewhat. On large aircraft this "valve" is a little larger than a window. On a C-5 you can look out through the "butterfly" value. The rear ramp on the C-5 often leaks so much that blankets put into the gap are often sucked out. Still the plane continues flying and the passengers continue breathing. Just verified with the ex KC-10 crew chief in the next office that the outflow value on that A/C (and likely the one on DC-10/MD-11 type airliners) is about 8 inches in diameter, although on that one, the valve opens to a backward facing "scoop" on the front/side of the aircraft. On jet airraft, pressurization is provided by engine bleed air, not by "pumps", except in the sense that the compressor of a jet engine is a big pump.
This thing's full of it! That happens rarely, and when the person is identified as a police officer and after a physical struggle ensues. I am sure these air marshals are instructed to remain anonymous and maintain proper distance in an incident.
Thanks, forgot to include that part of the action. Pumps only go up when closing the valve isn't enough.
Tia
I was trying to write non-technical general concepts. I guess I forgot I was writing to this audience and not the idiot who wrote the article. But I'm sure many will appreciate your more detailed information.
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