Posted on 08/10/2006 4:27:03 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Beginning Friday, airline passengers will go through double screening to make sure they're not carrying liquids onto planes, the head of the airline industry's largest trade group said.
Passengers and their carry-on luggage will be checked not only at the main security checkpoint, but also a second time at the boarding gate. The stepped-up screening in response to a new terrorist threat began Thursday at 25 airports where planes leave for Britain.
"It's going to spread across the whole system tomorrow," James May, president of the Air Transport Association, said Thursday.
The response to the terrorist threat produced long lines at airports Thursday as security officials scrambled to put new measures in place and passengers faced perplexing new restrictions — including the ban on carrying liquids onto aircraft.
Intelligence had indicated the terror plot unfolding in Britain involved using benign liquids that could be mixed inside an airplane cabin to make an explosive.
While plots to blow up airliners using liquid explosives are nothing new — such an attempt was foiled more than a decade ago — the government has been slow to upgrade its security equipment at airport checkpoints so that it can detect explosives on passengers.
Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley said the need to tighten security came as a surprise and the changes were difficult to implement.
"It normally takes us about four weeks to roll out a change at a security checkpoint, and this one came about in a little bit more than four hours in the middle of last night," Hawley said.
Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said the government was overreacting. "They paralyzed the system with the hassle factor again," Woerth said.
During the first few hours of the alert, the TSA was taking toiletries away from flight crews, he said. "Then they said, 'This is stupid. We're taking toothpaste away from the guy who's going to fly the plane.' It didn't take them long to back down."
But Frank Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, said it makes sense to insert "uncertainty and randomness into the system so we can't let the adversary game the system."
Still, he said, coordination among agencies and the industry remains a problem.
Denis Breslin, spokesman for the American Airlines pilots union, faulted nagging communication shortcomings among intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security agencies.
"There's a whole lot of people making rules up right now, and until they get it all sorted out, every passenger is going to have to go through the nightmarish procedures that they're putting together right now," said Breslin.
David Mackett, a pilot who heads the Airline Pilots Security Alliance, said flight crews are treated as part of the problem.
"We're not happy that every time there's a threat we find out from the media, and that there's almost a complete vacuum of information when it comes to the air crews," Mackett said.
It was after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that box cutters and other sharp objects were banned, bulletproof cockpit doors installed and air marshals rushed into service.
And it was after Richard Reid, the confessed shoe bomber, tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight in December 2001 that security officials made passengers remove their shoes. Lighters were later banned from passenger cabins.
Members of Congress have for several years criticized the TSA for using 1970s-era X-ray technology to screen carry-on bags at security checkpoints.
Rafi Ron, former head of security at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport and now a security consultant in Washington, said part of the problem is that terrorists always try to exploit new vulnerabilities.
"Weapons and explosives are various and you can expect new types of weapons as well as tactics," Ron said.
Douglas Laird, an aviation security expert and former security chief for Northwest Airlines, said the plot described Thursday resembled a 1994-1995 attempt, codenamed "Bojinka," to blow up a dozen airliners simultaneously over the Pacific Ocean using liquid explosives smuggled onto planes in bottles of contact lens solution.
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On the Net:
Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov
Oh Yeah.
Profiling.
DUhhh. Your gubamint putting its head back in the sand. Again.
Multiple Choice Test
1. In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles by
(a) Superman,
(b) Jay Leno,
(c) Tiger Woods,
(d) a man from Palestine between 17 and 40 years old.
2. In 1972, 11 Israeli athletes were kidnapped and killed at the Munich Olympics by
(a) the kid who cuts your grass,
(b) Sitting Bull,
(c) Arnold Schwarzenegger,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
3. In 1979, the US Embassy in Tehran was over-ran & 90 Americans were held for 444 days by
(a) Bruce Lee,
(b) Elvis Presley's deceased twin brother,
(c) a tour group of Minnesota grandmothers,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
4. During the 1980s, several Americans were kidnapped in Beirut by
(a) O J Simpson,
(b) the king of Sweden,
(c) the pope and a gang of Cardinals,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
5. In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon was blown up, killing 220 Marines, by
(a) a Domino's Pizza delivery man,
(b) the president of the Southern Baptist Convention,
(c) Catherine Zeta-Jones,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
6. In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70-year-old American passenger thrown overboard in his wheelchair by
(a) Sugar Ray Leonard,
(b) your next door neighbor,
(c) the Little Mermaid,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
7. In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens and a U.S. Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by
(a) Captain Kangaroo,
(b)Walt Disney,
(c) Mother Teresa,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
8. In 1988, Pan American Flight 103 was destroyed by a bomb in midair by
(a) Butch Cassidy,
(b) the Sundance Kid,
(c) the Tooth Fairy,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
9. The World Trade Center was bombed the first time in 1993 by
(a) Stonewall Jackson,
(b) Michael Jordan,
(c) Winston Churchill,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
10. In 1998, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by
(a) Santa Claus,
(b) your sister's cat's grandmother's first owner's son's basketball coach's ex-wife,
(c) the World Wrestling Federation,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
11. On September 11, 2001, airliners were hijacked to crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by
(a) Bugs Bunny,
(b) Bob the Tomato,
(c) Ricky Martin,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
12. In 2002, Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal was kidnapped and beheaded by
(a) Bonnie and Clyde,
(b) the Michelin man,
(c) Barney Fife,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
13. In July of 2005, several targets were attacked in central London, killing 52 persons, by
(a) the Orkin Man,
(b) Margaret Thatcher,
(c) Mr. Goodwrench,
(d) Muslims between 17 and 40.
add the USS Cole, Nick Berg's beheading and the Barcelona bombings
Damn. I guess I won't be able to bring my Jello Collection on the plane then...
Hope this helps...
Don't forget there are many blue-eyed/blond-haired muslims, along with blacks and Asians.
Or my urine sample collection.
Ok, someone answer me this..what happens..what happens IF the next time they try to sneak something onto a plane and have it hidden in a body cavity?? it's not out of the realm of possibility considering these guys will go through any lengths to blow stuff up and need ways to get it onboard..
what happens to the travelling public then?
Jump on this for being dumb, but I'd bet some imam somewhere would find something in the koran that says it's ok..
I sure hope they crack down on the grandmothers, as usual. You wouldn't believe the power of the chemicals that make their hair blue. They're a really dangerous bunch.
Let's just all fly nude. Let's carry this to its logical conclusion and strip. And then we'll have to all submit to pat downs and searches of any orifice.
They are not going to profile here. Get used to it. So they must do something.
Maybe not far fetched. Imagine a woman smuggling something in her .........
I think there are cases where women have smuggled drugs in their.......
Anything for Allah.
fine, a weak point, imo,
re: Those of pakistani origin detained ib England or of the wandering egyptian yutes, how many are blonde and blue eyed?
How many of the 9/11 hijackers were blonde haired and blue-eyed?
More insanity at TSA and DHS. They're doing this to us because they refuse to profile.
And President Bush refuses to countermand them.
I'm driving everywhere, not flying.
makes sense to just drive at least for shorter trips.
All day I have watched calm, uncomplaining people, both Brit and Yank, patiently go through the chaos at the airports. I heard interviews on many shows with passengers and everyone was cheerful and undertanding.
Must have bothered AP, so they made sure to make this the sort of article that elicits groans. Maybe Schumer was the stringer on this story!
I am glad they don't give the crews special treatment. I do not trust that crews are not infiltrated by Muslims.
After 9/11, I was dreading flying, from all the negative stories. In reality, it was not much worse than before, except for the shoe part.
And bingo daubers, don't forget their bingo daubers.
I had heard a report that the intended explosive was peroxide based which would be ignited by a flash bulb or electronic device that would provide a spark to ignite it.
I guess any woman or man that has had their hair dyed using peroxide or such deserves special attention as well, not to mention folks who utilize and carry camera equipment.
Lets just keep tightening the noose ,, on all the wrong folks, why don't we?.
Gives a whole new meaning to "blow it out your @$$".
I have any number of acquaintances in the same boat as you, as a rule I don't proposed singling them out based on that alone, but when it comes to those travelling, to ignore them as things sit today as a result of even more events of late, I am glad you understand, it is nothing personal, it is only prudent.
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