Posted on 01/06/2010 10:59:06 AM PST by steve-b
In 2001, after would-be "shoe bomber" Richard Reid tried to bring down an American Airlines 767 with an explosives-laden sneaker, we marveled at the resourcefulness of the terrorist mind. What would come next? The running joke, of course, was that somebody might try hiding a bomb in his or her underwear.
Which was all very funny until, eight years later, it actually happened....
...[H]ow is it that our sworn protectors manage to spend tens of billions of dollars each year, yet failed to stop an extremist saboteur whose own father had contacted officials to alert them to his son's behavior and potential violence?...
...Profiling is a difficult thing to orchestrate correctly, and as security experts will tell you, routine is weakness; as soon as a perpetrator knows what you're looking for, the system becomes easy to skirt....
Still, even the coarsest form of profiling is a better approach than TSA's current philosophy, in which each airline passenger--of every race, gender, age group and nationality, from an infant child to a uniformed crew member--is considered a potential suspect and held to the same screening standard...
Its reactionary policies in general are folly: The hijacker uses a box cutter; we ban box cutters. The bomber stands; we ban standing. And so on, in a childish, rock-paper-scissors version of national security.
Calling all artists: One thing TSA needs, I think, is a better logo and a snappy motto. Perhaps there's a graphic designer out there who can help with a new rendition of the agency's circular eagle-and-flag motif. I'm imagining a revised eagle, its talons clutching a box cutter and a toothpaste tube. It says "Transportation Security Administration" around the top. Below are the three simple words of the TSA mission statement: "Tedium, Weakness, Farce."...
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
TSA=Thousands Standing Around
My guess it will now be blonds with Breast implants from sweeden.
...meet the new boss,same as the old boss:
***U.S. (still) Can’t Trace Foreign Visitors on Expired Visas*** 10/11/2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/us/12visa.html?_r=2&th&emc=th
DALLAS — Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country. New concern was focused on that security loophole last week, when Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian who had overstayed his tourist visa, was accused in court of plotting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper. Last year alone, 2.9 million foreign visitors on temporary visas like Mr. Smadi’s checked in to the country but never officially checked out, immigration officials said...
...officials said, about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States came on legal visas and overstayed.
Smadi’s case has brought renewed calls (for) a universal electronic exit monitoring system.
But despite several Congressional authorizations, there are no biometric inspections or a systematic follow-up to confirm that foreign visitors have departed. Homeland security officials caution that universal exit monitoring is a daunting and costly goal...The wrong exit plan could clog trade, disrupt border cities and overwhelm immigration agencies with information they could not effectively use...airlines balked at an effort last year by the Bush administration to make them responsible for taking fingerprints and photographs of departing foreigners.
The current system relies on departing foreigners to turn in a paper stub when they leave....
Mr. Smadi was able to fade easily into society and encountered few barriers to starting a life here, according to court documents...He enrolled in high school, obtained a California identification card, landed jobs in two states and rented a string of apartments and houses. He bought at least two used cars, and even procured a handgun and ammunition...
Read more at nytimes.com ...
“Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity.”
(yeah, our gubermint is infinitely stupid.)
I’ve heard that the body scanners can’t detect objects inserted into “you-know-where” private parts of the body. This will be the next frontier for suicide bombers wanting to avoid detection.
Sad but true.
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