Posted on 11/20/2010 10:15:09 AM PST by kingattax
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I’d say trained interrogators, MMFs, guard dogs and UZIs would do the trick.
The crotch and vajayjay bombers are MUSLIMS on flights coming from the AMSTERDAM, PARIS, LONDON, ROME and DUBAI airports.
These MUSLIMS from FOREIGN AIRPORTS are the ones that need to be PROFILED and SEARCHED.
I use to joke that TSA’s next move would be to require everyone boarding the plane to be naked. With this type of 4th Amendment violation being implemented. My old joke may actually be the TSA’s next requirement. Unless, of course you are a Moslem female covered in a burka, whom will be permited to board the plane with no inspection at all.
The Israelis know who the enemy is. Our government refuses to name the enemy and so we will lose to them.
Yes. There’s plenty of pre-work they can do if they’d actually take the time....reservations - names - cross checks, etc.... They don’t care about that. It is perception to them and they (the Nazis in Incompetano’s regime) have to make it look like they are proactive instead of hopelessly retroactive....
Israeli officials profile. They don’t profile racially, but they profile
Instead of profiling potential terrorists, we should profile people who clearly are NOT terrorists. Give these groups of people the "pilot pass," too.
Examples of groups profiled OUT of enhanced screening are:
"You give these people a clearance where they don't have to go through the process at all. So now you have to deal with the population that's left -- occasional flyers, people who recently visited certain countries, people originating from foreign countries..."
So there is a profiling system that doesn't profile the terrorist, leaving us open to charges of racism; it profiles people who are NOT terrorists (a group not likely to complain about it), and leaves the rest for enhanced screening.
-PJ
We look for contraband. Israel looks for Terrorists.
Intelligence is going to win on this front on the WOT, not increasing levels of groping, x-rays and TSA inconvenience.
On the other hand, we have to learn to forgive TSA if they didn’t implement and a plane was brought down by a repeat attempt of a failed method.
Let’s examine WHO is flying. Examine where they have been. If they lose their passport and the record of where they have been they automatically get bounced off flights. We’re the ones with freedom. We don’t have to allow anyone, non US citizen to come here unless they are squeaky clean.
In the meantime, we should be able to fly freely between our cities. This county is too big to drive. We can, if security is based, at least partly on who we are; not solely on what we may be carrying.
I have to prove credit worthiness to do anything financial, why don’t I have to prove passenger worthiness when I fly?
Israeli screeners are mostly intelligent young people motivated by the desire to protect their nation and their people.
Our screeners are mostly not very intelligent, poorly paid functionaries motivated by the desire for a dependable gov’t paycheck, employed by an organization that places great importance in diversity in hiring and non-discrimination in screening.
On the other hand, the Israelis did let a schizophrenic who had just killed his mother and father fly on over, so they’re not perfect.
My wife and I went through security at Ben Gurion last June. It started with a stop at the toll booth-like check point OUTSIDE the airport and ended after about 12 possible checkpoints. The best part, like the author says, is the interview while you are waiting on line to run your to-be-checked suitcases through their X-ray machines. Lots of questions, and if they do not like your answers, you are pulled aside for additional questions. If something in your suitcases looks strange, you are asked to place it on a table for a thorough inspection before you are allowed to check it in at the airline counter. There are numerous other potential checkpoints, including one last one as you board the plane. One word to describe the Israeli system is FANTASTIC.
We will not only be naked, but ordered to “assume the position” for thorough searching and probing of any area.
I am frustrated that for all this technology, it doesn’t reveal things hidden in body cavities. That is going to be the next frontier for the terrorists.
And for all of our intelligence gathering, etc. we’re not allowed to use common sense judgements about who presents the greatest threats. Instead, we’re all considered equal threats to blow up the plane. For our official policy to be that we consider all passengers an equal threat defies common sense, and would be laughable reasoning in other contexts.
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