Do Body Scanners Make Us Safer? (NO)

New York Times ^ | 11/23/10 | Bruce Schneier

[tricksy]

A short history of airport security: We screen for guns and bombs, so the terrorists use box cutters. We confiscate box cutters and corkscrews, so they put explosives in their sneakers. We screen footwear, so they try to use liquids. We confiscate liquids, so they put PETN bombs in their underwear. We roll out full-body scanners, even though they wouldn't have caught the Underwear Bomber, so they put a bomb in a printer cartridge. We ban printer cartridges over 16 ounces--the level of magical thinking here is amazing--and they're going to do something else.

This is a stupid game, and we should stop playing it.

It's not even a fair game. It's not that the terrorist picks an attack and we pick a defense, and we see who wins. It's that we pick a defense, and then the terrorists look at our defense and pick an attack designed to get around it.... This isn't security; it's security theater....

That being said, airplanes require a special level of security for several reasons: they're a favored terrorist target; their failure characteristics mean more deaths than a comparable bomb on a bus or train; they tend to be national symbols; and they often fly to foreign countries where terrorists can operate with more impunity.

But all that can be handled with pre-9/11 security. Exactly two things have made airplane travel safer since 9/11: reinforcing the cockpit door, and convincing passengers they need to fight back. Everything else has been a waste of money. Add screening of checked bags and airport workers and we're done. Take all the rest of the money and spend it on investigation and intelligence....

[jazminerose]

Okey dokey. I guess the screeners at my local airport are all lying to me.

Most of them are veterans, who’da thunk they would be so dishonest?

[Girlene]

I have asked screeners at our local airport & they do indeed have mid level clearances.

Not sure what mid-level clearance means, but this article does not indicate they have any "secret clearance", currently. Only a few higher-ups have secret clearance.TSA Officers to Receive Higher Security Clearance

“The Transportation Security Administration is upgrading security clearances for 10,000 of its airport personnel, giving them access to 'secret' intelligence to help them better detect threats and stop terrorists," reports CNN.............

The clearance of those additional TSA employees will take place over the next two years. Only 744 of front-line supervisors, managers, and behavior-detection officers now have the higher security clearance. The higher clearance does not and will not include airport screeners.

TSA spokeswoman Sterling Payne said the change will empower higher-ranking employees with accurate information about intelligence threats. The majority of TSA’s headquarter managers already have secret- or higher-level clearances for classified information and the agency sees this move as a “natural progression.”

[Tzfat]

Okey dokey. I guess the screeners at my local airport are all lying to me.

There is a clinical name for it, but let's just say it is a the attitude of self-importance for lower-level enforcers. Again, think Barney Fife.

[Girlene]

Okey dokey. I guess the screeners at my local airport are all lying to me. Most of them are veterans, who’da thunk they would be so dishonest?

You are confusing receiving clearance to become a TSA screener with the type of "secret clearance" that 10,000 TSA workers will receive in the next two years. (referred to in the last two articles I posted)

Here are the requirements to become a TSA screener. How Do I Become a TSA Screener?You need to have a GED (or a year in a security position - no GED required even), be a US citizen, 18 years of age, pass a background criminal check and credit check, complete training, and be able to perform certain physical requirments.

Those requirements do not add up to secret clearance.

[ari-freedom]

"This is why the Israelis do it right -- with behavior-based profiling (not "racial profiling" as the leftists say to obfuscate the issue)."

I'm all for this in addition to increased use of scanning technology. But it is impossible to implement the full Israeli system on millions of airline passengers because it would take too long and requires much more manpower.

[Talisker]

Do Body Scanners Make Us Safer? (NO)

Message to TSA: It's the Muslims, Stupid.

[devere]

“Someone at the Slimes has intelligence? Who’d have thunk it?”

The Gray Lady is telling Barry to throw in the towel.