So what, just humor them?
Posted on 06/17/2015 9:41:57 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the dim forgotten days of 2001, 19 terrorists took control of four planes, attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and crashing the fourth plane in a field in Pennsylvania. I’m sure you heard about it, it was in all the papers.
Okay, I’m being a bit too cynical – I’m an old curmudgeon. But the attacks of September 11, 2001, hit the U.S. and hurt it, and put us into a war that, contrary to the apparent belief of the current administration, continues today.
Everyone who flies anywhere now feels the effects, as they go through the TSA screening process. This would be bad enough, but recently there was a story reported that an internal Inspector General report showed that out of 70 tries to get bombs or weapons through the screening process, 67 succeeded. That’s roughly 19 times out of 20.
This is not a reassuring observation. Especially if you’re about to take a plane trip.
On the other hand, there have been only two attempts to destroy a plane in flight to the U.S. since then, and both were unsuccessful. If it’s that easy to get a bomb or a gun on a plane, why aren’t we seeing more?
As King Mongkut said, “It’s a puzzlement [1].”
A few years ago, Bruce Schneier coined the useful term “security theater [2].” Security theater is security steps taken, not because they provide much actual improvement in security, but so that there is an appearance of increased security. Many people have called the TSA security “security theater.”
And yet, well, there haven’t been any successful attacks on U.S. planes since 9/11. How to explain this?
We can’t say for sure, of course – how do you explain any event that didn’t happen – but I think we can make some pretty good speculations.
First, the supply of willing terrorist martyrs is pretty limited. People tend to forget this, and a whole lot of people seem to assume that every Muslim is a potential willing martyr. But we know that’s not true, and in fact we know that willing martyrs are hard to come by, because there are honestly not that many suicide bombers and suicide attacks. Consider: out of a population of more than seven billion, there were only around 180 suicide bombers last year.
What’s more, fairly often we find out that instead of a willing adult, the bombers are tricked or coerced into doing it, with everything from holding family members hostage to simply getting people who aren’t mentally capable of understanding what’s happening.
Second, plane attacks haven’t been succeeding. The “shoe bomber” and the “underwear bomber” both failed, and failed spectacularly – in the case of the underwear bomber, spectacularly and embarrassingly, as his major injuries were burns on his genitals.
Terrorists are like everyone else in at least one respect: Failing is no fun, even if you think blowing yourself up will be. The more failures, the fewer people will be inclined to try.
This applies to their leaders, too: They lose standing every time someone fails. You don’t get a lot of street cred when your underwear bomber just burns his privates and goes to jail.
And third, security theater actually works. Oh, not as well as security steps that aren’t just theater, but all that theater does give the potential attacker some reason to think it won’t be easy. (Remember, the 9/11 attackers used things like utility knives that were allowed aboard planes at the time – they didn’t try to smuggle on guns or bombs either/)
So, you start with a small population willing to kill themselves for their particular variety of craziness, you show them repeated failures, and you put on a big show of all the security you’re doing. And now, remember, even these tests were working about one time in twenty, which means that some nut contemplating this also has to think there’s at least some chance he’ll be caught and instead of glorious martyrdom, will be spending the rest of his life in Florence, Colorado, calling some guy “Daddy.”
The net effect is that, for all TSA’s failures, the combination of these factors makes it much harder for a bomb attack to work, which makes them less likely to be tried.
That doesn’t mean it will never happen, of course; as everyone and his brother has said, they only have to get it right once. But for an everyday airline passenger, this is at the bottom of the list of worries.
Also read: TSA Explanation of Screening Failures Fails to Impress [3]
I’ve discovered a sure fire way to not worry about airline security. Don’t fly.
If this is true, didn’t the government make planes less safe by announcing this? Now security theater is shown to be a sham?
I don’t either. I go nowhere I cannot carry. I go nowhere I cannot escape germs floating in a closed capsule.
So in other words, TSA is a spectacular fraud, they know they are and everyone realizes that the overall stupidity of their existence is a very small factor in anything resembling “security.” And now that the cat’s out of the bag, the bad guys will rouse again, knowing they fact a 95% success rate, which is more information that the shoe and skivvies bombers had.
...Or fly when needed only.
HA HA, very snarky and all true. But I dread what it will take to wake the west up. That Boston Marathon bombing was not a nothing burger for those who were killed and maimed, including little children, if anyone cares.
And, you know, Fort Hood.
The Geller thing, I think we just got lucky.
The jihadis plot and plan every day in every way to do us harm.
But it seems like we don’t really care.
#Bring back our girls
#Give me a clue
The TSA is definitely security theater but there number one mission is a jobs program.
Look at any major airport in the USA. Are those really the best and brightest? Look at the airport workers. If you were to judge America by airports you would assume 95% of the nation is Somali.
“and put us into a war that” We were at war before 9/11. No one seemed to care.
This is what I do not understand. By announcing this, they told any potential terrorist that they have a 1 in 20 chance of get caught prior to getting on the plane. Those are pretty good odds.
I flew through Boston, Denver and Boise airports last week. I was thinking about this when I was going through security. I had 27 golf balls in my carry on bag. They were in round metal containers with ball markers, tees and a red marker in each package(customer presents). They looked at my bag for a while on the screen, but did not ask me to open my bag. This was in Boston on the way out west. I thought for sure they would ask me to open the bag. It would have given me more confidence in the TSA if they had.
So that means the TSA is no more effective that the pre-911 security, which was a wonder of of time and efficiency. All they cared for then is if someone else packed your bag.
Now we have many more highly paid low skilled workers, no more effective.
Kudos go to the flying public. Most of us are willing to get involved if the clown next to us attempts to light a fuse, for example. Or tackle a dude attacking a flight attendant.
The 9/11/2001 were brilliant, they knew there would be only one opportunity, they scaled they attack accordingly.
The TSA is just another government transfer program from those that produce to those that vote democrat.
Terrorists don't want to pay the baggage fees, and they know they can't get a full can of Coke on the plane.
-PJ
The millennium bombers were sent to bomb the check in line at LAX. They didn’t make it, but it was just dumb luck that they were searched when they came off the ferry from Canada. I expect that that type of attack is what will come next...hit a large line of international check in before security.
-PJ
Good point on the germs. Every time I fly I pick up some sort of respiratory infection. I remember flying from Mexico to California years ago when a Dept. Of Agriculture employee boarded our plane before takeoff and sprayed the cabin. After the plane took off, insects were dropping dead throughout the plane. The episode impressed me with the rapidity with which the poison circulated but also concerned me that there were no filters to impede the poison. One severely sick passenger with an airborne illness can do a world of hurt.
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