Airport Security May Be Federalized

ABC News | 9/12/01

[Snidely Whiplash]

Just watching ABC News now...their correspondent in Seattle just said that the airlines are discussing with the FAA the possibility of federalizing airport security nationwide.

The reasoning is that since airport security has now become a national security matter, the federal government should take over, placing armed, uniformed officers at airports nationwide.

I dunno. Maybe I could get behind this.

Snidely

[Dan from Michigan]

I thought it was federalized.

[dfwgator]

Considering that we are at war, this seems reasonable.

[GhostSoldier]

Our federal armed forces at all airports...

Count me out on that.

[garyhope]

Almost anything could be better than the pathetic, illiterate bozos that masquerade as "security" now.

[sinkspur]

Have you seen the gum-chewing, minimum-wage, affirmative-action, shoe-size IQ blatherskites manning the security check-ins at airports?

ANYTHING would be better than these people.

[nm_james]

or armed CITIZENS on the planes.

[Voltage]

I'll feel a lot better when the pilots start packing 9 mm's!

[Pete53]

Maybe its time to get serious and quit worrying about offending the sorry bastards?

[Youngster75]

and I've got a flight scheduled for home on Friday. what's my chance of that happening?

[Demidog]

I predicted this in the A.M. I was told I was nuts for predicting it. Nobody told me I was nuts for saying that virtually everyone would embrace further encroachments on their liberties.

None of what is being suggested would have prevented this tragedy. The Trade Center Towers did not collapse because the security at airports was lax.

The terrorists were successful because once on the plane, there was absolutely no resistence and no real means for the flight attendents or passengers to defend themselves. The terrorists knew this before hand. Our policy of denying people the right to self-defense was what destroyed any chance that this heinous crime would be prevented.

Our policy of denying people the right to self-defense was what destroyed any chance that this heinous crime would be prevented. Perhaps the passengers could have beat the razor blade wielding terrorists with their seat cushons and cell phones.

[CheneyChick]

You should be ok. My sweetie was supposed to come home tonite.... He was able to re-schedule the flight for tomorrow afternoon, but airline said to call back in the a.m. to make sure; back up plan is Amtrak.

[wafflehouse]

BINGO!
you nailed that one one the head..
oh sure, i want armed federal police at every airport..
the surest way to make something unbelievably expensive and totally useless is to federalize it.
why not? hell, why not have federal police everywhere, and just get rid of local authorities altogether..
nope, this sounds mighty bad...

[CheneyChick]

Sounds reasonable to me. The local airport here is pathetic. I don't even think "Security" has command of the English language.

[Gracey]

How old are you?

[MPB]

Our policy of denying people the right to self-defense was what destroyed any chance that this heinous crime would be prevented. Perhaps the passengers could have beat the razor blade wielding terrorists with their seat cushons and cell phones.

Didn't you know? You're not allowed to use cell phones on planes.

Seriously though, I think the best suggestions I've heard, short of letting passengers "carry" while on board, is to re-institute the sky marshalls program.

Not only would this help prevent such hijacking, but recall the # of "air rage" incidents we have each year, or the case in which passengers accidentally killed another passenger who was freaking out and trying to get into the cockpit (that guy was probably hopped up on something or other, but now, maybe he was a trained suicide bomber armed with a box knife...)

And with reports that *maybe* the crash in near Pittsburgh was a result of being shot down, is it just *maybe* possible that TWA 800 was hijacked, they intended to crash into a populated area, and was intentionally downed by our military and then hushed up in order to maintain confidence in our lax security?</tin foil hat>

[Demidog]

Seriously though, I think the best suggestions I've heard, short of letting passengers "carry" while on board, is to re-institute the sky marshalls program.

Then you're simply federalizing protection for the passengers. And who will pay for this? You and I. Whether or not we decide to travel by plane. Absurd.

The only answer to this is to stop encroaching on our liberties.

It must be noted that guns won't stop people from smuggling bombs on board.

It must also be noted that the Federal government completely failed to protect a single life today. So why would I trust them to save lives on other days?

[supercat]

And with reports that *maybe* the crash in near Pittsburgh was a result of being shot down, is it just *maybe* possible that TWA 800 was hijacked, they intended to crash into a populated area, and was intentionally downed by our military and then hushed up in order to maintain confidence in our lax security?

My current working theory is that someone on board found out what the terrorists were up to and deliberately drove the plane into the ground to prevent the terrorists from flying it to their intended destination.