Posted on 04/24/2002 8:37:41 AM PDT by Freebird Forever
Random checks at airport gates, which have delayed grandmothers in wheelchairs and forced a congressman to drop his pants, do not bolster security, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Monday.
``We should do a better job of identifying people getting on the planes, and [separate] the low-risk to no-risk passengers,'' he said.
Since Sept. 11, security officers randomly select passengers to search for weapons.
Regular fliers complain that people who obviously are not terrorists must endure sometimes humiliating searches of their carry-on baggage. Some are forced to remove their shoes and have their bodies examined by guards with electronic wands.
In January, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., the 46-year veteran House member, was forced to drop his pants in a back room at Washington's Reagan National Airport because his steel hip joint, knee brace, and surgically implanted ankle pins kept setting off an alarm.
Former Vice President Dan Quayle had his carry-on baggage searched until his toenail clippers were confiscated.
Even Transportation Secretary Norman Maneta was delayed until guards found a metal Altoids box that set off the buzzer.
Proponents of the searches say these incidents prove that airport security does not racially profile passengers for checks.
But Ridge insisted that aside from Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the threat from ``citizen terrorists'' is so small that security should be aimed at foreign nationals.
``If we're going to spend billions on people and technology, let's focus on identifying the high risks,'' he said.
Paul Turk, a spokesman for the new Transportation Security Administration, which is assuming airport security from the airlines, said he ``would not argue'' with Ridge about the effectiveness of random searches.
But until some new procedure is approved, he said, they will continue.
About 20 percent of the flying public make about half of all flights in the United States, Ridge said.
These frequent fliers could supply their residential, employment and criminal history to apply for a ``Trusted Traveler Card'' exempting them from random searches.
Biometric information, such as fingerprints, facial scan or an iris scan, would be embedded into the card so it could be checked at the airport gate for forgery or theft.
David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said many fliers would welcome such a card if it would allow them to reduce the uncertainty of the wait to get to their flights.
``We need a way to make system more efficient,'' he said. ``It would save time and help allocate security personnel to where they are needed.''
John Magaw, chief of the Transportation Security Administration, has said he will support a Trusted Travelers Card only if he is convinced it positively identifies the carrier and the background information is accurate.
So far, no one at the Department of Transportation has determined how much it would cost, who would pay for it and who would conduct the background checks, Turk said.
To civil libertarians, a Trusted Traveler Card has many pitfalls.
``It does not bring any more security, and it would sacrifice a great deal of privacy,'' said Katie Corrigan, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
So many people would want it, she said, that it would become a ``de facto national identity card.''
``We think it's a false hope that by probing into our private lives, people could tell what is in our hearts and minds,'' she said.
``A trusted passenger card will tell you what that individual has been up to until now, but not what he is going to do when he gets on the plane.''
I think I will stick with the random searches, rather than walk around with all my personal information on a "human pet tag." These silly cards wouldn't have stopped the terrorists of 9/11. Most of them were frequent flyers with OK'd IDs in the first place.
There is no evidence that they intend to stop.
--Boris
Ridge is a powerless figurehead.
Here are some things that "can be done about the situation":
- Begin mass deportations of enemy aliens.
- Seal the borders.
- Issue no new visas to any citizen of a terrorist state.
- Stop dithering and really begin a war on terror, as opposed to a war against Afghanistan.
That would be a nice start.
Random searches and the rest of the security BS nearly caused my elderly mother a heart attack last time she came to visit. I doubt she'll ever be back to see me again.
There is a mountian of data the feds and others have about me. The only difference a positive ID will make is that they will be able to tell that my physical body matches the information they already have. Like they couldn't eventually figure that out anyway.
They've already logged my name as traveling in the airlines computers. My traveling privacy has already been abridged. An ID makes absolutely no difference, except I don't have to go through the usual anal exam to get on the plane.
I'll take the ID.
As for searches stopping 9/11. NOTHING will stop what they did on 9/11. You can kill someone with your fingers. The only thing that can bring safety is secure cockpits. And an ironclad policy that the aircrew doesn't come out no matter what happens in back. Problem solved.
Gee, Tom, 'ya think? No wonder you were a Governor, you're a real smart man.
So, is it Ridge with no balls, or is it GW with no balls? Gotta be one or the other.
Nobody would force you to get a trusted travler card, if you object then you can stand in line and be searched.
Hey, it could have been worse. Dingell could have been traveling with Barney Frank.....
Tom's statements plus that today DC National (Reagan) jets are allowed to follow the Potomac again means that some sanity is entering the system. Maybe the bills of the foolish, willy-nilly knee-jerk post-911 chicken-little promises are coming due and cash is tight so hard reality is finally being heard!
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