Posted on 08/16/2006 4:30:58 AM PDT by yoe
Members of Congress and the commentariat have consistently complained that airline passenger screening is only 80% effective in detecting handguns, knives and box-cutters. They demand that we make a significant improvement. But they have it backwards. Instead of a system that is more effective at detecting these unauthorized items, a system that is less so will, counterintuitively, make our airlines more secure. A majority of security experts agree that the most serious threat involving our transportation system is a 9/11 scenario, with hijackers using a passenger airliner as an instrument of destruction. Yet there is also general agreement that the multiple security layers currently in place -- passenger screening (albeit less than perfect), reinforced cockpit doors, armed sky marshals and pilots, in addition to the likelihood of passenger resistance if a plane is taken over in midair -- have all but eliminated a repeat of 9/11.
Since the costs, economic and otherwise, of bringing our 80%-effective screening system up to 100% would be enormous, we need to reduce the focus on handguns, knives and box-cutters. Why? Even suicide-bombers want better than one-in-five odds of smuggling these items on board; and they know their chances of pulling off a 9/11-style attack are even worse. Achieving a 100% effective screening system against 9/11 weaponry would require the banning of all carry-on luggage and require a strip search of all passengers, a notion as unnecessary as it is ridiculous. Indeed, even if our current system were only 50% effective, it would still be enough to avoid a 9/11 reprise. Holding airport security hostage to this scenario is a serious mistake.
[snip] The head of the Transportation Security Administration, Kip Hawley, has been trying to move TSA's focus to this new threat since he took office last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Remove everyones clothes, perform a cavity search, x-ray everyone and don't allow carry-on luggage.
Then the terrorists will place a bomb in the checked luggage with a timer or barometric switch....
Profile, profile, profile........
We better start focusing on people who show signs of high stress and anxiety as in guilt or fear. Nothing else will really do it.
Wow, someone's finally doing some actual thinking about this. Yes, bombs are the threat.
Don't worry. I'm sure they'll get fired.
Israel profiles and it works.
You pay to fly so it is the airlines rules that should apply. If Continental wants to profile, it is their right to do so.
It'll have to be something the sniffers can't detect. Or be checked at a smaller airport that has no sniffers, and be well, or at least somewhat, disguised.
Vacuum seal it in a thick walled plastic bag that you carefully wash down afterwards......no sniffer will detect it....You can buy them for $100 at any retail kitchen supply store.....
Technology is easy to defeat if you know what it is looking for......
Heavy duty Zytel (extremely hard plastic) combat knifes and battle axes will easily pass through security if taped to your back or chest.....Razor sharp and lethal....
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