Two years ago I wrote "Homeland Security seems to have a fetish about airports and airplanes. Yet, more of us travel to work every day by car, bus and train than fly around the world. Each day more of us are in office buildings than airport terminals."
Although DHS is focused on airports, they are not doing a very good job as an article by Jeffrey Goldberg in this month's Atlantic clearly shows. Goldberg claims to have passed through security with a vast number of prohibited articles - pocketknives, matches, cigarette lighters, nail clippers, box cutters. Once he wore a device, called"Beerbelly", in which he could have transported 80 ounces of any liquid. He brought to the plane a bottle labeled "Saline Solution"; again, it could have been something nasty.
The article relies mainly on work done by Bruce Schneier, a well-known and respected security maven. Schneier is able to produce on his PC boarding passes that pass muster with DHS inspectors. Using steel epoxy glue, cardboard and a metal spoon, he can 'build' a knife in the plane's bathroom. Schneier's basic argument is that the precautions DHS has put in place would foil stupid terrorists, not smart ones.
Remind me how much are we spending on 'making our airports safe'
1 comment:
Wow, this was really interesting.
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