In the Skies, Terror in Disguise?
One of the first things I witnessed the day after September 11, 2001 was a rush to implement a rash of new security enhancements that did little or nothing to enhance security. What they did instead was make it significantly more difficult for average Americans go about their normal pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.
Now we find ourselves are confronted with a systemic failure of our security net to catch a wannabe plane bomber, and instead of correcting the embarrassingly obvious lapses, the response is a hysterical (and I don’t mean funny) list of indignities inflicted on the flying public, all of dubious value.
Passengers on many flights were banned from opening overhead bins, or going to the bathroom during the last hour of the flight, according to the AP. Some were told they couldn’t listen to iPods, or even write Christmas cards. On one transatlantic flight the in-flight entertainment system was turned off, presumably so the channel that tracks the plane’s location would not be seen by would-be terrorists. On another flight passengers were required to move blankets from their laps so that their hands would be visible during the final hour. “I can’t see what kind of difference that would make. If it’s an eight hour flight they could still have seven hours to blow up the plane if that’s what they want to do,” one passenger told the AP. Good point. Maybe he should work for the TSA.
Let’s review what actually went wrong here. On Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian whose father had warned the U.S. embassy that he was becoming “radicalized,” and who had recently spent time in Yemen, was able put an explosive device in his underwear and board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The bomb, estimated to be powerful enough to blow a hole in the plane, apparently failed to work as designed, allowing aggressive action by other passengers to avert disaster.
Homeland Security Chief Janet Nepolitano initially said, “the system worked,” before “revising and extending” her remarks. Now all the talk is about employing “full body scan” x-ray devices which produce a anatomically accurate image of your naked body before you can board a plane. (I’ve never spent much time on a nude beach, but I am told after a short period of adjustment the curiosity factor fades, so maybe when this becomes SOP, we’ll all be used to having to bare all to strangers. Heck, maybe some enterprising airline will offer nude flights, for which passengers will be rewarded with the luxury of being able to eat, listen to music, watch the in-flight entertainment system, and answer the call of nature.)
But seriously, here was a man who should have been on the terrorist watch list, who bought his one-way ticket for cash, and had no luggage, but yet apparently did not get any extra attention upon departing Amsterdam. Hello??? And the response is to force of passengers squirm in their seats with no access to bathroom facilities while banning their iPods? Not to mention the prospect of digital strip searches.
Thank goodness the plot to blow up the plane failed. But when terrorists can provoke hapless bureaucrats to invoke senseless security rules that offer dubious protection while inflicting maximum distress on the traveling public, the terrorists win.
How about some common sense? And accountability?
(polls)
Tags: Airline Security, Full Bosy Scans, Naked, Nude, Plane Bomber, Terror, TSA, Yemen
