Weighing in on the TSA
I've flown a couple of times since 9/11 - from business day-trips to DC (TSA does *not* know how to handle RSA SecureID tokens) to days-long flights to Florida with 7 month-old in tow. I've been "lucky", in that I've been able to go through the regular metal detectors without too much problem. Others, not so much.
Disclaimer:
Let me start by saying that, yes, I work in security, and am trained in the "test-and-potentially-break this to see where the security is weak" skillset. And I play games where my role is to be the scoundrel, to find the way around the obvious roadblocks. So, maybe I'm a little biased. But the TSA security, currently, is a joke. A bad, really-not-funny joke, at that.
Nothing against the TSA...
Before I go any further, let me state for the record that I don't hold anything against the TSA workers in general. Sure, there's some serious jerks working there, but for the most part, they're just folks trying to do a job, and probably are doing their best not to think *too* deeply about the implications of that job. After all, they need to be able to sleep at night, keep their ulcers under control, etc. I get it. Tough economy and all, they're (for the most part) not out to be a pain in the ass, just trying to get their job done and do their part in (hopefully) keeping the country safe.
...but they're not effective
Thing is - they really aren't, sadly. What they're doing is something that's referred to (in the security biz) as "security theater" - a song and dance designed to make it *look* like they're doing something. It happens as a reaction to traumatic events all the time (remember, I used to be an EMT as well) - people feel the need to do *something*, to be visually reassured that Things Are Being Done To Correct The Situation. This is why you see cops swarming crime scenes - sure, some of them are actually doing something important, but some of them are there just to reassure people. That why we saw National Guard members posted at some airports, in full gear, carrying their rifles... unloaded.
Breaching the old security
Breaching airport security is not as hard as some people might think. The "printed boarding pass" issue still exists, well over a year since it was publicly talked about. They've got random ID checks, but anybody with a little skill at sleight of hand could deal with those without breaking a sweat. Metal detectors are easily bypassed by non-metal stuff - either plastic knives, or doing the ceramic gun thing like in "In the Line of Fire". Getting past the "old way" of airport security, even at post-9/11 levels, wasn't too rough. (At least, post-9/11, the screeners were consistently vigilant.) So, TSA is moving on to imaging machines and pat-downs.
It's not a grope, it's a "freedom pat"
Tool #1 is the "enhanced pat down", which is to say, free-for-all groping. I don't care if you are wearing gloves (doctor thing ain't my fetish), I'm not looking to be fondled by some TSA agent (unless Kate Beckinsale starts working for the TSA, and even then....) I've heard plenty of apologetics about "certain agents not following protocols correctly", but, let's face it. Folks cut corners all the time, so this stuff is going to happen, and keep happening. The agents aren't going to say "I'm going to touch you here now" for every grope and tickle - they're going to say it once, and then let their hands do the walking. Which, while embarrassing and uncomfortable for me, is downright traumatic for others. I'm a guy, I can get away with just growling "Don't touch my junk" - someone did that to my SO, or worse, my child? I'd be coming over the divider at them. There's just too many cases of what is clearly sexual assault to brush this off - and whether it's accidental or some plan to encourage people to use the scanners is irrelevant. It needs to stop.
Backscatter blues
Health issues aside (and I'm not so certain that these things really are operating at 1/100th of the power of a dental X-ray), these things are iffy. Protocol says the images aren't saved - but there's documented cases where the images are indeed saved, and have been released. Honestly, if someone wants to make backscatter porn of yours truly, I'm not going to be terribly offended (I'm more apt to think they'd need mental help), but I can easily see how someone else would have a problem with that. There's software changes that can make them better (use a cartoon body, for instance), but that's a change being bolted-on, after the fact. Things like that should've been part of the system since day one.
But these scanners - they only get stuff on the outside. They get through your clothes, get a great view of your nekkid body... but that's as far as they go. Has the TSA not talked with the DEA any? Hasn't some Customs official pointed out that folks can easily swallow stuff? Sure, we've made it difficult to smuggle in a shoe bomb (take off your shoes) or an underwear bomb (let me grope you, or scan your pants), but when someone jams a half a pound of C4 up their bum, they'll be able to walk right through security.
And I'm not even that inventive
If I can come up with a couple of ways, off the top of my head, of sneaking stuff into a plane, how's about the folks who do it for real, who've been trained, and have access to the really cool stuff? Rafi Sela, an Israeli airport security expert, was quoted as saying "I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747." And if you're not looking to blow it up? Remember that our Special Forces guys are trained to kill with improvised weapons. So even if you might not be able to sneak an ASP baton on a plain, a couple of metal ball-point pens, in the right hands, are downright deadly.
Closing the barn door after the cows have already left
Okay, so, you say you don't want someone to hijack a plane, or bomb it. Good idea. What's the best way? Why, you look at what they did, and stop them from doing that again, right? To some extent, yes... but not to the exclusion of all others. Someone breaks the lock on your door, and robs your apartment, replacing it with a bank-vault door is overkill - especially if your windows are still easy to break in to. Make something difficult, and folks will simply change their tactics, shift to something easier. We could spent 800 gazillion dollars making air travel 100% safe... at which point the terrorists would just go after trains. Or the water supply. Or any of a hundred other potential targets.
So what does work?
There's several things that do work. First, the passengers are alert, wary, and interested in their own survival. They understand that they're pretty much on their own, so any sort of hijacking attempt is likely going to end with the hijackers getting mobbed. A probably messy scenario, but I think everyone knows passengers won't go meekly any more.
Reinforcing cockpit doors is a good idea. Train the pilots to lock themselves in and simply don't let anyone in. Making the cockpits entirely separate has its uses too, though that's a redesign issue.
And for bomb detecting? Studies have shown that the best way to detect a bomb is the old-fashioned way - bring in the sniffing dogs. That said, there are other machines to test for explosive residue, which isn't easy to hide.
But, mostly, what we need is more intelligence. The TSA screening has not stopped any of the recent attempts. Either people got stuff past the TSA, and the plot failed (passengers jumped them, the bomb was a dud, etc), or the investigative function (CIA, FBI, etc) caught wind of things. Adding something like the Israeli method of behavior analysis (which has worked great for the Israelis) seems like a good method too.
But think about the children!
Yes, hijackings are bad. They're deadly, traumatizing events. 9/11 rocked this country to its core, left us wounded in a way that is going to take a long time to recover from. If only because it shattered our illusions of invulnerability.
But in terms of actual deaths? We lose more people from MRSA infections in a single year than we've lost to terrorism in the past decade (counting US combat deaths). That's not to demean or diminish any of these deaths in any way, but our reactions are disproportionate because they're sensational. It's different, it catches our attentions and our fears, so we react (see the above comments about "Things Are Being Done To Correct The Situation") - but things that are commonplace, yet far more deadly (say DWI-related deaths), are given resoundingly less attention. It is, sadly, human nature to fixate on the abnormal... but we need to be intelligent about things, to hold our emotions in check and actually review our responses to tragic events. Because if we respond poorly - and take a "stay the course" approach that continues to commit time/effort/resources to a bad plan - then we only compound the problem.
9/11 was a tragedy - the largest of my life (and the lives of most of the people I know), and it probably will never be surpassed (thankfully). And I think I can safely say that nobody really wants to make things worse, that they want to make things better and safer for everyone. But the best way to go about that is to stay calm, to review what we're doing (on many levels), and be intelligent about our responses. Financial maneuvering, partisan politics, and fear-mongering have no place in these discussions, lest we tear ourselves apart - which would make our own selves a far greater threat than the terrorists ever could be.
Disclaimer:
Let me start by saying that, yes, I work in security, and am trained in the "test-and-potentially-break this to see where the security is weak" skillset. And I play games where my role is to be the scoundrel, to find the way around the obvious roadblocks. So, maybe I'm a little biased. But the TSA security, currently, is a joke. A bad, really-not-funny joke, at that.
Nothing against the TSA...
Before I go any further, let me state for the record that I don't hold anything against the TSA workers in general. Sure, there's some serious jerks working there, but for the most part, they're just folks trying to do a job, and probably are doing their best not to think *too* deeply about the implications of that job. After all, they need to be able to sleep at night, keep their ulcers under control, etc. I get it. Tough economy and all, they're (for the most part) not out to be a pain in the ass, just trying to get their job done and do their part in (hopefully) keeping the country safe.
...but they're not effective
Thing is - they really aren't, sadly. What they're doing is something that's referred to (in the security biz) as "security theater" - a song and dance designed to make it *look* like they're doing something. It happens as a reaction to traumatic events all the time (remember, I used to be an EMT as well) - people feel the need to do *something*, to be visually reassured that Things Are Being Done To Correct The Situation. This is why you see cops swarming crime scenes - sure, some of them are actually doing something important, but some of them are there just to reassure people. That why we saw National Guard members posted at some airports, in full gear, carrying their rifles... unloaded.
Breaching the old security
Breaching airport security is not as hard as some people might think. The "printed boarding pass" issue still exists, well over a year since it was publicly talked about. They've got random ID checks, but anybody with a little skill at sleight of hand could deal with those without breaking a sweat. Metal detectors are easily bypassed by non-metal stuff - either plastic knives, or doing the ceramic gun thing like in "In the Line of Fire". Getting past the "old way" of airport security, even at post-9/11 levels, wasn't too rough. (At least, post-9/11, the screeners were consistently vigilant.) So, TSA is moving on to imaging machines and pat-downs.
It's not a grope, it's a "freedom pat"
Tool #1 is the "enhanced pat down", which is to say, free-for-all groping. I don't care if you are wearing gloves (doctor thing ain't my fetish), I'm not looking to be fondled by some TSA agent (unless Kate Beckinsale starts working for the TSA, and even then....) I've heard plenty of apologetics about "certain agents not following protocols correctly", but, let's face it. Folks cut corners all the time, so this stuff is going to happen, and keep happening. The agents aren't going to say "I'm going to touch you here now" for every grope and tickle - they're going to say it once, and then let their hands do the walking. Which, while embarrassing and uncomfortable for me, is downright traumatic for others. I'm a guy, I can get away with just growling "Don't touch my junk" - someone did that to my SO, or worse, my child? I'd be coming over the divider at them. There's just too many cases of what is clearly sexual assault to brush this off - and whether it's accidental or some plan to encourage people to use the scanners is irrelevant. It needs to stop.
Backscatter blues
Health issues aside (and I'm not so certain that these things really are operating at 1/100th of the power of a dental X-ray), these things are iffy. Protocol says the images aren't saved - but there's documented cases where the images are indeed saved, and have been released. Honestly, if someone wants to make backscatter porn of yours truly, I'm not going to be terribly offended (I'm more apt to think they'd need mental help), but I can easily see how someone else would have a problem with that. There's software changes that can make them better (use a cartoon body, for instance), but that's a change being bolted-on, after the fact. Things like that should've been part of the system since day one.
But these scanners - they only get stuff on the outside. They get through your clothes, get a great view of your nekkid body... but that's as far as they go. Has the TSA not talked with the DEA any? Hasn't some Customs official pointed out that folks can easily swallow stuff? Sure, we've made it difficult to smuggle in a shoe bomb (take off your shoes) or an underwear bomb (let me grope you, or scan your pants), but when someone jams a half a pound of C4 up their bum, they'll be able to walk right through security.
And I'm not even that inventive
If I can come up with a couple of ways, off the top of my head, of sneaking stuff into a plane, how's about the folks who do it for real, who've been trained, and have access to the really cool stuff? Rafi Sela, an Israeli airport security expert, was quoted as saying "I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747." And if you're not looking to blow it up? Remember that our Special Forces guys are trained to kill with improvised weapons. So even if you might not be able to sneak an ASP baton on a plain, a couple of metal ball-point pens, in the right hands, are downright deadly.
Closing the barn door after the cows have already left
Okay, so, you say you don't want someone to hijack a plane, or bomb it. Good idea. What's the best way? Why, you look at what they did, and stop them from doing that again, right? To some extent, yes... but not to the exclusion of all others. Someone breaks the lock on your door, and robs your apartment, replacing it with a bank-vault door is overkill - especially if your windows are still easy to break in to. Make something difficult, and folks will simply change their tactics, shift to something easier. We could spent 800 gazillion dollars making air travel 100% safe... at which point the terrorists would just go after trains. Or the water supply. Or any of a hundred other potential targets.
So what does work?
There's several things that do work. First, the passengers are alert, wary, and interested in their own survival. They understand that they're pretty much on their own, so any sort of hijacking attempt is likely going to end with the hijackers getting mobbed. A probably messy scenario, but I think everyone knows passengers won't go meekly any more.
Reinforcing cockpit doors is a good idea. Train the pilots to lock themselves in and simply don't let anyone in. Making the cockpits entirely separate has its uses too, though that's a redesign issue.
And for bomb detecting? Studies have shown that the best way to detect a bomb is the old-fashioned way - bring in the sniffing dogs. That said, there are other machines to test for explosive residue, which isn't easy to hide.
But, mostly, what we need is more intelligence. The TSA screening has not stopped any of the recent attempts. Either people got stuff past the TSA, and the plot failed (passengers jumped them, the bomb was a dud, etc), or the investigative function (CIA, FBI, etc) caught wind of things. Adding something like the Israeli method of behavior analysis (which has worked great for the Israelis) seems like a good method too.
But think about the children!
Yes, hijackings are bad. They're deadly, traumatizing events. 9/11 rocked this country to its core, left us wounded in a way that is going to take a long time to recover from. If only because it shattered our illusions of invulnerability.
But in terms of actual deaths? We lose more people from MRSA infections in a single year than we've lost to terrorism in the past decade (counting US combat deaths). That's not to demean or diminish any of these deaths in any way, but our reactions are disproportionate because they're sensational. It's different, it catches our attentions and our fears, so we react (see the above comments about "Things Are Being Done To Correct The Situation") - but things that are commonplace, yet far more deadly (say DWI-related deaths), are given resoundingly less attention. It is, sadly, human nature to fixate on the abnormal... but we need to be intelligent about things, to hold our emotions in check and actually review our responses to tragic events. Because if we respond poorly - and take a "stay the course" approach that continues to commit time/effort/resources to a bad plan - then we only compound the problem.
9/11 was a tragedy - the largest of my life (and the lives of most of the people I know), and it probably will never be surpassed (thankfully). And I think I can safely say that nobody really wants to make things worse, that they want to make things better and safer for everyone. But the best way to go about that is to stay calm, to review what we're doing (on many levels), and be intelligent about our responses. Financial maneuvering, partisan politics, and fear-mongering have no place in these discussions, lest we tear ourselves apart - which would make our own selves a far greater threat than the terrorists ever could be.