Slashdot Mirror
Defending The Skies Against Congress And The Elderly
theodp writes "After watching a burly airport screener search her lymphoma-stricken father, forcing the frail and faltering 78-year-old to hand over his oxygen meter, stand at attention with arms spread for a wand search, take off the Velcro strap shoes that he'd struggled to put on, and strain to keep his balance as his belt was tugged repeatedly, a Newsweek columnist wonders: have we lost our common sense when it comes to passenger screening?" An anonymous reader writes "CNN reported that Kennedy wasn't alone in being listed in the airport watch list as reported in a Slashdot article. Rep. John Lewis, D - Georgia, a nine-term congressman, has been stopped many times because his name appeared on an airline watch list as told to Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on border security. He contacted the Department of Transportation, the Department of Homeland Security and executives at various airlines in an effort to get his name off the list, but failed. Instead, he received a letter from the TSA indicating he has cleared an identity check with the agency even though he might still be subject to extra security checks."
Here's a link
linky link
[sig]www.masterslate.org[/sig]
Actually, I have heard that this was done due to safety concerns, as the airlines have the right to refuse service to anyone who would be "unable to aid in their own evacuation from the aircraft". This would be stated in the Terms of Carriage (a document that no one reads, much like a EULA). This is a safety issue, and although it may seem insensitive, there is a clear and good reason for it.
Ever heard of a company called, "Binladin Brothers for Contracting and Industry"? They're one of the largest corporations in Saudi Arabia. (Yes, the same Saudi Arabia that provides ~25% of the world's oil.) It just so happens that this corporation is owned by Osama Bin Laden's family. In fact, his family has strong ties to the Saudi Royal Family.
And while Osama was "living in a single-room rain-soaked mud-house with 8 family members and watching them die of hunger" (yeah, right), it seems he was also going to bars and nightclubs in Lebanon. In fact, "poor old Osama" seems to have inherited somewhere between 25-300 MILLION US DOLLARS after his father's death.
Poor Osama Bin Laden. He was so starved, hungry, and tired of death, that he asked the friendly US troops for help. Oh wait, no he didn't. He called them "infidels" and tried to kill every one of them in the name of Allah.
Don't believe me? Try reading for yourself. Maybe you'll learn something.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I recently took a trip to Scotland. On the return leg the woman at the check-in desk was convinced that I had already check in. I told her repeatedly no, that I had not check in. It turned out that they had mistakenly checked someone else in as me (both our last names have 'Van' in them, I commonly have this problem, everyone who is Van* is lumped together in the dim-witted minds that run the world's bureaucracies)
Eventually they sort out the problem, and my wife and I board the plane. We find our seats and get comfortable (well, as comfortable as one can be with 19 inches of leg room). A few minutes later a women stops at our row, and claims we are sitting in her seats. I profer my boarding pass, which shows me in the proper seat, she looks at hers - it has my name on it!
Now think about this. We were stopped and our IDs compared to our boarding passes at no less than 3 check points in the airport. This woman managed to get on the airplane with a boarding pass that not only didn't have her name on it, it had an obviously male name on it. She was quite obviously not male.
The entire system is badly broken. In my situation at least three different employees utterly failed to perform the most basic component of their job - validating ID. I have absolutely no confidence in our airline security systems. If they ever catch someone in the act, it will be purely accidental. My sole consolation is that, as others in the thread have noted, the 'evil-doers' of the world have most likely abandonned hijacking as means to whatever nefarious ends they seek, as the passengers are no longer likely to be so compliant as they were pre-9/11.
-josh