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Fast, Accurate Detection of Explosives
It doesn't come easy writes "Fast, highly reliable detection of residues that could indicate the presence of explosives and other hazardous materials inside luggage is now possible with technology under development at Purdue University. Recent improvements to a previously developed prototype have proven successful at detecting at the picogram (trillionths of a gram) level in lab tests, about 1,000 times less material than previously required. From the article: 'In the amount of time it requires to take a breath, this technology can sniff the surface of a piece of luggage and determine whether a hazardous substance is likely to be inside, based on residual chemicals brushed from the hand of someone loading the suitcase.'"
This is certain, just like the current TSA baggage screening, to be used to justify unlawful searches for drugs and other contraband. In fact, just like those baggage searches, this will undoubtedly become the #1 use of this technology, in fact I would bet good money that it is part of the intent of the people funding the development of this stuff. Just wait and see.
So what I'm saying is that it can be blasted, but the recovery time should be reasonable. That means that the airports will need to take some precautions like not having big fluffy couches around that will carry the "smell" for months.
Of course I am not a chemist, I just felt like having a Cliff Claven moment.
Storm
The last time I flew it was from a friend's outdoor wedding. Apparently the chemical sensors didn't like the outdoors-ness of my shoes, and because I was flying from scenic Colorado the security officers were used to this.
TSA Agent: "Been outdoors much? Hiked through the woods?"
Me: "Yes, some friends had a wedding in the middle of a field."
TSA Agent: "Thought so. Happens all the time."
They took my shoes and, after they failed to go boom, brought them back. I'm not bothered by this at all, but I wonder how many false positives people in these places have to deal with. Current detectors use neutron activation to detect the nitrogen in explosvies and, apparently, fertilizers used by the hotel grounds staff. Hopefully this will fix that particular problem.
Here's a possible countermeasure.
Construct your bomb. Shrink wrap it in plastic, taking care to get as little explosive residue on the outside as possible. Take it away from the bomb construction area, and wash the outside with strong soap etc. Give the result to another person.
They take it to somewhere clean of explosives residue, shrink wrap it in another layer, and carefully wash it, then hand it off to a third person who repeats the entire process again.
If you can reduce the explosives residues detectable by a factor of 100 or 1000 each time you do this, it can't take many iterations to reach undetectability - so long as the plastic is impervious to leakage. (Of course, then you need some way to program your hermetically sealed bomb. Also, you've forced many more people to become involved, which greatly increases the chance of betrayal before the bomb reaches its target.)
If this is practical, it must already have been tried to defeat drug-sniffing dogs. Does anyone have any ideas?
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
Interestingly enough, most people who deal with explosive, pyrotechnics, etc, are registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. My uncle does fireworks shows for Disney, and he often gets flagged by immigration whenever he enters or leaves the country. It typically means a bit longer delay than the unflagged person, but I imagine it would also give some measure of protection were his luggage to be detected to contain traces of explosives.
Good luck to explosives manufacturers - there go your chances of ever flying again!
Not just manufacturers. In Western Australia, and presumably other parts of the world, most mines operate on a fly-in fly-out basis. People work onsite for a fortnight, then fly back to the city for a week to live with their families. A fairly large proportion of those are exposed to explosives or their by-products pretty much constantly while they're on site.
The existing sniffers don't appear particularly sensitive. A few months ago I flew to site, worked with the shot crew for a day, including contact with ANFO emulsion and primers (TNT), then flew home. I expected the detector to pick it up, so I kept the work order on hand to explain the situation to security, but it didn't happen - not a peep.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
I work in a mine. Nitrate laden dust is generated each day during the blast, and that dust gets everywhere and on everyone. So I have explosive residue in my clothes, hair and (probably) luggage.
Guess what happens when my crew walks into the airport to fly into the minesite for our two week shift?
-AD
No kidding. My recent business trips have mostly been Pittsburgh-to-and-from-Toronto. Door to door is about seven hours if I drive, and six hours if I fly (compared to about four hours before 9/11). Any more BS added onto the airport security check, and they lose this passenger permanently.
I must look a little shady, because I *always* get 'randmonly selected' to be drug/bomb 'sniffed' at airports getting swabbed and waiting for a machine to go beep.
The thing is i work in a chemical lab and often handle ammonium nitrate (plant tissue cell culture, great ingredient for pipe bombs i am lead to believe) yet have never had the machine go haywire at me. I always mention this to the nice security guys before the test so i hope they wont shoot first if it ever does go beep beep beep beep...
Interesting point about the nitro glycerine too...
Has it ever occurred to you that the war on terror's refined capacities to detect explosives could also be used to suppress a "rebellious" majority population? (that is to say, to enforce a dictatorship in the USA?)
Just pointing out that the Bush administration has made more war against civil liberties, privacy and personal freedoms than any administration in my lifetime, and that Bush's election really looked like it was tampered, and that the 911 incident LOOKS ALOT LIKE HITLER'S RISE TO POWER. (read about the BURNING OF THE REICHSTAG)
http://www.shoaheducation.com/reichstag.html
The patriot act is just that -- a bunch of right wing police state warmongers taking away our privacy and then ACTING as if they were patriots in the process. That is to say, the patriot act is just that: an ACT.
And terror suppression in Iraq would also train the American military to suppress pro freedom American partisans.
To be honest, the term "homeland security" just makes the country feel less like my own home. It has a vague nuerolinguistic programming sound to it. It sounds antiforeign and hyperguarded. For starters, no American uses the term "homeland."
I really don't like bombs, but if the govt turns against us then those bombs detected with the new tech would just be the "friendly" ones.
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." -Jesus Christ The Lord's Prayer
The local law enforcment started putting drug sniffing dogs in the major train stations here (A few places around Australia). The resulting protest had people squirting passers by (and walkways so people would walk through it) with bong water thus contaminating everyone there with dog-detectable levels of drugs...
Not that i condone drug use, but that type of attack obviously does not require all of one's brain cells...
>I thought carrying an unloaded pistol in your checked baggage was legal anyway.
It depends on your destination, as always.
You cannot fly into Massachussetts or DC, for instance. But I routinely take firearms on trips from Arizona to Oregon. There's a little drill at the baggage check, where you have to say certain words verbatim; the weapon has to be unloaded in a locked container, and any ammo has to be in the packaging as it came from the factory and also locked.
There's always a little stressful situation at the counter where you have to take the gun out of the box, show them it's unloaded (open the revolver, rack the slide, etc.). Invariably, there's someone in line behind me that freaks out on this.
Then you have to carry your bag to a special X-Ray line, and tell the X-Ray guy what's in there. They make sure you have the only key.
At the destination, nobody ever seems to care, or know, what's in the suitcase, and rifle cases are always just piled with the golf bags.
But there's nothing to it. Get this -- in AZ, it's perfectly legal to wear a pistol openly in a holster on your hip, in the airport, all the way to the first checkpoint (but absolutely not past it!).
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Many airports are carpeted, at least in some areas, and cleaning up moving walkways is probably not that easy either, especially the rubber-tread ones. Then there's the luggage rack on the parking shuttle busses... If you've got a super-sensitive machine, and somebody wanted to overload it, there are way too many opportunities.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Great, so the system can detect farmers and gardeners at longer ranges?
The UK/France Channel Tunnel security checks use guards with cotton gloves to wipe around the inside of passengers' cars. The gloves are then analysed by computer- this means a complete explosives search can be done in two minutes, rather than having to rip the car's body panels apart. Unfortunately, this has a huge false positive rate for anyone who's been in contact with fertilizers; my uncle, who is a keen gardener, got questioned at the end of an SMG for quite a while before he mentioned that he'd been carrying bags of nitrate fertilzer in his trunk just a few days prior.
Whilst that's inconvenient for gardeners and farmers, its also a safety risk for the rest of the passengers; after all, it gives a convenient alibi for saboteurs. I certainly wouldn't want to board a train in the same carriage as the Falls Road Allotment Society.
These toys provide useful indicators of where to concentrate resources on, but they should never replace good old fashioned trained security staff.
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
I had a discussion long ago with a person that had a great idea. If you was going to fly, ALL lugage was shipped by truck a few days in advance. When you arrived to get on the plane, you are lead to a room, stripped of all clothes ran thru a "decontamination room" and given a disposable jump suit. Everyone flew in these jumpsuits with no other items allowed on the plane. (I think flying naked may be even more secure but the view would be SCARY!!) but with all lugage shoes and clothes shipped on ground based trucks and every passanger flying without even their own clothes, there would be safty in the air. Course I would prefeer even fewer planes in the sky (I like to watch the stars, not planes at night.)
I'm told you are what you eat, does that mean I can be you by tomorrow with some A1?