Bruce Schneier On Airport Security

the4thdimension writes "Bruce Schneier has an opinion piece on CNN this morning that illustrates his view on airport security. Given that he has several books on security, his opinion carries some weight. In the article, Bruce discusses the rarity of terrorism, the pitfalls of security theater, and the actual difficulty surrounding improving security. What are your thoughts? Do you think that we can actually make air travel (and any other kind of travel, for that matter) truly secure?"

Comments

Easy...

[denzacar]

How are they supposed to identify the bad guy in that split second?

He will be the brownish-blackish male speaking bad English or chanting/babbling in some foreign tongue.

Re:Uh No

[Red Flayer]

On September 10, 2001, the intelligence agencies knew that Osama bin Laden's men were in the country, that they were going to participate in a major attack, and that they were planning to use airplanes in the attack. The people who could have done something about it were not assuming that everyone who got on an airplane wanted to get off of it alive; after decades of dealing with suicide bombers in the middle east, why would anyone assume that bin Laden's men were hoping to survive their own attack?

On the contrary... airplane hijackings, to that date, were primarily used as a negotiating tool.

My guess? The planes were hijacked, demands were made, and the hijackers were told to go to hell (I don't think GWB would have EVER negotiated with terrorists). So the hijackers did what they were told, and took thousands with them. Now, I'm no truther, but I also believe that a decision was made* to not shoot down the planes, and that the potential for the planes to hit the WTC (or other structure)and collapse it was either disregarded, discounted, or overlooked.

*Also possible that the decision was made via inaction, i.e., not escalating to the right people in time. But I believe it was a conscious decision at a high level.

Here's how

[chord.wav]

Do you think that we can actually make air travel (and any other kind of travel, for that matter) truly secure?

Yes, just stop taking the oil and other resources from foreign countries like locusts.

Re:What about making other things more secure firs

[fprintf]

You will be neg'd out of existence because your post is a troll and flamebait, in addition to being wholely inaccurate (as the followup posts indicate).

Please take your political agenda elsewhere.

Re:Can we make Air Travel Secure?

[Anonymous Coward]

your post is full of epic fail.

you respond to a post that essentially stated that people need to defend and take care of themselves instead of sitting back and waiting for the government to do it for you ...and that accepting the government's promises of safety and liberty results in neither.

you say the same thing. at the individual level, meet the terrorist head on.

you won't get any disagreement from individualists who tend to quote Ben Franklin.

it's quite interesting how you took the grandparent's post, spun it around, said the same thing, but threw in some nonsensical crap about israel, like they are some kind of good example. let me tell you something about israel. they're in the middle of a giant cluster fuck, that they are contributing to that cluster fuck.

there are numerous posts that analyze the issue in a non-emotional, we need to "face them head on" propagandist-style fashion. I'm pretty sure anyone that tries anything on a plane now-a-days is at risk at being bum rushed. and they don't need some crackpot like you ordering them to get training and do it.

you forgot to add to your post "you're a great american"

fuck you.

Re:Uh No

[Mr. Freeman]

What's the problem here? Someone who wasn't a threat made it past security. What's your argument, that people shouldn't be allowed the free speech to wear T-shirts with osama bin laden on them or that everyone who looks nervous is a terrorist? He had no ID, that shouldn't be a problem though because terrorists can quite easily get legitimate IDs. Before 9/11 you didn't even have to show ID to board a non-international flight.

So, he had a fake boarding pass. That's about as bad as sneaking into a movie theater. The fact that he got through with a fake boarding pass doesn't mean that security would have missed any explosives if he was carrying any, or that they wouldn't have found a knife if he was carrying one.

Re:no

[icebike]

Why were you hoping that?

He actually had very little new to say, and nothing we haven't seen before. No new ideas, just the same old regurgitation of leftist dogma. Act like sheep and pray no one will slaughter you.

Yeah, there are things that are done to excess, and other things not done well.

But waiting till a single incident almost happens to scream "failure" while ignoring the fact that no additional airplanes have hit buildings since 2001, and then claiming simultaneously that the lull was do to nobody wanting to attack, and that our protection efforts are useless, seems hardly convincing. Especially when followed up with suggestions that we change our foreign policy to appease those who "don't want to attack".