Slashdot Mirror
UK Terror Chief Blocked From Boarding Aircraft
Jeremiah Cornelius writes "Two days before toner cartridges threatened western civilization, Britain's Home Office minister Baroness Neville-Jones was en route to a Washington summit when she was found to have an over-sized aerosol can in her bag. While being questioned by airport security staff for transporting a container with more than 100ml of liquid, the Baroness seemingly took offense at being lectured on the importance of security procedure: 'Of course I know how important it is,' she said, 'I'm the Security Minister.' The Baroness is also former head of the British Joint Intelligence Committee, and was traveling at the time to discuss the war on terror with US security chiefs. According to a Home Office spokesman, trained in the use of the passive voice, 'Liquids were inadvertently left in a bag. The item was removed and the Minister fully complied with subsequent checks.'"
"We are not amused"
but that was at the security theater involved.
Or was that the queen? Or the American people?
Why would the people implementing security theatre want to subject themselves to it?
They know it's just show. Not to mention the whole being above the law thing.
Sent from my PDP-11
The terrorists' new plan is for government officials to carry out attacks on airplanes. Therefore, we should not allow any government officials to fly.
The security staff really let an opportunity slip past them here.
"I'm terribly sorry madam; but surely the real Home Office Minister Baroness Neville-Jones would be properly familiar with aircraft security procedure. Come with me, please."
*Whispers*"We caught a terrorist impersonating the Home Office Minister! What'we do now?" *Whisper*"Just throw a bag over her head and hand her over to the Yanks, those bloody-minded bastards love that sort of thing."
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
She missed a glorious opportunity to praise the airport security for her unplanned security check. It is a good thing that British Security Officers check all people, even the Security Minister.
In Canada it's standard policy to taser suspicious foreign nationals at airports. On behalf of the Canadian government, I want to formally welcome the minister to one of our airports.
yeah, see how you like getting fondled when you fly!
Should've made her go through the porn scanner.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
This really isn't good. The monster that is airport security is too big to control. Not even high profile politicians can seem to escape it.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
"The Baroness is also former head of the British Joint Intelligence Committee, and was traveling at the time to discuss the war on terror with US security chiefs."
They must be talking about the 'terror' that they use to manipulate the average sheep into believing that these blatant invasions of privacy and freedom are a good idea.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
If security is important, then she should 1) have known better in the first place 2) thanked them for their efforts, and 3) apologised for her mistake. Instead she turned into a bitch (a haughty bitch), and in hind sight, it would have been better for her to be detained and strip searched. You can bet cash that if she took that tone with American airport security, there would have been no diplomatic gloves applied. She would have been detained and made to strip. ...and it would be a 'dressing down' long long overdue. The airport security people are under the gun to make sure air transportation is safe. They have to be diligent, there are rules on top of rules that they constantly have to keep up with (always growing, never shrinking), and to add insult to injury, not only are the passengers all bitchy, their bosses are bitchy. I remember just days after 9/11/01, US marines were patrolling airports with M16's (not shouldered). Security was more manic then. Yelling at security could get someone shot.
Seriously, Slashdot is getting worse than the mainstream press.
How was she "blocked" as the title says?
Paraphrasing: "Mistakes were made. We don't care."
You made the rules, you have to live by them.
-- "In order to have power, I must be taken seriously." -Mojo Jojo
I suppose it's fair when they get caught in the same system they suggest for everybody else.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Good. I'm happy she was offended. I say we run through the entire procedure word-for-word, action-for-action for EVERY public official who flies commercially. And I hope every single one of them is every bit as offended as the rest of us are for being treated at best like petulant children who need to be taught a lesson, and at worst like criminals who have no rights. The more public officials get pissed off over being treated the same way the average citizen is treated, the more likely there is to be an outcry against this kind of crap.
As the Security Minister, she should have known damn well that she needed to double check her bags for compliance BEFORE leaving home. So if she gets pissy over having to endure the same lecture as some other poor sap who simply forgot it was in there, tough shit. She's not above the law. And since she's one of the ones who seem to think it's so important, she needs to the standard just as much as everyone else, if not moreso.
The Baroness' behaviour sounds positively tame compared to former Canadian Conservative MP Helena Guergis's temper tantrum when trying to catch a flight home earlier this year, going so far as throwing insults and her boots at security officials:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/airport-worker-says-guergis-meltdown-among-worst-hes-seen/article1482043/
Any of us little people would've been tasered, handcuffed and carried away after a stunt like that. Power certainly hath its privileges.
high up gov people can do DO YOU KNOW WHO I'M line and get away with it.
That's because his title is wrong. It should be Anti-Terror Chief.
Table-ized A.I.
If she was a Duchess, we might have let her thru, but a mere Baroness? Come on.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Clearly they finally had the chance to really hinder Cobra and they missed it. Gi.Joe must be pissed.
I was waiting to pick a friend up at the airport. I was early and they were late. I had seen a report on the local news that week that they were going to start wiping peoples hands and running them trough a sniffer to see if there was explosive residue on them.
I wanted to find out what chemicals were in the wipes because of alergies. There was a person watching the exit from the secure area who was obviously bored (very small airport, could be 15 minutes between people at times) She needed only to make sure nobody went the wrong way. So I decided to ask her about it. Took awhile to explain what I wanted to know and then confirm she didn't know and was just willing to make stuff up.
I went back to waiting and then suddenly 5 police officers were around me to ask questions. 2nd degree and background check and other fun. I felt like asking if I was being detained, but I could not afford to be taken away for 24 hours.
Eventually I was let go after about 30 minutes. They did not take me anywhere or touch me but it was eye opening.
Ha Ha the Baroness Neville-Jones is fucking CLUELESS! Priceless!
Perhaps her Worshipfullness will give a BLOW-JOB to the TSA KiesterKops about 20+ I'd imagine watching the spectacle.
Just goes to show that the SECURITY, post 9/11 is a blithering JOKE and not even up to the security in 1911!
OH! [Ramp up the musc boys] Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. They Go UptpyUpUp and Go DowntpyDownDown ...
In the words of Red Skelton ... "May God Bless."
In my words ... may you burn from a Molitov Cocktail in the face.
Toodles!
I would like to give a sincere, "Ha ha, fuck you" to the Minister.
Cheers
-- Anonymous Aviation Security Professional who is sick and tired of purely reactive ineffective security measures imposed by various Ministries and Departments.
He thinks he's above the law..,
What a creep, just like every other politician.
Why would you hire the Baroness as your minister of security? Next you'll be telling me that Destro is the new Prime Minister.
AND her name is The Baroness?!? I can see why she'd be blocked, she sounds terrifying. And possibly a mortal enemy to GI Joe.
Why do we still have the liquid restrictions when they are not a credible threat? Meanwhile flammable liquids and gasses in cigarette lighters are ignored as they should be.
It's really become an expensive joke instead of anything resembling security.
The story title aptly characterizes her as Terror Chief. Her role, like that of her American counterpart, is to instill terror in the populace. She is one of the most valuable, if unofficial, players on the Al Qaeda team, thanks to the interest of our ruling elites in promoting (for different reasons) terrorism.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Really, this should apply in this case. Officials responsible for law production are welcome eating their own dog-food.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food
Léa Gris
The Baroness could easily be a terrorist. According to the security agencies, the pilots may decide to blow up the planes as well. I see no reason that Barack Obama and David Cameron are above the law in this respect, and they have access to a lot of information that could aid terrorism.
I do hope they get the security pat down as well.
Wow, great scoop man! She got stopped, removed an item, and then was let through! Now there's something that doesn't happen every day.
Yeah, something like this.
This really has gone too far. TSA should be eliminated. Let the airlines and airports provide security - they, at least, have no interest in intimidating and humiliating their customers.
I'm not the type to write Congresscritters, but it can do no harm. A bit of Googling... It turns out that both the House of Representatives and the Senate provide convenient web forms that let you contact your Congresscritters.
Even if you are not normally political, please consider taking the time to send a message. It takes no more time than posting on /.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Dealing with the details of laws is her job. She knows as well as you or I how ridiculous that law is and how stupid it is that it is implemented by a guy that cannot deviate from a script that could almost be replaced by a robot. She's getting angry about something we should all be angry about and she knows that things are done differently in her country (perhaps just as stupid, but in different ways).
What on Earth are you talking about? She is a UK politician who was flying to the US. However, the aerosol was taken off her in Heathrow airport
She was en route to Washington, where do you imagine they check people boarding a plane?
Since you're American I'll make it easy; her outburst happened at Heathrow Airport in London on her way out of the country!
Ah, I doubt your claims that the British police kill more people than Al-Qaeda.
For arguments sake at least the British police did not launch a series of coordinated suicide attacks upon London's public transport system during the morning rush hour killing 56 civilians in one fell swoop!
It would be ironic if you were hurt during a terrorist attack in the UK.
And no muslim has ever blown up a hotel in Brighton.
Mind you, the 11/9 terrorists didn't blow up a plane either. The crashed them.
I'm actually surprised she was flying on a normal airliner - had she been flying on a charter flight she wouldn't have to go through the pointless hassle of security theater in the airport.
Maybe an unintended side-effect of the recession and the UK government having to cut custs will be that, now that most public officials can't easilly justify the cost of charter flights, they'll be subjected to the same humiliations as us plebes have been facing in UK airports thus coming to the conclusion that (now that they have to go through it) the current security practices are excessive and unjustified.
Not unless it was Tuesday, and she was carrying a hamburger patty.
Meta will eat itself
HAA HAA!
"The Baroness is also former head of the British Joint Intelligence Committee ... "
You'd think the Baroness would know better than to use an over sized can; perhaps this was plan B with plan A being the use of Destro's head. Can you imagine how they would have reacted to that guy's noggin?
I can practically hear Cobra Commander screaming about idiots from here!
Stop calling them "critters". These are not warm, fuzzy, harmless stuffed animals we are talking about. These are people who hold a special right to employ physical force against you -- not merely in self-defense, but as a business model. These are the people sitting at the top of the power pyramid, looking at you from the top down, certainly not from the bottom up. These are the people who run the business of government, expanding the business in terms of power and revenue, at your expense, year after year.
Using the word "critters" completely alters the perception of what these people actually do for a living (hint: snuggling up to you is the last thing on their agenda).
BBC News article - watch the embedded video for a real-life detonation of a liquid bomb inside an aircraft fuselage.
Why do we still have the liquid restrictions when they are not a credible threat?
The Judge in the case disagreed: "I'm satisfied that there is every likelihood that this plot would have succeeded but for the intervention of the police and the security service. Had this conspiracy not been interrupted, a massive loss of life would almost certainly have resulted - and if the detonation was over land, the number of victims would have been even greater still."
Three men are currently serving life sentences for their part in the plot.
You mean "subsequent checks were fully complied with".
The rules about what items you are allowed when flying to the USA are decided by (drum roll) guess which country for 10 points?
There had already been a bit of political grumbling about that in the UK as well as a few other countries.
Now do you understand?
Typical government arrogance. They tell us what to do, not the other way around.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
'Of course I know how important it is,' she said, 'I'm the Security Minister.'
So she knows it's completely unimportant.
Not really, IME the exact same rules regarding liquids apply regardless of where you're flying from or to with remarkable consistency.
OK you've shifted the goalposts a bit from what can be mixed up on the spot from things that get past sniffer dogs (or nitrogen sensing equipment) to stuff prepared earlier - which is why I wrote "Flashy pictures of something completely different".
I'm not denying the existence of nitroglycerine and many things since, simply sticking to the story of the stuff in the bombing and the stuff the rules will stop. Please note that they stop you bringing on water and not lighter fluid!
There are many different rules for US bound flights than there are for flights to other destinations. This is pissing a lot of people off and some populist politicians are advocating extra searches of US visitors as some deluded sort of payback punishment.
I'll take your word for the stupid liquid restrictions since I find it too ridiculous to take seriously so don't know how widespread it is. We are attempting to block an attack that would not have worked anyway.
Got anything that'll stop my spyder sense from tingling?
It seems that she wasn't actually "blocked from boarding".