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The Sensible Body Scan Alternative
An anonymous reader sends in a CNN article that looks at airport security from more reasonable point of view, suggesting that looking for every last micro-gram of potentially explosive material is a waste of time, since very small quantities of explosives are unlikely to significantly damage a plane. The author also recommends incorporating parts of the Israeli method of securing airplanes — look for the bomber, not the tools. Quoting:
"Clearly everything should be done to prevent explosives getting on board an aircraft in quantities sufficient to cause structural failure and bring the plane down. But is it worth chasing lesser quantities that would result in zero or minimal damage? The enhanced pat-down that some find so offensive is designed to search for these small amounts. It often ends with a swab being taken to test for explosive residues. Technology does have a role to play, but imaging is not the solution. Operator fatigue sets in after short periods of time staring at computer images. That's why there are reports that contraband items have been smuggled through X-ray units used to scan carry-on bags. The aim should be to detect high explosive in quantities that are sufficient to cause significant damage. We don't need a machine that takes pictures of the human body. It makes more sense to develop a detector that clearly discriminates between high explosives and human tissue or water."
The only way to do security of this type effectively IS the way other countries (like Israel) do it - and that is with profiling
Except that Israel does not use profiling for airport security.
Israeli security experts have repeatedly emphasized that, in their view, profiling is an open invitation to terrorism. Terrorists need only to find out what profile is being used, and then they're in; they just use a terrorist that doesn't fit the profile. Profiling fails.
The Israelis use questioning. 100% questioning.
The US, on the other hand, does use profiling. The last time I was detained for detailed questioning (because, for reasons beyond my control, I'd bought a one-way ticket at the last minute-- a profiling flag), every other person in the group was a middle-Eastern or Indian male. It was pretty darn obvious what the profile was.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Have you had your head buried in the sand for the last couple of years? TSA didn't catch the shoe bomber -- the passengers and flight crew of the airplane did.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
The crotch bomber was Nigerian, not Arab. Timothy and the Unibomber were both US and white. Jim David Adkisson was both white and in his late 50's. The McCamy Law Firm bomber and the Well's Fargo bomber were also white.
There are active terror groups in Spain, Ireland, Japan, China, India, The Former USSR, etc etc. Profiling just Arabs leaves out huge swaths of potential killers.
The ______ Agenda
You should at least put a link to the source when you copy and paste a large section of someone else's article. I won't bother to post a point by point refutation of this article because someone else already did.