Spokane7
50°
November 19, 2010 in Opinion
Editorial: Discomfort a small price for security on airplanes
For nearly a decade U.S. air passengers have faced one inconvenience after another in the name of security.
No loved ones on the concourse. Remove your shoes. Leave liquids and pocket knives behind. Prepare to open a rifled suitcase with a note saying your bag was inspected.
Aggravating, yes. But if it helps prevent airborne terrorist incidents, worth the annoyance.
The latest indignity in the post-9/11 world is the uncomfortable choice between fairly graphic full-body scans or “enhanced” pat-downs. Where will it end?
Honest answer: We don’t know.
For a long while, metal detectors and the occasional frisking seemed to suffice. Then some would-be martyr packed 80 grams of pentaerythritol tetranitrate in his drawers and tried to make it go boom somewhere between Amsterdam and Detroit. Fortunately, the ignition effort went amiss and a singed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab now stands charged with a crime, but his exploit ignited new worries at the Transportation Security Administration.
Obviously, keeping one step ahead of the bad guys – or at least not too many steps behind – is a major challenge for TSA, so the fact that the new, more aggressive screening steps have not been implemented until now is evidence that the agency is trying to go no further than necessary. The requirement to remove your shoes while going through passenger screening was imposed only after another terror suspect boarded with explosive footwear.
Not everyone sees it that way, as demonstrated by an outcry among some passengers over the new methods. A Los Angeles woman interviewed by MSNBC said she’d forgo her traditional Thanksgiving trip to Toledo, Ohio, rather than submit to a procedure she likened to rape.
That’s an exaggeration, as are such sobriquets as “feel-ups” and “porno scanners” that some critics have applied to the methods. Still, even TSA head John Pistole, having submitted to a pat-down (in which the palms and fingers are used where only a backhanded brushing was allowed before), conceded that it was uncomfortable and “more invasive than what I was used to.”
TSA isn’t at fault here, though. TSA is on our side. The underwear bomber and his allies and sympathizers, whoever they are, are the real culprits.
TSA does have a duty to demand its agents do their jobs reasonably and professionally and with absolute respect for the traveling public. Complaints should be thoroughly investigated and misbehavior dealt with severely.
No security plan will be perfect, but modest traveler inconvenience is a reasonable price to pay for a little added peace of mind.
Extra baggage fees? That’s altogether different.
To respond online, click on Opinion under the Topics menu at www.spokesman.com.
Trudy Rubin: Egyptians say no to Islamists 
JBlim on November 19 at 5:47 a.m.
OK so what are we worried about really? Since 9/11 we reinforced cockpit doors and we learned that the passengers have to fight back. No pilot in his right mind would open the cockpit door to a hijacker threatening to kill a flight attendant or passenger, because when the cockpit door opens, every aboard dies, as well as people on the ground. So that leaves bombs as a remaining threat. Yeah, bombs blow up planes. That’s tragic but it’s not 9/11 where terrorists got control of airplanes to fly into high value targets like the WTC, the Pentagon and the Capitol. At some point you need to stop the insanity and accept that bombs will get through, despite our best efforts. When the terrorists start sticking bombs up their rectums, how are you going to screen every passenger for that?
Hank Greer on November 19 at 6:31 a.m.
While the focus on discomfort may be important for the individuals offended by the enhanced pat down procedures or concerned with the safety of the imaging machines, the real issue is their effectiveness.
The reaction to the shoe bomber was to force us to remove our shoes. I remember the late-night program jokes about how we were lucky he didn’t have it in his underwear. And then last December, darned if we didn’t get one. Our reaction to that is expensive imaging machines and enhanced pat downs for those who opt out. It’s as if we believe terrorists can’t think of new and different ways of attacking a plane—or targeting something else altogether.
Intelligence is where you get the most for your money.
Bruce Schneier has an excellent post at http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/11/tsa_backscatter.html containing a lot of links and observations about airport security. Here’s an excerpt:
A leading Israeli airport security expert says the Canadian government has wasted millions of dollars to install “useless” imaging machines at airports across the country.
“I don’t know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747,” Rafi Sela told parliamentarians probing the state of aviation safety in Canada.
“That’s why we haven’t put them in our airport,” Sela said, referring to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, which has some of the toughest security in the world.
mikeln on November 19 at 6:52 a.m.
All the security measures in the world will not help as long as we allow big oil to use our military to invade other peoples land in order to steal these peoples resources. This is what it is all about and our best people are losing their lives in this pursuit. When we should be going full steam ahead finding new sources of energy that don’t need to be taken by force, big oil is being allowed to use propoganda on us. Our government now represents big buisness and the rest of us can go to hell. If you think this airport security is about your personnel safty, think again, they are really protecting their planes.
misjustice on November 19 at 7:20 a.m.
And about increasing the profits of the makers of the backscatter machines. Michael Chertoff, aka Skeletor, the former head of Homeland Insecurity, is a stock holder and lobbyist for the maker of the machines.
mikeln on November 19 at 10:42 a.m.
We could all take a united stand and refuse to fly for 6 months, they would have to come up with somthing better or go out of buisness. This would also wake up the terrorists that americans will not take crap from them or the airlines.
Truth_and_Justice on November 19 at 11:39 a.m.
Maybe it would be if this had anything to do with security. It doesn’t. It’s mere window dressing or, if you prefer, lipstick on a pig. The TSA’s procedures constitute an unreasonable search and seizure and violation of privacy without reasonable suspicion much less probable cause. What we need for true security is the Israeli system - - screening based on intelligence and behavioral analysis - - not random searches of nuns and 80 year old grandmothers. Call it whatever you want if you can’t stand the word “profiling” but that is what is needed to accomplish true security.
hawken on November 19 at 11:39 a.m.
Well…. this is a bit painful….
I have to go on record confessing that I actually agree with JBlim for the first time!
On the other hand, Misjudgment and mikeln are just broken records focused on their pet peeve… which takes no intellectual effort at all…. Hey, but they do get to make another post!
How many times have we heard their playbacks again and again.
At least JBlim offers some insight.
You nailed it Hank! We could learn from the Israelis!
Sorry, JBlim, I know what an insult, and how embarrassing it must be for you… that I should agree with your point. I had to bite my tongue as well.
Nevertheless,,, insight is insight, liberal or conservative.
hawken on November 19 at 11:46 a.m.
Truth!!!!
What a breath of fresh air!!
You actually point out the effectiveness of profiling, young, Middle East males! Rather than 80 yr old grandmas from Iowa!
But, do we NOT need to watch out for those blond hair, blue eye, Sweds blowing up airplanes? As well?
The first victim of political correctness is common sense… and then American lives.
de3 on November 19 at 12:11 p.m.
The former assistant administrator of the TSA said in a television interview that they know their new procedures violate the 4th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
You can watch the video clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni4GVWvT2Zs
Who cares about the Constitution? Its just some silly old piece of paper, right?
Real security begins with a risk-based prioritization scheme and a combination of random security actions, not totalitarian police state actions.
Today we read in the news that a breast cancer survivor was forced by the TSA to remove her prosthetic breast for their inspection. A man with a surgical scar from colon cancer surgery (the scars are detected by their new “Virtual Rape Scan” imaging technology) was forced to show this to the TSA.
A terrorist in Saudi Arabia already attempted to detonate an explosive inside his body. The TSA will soon require body cavity inspections with a finger up our butt - and those with surgical scars will likely need to have full medical x-rays to verify their safety for travel.
A professor at UC Berkeley says his calculations indicate the risk of cancer from the new Virtual Rape Scan systems is about the same as the risk of dying in a plane hit by a terrorist attack. Stated another way, we will spend a lot of money on their new procedures only to end up with the same mortality rate.
How far is the Spokesman-Review willing to go in its piece meal elimination of the U.S. Constitution? A Senator said this past week that the FCC should shut down Fox News and MSNBC. Heck, who needs the 1st Amendment. Its just some silly old piece of paper.
oneanddone on November 19 at 2:37 p.m.
One other thing needs to be stated. Never again will any haji or group of hajis take over an airplane, or train, or bus, without something resembling an AK-47. And I doubt you’ll get one of those through even the most rudimentary screening. Flight 93 is the last word to any wannabe terrorist thinking of taking over a plane. Never again will a group of passengers go quietly into a building. Security should take that into consideration and focus only on explosive devices. The rest of us will take care of the hajis with plastic knives or guns. And to end the refrain - Let’s roll.
hawken on November 19 at 2:54 p.m.
oneanddone
The Americans on flight 93 were heroes beyond the ability to describe in words!
This is true America! Everyday citizens.
They have burned into my psyche, the true definition of American heroism!
God forbid, that I should ever be put in the same position!
But, if ever I am…. I will remember those famous words…
“Let’s Roll!”
Thank you for the refreshing reminder of whom the true, American patriotic is, in this swamp of political debate between conservatism and liberalism.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on November 19 at 3:50 p.m.
The feelings of horror and revulsion that might be felt by those among us that have been molested or sexually put upon in our lives likely have very very good reason to “feel upset”… where are our “Republican” folks that want to get the government out of our lives??? how bout out of my crotch../??? good grief…. off base on this editorial for a variety of psychosocial reasons….barf…
hawken on November 19 at 3:58 p.m.
Hey Chef…. can you even read?
Start from the beginning of this string… and then get back to me.
ddavis6 on November 19 at 10:46 p.m.
This past mid-September I experienced these new procedures at the Oakland (CA) Airport. They are not discomfort. They are molestation. They are electronic rape. They are standing with your hands in the air arrested, when you have done nothing wrong.
One can only wonder at the lack of understanding&foresight on the part of the editorial staff of *The Spokesman Review* to so quickly dismiss the Constitutional challenge of these procedures.
Armoring&locking cockpit doors made sense. Changing procedures RE hijack attempts & cabin violence made sense: We passengers are on our own, the vigilante of our own safety, and all of us in that cabin need to expect that a slow roll—sufficient to dislodge&damage any wandering miscreant—has been added to the pilot’s acceptable flying response.
This weekend’s online British news sources are again warning that explosive devices are being surgically implanted into potential bombers where they will be discovered neither by the scanner nor the alternative molestation. When some one remains determined to kill you, there isn’t much additional one can do besides remain alert&responsive. Believe me, we passengers are all A-students regarding our own increased responsibilities.
These latest TSA revisions are all very expensive, very repulsive theater that does not make us net safer.
My country has lost its way, and this editorial offers no guidance to recover its way home.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on November 20 at 6:08 a.m.
All of this fuss…. and yet I still walked right on board, with many other passengers carrying two liters of 90 proof vodka in my carry on at LHR less than a month ago… worrying about less than four ounces of skin cleanser, or the oil in a can of dolmades from greece seems a bit bizarre. Ever seen a Chef Flambe’ some food at 13 Coins in Seattle? John