- The Strategist - https://www.aspistrategist.org.au -
Much ado about airport security
Posted By Chris Louie on January 22, 2013 @ 11:04
A short history of airport security: We screen for guns and bombs, so the terrorists use box cutters. We confiscate box cutters and corkscrews, so they put explosives in their sneakers. We screen footwear, so they try to use liquids. We confiscate liquids, so they put PETN bombs in their underwear. We roll out full-body scanners, even though they wouldn’t have caught the Underwear Bomber, so they put a bomb in a printer cartridge. We ban printer cartridges over 16 ounces—the level of magical thinking here is amazing—and they’re going to do something else.
… [has it] ever occurred to you that you just smash your wine glass and jump at someone, grab the top of their head and put it to their carotid artery and ask anything? And believe me, you will have their attention … I asked (Mr Howard) if he was able to get on a plane with an HB pencil, which you are able to, and I asked him if I went down and came and grabbed him by the front of the head and stabbed the pencil into your eyeball and wiggle it around down to your brain area, do you think you'd be focusing?
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[1] Image: http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/56919158_9c178af382_z.jpeg
[2] reportedly implemented better privacy controls than its American counterpart: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/grated-scanners-for-travellers-20110326-1cavi.html
[3] image provided to a stick figure: http://travelsecure.infrastructure.gov.au/bodyscanners/index.aspx
[4] phasing out the scanners: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/tsa-abandons-nude-scanners/
[5] fallen through in other countries: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/11/rapiscan-fraudulent-tests/
[6] Bruce Schneier put it: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/11/22/do-body-scanners-make-us-safer/a-waste-of-money-and-time
[7] infamous 2005 Rotary Club speech: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/vanstones-terror-speech-under-fire/2005/11/20/1132421545901.html
[8] have been raised: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2011/08/04/Albanese-reveals-our-mad-security-culture.aspx
[9] more than one occasion: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/airport-police-are-just-for-show/story-e6freon6-1226294310591
[10] A previous ASPI publication: http://www.aspi.org.au/publications/publication_details.aspx?ContentID=190
[11] nedrichards: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nedrichards/56919158/