I Was a Victim of the Governments Absurd and Over-Hyped War

Tag : airline socks

Now, inside my bag, unbeknownst to the Transportation SecurityAdministration inspectors, was a bottle of mouthwash. It was largerthan the approved 2-oz size, and it was not in an approved sealedplastic bag. But TSA inspectors looking into their video screens atthe X-Ray machine didn’t see it, because I made sure that itwas vertical as it passed through. All they saw was a little circleof plastic. Likewise, on an earlier flight, I had made my wayaboard with a Swiss Army knife. By standing it in my carry-on bagso that it would be vertical for the X-Ray, I was able to slip itthrough and onto the plane.
Now clearly I’m not a terrorist (though for a time, thanks tomy anti-Bush, anti-war journalism, and an expose about theTSA’s “no-fly” list abuses, I was on the watchlist, and would get a circled “S” written on myboarding passes that ensured that I would be pulled aside to havemy carry-on luggage hand searched). But if I were a terrorist, Isure wouldn’t try to commandeer a plane with a jackknife.I’d want something bigger. But that would be simple. Onecould easily carry on a 10-inch blade the same way. If one werenervous about doing that, it could be a ceramic or better, aPlexiglas blade—plenty dangerous, but invisible to X-rays andmetal detectors.
For that matter, if I were into suicide bombing and wanted tomanufacture a liquid explosive, why on earth would I try to do itby smuggling on two large jars of ingredients, when I could justput them in plastic baggies and carry them aboard in my pockets?Unless you happen to be singled out for special handling, nobody atthe security checkpoints pats you down. They just have you walkthrough the metal detectors while TSA inspectors are busy pattingdown randomly selected elderly nuns and racially profiled people,like unfortunate Sikh men wearing turbans.
Any dedicated terrorist hijacker could figure out numerous ways toget explosives and weapons onto a plane past these securityarrangements.
And that’s not even counting having the weapons smuggled intoan airport gate area along with all the goods that are offered forsale there, where they could be picked up after a hijacker hadalready cleared security. There is no way that all the newspapers,magazines, clothing, trinkets, bottles of booze and personalhygiene products, etc., are screened adequately as they are broughtin each day to fill the concession stands for the day’sbusiness. First of all, one would have to open and check everybottle and box offered for sale.
If you were genuinely worried about protecting against hijackers,you would have those inspections at the entrance to each plane, notat the entrance to the terminal, and you wouldn’t have allthat commerce inside the security zone. Ah! But what a roar ofoutrage we’d hear from the business community if thatlucrative business venue were eliminated!
Which brings me to the real question: Why do we have all thispointless and easily breached security, not to mention a list thatcontains an astonishing one million names of suspected“terrorists”?
Clearly, the security program is not about protecting the flyingpublic, or the nation’s tall buildings. That could be donemuch more cheaply by putting air marshals on all flights, the waythey do at El Al, the Israeli airline that has never had asuccessful hijacking.
No, this is all about heightening the fear level of the Americanpeople, to routinize us to living in a police state.
The truth is, nobody is really interested in trying to hijackplanes anymore. First of all, the “crash intobuildings” tactic is dead. Pilots are now flying armed inarmored cockpits that cannot be easily entered, and would notaccede to a terrorist’s demands any longer, knowing whathappened last time. And passengers would not sit passively in acabin takeover attempt, either. As a result, we don’t have toworry about such things any longer.
The ease with which security could be breached, and the fact thatit hasn’t happened now for seven years, is evidence enoughthat nobody is even trying to do it.
So let’s do away with all this time-consuming, costly, andpolitically motivated nonsense before I injure my other big toe.