Airport (in)security


An article and some observations on airport screening

I've been meaning to blog for some time on airport screening, but an article that Lileks highlighted this morning finally nudged me into posting something. The article states that the TSA is no longer going to be confiscating lighters anymore as part of the process because, as one official eloquently put it, "Taking lighters away is security theater. It trivializes the security process." Indeed.

But could the security process be anymore trivialized? We've heard countless people bemoan the fact that we don't do any profiling whatsoever and we randomly pull old grandmas out of the line for in depth screening while anyone remotely fitting the profile of a terrorist is whisked through so people don't feel like they are culturally insensitive. Yes its true that terrorists can, and probably will, change their tactics and start recruiting people that would fly under the radar of profiling but there are two important considerations. First, which do you think is easier for a terrorist organization to find and recruit for a suicide bombing mission - a young, male, Middle Eastern man traveling on an expired visa, or an 80 year old, American citizen, grandmother of 3, living in Kansas? Second, profiling is not the be all end all security tactic. Just because someone doesn't fit a profile doesn't mean we have to whisk them through the screening if there are other suspicions.

But my biggest pet peeve with airport security screenings is the fact that if we only find out about a plot at the point where the terrorists are in the airport, we've lost the fight. Look at all of the terrorist plots that have been disrupted lately and the most successful busts were done before the plot got to the airport (or other target). When we have agents tracking and following actual real terrorists before they get to the airport, we're going to have a much higher chance of preventing it. For example, the two idiots who wanted to drive their SUV into the airport in the UK recently - had they simply walked in with a bomb instead of driving a car, we'd have no way to stop them. Had we known about the plot before they got in the car, they have no chance.

So it may be that this topic is a little too close to my heart recently - seeing as I'm just now finishing up a business trip in which I've flown maybe 7-8 flights - but I think that, a lot of the time, a big portion of the screening process is "security theater." My 18 month old daughter has to take her shoes off - does anyone think that makes them safer? Do we really have a "credible threat" that 18 month olds from Tennessee have been turning in droves into Al Qaeda operatives?

As Lileks writes: "But please don’t stop requiring people to remove their shoes; that simple obligation combines the loss of control, safety and dignity in a unique way that helps passengers bond together."

Posted: Fri - July 20, 2007 at 02:12 PM | | | | | | |

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