Tag Archives: TSA / CBP

The only two things that worked

Chechen terrorists did it in 2004. I said this in an interview with then TSA head Kip Hawley in 2007:

I don’t want to even think about how much C4 I can strap to my legs and walk through your magnetometers.

And what sort of magical thinking is behind the rumored TSA rule about keeping passengers seated during the last hour of flight? Do we really think the terrorist won’t think of blowing up their improvised explosive devices during the first hour of flight?
From schneier.com:

For years I’ve been saying this:

Only two things have made flying safer [since 9/11]: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.

This week, the second one worked over Detroit. Security succeeded.

EDITED TO ADD (12/26): Only one carry on? No electronics for the first hour of flight? I wish that, just once, some terrorist would try something that you can only foil by upgrading the passengers to first class and giving them free drinks.

the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.

Bombing Yemen

My title for this story would be: Nobel Peace Laureate Obama orders bombing of Yemen. 49 civilians killed, including 17 women and 23 children.

Following a military operation in Yemen targeting suspected al Qa’eda militants, a local official said on Sunday that 49 civilians, among them 23 children and 17 women, were killed in air strikes which he said were carried out “indiscriminately,” Agence France Presse reported.

Earlier it had been reported by ABC News that on orders from the US President Barack Obama, the US military had launched cruise missiles in the attacks.

The National said that thousands of people took to the streets of southern Yemen on Saturday to denounce the military action and ensuing deaths of innocent civilians. (Read more from thenational.ae)

Ron Paul on Terrorism, our government’s incompetence and private security:

The TSA security leak

EARLIER this year, America’s Transportation Security Administration, the agency responsible for airport security, published an improperly redacted version of its operating manual on the internet. . . .

Here’s the Post’s summary of what got leaked:

The 93-page TSA operating manual details procedures for screening passengers and checked baggage, such as technical settings used by X-ray machines and explosives detectors. It also includes pictures of credentials used by members of Congress, CIA employees and federal air marshals, and it identifies 12 countries whose passport holders are automatically subjected to added scrutiny.

. . . .

Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow explains:

Unfortunately, the security geniuses at the DHS don’t know that drawing black blocks over the words you want to eliminate from your PDF doesn’t actually make the words go away, and can be defeated by nefarious al Qaeda operatives through a complex technique known as ctrl-a/ctrl-c/ctrl-v. Thankfully, only the most elite terrorists would be capable of matching wits with the technology brilliance on display at the agency charged with defending our nation’s skies by ensuring that imaginary hair-gel bombs are kept off of airplanes.
(Read more from economist.com)