Are the new security measures a farce?

[Celtic Emerald]

We've been hearing all about greatly improved security measures especially in the US but is the reality living up to the hype and are they being applied in a correct & proportionate way.

Take the ban on anything that may be thought could be used as a weapon, scissors, tweezers, pen knives, razors, nail clippers are all included in this arsenal while duty free flies off the shelfs in nice glass bottles, an ideal potential weapon for the nutcase to use to smash over someones head or for a shard of glass to hold to someones throat, just as effective as a stainless steel piece of cutlery which have been banned with great fanfare & publicity even the ppludocrats who use Concorde are forced to eat with plastic utensils while they sip champagne from crystal glasses.

What about the US. Has anything really changed. Last week custom officers found numerous knives & stun guns in the luggage of 4 Britons on return from Florida. At Chicago O'Hare Int a pax carrying knives, pepper spray & a stun gun passed through various levels of security & was finally detected at the boarding Gate by a UAL member of staff. Aviation experts claim there have been many more incidents.

The turth is on domestic flights there has been little improvement and experts will say that plastic cutlery can be uised as effectively to maim & frighten.

Planes routinely take off carrying baggage in the hold belonging to a pax who has missed the flight. Hand baggage remains unchecked. More than 70% of baggage in US planes is cargo which is nnot checked at all.

Pooly trained security staff still earn farcical wages, electronic screening is out of date & sniffer dogs & armed guards brough in after the hijacking have been decommissioned because cash strapped airlines ain't got the money.

Security measures favoured by American aviation officials such as sky marshals & locking of cockpit doors are not popular in Europe, where they will be forced to adopt them.

It is maintained they could compromise security. Contact & interaction is needed betwen pilots & cain crew for problems such as fire where information must be passsed quickly & it would impose an obstacle

[ 17 November 2001: Message edited by: Celtic Emerald ]

[boofhead]

I do not believe that there was a security lapse on Sep 11, since the box cutters used by the terrorists were not prohibited items. It was a failure of the US govt (FAA,FBI, and others), or in other words, a failure of Intelligence. Since then we have joined in to completely discard intelligence. (small 'i').
What is the use of increasing the "security" procedures to the insane level they are at now, when it will have no effect on safety? There have been no instances where hijackers have taken knives, guns etc from passengers to use in their illegal activities, and if the passengers had some way to protect themselves, they might be able to thwart the bstards.
Just as gun control is aimed at the honest citizen, leaving the criminal free to do what he wants, so is this cr@p.
In LAX now, it takes over two hours just to queue to get into the security area! Then you have to go through the stupid, stupid screening, with some being ordered to take off coats, shoes etc before the first pass through (based on ethnicity of course). And to make it work better, one of the three scanners has been taken out of service for the last few weeks. Around the walls stand useless, fully armed and fierce looking National Guard (probably pussycats, really).
It stands to reason that a government, run by special interests and spurred on by hysteria, would go for the most complicated, ineffective and expensive way to do anything, and their approach to this issue is typical. If something is not working, there cannot be anything wrong with what is being done; we just have to do it harder!
If Bin Laden failed to bring aviation to its knees, don't fret, we will do it for him.

[fionan]

Celtic Emerald,
What paper do you write for? ;) ;) ;)

[Avman]

There is no 100% effective security against fanatical and suicidal terrorists without bringing day-to-day life as we know it to a grinding halt. Israel must arguably be one of the most "secure" countries in the world. Yet they still suffer attacks from suicide bombers.

September 11th has been done. They will move on to other scenarios. A suicide bomber can strike anywhere at any time and is hard to stop. Yes we must have security but some of the steps taken since 11/SEP are indeed a complete farce!

[boofhead]

I had no problem with my passengers having small knives, nail files, bottle openers and such, and still don't I had no problem with those people who were authorised carrying weapons, nor with my FO having a leatherman. But in the same way they have been disarming the population in general, preventing them from defending themselves, now my passengers and I, if faced with a terrorist on board, will be unarmed.
The terrorists will not be deterred by the security, they never have and never will.
And what is the risk? How many of the millions who fly have an agenda of violence? What is the risk? It is, as then, miniscule. So what is the latest security cr@p all about? Simple: Money and Power.
If the governments can keep the population in fear, which is easy to do considering the low level of intelligence and the control of the media they have, then they can do whatever they want. And what they want is to grow government, grown government controls, grow government income. Very successfully, it seems, assisted by those who cry "I flew to Detroit the other day and the security did not even see that I had a picture of an UZI in my bag!! Shock horror!"
Witness the new department of Homeland Security, the new federal appointments to cabinets, committees, and such, and the law that says all security staff must be federal employees, and American Citizens to boot! As if a minimum wage uneducated loser is a better security guard because he is a real American! What a concept. And be warned: If the security personnel are to be American Citizens, and employed by the Federal Government, they will be armed, as are the customs, immigration, parks and services, post office and so on. A bureaucrat with a weapon is truly something to be feared. If you thought the terrorists were bad, just wait!
What gross stupidity to believe anything we are told.
Why am I the only one to see what is really going on? Who is out there who believes that anything being done now in the name of security is anything other than a power grab?

[Ibis]

boofhead, I agree! It,s cosmetic :confused:

[1261]

It's not often that I agree with an American - but boofhead, I agree completely!

The only people that the new security measures really hurt are us - the ordinary man in the street. Our government over here in the UK has just introduced the possibility of imprisonment without trial (or even a proper hearing in front of a court) for people who "may have been" "involved" with "terrorist" organisations.

It's all utter pish!! George Orwell could have written this! A few people in power are too cowardly to realise that the best defence against terrorists is to keep on doing what we have always done - run a free and open society.

There is NO DEFENCE in any society against committed terrorists. All we can do is use good intelligence to try and cutail their actions. Any organisation that has the wherewithall to start someone training at the beginning and wait several years to use them WILL get around ANY security measure - that's the way it is. Someone in a priviledged position WILL get that bomb on to the aircraft; I don't like it any more than you do, but it's a fact.

It is not an excuse to stop your own citizens going about their daily lives in a lawful manner.

[Cheesy rant over - I apologise, but I also feel quite strongly about this!)