yellow dust
25th Jun 2002, 07:24
As time goes on we seem to accept the security at US airports as normal. There seems little hope that the US public will realise what has been done to them, more's the pity. Meanwhile the US govt has managed to use the Sep 11 tragedy to massively increase it's size and reach, with the formation of the Homeland security department and the takeover of airport security, the latest being the rules for xray or physically search even checked-in baggage.
The hijackers of 9/11 were Saudis (most of them), apparently directed by a Kuwaiti, and they used a weakness in the then-current security procedures. Armed with box cutters they took over the four airplanes because the recommended flight crew actions in the event of a hijacking were to cooperate. Given what we know now, it would be hard to imagine a handful of fanatics being able to do it again, outnumbered ten to one or more.
But what has been the official response? To change the policy in order to make it more difficult for a terrorist to take over an airplane? No! If flight crew do what the US govt and the FAA continue to mandate, it could happen again tomorrow!
Meanwhile they have increased the pressure on the honest persons who merely want to fly, as passenger or crew, and treat them as if they were criminals, with no rights at all. Taking nail files off kids and grandmothers does nothing to make flying safer. If all passengers and crew were to be armed with guns and ice picks, or even with (shock horror) butter knives, the flights would not be affected at all. In fact they would probably be safer, since any hijacker would think twice before trying anything.
The terrorists of 9/11 used legal weapons, easily taken on board, and it is still possible to smuggle weapons; I can think of at least a dozen ways to do it, and the same number of ways to use items readily available on board to threaten the crew and passengers.
The only answer is intelligence; stopping the real criminal before he even gets a chance to try anything. And to change the rules to make sure that if a crew is presented with a similar lot of fanatics waving whatever they have been able to get past "security", they will be taken down without delay by the honest persons on board, who, I would like to remind everyone, is US.
The hijackers of 9/11 were Saudis (most of them), apparently directed by a Kuwaiti, and they used a weakness in the then-current security procedures. Armed with box cutters they took over the four airplanes because the recommended flight crew actions in the event of a hijacking were to cooperate. Given what we know now, it would be hard to imagine a handful of fanatics being able to do it again, outnumbered ten to one or more.
But what has been the official response? To change the policy in order to make it more difficult for a terrorist to take over an airplane? No! If flight crew do what the US govt and the FAA continue to mandate, it could happen again tomorrow!
Meanwhile they have increased the pressure on the honest persons who merely want to fly, as passenger or crew, and treat them as if they were criminals, with no rights at all. Taking nail files off kids and grandmothers does nothing to make flying safer. If all passengers and crew were to be armed with guns and ice picks, or even with (shock horror) butter knives, the flights would not be affected at all. In fact they would probably be safer, since any hijacker would think twice before trying anything.
The terrorists of 9/11 used legal weapons, easily taken on board, and it is still possible to smuggle weapons; I can think of at least a dozen ways to do it, and the same number of ways to use items readily available on board to threaten the crew and passengers.
The only answer is intelligence; stopping the real criminal before he even gets a chance to try anything. And to change the rules to make sure that if a crew is presented with a similar lot of fanatics waving whatever they have been able to get past "security", they will be taken down without delay by the honest persons on board, who, I would like to remind everyone, is US.