Handing victory to those with bad intentions
There's an interesting message in the events of the last couple of weeks. Act suspicious, and you'll score a victory for wannabe terrorists everywhere.
The crotchbomber proved this. Three heads of state went on TV. The TSA clamped down on airport "security" even further. And the press and media just went crazy.
I consider it grossly irresponsible of the world's media to report on stuff like this in the way they do. The crotchbomber incident could simply have been reported like this:
"Following some unrest with an unruly passenger earlier today, a flight to Detroit landed without incident."
Instead, CNN's headline: "Terrorist detonates bomb on US-bound flight". (which was wrong in just about every way).
Those 6 words were all the crotchbomber wanted to see. As soon as a major news outlet does something like that, we've lost the battle. What CNN effectively did was publicly congratulate Al Qaeda for disrupting our way of life again.
Every time we clamp down airport security, put concrete barriers in front of government buildings or suffer disgraces like the Patriot Act, it's a 21-gun salute of congratulations to terrorist the world over. We have to basically get naked before we can get into an airport now, and we're not allowed to take any meaningful amount of liquids or gels on flights - all as a result of media and government hysteria.
The problem is, of course, that airport security is just a cruel joke - a theater spectacle designed to irritate and annoy travelers. It has no real security function. The alleged shoe bomber, the alleged binary liquid bomber and now the crotchbomber have all proved that quite conclusively. In each case, it wasn't airport security, or even airline crew that prevented the incident - it was the passengers.
Why do we have to go through all the indecency at airports anyway? Why not just employ dogs to roam around the check-in lines, and if they smell anything suspicious, that person is singled out for secondary screening. Rapiscan's body scanners wouldn't have found the alleged explosive type that the crotchbomber used, but a dog would have. I mean America uses dogs to prevent people from importing fruit in their luggage - surely sniffing for explosives is a more productive use than sniffing for contraband apples?
The cynic in me says we need to follow the money on this latest one. It's not outside the realm of possibility that Rapiscan or one of the other manufacturers of full-body scanners is ultimately behind this. It sounds like a James Bond plot but in today's corrupt business society, nothing would surprise me.
The answer to this latest clampdown is simple - civil disobedience. Everyone must insist on a pat-down instead of using the new body scanners that will inevitably be forced upon us. When the TSA are forced to pat-down every passenger, and the security lines are 2 hours long then trust me - "security" will be stepped down again. Just like it was when the security lines got too long because of the introduction of the puffer/sniffer machines.
Personally, I like the chart that Gizmodo created - it rather perfectly illustrates the stupidity of the press and reaction:
The crotchbomber proved this. Three heads of state went on TV. The TSA clamped down on airport "security" even further. And the press and media just went crazy.
I consider it grossly irresponsible of the world's media to report on stuff like this in the way they do. The crotchbomber incident could simply have been reported like this:
"Following some unrest with an unruly passenger earlier today, a flight to Detroit landed without incident."
Instead, CNN's headline: "Terrorist detonates bomb on US-bound flight". (which was wrong in just about every way).
Those 6 words were all the crotchbomber wanted to see. As soon as a major news outlet does something like that, we've lost the battle. What CNN effectively did was publicly congratulate Al Qaeda for disrupting our way of life again.
Every time we clamp down airport security, put concrete barriers in front of government buildings or suffer disgraces like the Patriot Act, it's a 21-gun salute of congratulations to terrorist the world over. We have to basically get naked before we can get into an airport now, and we're not allowed to take any meaningful amount of liquids or gels on flights - all as a result of media and government hysteria.
The problem is, of course, that airport security is just a cruel joke - a theater spectacle designed to irritate and annoy travelers. It has no real security function. The alleged shoe bomber, the alleged binary liquid bomber and now the crotchbomber have all proved that quite conclusively. In each case, it wasn't airport security, or even airline crew that prevented the incident - it was the passengers.
Why do we have to go through all the indecency at airports anyway? Why not just employ dogs to roam around the check-in lines, and if they smell anything suspicious, that person is singled out for secondary screening. Rapiscan's body scanners wouldn't have found the alleged explosive type that the crotchbomber used, but a dog would have. I mean America uses dogs to prevent people from importing fruit in their luggage - surely sniffing for explosives is a more productive use than sniffing for contraband apples?
The cynic in me says we need to follow the money on this latest one. It's not outside the realm of possibility that Rapiscan or one of the other manufacturers of full-body scanners is ultimately behind this. It sounds like a James Bond plot but in today's corrupt business society, nothing would surprise me.
The answer to this latest clampdown is simple - civil disobedience. Everyone must insist on a pat-down instead of using the new body scanners that will inevitably be forced upon us. When the TSA are forced to pat-down every passenger, and the security lines are 2 hours long then trust me - "security" will be stepped down again. Just like it was when the security lines got too long because of the introduction of the puffer/sniffer machines.
Personally, I like the chart that Gizmodo created - it rather perfectly illustrates the stupidity of the press and reaction:
Comments
Unfortunate, but true.