Lets tighten up our airline "security" because foreign goverments aren't.

[strredwolf]

Doesn't make sense, does it?

There's already reports that flight crews are requiring no in-lap anything for the last hour of the flight (the original rule was 10 minutes) and that there's additional screening on domestic flights.

That's pushing it.  The story as it stands now is that the suspect was on a Lagos-Nigeria-Amsterdamn-Denver trip.  He went through Nigerian security and passed it, with a valid passport and US visa.  He was rescreened again at the boarding gate of the Nigeria-Amsterdamn flight.  There was no rescreening in Amsterdamn; he boarded Northwest 253 and tried to blow himself up 30 minutes outside of Denver.

And now they want to up internal security inside the US?!?  When the threat was OUTSIDE?!?

Now, granted, we've been ramping security up over time; Southwest here in BWI has sniffer booths that detect chemical explosives, something that could have detected this guy.  A sudden push isn't going to help TSA's own public image.

So, mind if I suggest a few things?

1. Continue the existing path of the slow security ramp-up, but be more transparent about it.  Let news agencies report on the sniffer equipment, and get the equipment out en-mass to all airports.  Continue to develop technologies that balance detection with time.
   
2. That said, restrict international travel to border states.  Airplanes from overseas cannot travel across state boundaries. East coast for Europe/Africa/Middle East, southern states for Mexico and South America, West Coast for Asia and Austrailia.  The only exception is Canada, due to how we're sharing northern and east coast boarders.
3. If you're traveling internationally, you get screened again in every country. No exceptions.  When the EU gets fully merged, then yes, all the "international" flights say from France to Germany are really going to be classified as "domestic" and they can loosen up a bit there. But if you're going continent to continent, you better get rescreened.
   
4. Review screening procedures to an inch of their life.  President Obama has already ordered this for US flights.
5. Retrain all flight personnel, pilots and flight attendants, in FCC and FAA regulation.  They should not be telling me to turn fully off my iPhone when they've already tested Airplane mode.  If the airlines have a problem, then the FCC and FAA need to permit testing of the most common gadgets to see if they do cause a problem.  So far, they haven't!
   
   (A sidenote: an episode of Mythbusters had Grant with equal equipment in a faraday cage, and sweeping through all known cell phone frequencies.  One of the GSM frequencies caused problems.  It could not be confirmed, however; when they went out in an actual plane, parked outside a hangar at one airport, there were no problems.)

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Comments

[kesarra.livejournal.com]

He failed. Nobody stopped him from getting on the flight.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/northwest-flight-saved-failed-detonator/story?id=9426532

[skunktaur.livejournal.com]

Just to be a little nit-pickey, it's 'Amsterdam' without the additional 'n'. Unless you're being sarcastic and I missed it :)

For the rest, I have no idea what happened. So I am going to refrain on any other comment to either defend or condemn procedures or personnell in Amsterdam Airport.

[kesarra.livejournal.com]

Last I heard the guy was on a watch list. Apparently the US only detains 9 month old babies and Liberal tree-huggers when they happen to be on a watch list. That might need to change.

[terminotaur.livejournal.com]

#2 would play havoc with airline routes, and I think would quickly over-congest large costal cities.

I have a rather basic suggestion that follows #4 Several articles have made mention that current screening equipment could have detected this explosive. So, ummm, how about using it more frequently and make sure people are doing things right? OK, the whole body scan raises concerns of privacy, but the swabbing technique could also have picked him up. So, make that a must for everyone. Heck, they've got the equipment deployed even in my small city here in Canada and it doesn't add that much extra time.

But what's going to happen is they're going to over-react and start throwing in all sorts of added layers of restrictions, when basically smarter and slightly more intensive screening under the current system should be sufficient.

And by the way, between Canada and the US, I have to fly to a connecting airport... I get screened at home, then, typically, to clear customs (always done in Canada now it seems), that is typically outside the security zone I think, so once clear of there I often have to go through security at that airport as well, so, my usual Canada-US flight sees me screened twice. Yes, I suppose someone could meet me at the airport there, but then that adds extra layers of planning to any theoretical plot.

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

Given enough stimulus money, #2 will be easily managed. Just don't send 'em to Regan National or New York JFK/Laguadia.

I agree, using more technology including "invasive" body scanning/backscatter x-ray would have detected the device and permitted a full body search. If it's only minutes, plus they ditched the images once cleared, I'd have no problems with it.

[mike-fang.livejournal.com]

A transcript from an e-mail forwarded to me:
Juval Aviv was the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie ' Munich ' was based. He was Golda Meir's bodyguard -- she appointed him to track down and bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games.

In a lecture in New York City a few weeks ago, he shared information that EVERY American needs to know -- but that our government has not yet shared with us.

He predicted the London subway bombing on the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox News stating publicly that it would happen within a week. At the time, O'Reilly laughed and mocked him saying that in a week he wanted him back on the show. But, unfortunately, within a week the terrorist attack had occurred.

Juval Aviv gave intelligence (via what he had gathered in Israel and the Middle East ) to the Bush Administration about 9/11 a month before it occurred. His report specifically said they would use planes as bombs and target high profile buildings and monuments. Congress has since hired him as a security consultant.

Now for his future predictions. He predicts the next terrorist attack on the U.S. will occur within the next few months.

Forget hijacking airplanes, because he says terrorists will NEVER try to hijack a plane again as they know the people onboard will never go down quietly again. Aviv believes our airport security is a joke -- that we have been reactionary rather than proactive in developing strategies that are truly effective.

For example:

1) Our airport technology is outdated. We look for metal, and the new explosives are made of plastic.

2) He talked about how some idiot tried to light his shoe on fire. Because of that, now everyone has to take off their shoes. A group of idiots tried to bring aboard liquid explosives. Now we can't bring liquids on board. He says he's waiting for some suicidal maniac to pour liquid explosive on his underwear; at which point, security will have us all traveling naked! Every strategy we have is reactionary.

3) We only focus on security when people are heading to the gates.

Aviv says that if a terrorist attack targets airports in the future, they will target busy times on the front end of the airport when/where people are checking in. It would be easy for someone to take two suitcases of explosives, walk up to a busy check-in line, ask a person next to them to watch their bags for a minute while they run to the restroom or get a drink, and then detonate the bags BEFORE security even gets involved. In Israel , security checks bags BEFORE people can even ENTER the airport.
Aviv says the next terrorist attack here in America is imminent and will involve suicide bombers and non-suicide bombers in places where large groups of people congregate. (i.e.., Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos, big cities (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc.) and that it will also include shopping malls, subways in rush hour, train stations, etc., as well as rural America this time (Wyoming, Montana, etc.).

The attack will be characterized by simultaneous detonations around the country (terrorists like big impact), involving at least 5-8 cities, including rural areas.

(cont'd)

[mike-fang.livejournal.com]

Aviv says terrorists won't need to use suicide bombers in many of the larger cities, because at places like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas , they can simply valet park a car loaded with explosives and walk away.
Aviv says all of the above is well known in intelligence circles, but that our U. S. government does not want to 'alarm American citizens' with the facts. The world is quickly going to become 'a different place', and issues like 'global warming' and political correctness will become totally irrelevant.

On an encouraging note, he says that Americans don't have to be concerned about being nuked. Aviv says the terrorists who want to destroy America will not use sophisticated weapons. They like to use suicide as a front-line approach. It's cheap, it's easy, it's effective; and they have an infinite abundance of young militants more than willing to 'meet their destiny'.

He also says the next level of terrorists, over which America should be most concerned, will not be coming from abroad. But will be, instead, 'homegrown' -- having attended and been educated in our own schools and universities right here in the U. S. He says to look for 'students' who frequently travel back and forth to the Middle East .. These young terrorists will be most dangerous because they will know our language and will fully understand the habits of Americans; but that we Americans won't know/understand a thing about them.

Aviv says that, as a people, Americans are unaware and uneducated about the terrorist threats we will, inevitably, face. America still has only have a handful of Arabic and Farsi speaking people in our intelligence networks, and Aviv says it is critical that we change that fact SOON.
So, what can America do to protect itself? From an intelligence perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites and technology for intelligence. We need to, instead, follow Israel 's, Ireland 's and England 's hands-on examples of human intelligence, both from an infiltration perspective as well as to trust 'aware' citizens to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however, our U. S. government continues to treat us, its citizens, 'like babies'. Our government thinks we 'can't handle the truth' and are concerned that we'll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake.

Aviv recently created/executed a security test for our Congress, by placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out. In fact, in Chicago , someone tried to steal the briefcase!
In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well 'trained' that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, 'Unattended Bag!' The area would be quickly & calmly cleared by the citizens themselves. But, unfortunately, America hasn't been yet 'hurt enough' by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it's their citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defense against terrorism.

Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children here in America who were in preschool and kindergarten after 9/11, who were 'lost' without parents being able to pick them up, and about our schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until parents could get there. (In New York City , this was days, in some cases!)

He stresses the importance of having a plan, that's agreed upon within your family, to respond to in the event of a terrorist emergency. He urges parents to contact their children's schools and demand that the schools, too, develop plans of actions, as they do in Israel . He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even our youngest children to remember and follow.

Aviv says that the U. S. government has in force a plan that, in the event of another terrorist attack, will immediately cut-off EVERYONE's ability to use cell phones, blackberries, etc., as this is the preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way that their bombs are detonated.

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

This jives with my father, that they're not going to self-bomb airplanes. They'll just self-bomb airports and other large gathering areas.

Let me distill this, then, into what can be done.

First: Since you're able to order plane tickets online, you are required to pay only with a credit card. If you need to pay with cash, get a pre-paid credit card and go to a billpay/check cashing place to load it up.

Second: Print your tickets, and go through security *before* you get to check in. Your bags, checked or non, are x-rayed and smelled there. Your body is also backscattered and sniffed. That will catch both metal, plastic, and liquid bombs in any place. Also, your flight is scanned in and checked there -- in essence, you're checked in.

Third: Check-in of classic is now brought down to Baggage Dropoff.

Fourth: Since security is more up-stream, you're already in a secure area. So there's little need for rescreening.

What fun.