investigation: airport security a FARCE.

[bizmark]

MSNBC link
NY Daily News link (original article)

THE REPORTERS carried utility knives, rubber-handled razor knives, a pocket knife, a corkscrew, razor blades and pepper spray through every airport security checkpoint they encountered, the newspaper said.

CBS News crews also tested security screeners last week, although they did not attempt to smuggle banned items through checkpoints. They carried bags lined with lead to block X-rays and sailed past about 70 percent of screeners at several airports nationwide.

The Daily News said guards X-rayed and hand-searched its reporters? bags, asked them to remove their shoes and checked photo identifications, but did not find the banned items.

The airports included the four at which the terrorists boarded flights on Sept. 11 last year: Newark International, Boston?s Logan International, Washington Dulles International and Portland International Jetport in Maine, the News said.

Still feel safe? The government spins its wheels with feel-good measures like random searches and similar bullsh|t but it clearly doesn't make any difference. Even the fvcking airports where the 9/11 terrorists boarded let people get through with banned items and lead-lined bags. What a fvcking joke.

 

[UberDave]

yeah here at the detroit metro airport, i noticed when getting on a plane that the guy doing the xray thing on the convayor belt WASN'T EVEN LOOKING AT THE SCREEN ...rather in a daze looking up at the ceiling or talking to other people

 

[notfred]

Oh no! A pocket knife and a corkscrew, they're going to stab a hole in the plane and it will crash!!! ahhh!!!!

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: bizmark
MSNBC link

THE REPORTERS carried utility knives, rubber-handled razor knives, a pocket knife, a corkscrew, razor blades and pepper spray through every airport security checkpoint they encountered, the newspaper said.

CBS News crews also tested security screeners last week, although they did not attempt to smuggle banned items through checkpoints. They carried bags lined with lead to block X-rays and sailed past about 70 percent of screeners at several airports nationwide.

The Daily News said guards X-rayed and hand-searched its reporters? bags, asked them to remove their shoes and checked photo identifications, but did not find the banned items.

The airports included the four at which the terrorists boarded flights on Sept. 11 last year: Newark International, Boston?s Logan International, Washington Dulles International and Portland International Jetport in Maine, the News said.

Still feel safe? The government spins its wheels with feel-good measures like random searches and similar bullsh|t but it clearly doesn't make any difference. Even the fvcking airports where the 9/11 terrorists boarded let people get through with banned items and lead-lined bags. What a fvcking joke.

And all the lovers of big government told us these problems would be history if we Federalized airport security. That plan sure worked well. Now we have worthless screeners with civil service protections.

 

[pulse8]

The only way to make the airline industry safe from any terrorist attacks would be to shut it down.

 

[bizmark]

Originally posted by: notfred
Oh no! A pocket knife and a corkscrew, they're going to stab a hole in the plane and it will crash!!! ahhh!!!!

I'm of the opinion that it's ALL bullsh|t. No reasonable passenger will submit to a hijacking ever again, even if the hijackers have guns. Corkscrews and pocket knives should never have been banned.

I'm just posting this to show the government's hypocrisy and idiocy. We're going to institute all of these new rules, so that you can't even carry a fvcking nail file on the airplane any more, and of course every well-behaved citizen will happily go along with these absurd requirements while those who care to bypass them (i.e. criminals and terrorists) will have no problem doing so. It's basically a straw man they're setting up and knocking down, and they're not even knocking it down halfway-competently. It's absurd. But the American public continues to buy it and believe that it's all done for their safety.

edit: and lead-lined bags are nothing to sneeze at. You could easily conceal a gun or explosives in a lead-lined bag.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: notfred
Oh no! A pocket knife and a corkscrew, they're going to stab a hole in the plane and it will crash!!! ahhh!!!!

Actually, a WWII fighter pilot veteran who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his work in WWII was flying to West Point to make a speech. He was wearing the Congressional Medal of Honor around his neck when he tried to board the plane and was stopped. Apparently, you can "poke someone's eye out" with the Congressional Medal of Honor -or so was the excuse they gave him for disallowing it. It took the old man arguing 45 minutes or so before he was let on the plane with it around his neck. :|

I hate airport idiots.

nik

 

[Codewiz]

I remember a couple of threads where I told people these "security" measures are a joke AND a violation of my rights. Of course people said that it was necessary because of Sept 11. This goes to show it is a waste of time.

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: bizmark

Originally posted by: notfred
Oh no! A pocket knife and a corkscrew, they're going to stab a hole in the plane and it will crash!!! ahhh!!!!

I'm of the opinion that it's ALL bullsh|t. No reasonable passenger will submit to a hijacking ever again, even if the hijackers have guns. Corkscrews and pocket knives should never have been banned.

I'm just posting this to show the government's hypocrisy and idiocy. We're going to institute all of these new rules, so that you can't even carry a fvcking nail file on the airplane any more, and of course every well-behaved citizen will happily go along with these absurd requirements while those who care to bypass them (i.e. criminals and terrorists) will have no problem doing so. It's basically a straw man they're setting up and knocking down, and they're not even knocking it down halfway-competently. It's absurd. But the American public continues to buy it and believe that it's all done for their safety.

edit: and lead-lined bags are nothing to sneeze at. You could easily conceal a gun or explosives in a lead-lined bag.

If they didn't take these silly precautions then there's a bunch of people who'll throw a fit. The whole idea of increasing airport security is just public relations.

 

[nord1899]

Bah, sneaking in small knives is easy. The 3 or 4 times I've flown since last year I've gotten the 1 inch keychain knife on the plane very easily. Sure its a small knife that I doubt I could do any harm with or anyone else for that matter. But they keep saying "NO KNIVES OF ANY SIZE" at all the checkpoints and they can't find this one? And this is at JFK and LGA, which supposedly has extra beefed up security.

Of course, I don't bother bringing my Leatherman with a 4 inch blade that could do damage. I suspect that would get caught.

A recent flight on a smaller regional jet (3 seats per row, 15-20 rows), I saw about half the flight get spot checked. Seemed quite silly to me.

The security measures added after the attacks do nothing and will do nothing. At least they stopped asking those two stupid questions.

 

[rh71]

CBS News crews also tested security screeners last week, although they did not attempt to smuggle banned items through checkpoints. They carried bags lined with lead to block X-rays and sailed past about 70 percent of screeners at several airports nationwide.

70% got through. The indifference of the employees responsible for screening is more of a concern to me than them letting knives through... they apparently don't care WHAT goes through in the first place. 70% isn't like missing a few here and there.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: notfred
Oh no! A pocket knife and a corkscrew, they're going to stab a hole in the plane and it will crash!!! ahhh!!!!

Um, Actually notfred, IIRC aircraft aluminium is 1/16th of an inch thick. I'm not too sure a whole lot of effort is going to be needed to cause depressuirization.

Also, I am the owner of a leatherman wave. The thing is 4 inches long and has a straight edged kinfe blade about 3.5 inches long. Pre 9-11 that could have gone on a plane because it the blade was under 4 inches long. Used properly and sharp enough I think its long enough to infict some damage on human flesh.

-PAB

 

[BoberFett]

Without a full strip search, getting a folding blade through security is a piece of cake for a determined hijacker. A security guard would have to bust out the rubber gloves to find it.

Think about it.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: rh71

CBS News crews also tested security screeners last week, although they did not attempt to smuggle banned items through checkpoints. They carried bags lined with lead to block X-rays and sailed past about 70 percent of screeners at several airports nationwide.

70% got through. The indifference of the employees responsible for screening is more of a concern to me than them letting knives through... they apparently don't care WHAT goes through in the first place. 70% isn't like missing a few here and there.

Indifference - would you expect anything more from a Federal employee?

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Jane's released a report similar to this, saying the new 'security precautions' were just for show and did nothing to actually increase security significantly. I don't have a link, saw it on the news last night. I was telling my aunt who flies often this very same thing several weeks ago and she thought I was full of sh1t. I guess I'm keeping good company now.

 

[gopunk]

the two ones i went to (seatac and o'hare) seemed fine. attentive and all.

 

[UltraQuiet]

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: rh71

CBS News crews also tested security screeners last week, although they did not attempt to smuggle banned items through checkpoints. They carried bags lined with lead to block X-rays and sailed past about 70 percent of screeners at several airports nationwide.

70% got through. The indifference of the employees responsible for screening is more of a concern to me than them letting knives through... they apparently don't care WHAT goes through in the first place. 70% isn't like missing a few here and there.

Indifference - would you expect anything more from a Federal employee?

Yeah it's almost as ludicrous as expecting honesty from an accountant.

 

[Lucky]

My father takes upwards of 250 flights a year, and told me last week he didnt think anything had changed. He's accidentally taken "banned" items on board occasionally since 9/11 without ever being stopped.

 

[JellyBaby]

Israeli airline's = great security record. Sure they have fewer flights to manage but they use competent screeners, have armed marshals on every jet and profile risky passengers (*cough* Palestinians *cough*). They probably use other, more secretive measures, too. I don't believe any terrorist has succesfully messed with an Israeli flight, ever.

 

[tcsenter]

Still feel safe? The government spins its wheels with feel-good measures like random searches and similar bullsh|t but it clearly doesn't make any difference. Even the fvcking airports where the 9/11 terrorists boarded let people get through with banned items and lead-lined bags. What a fvcking joke.

Ah, if I understand the premise of your objection, what you're saying is that if a protective measure such as increased airline security is not instantaneously effective and cannot accomplish perfection in its intent then it has no merit and isn't worth the effort.

Well, by that standard, planes still crash from mechanical failure, therefore we should eliminate all regulations mandating certain levels of maintenance and inspection because they are clearly ineffective. We should disban the FAA and NTSB, too, because after decades and billions of dollars, they aren't effective.

Hey we could go on. There are incompetent doctors, therefore, the requirements which are intended to ensure that doctors are competent and highly trained are clearly ineffective and should be eliminated. The rigors required of becoming a doctor are nothing more than an infringement on your right to practice medicine without having to show you know a heart from a femur. et al...etc...ad nauseum...

 

[Moonbeam]

Hehe, tscenter said something intelligent.

I love the people that assume all federal employees are indifferent. People who make such knee jerk assumptions, doubtless the result of listening to right winged wacko radio, are, of course, profoundly indifferent themselves, indifferent to using their brains.

As a matter of fact I would probably be tempted to say, since few seem to want to practice temperance, that most of the complainers about a stupid government are themselves pretty stupid. Airport security isn't as much about making planes save as it is creating the illusion of safely so that people will fly and the economy won't collapse any further that the other idiot in the White House has already helped it to with his stupid tax cut.

 

[bizmark]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Ah, if I understand the premise of your objection, what you're saying is that if a protective measure such as increased airline security is not instantaneously effective and cannot accomplish perfection in its intent then it has no merit and isn't worth the effort.

No, I've said from the beginning that these 'security' methods were worthless, and this is just proving my point.

Did you catch the little tidbit that these reporters carried multiple forms of contraband through "every airport security checkpoint they encountered"? Of course we can't reasonably expect "perfection", but a 100% failure rate certainly gives me pause, especially in a fully independent test like this -- 11 different airports, using different screening machines and employees, and different passengers, bags, and contraband items.

And also I'm not expecting "instantaneous" effectiveness, but don't you think that a full year should be long enough to get most of the bugs wrinkled out of a system as simple as putting a bag through a machine and watching the result on a television screen?

Got anything non-absurd to contribute to this conversation?

FYI link to original NY Daily News article

A security agent at Newark insisted on passing our bag through an X-ray machine twice after spotting a tape recorder, cell phone, two-way pager and radio inside. She remarked: "You're pretty loaded up." It was 5 a.m. Few others were on line. But she never opened our bag - and had no idea she missed a rubber-handled razor knife and box cutter.

 

[bizmark]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Airport security isn't as much about making planes save as it is creating the illusion of safely so that people will fly and the economy won't collapse any further that the other idiot in the White House has already helped it to with his stupid tax cut.

So you like the fact that the government is using millions, if not billions, of dollars in an elaborate hoax that's essentially a waste? "Oh, well, we'll pretend to do something helpful, and that'll fool all the people into flying and save our asses."

 

[Spac3d]

I had a pocket knife I forgot I put in my bookbag 6 months ago. Went through Columbus, OH Internation Airport, Hartsfield in Atlanta, GA, and today in Laguardia, they finally caught it. I didn't even know it was in my bag. They gave me 3 options:

1.) Mail it to myself
2.) Put it on my luggage that wasnt a carryon
3.) They can keep it

The Swiss Army knife was my friends... he STILL hasn't paid me back, so I said confiscate it, I don't want it.

I cant wait to tell him the Federal Governemtn confiscated his custom made Swiss Army Watch

Spac3d

 

[Sciolist]

A month ago, I was flying out of Logan when I was pulled out of line because they spotted something in my purse during the X-ray. The screener was very polite (it was kind of cute that he was embarrassed to have to handle the tampon I had in my purse) and in the center pocket way down in the bottom was a nail file that I had forgotten I had in the purse. It was metal, several inches long, and kind of pointy (but not really sharp). He looked at it closely and said, the rules now say you can keep this. I was dumbfounded; I really expected him to confiscate it! So he gave it back and I went on to the gate.

They didn't spot this nail file on my way TO Boston (Cincinnati airport).

The rules on what you can and cannot carry on airplanes seem strange. Have you seen the part of Michael Moore's book where he discusses why butane lighters are allowed on planes? Online link to chapter of MM book.