“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ” Ben Franklin

This is just another contrived measure to see how far they ca push us into being controlled by the state. Wake up America!!

Fed up in Chico, CA

While, you’re whining……………the TSA:

TSA Week at a Glance: 12/14/09 to 12/21/09]

21 passengers were arrested after investigations of suspicious behavior or fraudulent travel documents
37 firearms found at checkpoints
3 artfully concealed prohibited items found at checkpoints
37 incidents that involved a checkpoint closure, terminal evacuation or sterile area breach

Coincidence????

As for the virtual strip search, Allah has clearly answered the TSA’s prayers by providing a needed dose of FEAR that, by right, should instantly silence (and properly humble) everyone who objected to full-body scanners on “privacy” grounds. The scanners probably would have found the underwear bomb, and finally given the TSA’s PR flaks a genuine “success” to crow about. But I suspect even that might not instill enough confidence in the TSA to silence the objections.

The strip search might be more acceptable if we could be assured that the loss of privacy and dignity will buy us actual security. The strip search scanner would have caught the underwear bomber only if the vigilant officers in the remote hidey-holes who spend their days peering at our nude bodies do their jobs effectively. Unfortunately, the TSA’s consistent track record in audits and undercover tests gives no reason to believe that they’d do any better with more intrusive inspection than they’re doing now.

The fact is that anything that actually could provide effective protection would be so costly and intrusive as to make air travel itself impractical. For example, the TSA could require all passengers to arrive four hours early for a full security inspection that includes a full “dump search” inspection of all belongings. Then the passenger strips naked in front of an officer, who conducts a limited body cavity search (similar to what prisoners undergo) and hands the passenger a prison-style jump suit (without pockets) which is worn until arrival at the final destination airport. The only belongings a passenger may carry are identification papers, tickets, boarding passes, and perhaps enough cash to buy replacements for any lost items, all in a clear plastic bag. Everything else is checked baggage. If you have valuable items with which you aren’t willing to trust the checked baggage handling, you’ll have to FedEx them separately.

That regime would probably reduce the risk of a terrorist attack to as close to zero as humanly possible– assuming that cargo and the airport itself are secure (another major flaw in the current “security theater” approach). But how many people would choose to fly if that’s what flying involved? The balance of hassle and security does need to be addressed decisively, but not by TSA bureaucrats acting in secret with no accountability for the effectiveness of what they impose.

You are incorrect about your statement that TSA’s program to install and use “full body scanning” has been banned. In fact, their program is being implemented as rapidy as originally planned.

Today there are 40 “full body scanning” devices in 19 airports across the country. TSA will be installing 150 more next year. That’s $52,500,000 worth of the scanners (includes installation and the room needed for observation of the results) already planned.

So, clearly our small voice hasn’t slowed down TSA’s implementation of the “full body scan” equipment one bit, but you’re right, as currently proposed, I’m against their implementation, as are many other Americans. I think our objections can be overcome with some reasonable safeguards in the procedures used to utilize them in the country’s overall transportation security strategy. I don’t know why TSA hasn’t done anything about that, but it may be because they currently have no head of the agency and therefore a lack of leadership to get the job done. Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) continues to hold up the approval of Erroll Southers, a former FBI special agent and a counterterrorism expert, who has the unanimous bipartisan blessing of 2 Senate committees. Many think he might actually bring some sanity to the TSA asylum.

Even so, you can’t blame the lack of “full body scanning” on this incident (we can’t force the Netherlands to use such equipment in its airports) and you can’t say this is the one piece of equipment which could have stopped this incident or ones like it. A simple pat-down search would have discovered the explosives sewn into the man’s underwear. Properly red flagging this man due to a host of factors would have caused secondary screening which would have stopped him, and caused a revocation of his visa. The UK denied him a visa and told our State Department, but they failed to act.

You’re really not going to send that check? (LOL)

WHAT ACTIONS should be taken to prevent this from happening again? anyone?

Of course, anyone with half a brain realizes that such new rules don’t improve security and only result in making flying a pain in the neck for everyone. But that doesn’t matter to DHS/TSA. As you said, the inmates are running the asylum and they are spending more effort trying to win the PR war than in trying to figure out how to actually improve security.

My Advice: When you decide to go somewhere on holidays, vacations, funerals, reunions, business trips, etc., drive your car or take a bus or train.