They May Not Have Thought This Through

[clovehitched]

Recently in the news is the American TSA (you know, the nice uniformed people in airports who do security) and their new technique for discouraging people from opting out of those awful body scanner security theatre devices. Apparently they have gone in for very public, very intimate pat downs, presumably in an attempt to humiliate refuseniks into using the "perve at your naked body scanners".

One source quotes someone in the know:

An effective pat down "has to be invasive" and touch both breasts and genitals, says Billie Vincent, a former security director for the Federal Aviation Administration. "It is clearly a technique that most people would consider an invasion of their privacy."

Passengers have reported feeling unpleasantly surprised at the intimacy of the searches, but I can't help feeling that the TSA haven't thought this through very clearly, because there's an obvious problem with this from their point of view, which I think I can illustrate with this video:

Just saying...

Also posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/248323.html - you can comment here or there.

Comments

[darkwaterfairy.livejournal.com]

 Having had Radio4 mention last night that;

a) 60% of air freight leaving or entering the UK goes on passenger flights,
b) it's <b>solely</b> up to the country of departure as to whether they want to security checks on said freight,
c) we (UK) have the tightest checks in the world on (outgoing) air freight, but that still manages to only covers a 'representative sample' of items, and is a fraction as through as those done on ALL passenger luggage*.
d) an organisation representing international air freight movers whose name I forget called the system of security checks 'a pathetic mess',

it makes all this stage-show with passenger checks seem terribly like "we have always been at war with Eurasia".

I sometimes wonder if this 'terrorism target - weak point treadmill' (like euphamism treadmill) will continue to be played out till advantage is taken of the fact ISO containers are very rarely checked before entering the country, our lorries regularly haul ISOs into city centres, and they can currently carry up to 29 tons (may be getting increased) [1]. Which in terms of modern chemical explosives equates to ~46tons equiv of TNT.

* yet they check 8 out of 10 parcels for tax levying

[katsmeat.livejournal.com]

For airport security see "the politicans tautology", from Yes Minister...

We must do something.
This is something.
Therefore, we must do it.