bluelectric.org

That's why

The reason there are few attempts to blow up airplanes is not because we have successfully restricted people from blowing up airplanes. It’s because not many people want to blow up airplanes.
squashed, via marco.org

Filed under: politics terrorism

I Shall Not Be Scanned

Nacktscanner ist eigentlich ein Wort für ein Gerät, das Menschen an Flughäfen bis auf die Haut durchleuchtet, um verborgene Waffen und Sprengstoffe zu finden. Nacktscanner sind aber auch Politiker, die Menschen im Namen der Sicherheit bis auf die Haut ausziehen wollen - am Flughafen, im Internet, in ihrer Wohnung. Jeder neue Terroranschlag, jedes versuchte Attentat ist Wasser auf die Mühlen der politischen Nacktscanner.
Michael Spreng, sprengsatz.de

Translation: Body scanners [literally: naked people's body scanner] literally are devices to scan people at airports for hidden weapons and explosives. But body scanners are also politicians who want to undress people in the name of security - at the airport, on the Internet, in their apartments. Each new terror attack, each attempted assassination is water to the mills of political body scanners.

I consider myself a frequent flyer. Actually, this is less spectacular than it used to be: bimonthly crossings of the Atlantic oceans and weekly cross-country flights have long been replaced with weekly short-haul flights. Still, I'm walking to metal detectors and being padded down more often than I deem it necessary.

This might change - if Germany's federal government actually proceeds with plans to install body scanners at all of the country's airports - never mind that experts are doubtful of the effectiveness of body scanners (article in German); never mind that Israel's El Al airline has a near-perfect security track record without body scanners.

I, too, want to be safe when flying. The 9/11 hijackers could have been prevented from destroying the World Trade Center and, partially, the Pentagon through body scanners. But that was in a different world where box cutters were as good as admitted to airplane cabins. More recently, the so-called shoe bomber and the Nigerian who tried to bring down a Delta airplane before New Year would have passed even the most developed scanners available today without problems. Body scanners may serve a purpose - I suspect it is the scanner producing industry's rather than anything else. But that might just be me.

So here's my resolution for 2010: Since I live in a relatively small country with a (relatively) reliable high-speed railroad infrastructure, I will fly less and travel by train more often - if necessary, up to 100 % of my in-country trips. And with the introduction of body scanners at my local airport, I will officially renounce my frequent flyer status.

Filed under: privacy security terrorism

Dangerous Thought
Failure is interesting, as a strategy, because it doesn't require the necessary planning, funding, and training required for a potentially successful attack.  As a result, attacks can be made quickly across a broad spectrum of targets.
John Robb, author of globalguerrillas.typepad.com

John Robb is a United States author, blogger, entrepreneur and former USAF pilot. His idea of failure as a strategy implies that the goal of terrorists (I hate this word - it has been overused quite a bit recently!) could change (or has changed already?) from killing people to disrupting their lives.

Which could much easier be achieved by supposedly unsuccessful terrorist attacks like the recent incident on board a Northwest/Delta airplane which still result in even more regulations and formalities inhibiting our ways of life.

On the other hand: al Qaeda probably don't need Robb to come up with an observation they themselves may have made already.

Filed under: politics terrorism
11
To Posterous, Love Metalab