It’s amazing how time flies. The last time I posted was in October. Today’s my seventeenth birthday. In exactly one year I plan to tell everyone just who I am. I still think just as much as I did six months ago, I just never got back into the habit of writing it all down. I lost a whole lot of amazing things. Starting today I will rework my writing strategy, and instead of writing daily thoughts, I’ll be like everyone else and post long papers of personal opinions. Sound good? And begin.
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Finally, airport security done right.
John Tierny of the NY Times wrote an article at appeared in my local newspaper, and I loved it. I’m going to write down a few quotes. Now.
“Three years ago, officials at the Dulles Airport conducted a little experiment to improve security on international flights. The wanted most passengers to spend less time in line at checkpoints. Today of course, this idea sounds terribly dangerous. Who can afford to worry about passengers’ convenience? Let them wait for hours. Take away their Evians of mass destruction. Last weekend, even reading material became suspect. Who would on a six-hour fight need a book anyway? Stop making trouble and watch the movie!”
“Instead of looking for things, the screeners looked at people. They were looking for unusual behavior such as sweating, rigid exposure, clenched fists. A screener would engage a passenger in conversation, and ask questions he wouldn’t have been trained to expect, like whether he’d seen a Redskins game the night before even though the Redskins hadn’t played. The screeners were looking for telltale body language of someone trying too hard to act natural.”
“The screeners caught no terrorists, but they consistently found people with something to hide, often a forged visa, a stolen airline ticket, drugs or other smuggled goods.”
“Scott McHugh is confident this type of screening would have flagged the Sept. 11 terrorists “or the latest plotters in London.”
“Terrorists will always come up with something new. As long as we keep looking for things from the last plot, we’re inconveniencing 99.99 percent of the people with not real benefit.”
“The TSA should be trying to anticipate new terrorist tactics, like the bomb plot uncovered in England, but it had to raid its research budget to pay for the screening program. It should be looking for new ways to identify dangerous passengers, but it’s too busy following Congress’ mandates.”
“Anyone serious about blowing up an airplane is off somewhere else working on something new.”
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I absolutely love this idea because it’s ingenious. Checkpoints check what? Luggage, because that is usually where people would hide a bomb. But terrorists, there are not that usual. They wanna blow up themselves (in the case of suicide bombers) for cryin’ out loud. Odds are, every checkpoint will check the Muslim man with a turban, a beard, and three bags, but not every one will check the average Joe, who’s nervous and only has an Evian and a Blackberry.
As I say, luggage doesn’t show emotion, so it can’t look guilty. People, on the other hand, can show guilt, nervousness, nausea, anxiety, unease, and apprehension. Most people judge others by what’s on the outside. If you look like a terrorist, you must be a terrorist. The question is what does a terrorist look like? And how can you catch them?
-Mat
Tags: john tierny
