Entries Tagged "security theater"

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No-Fly List to Be Scrubbed

After over five years of harassing innocents and not catching any terrorists, the no-fly list is finally being checked for accuracy, and probably cut in half.

Yes, it’s great to see that even the threat of oversight by a Democratic Congress is enough to get these things done, but it’s nowhere near enough.

The no-fly list doesn’t work. And, of course, you can easily bypass it. You can 1) print a boarding pass under an assumed name or buy a ticket under an assumed name, or 2) fly without ID. In fact, the whole notion of checking ID as a security measure is fraught with problems. And the list itself is just awful.

My favorite sound bite:

Imagine a list of suspected terrorists so dangerous that we can’t ever let them fly, yet so innocent that we can’t arrest them – even under the draconian provisions of the Patriot Act.

Even with a better list, it’s a waste of money.

Posted on January 19, 2007 at 7:14 AM • View Comments

FedEx Refuses to Ship Empty Containers

Security theater at its finest:

Me [going into post-9/11, TSA-style super-dumbfounded mode]: So what you’re saying is you can’t ship any sort of containers, even if they’re empty? You know that we originally ordered these empty cans and jars from a company, and *they* shipped them to *us*.

FedEx guy: They must have used a different vendor [“vendor”? I can’t remember, some word like that, like a “service”].

Which I imagine he said because he couldn’t bring himself to say, “It’s the *words* that are *on* the containers that are dangerous”—even after I had opened them all and demonstrated the utter harmlessness/emptiness of the containers themselves.

Posted on January 17, 2007 at 1:35 PM • View Comments

Do Terrorists Lie?

Terrorists might bomb airplanes, take and kill hostages, and otherwise terrorize innocents. But there’s one thing they just won’t do: lie on government forms. And that’s why the State of Ohio requires certain license (including private pilot licenses) applicants to certify that they’re not terrorists. Because if we can’t lock them up long enough for terrorism, we’ve got the additional charge of lying on a government form to throw at them.

Okay, it’s actually slightly less silly than that. You have to certify that you are not a member of, a funder of, a solicitor for, or a hirer of members of any of these organizations, which someone—presumably the Department of Homeland Security—has decided are terrorist organizations.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is pissed off, as they should well be.

More security theater.

I assume Ohio isn’t the only state doing this. Does anyone know anything about other states?

EDITED TO ADD (1/18): Here’s a Pennsylvania application or a license to carry firearms that asks: “Is your character and reputation such that you would be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety?” I agree that Pennsylvania shouldn’t issue carry permits to people for whom this is true, but I’m not sure that asking them is the best way to find out.

Posted on January 17, 2007 at 7:34 AM • View Comments

MI5 Terror Alerts by E-mail

Sounds like security theater to me:

But he added that one of the difficult questions was what people should do about the information when they receive it: “There’s not necessarily that much information on the website about how you should act and how you should respond other than being vigilant and calling a hotline if you see anything suspicious.”

The first, called Threat Level Only, will inform the recipient if the nationwide terror threat level changes. The condition is currently listed as severe.

The second more inclusive service is called What’s New, and will be a digest of the latest information from MI5, including speeches made by the director general and links to relevant websites.

I’ve written about terror threat alerts in the UK before.

EDITED TO ADD (1/15): System is in shambles and being overhauled:

Digital detective work by campaigners revealed that the alerting system did little to protect the identities of anyone signing up.

They found that data gathered was being stored in the US leading to questions about who would have access to the list of names and e-mail addresses.

Posted on January 10, 2007 at 6:31 AM • View Comments

Licensing Boaters

The U.S. Coast Guard is talking about licensing boaters. It’s being talked about as an antiterrorism measure, in typical incoherent ways:

The United States already has endured terrorism using small civilian craft, albeit overseas: In 2000, suicide bombers in the port of Aden, Yemen, used an inflatable boat to blow themselves up next to the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 sailors and wounding 39 others.

Terrorism experts point to other ways small boats potentially could assist in attacks ­ for example, a speedboat could deposit saboteurs at the outlet pipes of a nuclear power plant, or hijackers aboard a cruise ship. In a nightmare scenario, suicide bombers in a crowded harbor could use small watercraft to detonate a tanker carrying ultra-volatile liquefied natural gas, causing a powerful explosion that could kill thousands.

And how exactly is licensing watercraft supposed to help?

There are lots of good reasons to license boats and boaters, just as there are to license cars and drivers. But counterterrorism is not one of them.

Posted on January 4, 2007 at 2:35 PM • View Comments

ID Cards to Stop Bullying

No, really:

“Introducing photo ID cards will help bring an end to bullying over use of ‘cash free’ cards for school meals, will assist with access to school bus services and, ultimately, can be used to add security to school examinations,” he said.

“SSTA members report frequently that young people are bullied into handing over their cards for school meals to others, thus leaving them without their meal entitlement.

“With non-identified cards this will remain a problem. If photo ID is introduced widely, then the problem will dramatically reduce.”

He said that introducing such a system would also help prepare young people for “the realities of identity management in the 21st Century”.

I agree with this:

However, Green MSP Patrick Harvie said the suggestion was troubling.

“We should be preparing young people for the reality of defending their privacy and civil liberties against ever-more intrusive government systems,” he argued.

“We’ve heard proposals for airport-style scanners and random drug testing in schools, fingerprinting is already in place in some schools. There’s a risk of creating environments which feel more like penal institutions than places of learning.

“These ID cards will do absolutely nothing to address the causes of bullying. Instead they will teach the next generation that an ID card culture is ‘normal’, and that they should have to prove their entitlement to services.”

It’s important that schools teach the right lessons, and “we’re all living in a surveillance society, and we should just get used to it” is not the right lesson.

Posted on January 4, 2007 at 6:17 AM • View Comments

Monkeys, Snowglobes, and the TSA

The TSA website is a fascinating place to spend some time wandering around. They have rules for handling monkeys:

TSOs have been trained to not touch the monkey during the screening process.

And snow globes are prohibited in carry-on luggage:

Snow globes regardless of size or amount of liquid inside, even with documentation, are prohibited in your carry-on. Please ship these items or pack them in your checked baggage.

Ho ho ho, everyone.

Posted on December 21, 2006 at 1:24 PM • View Comments

Sneaking into Airports

The stories keep getting better. Here’s someone who climbs a fence at the Raleigh-Durham Airport, boards a Delta plane, and hangs out for a bunch of hours.

Best line of the article:

“It blows my mind that you can’t get 3.5 ounces of toothpaste on a plane,” he said, “yet somebody can sneak on a plane and take a nap.”

Exactly. We’re spending millions enhancing passenger screening—new backscatter X-ray machines, confiscating liquids—and we ignore the other, less secure, paths onto airplanes. It’s idiotic, that’s what it is.

Posted on December 20, 2006 at 1:17 PM • View Comments

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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.