December 9, 2004 7:46 AM

Is that a bomb in your bag, or are you just glad to see me?

Bomb training exercise leaves police red-faced: French security lost suitcase with planted explosives

Now this ought to scare the hell out of anyone who travels internationally. I wonder if French police bothered to consider the possible complications that their training scenario could cause should something go wrong- which is apparently exactly what happened in this instance.

Honey, did you remember to pack the explosives??

PARIS - Somewhere in the world, there’s a navy blue suitcase with a small pack of explosives tucked in its side pocket.

Four days after police at Charles de Gaulle Airport slipped plastic explosives into a random passenger’s bag as part of an exercise for sniffer dogs, it is still missing ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ and authorities are stumped and embarrassed.

Police have sought to minimize public concern by insisting that there’s nothing to worry about: The explosives had no detonator and are unlikely to pose a danger.

But that does little to diminish the fact that the French airport security has been planting explosives in the suitcases of unsuspecting passengers ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ all in the name of safety….

The training exercise was aimed at providing sniffer dogs a real-life airport scenario — a technique that has been used for years.

Blame, in this case, cannot be placed on the dogs. Two police officers involved in the exercise stashed a pack of plastic explosives into the side pocket of the suitcase as it rolled along a conveyer belt. One dog successfully identified the bag, but police then lost track of it when they went to fetch a second dog.

Consider this possibility, if you will. The explosives were placed in the side pocket of your suitcase. The bag gets missed by both dogs and police. As you board the Paris-New York flight, your bag is loaded into the cargo hold. As far as you know, life is good.

When you get to New York, you’re suddenly and ominously pulled aside as you attempt to go through Customs. Immediately, you’re surrounded by FBI agents, handcuffed, and placed under arrest. WHY ARE YOU ATTEMPTING TO BRING EXPLOSIVES INTO THE US??? is what the agents demand to know. You, of course, have no clue at to what the f—k is going on. Before you know it, you are under lock and key and being charged as a terrorist…all because French police decided to use your bag to test their security system.

Think this couldn’t happen? The next time you travel, consider just how much time your bags spend out of your sight. Do you know what is being done to those bags from the time you check them in until you pick them up at your destination? Who has gone through them? Who repacked them? Did they leave anything behind? There is no way to know, of course, and as long as this is the case, the scenario I’ve outlined above is not at all out of the realm of possibility…and do you really think anyone will believe your protestations of innocence? Not in this post-9.11 paranoid world.

People will no doubt laugh at the incompetence of French police. This will remain funny…until someone finds themself caught in the scenario I’ve outlined. Then what? Of course, as a suspected terrorist, you are presumed guilty until proven innocent. You can be held without bail, without access to an attorney…without anything required by due process until such time as the government deigns to allow you these rights. No, there is nothing funny about this, and it CAN, perhaps even WILL happen to someone sometime. You’d best just hope that it’s not you.

Travel light, y’all….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on December 9, 2004 7:46 AM.

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