Privacy Impact Assessment, CBP Automated Targeting System
U.S. gov’t terror ratings draw outrage
Phoenix Airport To Test X-Ray Screening
You know it’s going to happen…and probably sooner rather than later. Someone will try to sneak a suppository bomb onto a plane (and please, no “explosive diarrhea” jokes)…and TSA will respond by requiring cavity searches.
That’s right, sir; bend over and spread ‘em….
I can appreciate the federal government’s security apparatus trying to do something, anything to increase the safety and security of the American flying public. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with thinking outside of the box. Nonetheless, even I have to wonder about a security system that factor’s a traveler’s email address into a terrorism risk assessment. If terrorists used addresses like allahuakbar@f—kamerica.com, I could understand the concern. The reality is, they don’t, and an email address is really indicative of nothing except an electronic mailbox somewhere on Da Interweb.
Have we completely lost our mind? And who says the terrorists haven’t already won?
Flying is already a demeaning and borderline dehumanizing experience. It would be one thing if all of the invasion of privacy actually prevented terrorism, but will someone please tell me what risk taking a bottle of water onto a plane poses? When I went through security at New York’s JFK Airport recently, the security drones confiscated a 12-ounce bottle of water I had neglected to remove from my bag. Man, judging by the reaction, you might have thought I was trying to sneak a stick of dynamite on board my Jet Blue flight.
Here’s what really pissed me off, though: if a bottle of water is viewed as a potential explosive, then shouldn’t it be treated as one? The security drone who confiscated my deadly bottle of water turned around and treated it like a football, tossing it in a tight spiral into a bin 30 feet away. If it’s a risk, TREAT IT LIKE ONE. Otherwise, it just looks like government strong-arming in support of airport concessionaires.
All the latest brain-dead ban has done is create the illusion of safety. As long as people FEEL safe, they ARE safe, right?
If TSA is truly serious about the safety and security of the American flying public, how about we just get right down to it? Stop with the half-measures and the silly prohibitions against dangerous substances…like water…and just go straight to the strip searches and cavity searches.
Sir, is that a hemorrhoid? You’ll have to come with me….
This is insanity….
