new security measures by TSA

Because the TSA folks we hire here are people making about $8 an hour.

 

That and the Israeli people are trained military (I would think, at least they have military training, as service is compulsory). Maybe the TSA should hire some of these Iraq/Afghan vets coming back to the states who don't have a job. They would have a good understanding of what to look for and how to diffuse a situation should it arise.

 

No, I understand that.

That's part of the problem. The government and HS makes all this noise about security, blah, blah, and then put untrained staff at the front lines.

They're basically mall security guards working in airports.

As the article points out, the guy would tried to blow up the airplane in Detroit would never had made it INSIDE the airport in Israel.

 

Because they are concerned with stopping real, consistent threats.

We are partially concerned with stopping real, occasional threats and mostly concerned with making people feel better.

 

Government must, of course, protect us from all danger, real and imagined, and it must do so without spending any actual money.

 

Oh, especially without spending money or, even worse, taxing us for anything. Because you know taxes are evil in any form or fashion. Unless we need the money for illegal wars. Then by all means take all the money you need.

 

To be fair, Israel has how many major airports? A handful? Multiply that cost by 100 or 200 and the price is pretty high. Don't get me wrong, I'd gladly pay an extra $25/ticket if I knew it was going directly to increased airport security, but it seems like a long way off.

If Sept. 11 didn't cause a fundamental change in how we handle airport security -- aside from after-the-fact policy changes -- I don't know what will.

 

According to the Israeli security expert, anyway.

They pointed out that there hasn't been a breach in any form in four or five years, and obviously there hasn't been any major airline attack in Israel in far longer. That's obviously fantastic. I'd be interested to know how many bombs and attacks they have actually sniffed out in the parking lot, however.

The US system obviously is far from perfect, but I think there's evidence it's not all together ineffective either. The last two attempts we knew about -- shoe bomber and this guy -- didn't exactly get on the plane with a stick of dynamite hanging out of their back pocket and a lighter. They went to great lengths to conceal their bombs and in the end perhaps the hurdles the admittedly in-efficient security system threw up proved to much. Neither bomb worked.

If it was so easy to get past airport security in this country, you wouldn't think terrorists would A. fail, and B. try so infrequently.

 

Based on the history of succcess, I'll tend to believe the Israeli security knows a little about what he's talking about. As opposed to people who, you know, have a stake in maintaining their smoke and mirrors security show.

The point that guy made is that there are several layers of security checks before you even reach the check in counter.

It's absolutely ridiculous to think that these guys concealed their bombs and no one managed to catch them. That in and of itself is a display of utter incompetence.

And the fact that neither bombed worked proves what? That luck saved the day.

Oh, good, mall cops and a four leaf clover are in charge of airport security.

Makes me feel better.

 

100 or 200? What are you considering a major airport?

 

I could get behind that idea. The vets would have better training and/or experience than the current crop, it'd be good PR for the TSA (shock horror), and it would take a pretty cold airport patron to give abuse to heap abuse on a military vet.

Of course, even those folks would get ground down over time if they got paid serf wages for a thankless job.

 

Does this count?