[IP] re TSA overreaction to Delta incident

"Although transportation officials had not announced new

security measures yet, Air Canada said the Transportation Security

Agency would make significant changes to the way passengers are able

to move about on aircraft. During the final hour of flight,

*customers will have to remain seated*

Wouldn't this technically prevent the very action that saved this

flight? If people are told to remain seated -- especially over the PA

system by a flight attendent who does not have line of sight to a

potential attacker -- that can only serve to increase the passivity

of passengers under attack.

Would make a for a fun headline though --- Heroic passenger now in

violation of TSA's new rules

Ah, but it's entirely consistent with TSA's improv-based security theater.

Remember the shoe bomber? He tried to detonate pentaerythritol tetranitrate
(PETN) hidden in his shoe by lighting a fuse with a match.

Overnight we were putting our shoes on the scanning belts. But initially, we
only had to remove our leather shoes and sandals. We *didn't* have to take
off our athletic shoes. You know, the type of footwear the *shoe bomber
actually wore.*

Turns out shoe type is irrelevant. A chemical test is needed to identify
PETN. The substance is essentially undetectable by scanners- which is
probably why the pants bomber was able to get *his* PETN-based device
through security, eight years after the shoe bomber made his attempt.

So, how's the shoe scanning working out, fellas?

And the shoe bomber's matches? TSA immediately responded by banning
cigarette lighters, but *not* matchbooks. Airport security seized about
22,000 lighters a day. In the meantime, you could carry on safety matches,
thereby giving you 20 tries to ignite your undetectable explosive device.

I suspect the government has secretly retained Jim Abrahams, David Zucker,
and Jerry Zucker- the guys responsible for the classic film "Airplane"- as
consultants.

Airport worker: "Maybe we oughta turn on the search lights now."

Robert Stack: "No... That's just what they'll be expecting us to do!"

Regards,

KGB

-----
Kevin G. Barkes
Email: kgbarkes@yahoo.com
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-----Original Message-----

From: Dave Farber [mailto:dave@farber.net]

Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 10:18 AM

To: ip

Subject: [IP] re TSA overreaction to Delta incident

Begin forwarded message:

From: Saikat Guha <saikat@cs.cornell.edu>

Date: December 26, 2009 11:21:57 PM EST

To: <mailto:dave@farber.net> dave@farber.net

Cc: ip <ip@v2.listbox.com>

Subject: Re: [IP] TSA overreaction to Delta incident

On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 7:23 PM, Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>

wrote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/us/27plane.html

--

Saikat

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