In the aftermath of the thwarted terrorist attack in Detroit, the TSA is scrambling to provide what can only be the “appearance of safety”. Janet Napolitano and crew have completely skipped over why the terrorist attack was thwarted. TSA has simply disregarded that passengers on the plane noticed odd behavior and foiled the plot of the would-be terrorist attack.
TSA played no role in preventing this attack. The terrorist got through security, foiled the TSA, safely boarded the plane unhindered by security, and was thwarted only when private citizens successfully prevented the terrorist from blowing up the plane.
In no point did TSA provide any “security” from this near disaster. And now, TSA is taking steps to prevent future attacks of this nature. However, the new restrictions do nothing to prevent what happened. As Radley Balko points out at The Agiator:
In addition to keeping with its usually tradition of making policy on a reactionary basis, this one wouldn’t even have done anything to prevent the attempt over the weekend. The guy was in his seat when he tried to light the explosive device. And the passenger who confronted him got out of his seat to do it.
Also, if the goal was to bring the plane down from the air, why add restrictions for the last hour of the flight?
Seems to me that what this, Flight 93, and the Richard Reid incident have shown us is that the best line of defense against airplane-based terrorism is us. Alert, aware, informed passengers.
TSA, on the other hand, equates hassle with safety. For all the crap they put us through, this guy still got some sort of explosive material on the plane from Amsterdam. He was stopped by law-abiding passengers. So TSA responds to all of this by . . . announcing plans to hassle law-abiding U.S. passengers even more.
If you’re really cynical, you could make a good argument that they’re really only interested in the appearance of safety. They’ve simply concluded that the more difficult they make your flight, the safer you’ll feel. Never mind if any of the theatrics actually work.
What we need is less TSA. Private citizens have proven to be more effective in preventing terrorism.
UPDATE: Former DHS officials are calling for Underwear Scanners according to Wired. These scanners are truly nuts. In June of 2009, Congress voted to prohibit TSA from using these machines as “primary” security scanners. I would highly suspect that Congress will end the Underwear Scanner prohibition in short order.
TSA is a joke and always has been. We all knew that the Patriot Act was nothing more than a government power grab and the continual growth of Homeland Security continues to prove this daily.
It’s sad that this event happened. Perhaps if airlines were in charge of their security, they would have done more to prevent this event. It’s sad that we live in a world where government bureaucrats think they can protect us better than any private sector company could. This event only proves that the private citizen is better equipped to stop terrorism than anyone else.
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