Posted on 29th March, 2011 | Tags : airline security, american airlines, amr, anti-terrorist, bob crandall, body scanners, invasive scanning, israeli security | No Comment
I know the current invasive state of Airline Security in the U.S.A. does not make me feel secure. It makes me feel like the terrorists have won. Outrageous? Absolutely not. The few “attempts” to disrupt airline flights by would-be terrorists have resulted in outrageous, invasive screening procedures applied to people who would absolutely never be likely to pose a threat to an American airline.
We are all now subjected to either groping by TSA personnel or full body scans by machines that cost millions of dollars and can still miss concealed weapons – and emit radiation that poses unknown risks to travelers. More than a few scientists and doctors have registered their concern about the harmful effects of this type of radiation that is concentrated in the skin – the most radiation-sensitive organ in our bodies.
Read this article from the London Daily Mail
The latest report, published yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, on the use of “backscatter” scanners, still leaves doubts about the long-term risk of exposure to these devices. Health risks are not the only cause for concern. For many, being subjected to a full body scan is the same as a strip search.
My question is why we need to spend hysterical sums of money for full body scanners when the Israeli security system seems to get along just fine without such invasive procedures or expensive hardware. When was the last time you heard of an Israeli plane being hijacked or blown up? Think about it. The Israeli anti-terrorist approach seems to be working pretty well – and they are located right in the middle of a region where they are not the most popular of neighbors.
Former AMR Chief Bob Crandall, now free to say as he thinks, has had a few choice words to say on this very topic of late. Click on the link above to watch his interview on NBC. Crandall feels we are paying “way too much” for a system that not only inconveniences the traveling public, but produces an inferior job of security. He feels looking for behavior patterns is much more effective that invasive security screening. The Israeli approach to airline security is much more effective according to Crandall.
These are all things I’ve been saying for years. When we put the screws to our own people – our traveling public, the terrorists win. They have inconvenienced us all, changed our way of life and negatively impacted our economy as a result of these few pathetic “attempts” to down a plane. Frightened and abused American travelers who have decided not to fly as a result, are a bonus to the terrorists – and we’re doing it to ourselves.
Stay tuned for an update to this post in a couple of weeks – to be followed by a story of our experiences of a 3-1/2 hour ordeal in 2002 involving airline security.
