subject: Calvin Gruneck: Airport Security is an illusion [print this page] Calvin Gruneck: Airport Security is an illusion
Calvin Gruneck - Airport security is nothing more than an illusion in a magic show. At the current time Pilots and Flight attendants are exempt from any searches while on duty. Most cargo on passenger planes is not screened, because according to the TSA, it's not feasible. Well, both the Cargo Plane Bomb Plots on October 28th 2010 had their packages each start out on a passenger plane, before one connected to a UPS plane and the other to a FedEx plane. The package bomb found in England contained 400 grams (14 oz) of PETN, which is 5 times the amount needed to level a house. The package bomb found in Dubai contained 300 grams (11 oz) of PETN. So, you can do the math with this one.
Joseph Schwieterman, a Chicago-based transportation expert, told The Associated Press "I think Americans in their hearts, still feel airport security is just a big show-form over substance. So they're impatient with strategies
they feel are just there to placate political demands rather the genuine security threats."
Only a year ago, TSA abandoned its vaunted "Puffer Machines" or Explosive Trace Portals (ETP). TSA estimated the cost of the failed ETP program at approximately $29.6 million dollars. This rush to install new technology is a large part of why the Puffer Machines failed.
Today the new Full Body scanners cost about $170,000 dollars each. The number of scanners jumped from 40 at the start of this year to 373 installed at 68 airports across the USA of last week. The TSA is scheduled to deploy 500 scanners by December 31, 2010, and a total of 1,000 by the end of 2011. The GAO estimates the direct costs over their expected 7 year-life cycle to be $2.4 billion dollars. Stimulus money will fund the TSA scan equipment, but I have heard that some airports will add an additional airport tax fee for passengers to pick-up the tab.
Ben Wallace, a member of Parliament who was formerly involved in a project to develop the scanners for airport use, said trials had shown that materials such as powder, liquid or thin plastic as well as the passenger's clothing-went undetected. Another expert said that although the "Underwear Bomber" had 80 grams or 2.8 oz. of PETN, another person could pass through the current Full Body scanners with 3 times that amount of PETN as long as it was in a round shape with no sharp edges. The Full Body scanners will not pick-up explosives, but only mass. Just 6 grams (0.2 oz) of PETN would be enough to blow a hole in a metal plate twice the thickness of an aircraft's skin.
The TSA has said the need for such measures (Full Body scans and Pat-Downs) was demonstrated last Christmas, when a Nigerian man "Underwear Bomber" allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound plane with explosives hidden in his underwear. To me this doesn't add up. I suggest that you contact your local Congressional representative to complain about this magic show that is just about money and the TSA.
