Radiation concerns, flight delays, touching breasts, testicles and crotches are all part of the TSA plans to make air travel safer. Their story is that these new procedures must be tolerated because of the underwear bomber. But a security expert has said it's all baloney. The TSA can't catch anybody.
In an interview with Popular Mechanics, this expert makes it clear, what is going on is pure theater:
Since 9/11, cryptology expert and security consultant Bruce Schneier has been one of the most pointed critics of the government's anti-terrorism security programs. In his 2003 book "Beyond Fear," he coined the phrase "security theater" to refer to measures which are undertaken not because they will be effective at thwarting attacks, but because the agencies carrying them out need to appear to be doing something useful.
Q.
The machines have shown up in the wake of the so-called underwear bomber, who tried to blow up a plane with chemicals stored in his briefs. Would this technology have stopped him?
A
The guys who make the machines have said, "We wouldn't have caught that."
Q
Has there been a case since 9/11 of an attempted hijacker being thwarted by airport security?
A
None that we've heard of. The TSA will say, "Oh, we're not allowed to talk about successes." That's actually bullsh*t. They talk about successes all the time. If they did catch someone, especially during the Bush years, you could be damned sure we'd know about it. And the fact that we didn't means that there weren't any. Because the threat was imaginary. It's not much of a threat. As excess deaths go, it's just way down in the noise. More than 40,000 people die each year in car crashes. It's 9/11 every month. The threat is really overblown.
Q
What's the motive behind introducing this new level of security?
A
It's politics. You have to be seen as doing something, even if nothing is the smart thing to do. You can't be seen as doing nothing.
Q
Is privacy being violated, in your estimation?
A
You go get groped and you tell me.
Q
Is this security theater?
A
100 percent. It won't catch anybody.
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