okay, this TSA thing
Nov. 23rd, 2010 02:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mickeymI've been reading this article about the scans/pat-downs, and I got to a paragraph that's confusing the hell out of me:
Pistole pointed out that the pat downs are not mandatory -- passengers receive them only if they opt out of a screening with advanced imaging technology. The technology is the TSA's best effort, he said, to head off attacks like the would-be Christmas Day bomber last year. Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab allegedly had a bomb sewn into his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan. (the bolding is mine)
If all of this is being ramped up due to that incident, don't they have it kind of backwards? The flight was coming IN TO the US from another country. So the full-body scans and pat-downs at US airports...isn't going to make one bit of difference if the would-be bomber is coming from somewhere NOT here. Right?
And then this: There has never been an explosive found on a flight from one U.S. city to another, Pistole acknowledged. But, he pointed out, domestic terrorists exist -- Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph and Ted Kaczynski, for instance -- and there are people who want to do the government harm. While America is "fortunate" that such an incident has not occurred on a domestic flight, he said, it could conceivably happen.
Again, I understand the idea that they're presenting, can't be too careful, we've had domestic terrorists, etc., BUT. The three men used as examples had nothing to do with bombs aboard airplanes. Even Kaczynski's bombs -- he sent them to airLINES, but they weren't found on board any flights.
So, anyone want to try and make this make sense for me? Because things just aren't adding up completely for me.
And now I really think I'm going to go to bed. Also? Very glad I'm not traveling and definitely not planning to fly anytime soon.
Pistole pointed out that the pat downs are not mandatory -- passengers receive them only if they opt out of a screening with advanced imaging technology. The technology is the TSA's best effort, he said, to head off attacks like the would-be Christmas Day bomber last year. Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab allegedly had a bomb sewn into his underwear on a flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan. (the bolding is mine)
If all of this is being ramped up due to that incident, don't they have it kind of backwards? The flight was coming IN TO the US from another country. So the full-body scans and pat-downs at US airports...isn't going to make one bit of difference if the would-be bomber is coming from somewhere NOT here. Right?
And then this: There has never been an explosive found on a flight from one U.S. city to another, Pistole acknowledged. But, he pointed out, domestic terrorists exist -- Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph and Ted Kaczynski, for instance -- and there are people who want to do the government harm. While America is "fortunate" that such an incident has not occurred on a domestic flight, he said, it could conceivably happen.
Again, I understand the idea that they're presenting, can't be too careful, we've had domestic terrorists, etc., BUT. The three men used as examples had nothing to do with bombs aboard airplanes. Even Kaczynski's bombs -- he sent them to airLINES, but they weren't found on board any flights.
So, anyone want to try and make this make sense for me? Because things just aren't adding up completely for me.
And now I really think I'm going to go to bed. Also? Very glad I'm not traveling and definitely not planning to fly anytime soon.
