Mother Jones - Comments for "From the Annals of Airport Security"

Private jet companies typically have no security at all. You wonder how all the coke and heroin arrives in the states? and whay it's so freakin expensive? It's flown in on a chartered jet. pretty much anyone can just drive up with their car on the tarmac, pick up the goods, and take off.
Most of these charter flights have a berth at major airports, so gaining access to, say BWI or OAK or SFO is pretty easy.
I guess I'll be put ont he no fly list again, after this posting. The last time I was on it was due to feeding the homeless with a soup kitchen.

All of your names above have been placed on the No-Fly List by the toothless one himself, Chertoff.

Umm, Kevin?

I dont want to worry you, but there was this man here asking about you... he didnt say who he was, but he arrived in a black helicopter...

Not sure about saline solution, but if you say it's liquid baby formula they let it pass. And I think they'll allow ice packs if you say it's to keep medicine cold...

Haven't we already lost the 'war on terror' if our citizens are traveling scared?

The truth has a well-known terrorist bias.

Downing a plane is a good way to incite panic in our economy and cause a lot of psychological mayhem. Why the 9/11 plotters chose their particular acts we may never know. Not everyone flies. It seems something like a poison or toxin in a major city's drinking water would work better to mess with our heads. Everyone drinks tap water, or bathes in it, cooks with it and does laundry. If I never flew 9/11 was still awful but doesn't represent a direct threat to me. Poisoned drinking water killing a few dozen people in Cleveland has me looking over my shoulder. I could be next. I think sometimes the things we fear most are the least likely to happen. 9/11 has been done. The next attack if it's coming will be something completely different. Probably something we aren't even preparing for. Kinda like flying planes into buildings was.

"Maybe it's harder for certain nationalities. "

Depends on the airport. In Dubai, they normally hire Pakistanis. That's reassuring, isn't it? The guy handling your bags might have actually met bin Laden personally. But at least you can be assured that the gift shops will hire hot blond Swedish women.

Certainly giving a baggage handler $100,000 in cash to assist in some sort of plot would enable the deed. Find one with a record, in debt, sketchy allegiances to the nation, don't give a damn attitude, disregard for human life. You know, the average citizen.

Better yet, just have one of your cell members get a job doing baggage handling. It can't be that hard to get a job at the airport. Maybe it's harder for certain nationalities.

But still, do that, and they'll pay you!

"Drunk and bored again, fostert? :-)"

No, just bored. But this is actually a serious issue. The fact that a joker like me can easily violate airport security is a real problem.

Oops. That last one was mine.

Posted by: fostert
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Drunk and bored again, fostert? :-)

Oops. That last one was mine.

"If a terrorist wanted to take down a plane wouldn't working from the inside accomplish it?"

Good point, Steve. I spent four hours being interrogated in the Auckland airport for having methamphetamine residue on my luggage. Turns out, my baggage was used to transport drugs by a smuggling ring that used the baggage handlers. They put it in after the security checks, and then took it out before it even got inside the next airport.

It's even easier than the quoted article says. You don't have to save it as a PDF. You can save it as html.

If a terrorist wanted to take down a plane wouldn't working from the inside accomplish it? Airport employees don't make a great deal of money. Certainly giving a baggage handler $100,000 in cash to assist in some sort of plot would enable the deed. Find one with a record, in debt, sketchy allegiances to the nation, don't give a damn attitude, disregard for human life. You know, the average citizen. Tell the guy the target plane is France bound and full of feminist atheist journalists writing a negative story about McCain. The terrorist would have to fight off the volunteers.

Here's a scary one from the Dubai airport three years ago. We got off the plane on the tarmac and were then bussed to the airport. There was a huge line to get in. I kept jockeying for position in the line. Suddenly, I realized that I was already past security and nobody had checked me at all. Oops. And I was never checked again when I boarded the next plane. I could have just walked off the street with a bomb in my carry-on. And got on a plane without ever passing through any security. And that's in Dubai. Think there might be some terrorists going through that airport? There's certainly a fair share of mercenaries, arms traders, and money launderers. The scary thing is that it gets worse. I was stuck there for two days and was really bored. So I decided to violate security again just to pass the time. It was fun, and I did it five more times. I had no training in this kind of thing. I was just drunk and bored. The only thing that protects that airport is the fact that most of the terrorist financing goes through Dubai. Wouldn't want to bite the hand that feeds you.