Air-travel screening to change Dec. 22

[Stockholm]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Small scissors and screwdrivers are among the items airline passengers will soon be allowed to take aboard planes again, Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley announced Friday.

Hawley said the change will take effect Dec. 22 and is part of a broader effort aimed at having screeners spend more of their time searching for explosives rather than small, sharp objects that don't pose as great a risk.

Passengers also can expect more randomness at security gates so would-be terrorists won't know for sure what they will see. For example, an airport might require all passengers to remove their shoes one day but not the next.

"It is paramount to the security of our aviation system that terrorists not be able to know with certainty what screening procedures they will encounter at airports around the nation," Hawley said. "By incorporating unpredictability into our procedures and eliminating low-threat items, we can better focus our efforts on stopping individuals who wish to do us harm."

more http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PASSENGER_SCREENING?SITE=FLSTU&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&SECTION=HOME

Is it just me or does this make absolutely no sense? Incorporating unpredictability will benefit customers and safety?

[obreaslan]

1. It's my tinfoil hat time.....

When I first heard this I thought the same thing, why would they do this? THen i came to the conclusion as I hear MSM Whore after Whore say that the only way B*sh can improve his poll numbers is if another terrorism attack cam and the people rallied around him.

If they ease up on the safety restrictions, perhaps they will get "lucky" with another 9/11. Something that will allow them to declare marshal law and complete their takeover and cement their hold on this country.

I've always been kind of a LIHOP person, so maybe that's why I see this in there....

:tinfoilhat: :freak: :tinfoilhat: :freak: :tinfoilhat: :freak: :tinfoilhat: :freak:

[ixion]

2. so box cutters are okay now, but we still need the unPATRIOTic Act?

I don't get it. :crazy:

And this whole 'people who want to do us harm' thing is a little rich. You know what does me harm? Standing in a stupid screening line while my blood pressure rises. :grr:

[BlueIris]

3. Oh, trust me. You don't need a tinfoil hat to believe that.

And I still say to those who are freaked: Not gonna happen. He simply doesn't have a way to enforce the kind of revolution the neocons were expecting their henchman to be able to produce in '05. Katrina and other factors (Fitzgerald, J.A., continued unrest regarding the war) would make it impossible for the MSM to spin him as a leader and have it believed. They wouldn't be able to convince people he'd be anything other than a dictator if another attack happened and Bush had to start, then try to implement, a draft. It's my belief that his people have already balked, as have those whose job it would have been to stage the rumored attack. It simply wouldn't be possible to accomplish the kind of end game they'd want.

[loudsue]

4. But they're still going to confiscate cigarette lighters, allow matches!

This, to me, has been the stupidest part of the whole airport screening process. Going through security at Baltimore-Washington Airport recently, my purse went through the x-ray machine SEVEN (!!!!) times before they found a tiny cigarette lighter I had lost in my deep cellphone pouch.

For those who don't know....the security folks have started confiscating thousands of bic lighters. There's a box provided before the long waiting lines where passengers need to deposit their bic lighters before going through security.

But they still allow MATCHES!! Now, a lit matchbook can burn pretty darned well if one were to light the cover and all the matches. While a bic can only produce one small flame at a time. Is it just me, or is this ridiculous?

In fact, I'm so thoroughly sick and tired of airport screening methods I could scream. Yes, they should x-ray everybody's bags. And sometimes they should x-ray shoes. I have a pair of summer sandals that are made up of a VERY thin sole, and two cloth straps that hold this very thin sole on my foot. If I was going to store a bomb in there, it would be small enough that the new technology alone would revolutionize the world's militaries. (size 5 shoe) And these shoes on a mid-50's aged woman, looking like someone's neighbor.

You should have seen what security did to a young mother with an infant and a toddler in tow! They treated her like a terrorist! Poor thing went through a nightmare over the diaper bag!!

I'm just so sick of the terror we experience at an airport every time we want to board a plane -- terror coming from our own government employees.

:kick::kick::kick:

[LibertyLover]

5. BWI

Living in Maryland, we use BWI when we fly and I can't stand their security screening garbage. The last time I flew, I was "selected" for the random screening. It was a nightmare. My 3 year old daughter didn't want to stay where they told her - too far away from mommy and they got very annoyed with her when she wanted to be near me. When I got sent back through the metal detector (why- since I hadn't set it off the first time?) she happily trotted after me. The one screener yelled at her and me that she wasn't supposed to do that. I finally asked him if he had ever gotten a 3 year old to do what they were told and his response was yes - my son knows he'll get beat if he doesn't do what we say. Wow-lucky kid. When they decided to wand me I was told to turn and face the wall - and who was watching to make sure my daughter didn't wander away - nobody - so of course she did. I caught her movement out of the corner of my eye and turned around to call her back and had the wander get annoyed. They really did seem to expect me not to worry about keeping my toddler under close supervision in a busy airport terminal. NFW.

[Rich Hunt]

6. well, here's the problem

I remember going to this one website...I can't remember which one it was, and I saw all of these prototypical 'weapons'. Fact is, if it's a 'container' of some sort, no matter how small, it could probably be turned into a deadly weapon of some kind.

It sounds paranoid, but I wouldn't put anything past these terrorists.

[MadHound]

9. Well, actually I can understand the whole lighter thing a bit

There is a quick and dirty way of turning a lighter into a small shrapnel bomb if one is clever. All it involves is removal a valve and sparking the sucker up.

[MindPilot]

7. This is all such bullshit, harassing old ladies and small children

If a terrorist wants to cause problems, all they have to do is phone in a threat of some kind. The airport will be closed, flights diverted, various agencies activated. A single phone call can screw up the entire air travel system, and cost millions and millions of dollars. If they really wanted to cause havoc, coordinate threats to several airports and the system will shut down completely.

[mikeytherat]

8. If it weren't so serious, this would be soooooooooo funny

"Among the items no longer prohibited from airliner cabins: scissors with blades of 4 inches or less, and tools such as screwdrivers, wrenches and pliers that are smaller than 7 inches. Box-cutters and small knives will remain on the list of banned items."

Box cutters and small knives are a no-no, but scissors with a four-inch blade are OK? So, I take my DHS-approved scissors, pop them in half, and now I have two knives with four-inch blades. And certainly, you couldn't do anything nefarious with a screwdriver; it's not like it is capable of creating a puncture wound, or anything.

mikey_the_rat

[KamaAina]

10. Just in time for the busy holiday travel season...

...lines out the door into the snow (well, no snow at HNL, we trust, but still...)

Under the new plan, more passengers will likely be subjected to secondary screening and pat-downs will include the arms and legs as well as the torso. More canine teams will patrol airports....

Brilliant move, morans. Take two or three minutes patting down each and every passenger (does that make us "patsies"? :-) ). Meanwhile, canine teams will be "patrolling airports", scaring the living, um, daylights out of some people, while what they should be doing is sniffing baggage and cargo for explosives.

What is the sudden impetus for this? Did we just go to a "Brown Alert" or something?