NYT: Senators Criticize Decision to Allow Scissors on Planes

[DeepModem Mom]

Senators Criticize Decision to Allow Scissors on Planes
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: December 13, 2005


WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Transportation Security Administration's plan to allow scissors and screwdrivers through airport checkpoints so it can focus on bigger threats like bombs drew criticism from the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing on Monday.

Several other Republicans and a chorus of Democrats have also questioned the change, with some proposing legislation to prohibit it.

Edmund Hawley, the assistant secretary of homeland security who is in charge of the security agency, testified before the Commerce Committee that the ban on scissors was sensible when flights resumed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But Mr. Hawley said other measures that had since been put in place, including fortified cockpits and an increased use of air marshals, reduced the chance of terrorists storming a cockpit, as they did on four planes that day....

***

But the committee chairman, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, said he found that logic "difficult to follow." Mr. Stevens proposed instead that the security agency reduce the number of bags that passengers may carry on board to one from two....Two House Democrats, Joseph Crowley of New York and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, recently introduced legislation, called Leave All Blades Behind, that would freeze the list of prohibited items as it is now, though the security agency would be allowed to add items to it....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/13/politics/13planes.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1134450438-MxMBWDbkzrSv0cBsBtpdZg

[babylonsister]

1. For crying out loud! I enjoy scissors in my travels because

they can chop the little hairs on my face. Are they really dangerous?
Screwdrivers en route, I don't have a clue. Give me a reason why you
would need one.

[MazeRat7]

2. To get drunk ?

[babylonsister]

3. Please enlighten me; how will a screwdriver get you drunk? nt

[MazeRat7]

4. vodka+orange juice=screwdriver. (n/t)

[babylonsister]

8. OK, I'm a peasant; I didn't get it.

:)

[MadisonProgressive]

23. But if you add Galliano, it turns into a Harvey Wallbanger!

[Qanisqineq]

5. LOL

:rofl:

the drink :toast:

orange juice and vodka (if I remember correctly)

[uppityperson]

7. To unscrew the hardened cockpit door?

because all you have is a carryon and don't want to check a bag merely to get your tools through?

[SharonAnn]

10. I use them for needlework while traveling. It was stress relief.

But no more. The requirements are that all passengers must be stressed out to the max.

[MaineDem]

15. So do I but I have travel scissors that aren't banned.

More like little snippers that don't have long blades.

[pagandem4justice]

6. Look out for those scissors!

Ahh, the myth of the killer manicure scissors rears its ugly head again.

Never mind that I can't really buy the "boxcutters take over a jet" scenario to begin with.

:think:

[babylonsister]

9. Tis puzzling, but they are sharp. nt

[Occulus]

11. Okay, tihs I DO have a problem with....

My momma has a pair of shears. PRO shears. They are eight inches long, razor sharp, and pointy on the end, like a pin.

I am STILL afraid to even WALK with these through the house and thus hold them away from my body, and out to the side, when I walk with them. Mind, I am no klutz. But THESE.... brrrr.

Not on a plane, thanks. Put 'em in your baggage, and use... something less sharp and pointy.

I HATE MY MOM'S SHEARS. They scare me.

(only half sarcasm, there, folks. I really DO hate my mom's shears. They scare the wits out of me.)

[wakeme2008]

12. There is an "inch" limit on them

I forgot it but I think it's like three inch blades.

[truthisfreedom]

13. is our government run by little children?

can't they let the adults be in charge? this is just another ridiculous disctraction from bush's war crimes.

[Peace Patriot]

14. Oh those Senators, always looking out for our safety and security!

Gotta love 'em! Couldn't be bothered about NORAD, though. East coast defense system stood down? Who cares? --as long as we keep those nailclippers off planes.

[joeunderdog]

16. No shit...and don't forget the foreign policy.

Just piss off the world and every zealot out there. That oughta help. It'sa like pouring water FASTER into a leaky bucket rather than plugging the leak.

In the meantime, leave the nuclear power plants protected by $8/hr security guards with Nerf pistols. And it's great to just pretend the malls could never be hit.

Oh, and what about being able to bring a bottle of grain alcohol on a plane. I called American Airlines to register my concens about this. They didn't care. Why, it could merely serve as a feakin bomb for cryin out loud! Or, maybe just a knife-type thing when broken, but who cares anyway...

[wordpix]

17. don't forget they give more $ for HL Security to Alaskans than to NYorkers

[Mel]

18. I hear you

Scissors being pulled out to use on a passenger would get someone their ass handed to them.
It's as if they have no common sense/street sense they need to get real the cargo that goes on the plane is still not screened. Need I go on? I don't think so. A fat lot of good taking scissors away is going to do if a bomb goes off under your ass. I don't think they give a damn as a matter of fact it's just another way to let it happen again on purpose.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/july-dec03/skies_8-4.html

SECURING THE SKIES

"And - and I might add this - what people don't understand, who are flying on passenger planes in the United States is after they've taken off their shoes, after their bags have been screened, that all of the cargo that goes on to passenger planes, and that's 22 percent of all cargo on planes in America, is not screened at all." REP. EDWARD MARKEY

[Rich Hunt]

19. just brainstorming here...

It is the job of intelligence to anticipate any strategy a lunatic might come up with - even scissors.

What if someone took advantage of people's perceptions of post-9/11 terrorism (is it always going to be about box cutters, bomb threats, and storming cockpits?) and smuggled scissors on for the purposes of attacking passengers?

Not every planned attack on an airplane could be about hijacking or crashing it - if someone wanted to terrorize travelers and hurt the travel industry, they could just go on rampages on airplanes.

I'm just thinking of how our concepts of the psychology of extremist groups and terrorists has been SO distorted by 9/11. People ONLY think of terrorism along those lines now, and perhaps that was part of the thinking with regard to 9/11. Remember when terrorism didn't solely imply international conflicts? Remember when it could also be about nutty domestic groups, or in the case of the Unabomber, nutty individuals?

If we want to fight terrorism, we have to study extremist groups and what their motivations and goals might be.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. Yeah, people will RUN with them! And put someone's eyes out! (nt)

[hedgehog]

21. About two weeks before 9/11, passengers subdued another

passenger on a plane landing in Salt Lake City if memory serves. I think the poor man had either bipolar disease or schizophrenia and was off his meds. I don't know what he did to cause problems, but several passengers tackled him and sat on him, accidently smothering him in the process. The point is that the terrorists would never have taken the planes with box cutters if people hadn't been conditioned to follow instructions from hi-jackers as the best way to play out that scenario.

I agree that a bomb in the cargo compartment is the real threat now.


By the way, screw drivers? A large number of the passengers are technical salesmen/technicians/engineers who are traveling to or from a job site. Take away their multi-tools and these guys fell naked.

[Rich Hunt]

22. these are desperate terrorists we're talking about

Let's not take our eyes off the ball. As I said in a post last week, their goal is to EXERCISE power, not attain it.

Most experts on 9/11 agree that it didn't 'accomplish' anything for the perpetrators - it's goal was ultimately to HURT or PUNISH, not take over 'the government'. When cornered, extremists groups, especially ones comprised of pathological narcissists, will do ANYTHING. They will FIND WAYS to hurt people. Of course the suffocation story indicates that anything is possible on an airplane. I'm more disturbed, however, by these stories which have the effect on intimidating people from using air travel....why? Why so much scaremongering about it?

However, I'm not saying we should be paranoid about scissors or screwdrivers. I'm not sure what we should do. But I'm not saying it's inconceivable that a nutcase or a group of nutcases would want to go on a plane and hurt someone with whatever they've got.