Monday, February 07, 2005
Simple!! airport security vulnerability
Andy Bowers published an important piece that you can find here: http://www.slate.com/id/2113157/
Bowers makes a layman's point--that in its efforts to make convenient the airport screening process, airport security fails to utilize its first, simplest line of defense--a list of ineligible passengers. Think about it--you go to the airport; you show one person THAT you have a boarding card and THAT the name matches the one on your ID.
You proceed to your gate and you show one person a boarding card that is scanned--but you are cheerily informed that you need not evidence the link between your ID and your successful scan (which scan indicates that the card does not correspond to a blacklisted name). So, as Bowers says, all a blacklisted terrorist has to do is acquire two boarding passes (which can now be printed at home): one with her own name, to correspond to her ID; and one with somebody else's name, a name that won't bring up the blacklist once she's at the gate.
Well, at least Palestine and Israel are on the verge of a formal peace agreement (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4244493.stm)...now let's see if Abbas can bottle up the chaos in his country. We've got to get to a point where it doesn't matter who's firing the shots...the dying's got to stop.
Bowers makes a layman's point--that in its efforts to make convenient the airport screening process, airport security fails to utilize its first, simplest line of defense--a list of ineligible passengers. Think about it--you go to the airport; you show one person THAT you have a boarding card and THAT the name matches the one on your ID.
You proceed to your gate and you show one person a boarding card that is scanned--but you are cheerily informed that you need not evidence the link between your ID and your successful scan (which scan indicates that the card does not correspond to a blacklisted name). So, as Bowers says, all a blacklisted terrorist has to do is acquire two boarding passes (which can now be printed at home): one with her own name, to correspond to her ID; and one with somebody else's name, a name that won't bring up the blacklist once she's at the gate.
Well, at least Palestine and Israel are on the verge of a formal peace agreement (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4244493.stm)...now let's see if Abbas can bottle up the chaos in his country. We've got to get to a point where it doesn't matter who's firing the shots...the dying's got to stop.
Comments:
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hmmm..am skeptical about the "success" of a political ceasefire...I thought that the fighting had a lot to do with personal loss and family revenge ie. people who become suicide-attackers do so in the name of the honor that was lost by losing a family member... its certainly a first step though? I guess my point is that its not as easy as Bush and Rice are optimistically making it seem...or maybe I'm just a pessimist
# posted by 
: 2/09/2005 09:58:00 AM
: 2/09/2005 09:58:00 AM
It's interesting you should say that, because Hamas actually doesn't fully endorse the ceasefire. A spokesman quoted in the New York Times said that the Palestinian resistance isn't fully committed because the ceasefire was not fully negotiated with Hamas and all Palestinian prisoners were not released. (Paraphrase)
And I don't know how much weight Abbas has got. I mean, he got the militants to commit to a few days' peace, but he's got to hold them off for a lot longer than that.
As for the individuality of the intifada (i.e. the idea that the violence can't end until individuals feel that they have avenged individual deaths), I don't know if that's true. I certainly hope not. The Israelis are making it crystal clear that this is no more, for starters, than a non-violence pact that lasts as long as Palestinians don't try anything.
ON THE CONDITION that this non-violence lasts, Israel (I guess) will continue to remove troops from the settlements and take steps toward an independent Palestinian state.
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And I don't know how much weight Abbas has got. I mean, he got the militants to commit to a few days' peace, but he's got to hold them off for a lot longer than that.
As for the individuality of the intifada (i.e. the idea that the violence can't end until individuals feel that they have avenged individual deaths), I don't know if that's true. I certainly hope not. The Israelis are making it crystal clear that this is no more, for starters, than a non-violence pact that lasts as long as Palestinians don't try anything.
ON THE CONDITION that this non-violence lasts, Israel (I guess) will continue to remove troops from the settlements and take steps toward an independent Palestinian state.
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