

Pilot who refused body scan at Memphis International blasts TSA security - anigbrowl
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/oct/20/pilot-who-refused-body-scan-blasts-tsa/

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briandoll
Bruce Schneier said recently that he's been "recognized" by TSA service
members when flying in recent months, and that they have been complimentary
and not confrontational. It certainly _is_ security theater, so it's nice to
see someone on the inside call it like it is.

It will be interesting to see what action the TSA takes regarding this pilot.
If they really force the issue, it may actually start a legitimate dialogue on
actual security vs. what the TSA has been doing for the last many years.

~~~
ars
But security theater actually does solve a real problem.

I read many times that one of the goals of terrorists is to panic and freeze
the citizens out of fear of an attack. And this fear is worse than an attack
itself.

The security theater solves this problem - people are no longer afraid.

BTW: I am not advocating theater instead of security, I'm just saying it does
have some value.

~~~
briandoll
Real security solves that problem. Security theater only works until everyone
realizes that it's fake and isn't working. We've seen for years now,
journalists writing about how easy it is to get on planes with supposedly
banned materials.

I don't know about other folks, but I'm more disturbed by the number of
resources devoted to this security theater, than comforted by it. I'd much
rather see a focus on better inter-bureau communication and intelligence
gathering.

Raising the "threat level" to "Orange" for political purposes, as we saw
during the last presidential term can't possibly solve any real problems.

~~~
ars
And yet, for all that they've been writing for years most people still don't
realize it's theater.

Real security is not really possible anyway - not without profiling, which
people won't accept and not without spending far more resources on security -
and if you are disturbed now, imagine if spending goes up tenfold.

I agree the "threat level" is a joke though.

------
Rhapso
-He called TSA a "make-work" jobs program combined with a feel-good effort "to give us a false sense of security to let us believe the folks in Washington are keeping us safe."-

A reminder. Your safety is all in your head. This kind of procedure and abuse
of procedure exists only so the government can make you feel safer. The only
way to make it better, is for the whole (or at least the majority) of the
American population to stand up and declare that it is not afraid. The fear
surrounding airports is an example of how by declaring our war on Terror, we
have submitted to it.

------
pasbesoin
The pilot has written up his own account, on a bulletin board, which I saw
sometime in the last day or two. I don't recall whether it was posted here.

Ah, someone did provide a link to that -- in the 50th comment:

[http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-
security/113715...](http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-
security/1137159-today-day-michael-roberts-expressjet-story.html)

From recollection and skimming the parent's posted article, I think the latter
mis-characterizes his attitude a bit, particularly via the quotes cited from
another pilot.

Aways into his recounting, Roberts mentions to one of the people he's dealing
with that he's actually taught the TSA mandated security portion of his
airline's training program.

~~~
dotBen
_The pilot has written up his own account, on a bulletin board, which I saw
sometime in the last day or two. I don't recall whether it was posted here._

Yeah, I posted it to HN on the day the pilot published his own account cos I
thought it would be of interest to this crowd...

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1801369> \- sadly it didn't get any up-
votes :/

~~~
pasbesoin
Sorry I didn't turn that up before posting my comment. I'll see if I can
change my URL to that.

Edit: Unfortunately, it looks dead, now, so I guess changing to it wouldn't be
useful at this point.

P.S. I _did_ find it interesting, and read the entire thing. I probably found
it via your post, so thanks! I normally would have voted up something I found
that interesting. My apology (again) if I missed doing so.

