
"Counter­terrorism in the airport is a show designed to make people feel better" - theoneill
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/airport-security
======
gills
Remember to consider the incentives of the 535 individuals who vote on funding
the TSA year after year.

It doesn't matter if it provides any security. It keeps us sheeple under the
illusion of safety, we keep buying plane tickets and a whole economy springs
up surrounding the airport (not to mention the firms supplying the TSA with
equipment). That's good for a ton of voter approval. Even better, if you don't
vote for the TSA your opponent can call you out: 'Senator so-and-so wants our
innocent children to die in a fire at the hands of scary men with beards!'

Yes. I'm jaded. I know.

------
Zev
No matter how many times I try, the security guards never let me take
toothpaste or bottled water through the gate. They also had a tendency to
confiscate my hair gel when i used to gel it up.

However, I was able to take my laptop + two batteries + 360 (and cables) + two
external hard drives (and all the cables) + router + other misc electronic
stuff through as carry on (Since I didn't trust the TSA not to steal it out of
my suitcase when flying home and all) without any issues. Not even a question
or odd look.

------
zby
So many more people die in car accidents than in terrorist attacks - I would
say that the feeling of safety in flight is not false in any account. The
article has it completely backwards - the airport security theater is what
creates the false feeling of unsafety.

~~~
vaksel
planes are the safest way to travel PERIOD. What other method of travel gets
as much safety testing? And has a second pilot just in case the first one is
knocked out.

From 1999 to 2007 there's been a total of 11,000 deaths from plane crashes
world wide. With an average of 1,200 deaths per year.

Car accidents? According to world health organization, there are a total of
1.2 million deaths world wide per YEAR. In addition to 48 million injuries per
year.

So in 2007 when there were 965 deaths from plane crashes, you were 1,243 times
more likely to die in a car accident than you were in a plane crash.

------
mattmaroon
I've been saying this for years. I routinely just stick my toiletries in my
pockets to avoid having to do that stupid little baggie. I used to fly a
pretty decent amount (50k miles per year) and never once had a problem that
way.

Also, I messed around with cheap homemade plastic explosives in high school
enough to know that the amount you could legitimately stick in plastic tubes
and then cram into a ziploc bag is more than enough to cause some serious
damage.

Luckily we're all safe because very few people actually want to kill a plane
full of strangers, and even fewer want to kill themselves too.

~~~
gaius
I flew recently, at Gatwick they say "no containers of liquids bigger than
100ml". At the other end they said "no more than 1L of liquids in total". But,
if you were working in a team, you could get any amount of any liquid you
wanted aboard.

~~~
__
True, but working in teams is hard. The larger the team must be, the harder it
is to recruit, train, organize, supply, maintain confidentiality, keep out
spies, and avoid detection (hence the cell structure). Forcing terrorists to
work in teams significantly increases the cost of conducting an attack, so
it's an excellent security strategy.

~~~
mattmaroon
That's an interesting thought. You're probably right. I imagine doubling the
number of terrorists required probably more than doubles the chance of them
getting caught. Might be exponential.

Unfortunately, one ziploc bag full of plastic explosive is probably more than
enough to blast a hole in the side of a plane. And one of those beer belly
things I would think could take a whole plane out.

------
DenisM
You say it like it's a bad thing. It works very well - people feel safe.

~~~
nostrademons
Does it? Everyone I know, and a few strangers I've met while taking off my
shoes for the X-ray machine, _hates_ airline security and doesn't really
believe that it helps keep anyone safe.

~~~
DenisM
It does. Proof - if it didn't make majority happy it would be scrapped.

You are not a typical user of the system. You also hang out with like-minded
people which gives you illusion of being normal which ain't true - normal
people aren't reading HN, aren't starting startups and aren't working deeply
immeresed into unforgivingly precize digital machines.

~~~
nostrademons
> Proof - if it didn't make majority happy it would be scrapped.

That's not a proof at all. Representative democracy doesn't mean the majority
gets its way on every issue - otherwise, it's a fairly good bet that CEO pay
would be capped, the Wall Street bailout would never have happened, and we
wouldn't still be in Iraq. Rather, it means that when the government screws up
on _enough_ issues and pisses _enough_ people off, we get to throw them out of
office.

Granted, my experience isn't a proof either, for the reasons you point out.
(Although - talking to random strangers in line for the checkpoint is about as
close to a relevant random sample as you can get.) But then, I didn't claim it
was.

------
maurycy
If it is true, it means that counterterrorism in the airport actually
decreases security, as it decreases motivitation to find real solutions to the
problem.

------
hugh
Surely it's also at least partly a show in order to make terrorists feel like
they won't get away with it?

It's easy to complain about airport security, but you gotta admit: terrorists
seem to have more-or-less given up on targeting aeroplanes.

~~~
mhb
Is that because of the show or some actual, intelligent counterterrorist work?

~~~
Ardit20
Or is it because it would be stupid of them to target airoplains again. As the
article mentioned, they are watching against what happened last weeks.

