Airport Security: Why It Failed

An interesting article on how these people make it past Security. Maybe worth discussing.

Although, after reading this article... it's kind of scary how easily someone can bring on explosives!

Source: Live Science

PETN is a white powder that resembles a less-shiny version of sugar and is used by the military and commercial mining outfits.

"So anywhere people are allowed to handle explosives, it's there, and it's usually there in quite a bit of abundance because it's present in detonating cords and sheet explosives," said Jimmie Oxley, an explosives expert at the University of Rhode Island.

PETN was widely used in terrorist plots in the 1970s and 1980s, and as a result was among the first detectable explosives when tests were developed. PETN can be easily detected with today's airport screening technology, but it usually requires that a passenger or their luggage be singled out for screening, Oxley said.

According to investigators, Mutallab was not screened for explosives in Amsterdam.

Experts have also speculated that a new full-body screening method employing millimeter waves, or MMW, could have also detected the explosives, or at least the packaging affixed to Mutallab's body.

But unlike currently employed screening machines, which can identify banned chemicals directly, MMW scanners are only "anomaly detectors," said Oxley, who is a co-author of the book "Aspects of Explosive Detection."

MMW scanners can see through clothing to reveal metallic and non-metallic objects or other suspicious things on a passenger's body, but they cannot identify explosives by their chemical signatures.

hey, i got an idea.....anybody on a watch list, with an middle eastern sounding name, young male, NEEDS TO BE TAKEN OUT OF LINE, AND SEARCHED!!!!!!.........this isn't rocket science!! all the above, have been associated with airline bombers, and it has been 9 years since 9/11!!!...........no, don't seach old, white, balding guy from kansas.........because.........he's NOT on a watch list, he DOESN'T have a middle eastern sounding name, and he's an OLD, WHITE, BALD GUY FROM KANSAS!!!! none, absolutely no... old, white, bald guy from kansas HAS EVER!!! joined up to blow the hell out of americans in airplanes.

[edit on 28-12-2009 by jimmyx]

reply to post by jimmyx


jimmyx,
That would be profiling! We can't have that! The ACLU would have a heart attack! Too much common sense being used, we can't have that in a government agency!

I think it will always fail just as everything the Government does fails like the war on drugs etc. etc. you get my point though just a waste of money.

Even if everyone flies naked a bomber is going to find a place to explode a bomb and hurt people. Maybe we should just eliminate security so bombs will explode on planes and not on the ground, killing even more people.

Originally posted by jimmyx
this isn't rocket science!! all the above, have been associated with airline bombers, and it has been 9 years since 9/11!!!...........no, don't seach old, white, balding guy from kansas.........because.........he's NOT on a watch list, he DOESN'T have a middle eastern sounding name, and he's an OLD, WHITE, BALD GUY FROM KANSAS!!!! none, absolutely no... old, white, bald guy from kansas HAS EVER!!! joined up to blow the hell out of americans in airplanes.

[edit on 28-12-2009 by jimmyx]

Exactly. You planks of wood that run government agencies, that run these watch lists. Your just there to commit murder for looney toons in society.

Oh wait we have a tip of from some bag, that did not get to sleep with some bloke, so she rings up mad american government groups, to put him on your watch lists and he has done nothing. Then you mad peopel decide your going to kill him.

You perve into all that persons family, and pretend everyone saying anything or thinking anything is him.

You spend upteen years trying desperately to get him to do something, and when he never does, you just keep going as your a bunch of planks of wood, who should never of gotten the job of the plank of wood, in crge of murdering innocent people for bags, who wanted that person dead.

Well done government agencies, you planks of wood, who murder people for no reason.

Instead of an expensive full-body screening system they need to just park a drug-sniffing K9 in the security line.
Dogfood is cheaper than maintenance-techs and replacement parts for highly specialized body scanners! And much cuter too!

reply to post by x2Strongx


from the linked site:

...Investigators say 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab hid an explosive device and the chemical explosive PETN on his body while traveling from Amsterdam to Detroit aboard the Delta flight on Christmas day.

perhaps 'Delta' and even the airport at Amsterdam should be held accountable...and pay for the suspects confinement at least.

it sould be the responsibility of the carrier to protect the crew & passengers from danger which can be avoided...
don't they delay flights because of weather?
don't they insure the pilots are trained and in good physical condition?
don't they screen all luggage for dangerous substances & components?

--screening potential passengers, even profiling them for potential acts of aggression by a mentally unstable weirdo, are all subtile actions the airlines personnel staff/ crew/pilots perform under the radar...


shame on Delta & Amsterdam...and especially the armed flight marshalls ... oh? where were they?

Originally posted by JIMC5499
reply to post by jimmyx

 

jimmyx,
That would be profiling! We can't have that! The ACLU would have a heart attack! Too much common sense being used, we can't have that in a government agency!

yeah...you know, i'm left of center, but jesus, common sense needs to trump this profiling bugaboo. the aclu in my opinion has gone overboard on this particular issue. i can't believe both the left and right go to such extremes, it just p*sses me off. these guys want to kill us, and as many as they can. you can not rationalize with these people.

This story by Brian Ross, show's how it could have been prevented, very easily, keep em locked up...right?



The Blotter from Brian Ross
Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S.
Former Guantanamo Prisoners Believed Behind Northwest Airlines Bomb Plot; Sent to Saudi Arabia in 2007
By BRIAN ROSS, ANNA SCHECTER and JOSEPH RHEE
Dec. 28, 2009

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

Authorities investigate Northwest flight 253 on the tarmac at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Michigan December 27, 2009.
(Reuters/U.S. Marshal's Service)American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

reply to post by freetree64


"art therapy rehabilitation program" Is that when they learn to paint with the blood of the infidel?

reply to post by jimmyx


Ahhhhhhhh common sense, nahhh that will never work!!

Airport security did not fail. They are not required to check underwear or put everyone with ties to fanatics on the no fly list.

"Although, after reading this article... it's kind of scary how easily someone can bring on explosives! "

When I first looked at the title I thought the OP was going to make a dig at the real reason why we have these 'incidents' i.e. they are planned and enabled by our own government's and their do'ers? But I was wrong.