Should Airports Use "Smart Screening"?

[Warrior-Mentor]

VIDEO:
http://www.investigativeproject.org/...mart-screening

[peshguy]

Hell yes we should be using these scanners. The scanner can detect drugs, bombs and bundles of money. The scanners require little raining and can be set to record which operator was on duty when passenger xyz went through. No ethnic profiling, just scan every single passenger and stop all the other stupid (useless) crap that TSA makes us do. Start with international flights then transition to domestic fights. The more of these things that are used the cheaper they will become. If the price drops enough they can be used in prisons, jails and courthouses.

Originally Posted by peshguy

Hell yes we should be using these scanners. The scanner can detect drugs, bombs and bundles of money. The scanners require little raining and can be set to record which operator was on duty when passenger xyz went through. No ethnic profiling, just scan every single passenger and stop all the other stupid (useless) crap that TSA makes us do. Start with international flights then transition to domestic fights. The more of these things that are used the cheaper they will become. If the price drops enough they can be used in prisons, jails and courthouses.

I don't know about you, but I have a Constutionally garunteed right to privacy. I don't intend on giving it up. This smacks of pervasive fear. As long as we live in fear, they have won. If you think that TSA will be not saving stuff, you are naive.
I might as well just strip on the sidewalk and then enter the terminal.

Tell me just whom is going to pay for all this ultra expensive equipment?
Dogs are cheaper, and better and less invasive.

Tell me do you want your wife to be viewed by some stranger?
AM

[frostfire]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

What they should be using is dogs.

Originally Posted by armymom1228

Dogs are cheaper, and better and less invasive.

Let's see. The latest t-wannabe hid the goodies in his underwear. Where exactly, I really don't want to know, but I can see it now: "Alright Sir/Ma'am, spread it and let the dog sniff the "area"

[happyg]

As someone that use to work for the TSA I believe comedian Lewis Black summed up airport security best with this stand up act.

http://www.last.fm/music/Lewis+Black...rity?autostart

Originally Posted by frostfire

Let's see. The latest t-wannabe hid the goodies in his underwear. Where exactly, I really don't want to know, but I can see it now: "Alright Sir/Ma'am, spread it and let the dog sniff the "area"

CNN was showing the offending garment all day yesterday.

Since I am going to soon be handing over my undies to the nice TSA guy, I guess I need to go visit Vicky's Secret and get something less granny panty eh?

AM

[craigepo]

"granny panty"
Armymom, I was wanting to have a serious conversation, but now I can't get granny panties out of my mind. Big ones, like small parachutes.

"Scanners won't work. Neither will dogs."
I would have to respectfully disagree with the notion that dogs wouldn't work in this situation. We used military dogs some in Kosovo, and they worked well. Additionally, a friend of mine works bloodhounds for the missouri department of corrections---I have heard some amazing stories about these dogs. Also, I just get back from working my bird dogs, two german shorthaired pointers. Like many hunting breeds, these dogs have been bred to improve many qualities, including their sense of smell, for centuries. On a good day, these dogs can find where a quail was hours ago, track it down, point it, and not move until I get there.(a couple of weeks ago they pointed and fought a skunk, but that story will have to wait).
In Missouri, the highway patrol used to set up drug interdiction checkpoints on the interstates. They would walk drug dogs by the stopped vehicles. The dogs' noses were sensitive enough to detect drugs by walking close to the vehicles. As to whether those dogs' noses are sensitive enough to detect explosives in a terrorist's rectum, I will let somebody else determine.

[PSM]

Profiling! First, last, and always! The Sky Caps, the ticket agents, TSA, other passengers, the gate agent, the FAs, and my favorite, have the cockpit crew walk through the cabin and look everyone in the eye.

If they know that EVERYONE is watching, the less committed will get hinky.

Then again, what the hell do I know? I thought that they'd drop this bone.

"Nappie, you're doing a heck of a job!"

We have enemy inside the wire!

I'd like to say "Rant, over!" but I can't.

PSM

p.s.: GWB got reamed for reading "The Pet Goat" (not "My Pet Goat") for 7 minutes to kids. What was B-HO doing with HIS pet goat for three days?

[FirstClass]

Pretty soon terrorists will not need to conceal their bombs because it would be profiling, there for unconstitutional to inspect someone who is holding what "appears" to be a bomb.

Frankly, we have a long road ahead of us, seeing that two people with opposite views cannot sit across from each other and discuss their differences and listen to each others points, even with a moderator between them. You see that alot in politics, our country is run by children, children with bombs and endless bounds of money.

They are comfortable with how things are, when people get comfortable, especially the people in charge, it takes ALLOT to get them to do anything.

I think profiling will happen. But not for another two years or so when attacks become more frequent by the same type of people, or perhaps a change in presidency.

[Warrior-Mentor]

Originally Posted by armymom1228

I don't know about you, but I have a Constutionally garunteed right to privacy. I don't intend on giving it up. This smacks of pervasive fear. As long as we live in fear, they have won. If you think that TSA will be not saving stuff, you are naive.
I might as well just strip on the sidewalk and then enter the terminal.

Tell me just whom is going to pay for all this ultra expensive equipment?
Dogs are cheaper, and better and less invasive.

Tell me do you want your wife to be viewed by some stranger?
AM

Do you have a constitutionally guaranteed right to fly?

Don't want to play?

Trains, cars and boats. Help yourself.

Israel's cracked this nut. Find success, imitate.

[Sneaky Pete]

Originally Posted by armymom1228

I don't know about you, but I have a Constutionally garunteed right to privacy. I don't intend on giving it up. This smacks of pervasive fear. As long as we live in fear, they have won. If you think that TSA will be not saving stuff, you are naive.
I might as well just strip on the sidewalk and then enter the terminal.

Tell me just whom is going to pay for all this ultra expensive equipment?
Dogs are cheaper, and better and less invasive.

Tell me do you want your wife to be viewed by some stranger?
AM

Originally Posted by Warrior-Mentor

Do you have a constitutionally guaranteed right to fly?

Don't want to play?

Trains, cars and boats. Help yourself.

Israel's cracked this nut. Find success, imitate.

The right to privacy is suggested in several amendments to our constitution but despite common belief it is not specifically enumerated.

You could say that you have the:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." (Amendment IV)

Given the circumstances, being sniffed by a dog, or being subjected to an invasive scan seems worth the convenience of lower risk air travel.

Originally Posted by Sneaky Pete

Given the circumstances, being sniffed by a dog, or being subjected to an invasive scan seems worth the convenience of lower risk air travel.

Is the risk lower? Or are we just deluding ourselves?

[kgoerz]

Originally Posted by armymom1228

I don't know about you, but I have a Constutionally garunteed right to privacy. I don't intend on giving it up. This smacks of pervasive fear. As long as we live in fear, they have won. If you think that TSA will be not saving stuff, you are naive.
I might as well just strip on the sidewalk and then enter the terminal.

Tell me just whom is going to pay for all this ultra expensive equipment?
Dogs are cheaper, and better and less invasive.

Tell me do you want your wife to be viewed by some stranger?
AM

Embrace the Suck...WE ARE AT WAR.

[Richard]

Was listening to an NPR report while running some errands - the NL say they will begin full body scans for all passengers leaving Schiopol on American flag carriers in about 3 weeks - Schiopol currently has 15 full body scan machines but they are 'voluntary' use if the passenger 'wants' it done pending EU legal approval.

What a Charlie Foxtrot of a situation that is.

And so it goes...

Richard's jaded $.02

[nmap]

Originally Posted by kgoerz

Embrace the Suck...WE ARE AT WAR.

I guess I would find it easier to embrace that view if I knew exactly whom we are at war with, how we will know when we have achieved victory or suffered defeat, and, for that matter, what the war entails.

So far as I can tell, the war as directed by the POTUS and Congress is not against Islam, nor Iraq, nor Afghanistan, nor even Iran. There are some ever-changing umbrella organizations such as Al Qaeda that are often mentioned, and there are the Taliban...except we want to ally with the moderate Taliban...only they don't want to be our allies?

And Pakistan is our ally. Except a lot of its people seem to hate us, and appear to at least sympathize with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but we're sending them aid...and the government is our friend, except it tells us not to do certain things, but that's OK because they don't really mean it...

And Iraq and Afghanistan are getting ready to stand on their own, but there are reports that suggest the contrary...and then there's Yemen...except the latest terrorist came from Nigeria...

I sense a classic castle defense - we have a castle (actually, many castles), and we're trying to craft a perfect defense of each and every one of them. The other side can and will probe endlessly. This sounds like a strategy that cannot win.

Please forgive me for being rather dense. If an all-out no-holds-barred war is what's needed, along with rationing, travel documents, and so forth, then let's define the war and win it. If we don't really want to win, then I don't understand why we have to make life ever-more unpleasant for ourselves.

No doubt there are important things I don't understand. But in all my reading, here and elsewhere, the war remains ambiguous to me. My apologies for any offense given.