British Airways Chief Slams US Security Requests 335
Ponca City writes "Reflecting a growing frustration among airport and airline owners with the steady build-up of rules covering everything from footwear to liquids, Martin Broughton, chairman of British Airways, has launched a scathing attack on the 'completely redundant' airport checks requested by the TSA and urged the UK to stop 'kowtowing' to American demands for ever more security. Speaking at the annual conference of the UK Airport Operators Association, Broughton lambasted the TSA for demanding that foreign airports increase checks on US-bound planes, while not applying those regulations to their own domestic services. 'America does not do internally a lot of the things they demand that we do,' says Broughton. 'We shouldn't stand for that. We should say, "We'll only do things which we consider to be essential and that you Americans also consider essential.''' For example, Broughton noted that cutting-edge technology recently installed at airports can scan laptops inside hand luggage for explosives but despite this breakthrough the British government still demands computers be examined separately. 'It's just completely ridiculous,' says Broughton."
Lithium batteries? (Score:1, Interesting)
Airport securities may be able to scan computers with X-ray, but they have never been able to stop the defective exploding lithium ion batteries. It's only a matter of time before electronics are banned altogether after some terrorists turn batteries into weapons...
Full body grope and cavity search from now on (Score:5, Interesting)
Looks like Mr B has just bought himself a lifetime ticket to that line...
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security/1123034-tantric-tsa-art-foreplay.html [flyertalk.com]
not very efficient (Score:2, Interesting)
Argh... (Score:5, Interesting)
When I was in Tokyo/Narita, they had these nifty little tubes with a microwave emitter and antenna in them. Send a pulse of 2.4GHz microwaves into a drink bottle, same stuff as your microwave oven uses, and check if it resonates strongly. I bet the things cost under a hundred bucks to make.
All the "liquid explosives" people are worried about are not mostly water. All of the crap people take on planes to drink is mostly water. Yet the TSA won't let me take a bit of juice or water through security? What a crock.
I asked a TSA guy about this, and he said that "we're developing new x-ray scanning technology that can check drinks, but it won't be ready until 2012, and it is very expensive."
Huh? The Japanese have solved this problem with a fucking microwave oven, and we're wanking about with this ridiculous security theater?
My suitcase always gets opened (Score:3, Interesting)
When I travel to the USA, and I am packing,I tend to just grab any device I might fathom that I would need, and toss it into the suitcase. PCMCIA Token Ring cards, ISDN cards, cables, chargers, just keep going. Do I need all that crap? No. But when I arrive, there is a nice white paper in the suitcase explaining that it was opened for "Security Reasons."
The poor security checker was probably thinking, "What the hell is he going to do with this garbage .... Token Ring, indeed!"
Re:Argh... (Score:5, Interesting)
I Wont Travel to the USA because due to Privacy (Score:4, Interesting)
I have cancled my travel plans to the USA post 911 due to thier increased security checks and invasive tests. There is no way I will allow myself to be entered into thier databases as there is no garentee this information will be correctly entered and maintained, and for it to remain private.
Put your money where your mouth is? (Score:4, Interesting)
If British airways is still flying here, there is still money to be made. If the profit margin gets to small on flights here they will stop.
Re:YES! It's actually insane and insulting... (Score:4, Interesting)
But if the flight is arriving into Incheon's secure area from one of those airports that cannot guarantee the security of their secure area, then Incheon's security has been breached. So the extra check to transit between the arrival lounge and departure lounge is not silly. The second extra check on the other hand is just there to appease the TSA, and that is silly/
Re:not very efficient (Score:1, Interesting)
Even better. Let's pretend that security is 100% effective and finds every piece of metal in your luggage.
Let's see [wikipedia.org] how we can defeat [wikipedia.org] the system ...
Re:YES! It's actually insane and insulting... (Score:4, Interesting)
Mmmm ...
It's strange really. On one hand a cash strapped US is trying to promote tourism and overseas visitors for the cash that can bring in, and on the other the security industry (which failed so spectacularly in the first place) is promoting this gung ho, demeaning and impossibly aggravating set of procedures for the same said tourists.
I used to visit the US fairly regularly .... once every two years or so. Nowadays it's about last on my list, simply because of the aggravation involved in setting up the trip, getting the necessary documentation, undergoing the various intrusive security procedures and the like. It's simply not worth the trouble.
Re:US doesn't know how to handle terrorism. (Score:2, Interesting)
Profiling decreases security, by design. Profiling means to increase security for certain groups of people, and decrease it for others -- but the effects are public, and therefore visible to any terrorists, so any terrorists with any intelligence will simply focus on the weaker areas, and gain benefit from profiling.
It is only people who are unfamiliar with game theory and simple logic who do not realize this -- of course, this includes all politicians, contractors, and bureaucrats.
As a disgruntled air traveller (Score:4, Interesting)
*Take as much crap as I can carry
*Nobody cares how many screw drivers, nail clippers, 8p8c crimpers, LED bulbs, gas soldering irons, unusual electronic items, bottles of water I take with me and use on the ferry. *Queues short or nonexistent
*Use up expensive satellite bandwidth for free
*Decent quality air for the entire journey
*Nobody blasting on the loudspeakers trying to sell me shite while I try to sleep
*Decent food
*If a bomb does go off there is a good chance of you surviving
*Fixed fair - no cancellation,change fee, come back when you like
*Good scenery along the way
Airport security seems like an exercise in compliance - "oh we dont see too many of these around, we're going to scan it seperately and ask you why exactly you're taking it with you, and if we dont like your answer you'll be waterboarded". Anyone taking stuff besides clothes and a Kindle full of DRM can expect a fair bit of hassle
Airlines seem to make and change rules just to catch people out. They charge administration fees when it doesnt cost them anything. Airports and airlines get away with it because people just accept their shit and don't stop flying. Even when you go to look for the people responsible for bringing in the rules you are given the run-around.
The worst has to be the recent rules against liquids specifying the exact type of plastic bag and container they must be in and sending people back to buy an overpriced plastic bag if its slightly too big. Things are so bad now, the odd plane getting blown to pieces almost seems worth it now.
Re:YES YES YES! (Score:2, Interesting)
Of course not. Where is the money coming from to fund these bureaucracies? Us, in very small amounts per person. Who is the money going to? Probably several levels of politicians and labor leaders, but altogether much fewer people for this specific little redistribution of wealth. That means the ones getting the money have much more incentive(their whole paycheck depends on it at the bottom level) vs a few dollars(or euros I guess) spread across the rest of the society.
Which group is going to fight harder to keep things this way?
Which group that gains money and the ability to grant friends jobs from this current set up is part of a group with the permission to initiate force against others to keep the money flowing this way?
Until the leviathan breaks the back of those it lives off of, all the pressure will be to continue these sorts of behaviors. The only pressure against it is not so much an anger for some lost change, but the inconvenience and absurdity of this nonsense. That won't be sufficient.
Re:Do as we tell you to do (Score:3, Interesting)
To be fair, it's probably not so much hypocrisy as it is extreme stupidity. I'm a little worried that this guy pointing out the two different standards will make someone at TSA realize it, at which point the standards will just be tighter EVERYWHERE.
Re:Argh... (Score:5, Interesting)
My wife took a vial of mercury on a flight once (it was for science, and the destination lab was in a third world country with no way of getting any). Mercury does this [youtube.com] to aluminum, over the course of a long enough period of time (and this was a very long flight). TSA didn't find it.
The worst part? TSA actually went through the case she'd checked (it was a suspicious one, I have to admit) and opened some of the flasks in there. What was in those flasks? Nothing - literally. They contained high-quality vacuum, to be used for taking samples at the destination (again, lab in a third world country, not equipped to pump down those flasks). Despite opening the case, searching through the contents, and actually going in to some of the flasks the TSA actively missed something that would have been dangerous to the plane in the hands of the wrong person.
Why? Well, the vacuum flasks looked like bomb components you'd see on TV (to the point where my wife even in a nice little note saying "please don't open these, they're just vacuum flasks, we're poor scientists, here's a number to call at the university if you don't believe me"), while the vial of mercury was tightly packed in a Nalgene, the sort of hard shelled water bottle hikers use sometimes.
Re:YES YES YES! (Score:3, Interesting)
No, you'll get John Bolton on Fox News saying how the US is being insulted by the UK and how they don't understand terrorism the way the US does and how the US deserves 'exceptional' rights and powers.
Re:YES! It's actually insane and insulting... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Put your money where your mouth is? (Score:5, Interesting)
You Americans are so cute with your fear of terrorists. You're quite happy for thousands of people to die on the roads, but one itty bitty terrorist attack and you go cower indoors.
Home of the brave my ass - you should try living somewhere with a real history of terrorism and you'd see we pretty much just get on with our lives. Some idiots blow up the tubes yesterday? Ah well, as long as mine is still running, I'll use it today with no changes to security. The IRA blow up another pub? Well, this one is still standing, so I'll have a pint. ETA blowing up shit all over the place? Can't let the fuckers win, so we'll get on with our lives.
But no. America has ONE attack on their own soil and they go mental.
Re:US doesn't know how to handle terrorism. (Score:4, Interesting)
I should point out that those "nervous ticks and involuntary reactions", if you're referring to so-called microexpressions, are currently well in the realm of pseudoscience. They're no more revealing than general nervousness or erratic behavior. (Perhaps unsurprisingly the TSA is very enthusiastic about adopting the technique.)
Re:US doesn't know how to handle terrorism. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:YES YES YES! (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah because it's not like the UK has any experience with terrorism, I mean there was that whole pesky IRA thing, but it's not like it lasted for 8 decades or anything...