Don't touch my junk. Every crisis needs a tag-line or catch phrase and the recent uproar over the enhanced screening procedures being used by TSA at the nation's airports has a good one.
I've thought about what we should be doing at our airports to make sure we are safe. I'm not sure I have a good answer.
On one hand, I want to take every precaution to ensure the people getting on airplanes - especially planes I might be flying on - aren't planning to blow up the plane or crash it into something. I'm don't know if what we are doing today in the name of security is really providing us with security. Let's look at Will Rogers World Airport here in Oklahoma City. Officials at Will Rogers have said they don't currently have the scanning machines that take the near-naked images of travellers and they only use the enhanced pat down technique on those travellers that set off the metal detector. We've been "screening" passengers for years. We provide a photo ID and today we're required to provide our full name and birthdate when we purchase tickets. If the new image scanners and the pat downs are really about security then why don't we require every passenger to go through them? I'm not excited about having some strange man running his hands up my thighs or across my butt, but maybe the price of getting on an airplane is being subject to such screening.
On the other hand, I do agree there is something to the old saying that if you're willing to give up some liberty to get security then you really don't deserve either. And their is absolutely no question allowing random travellers to be subjected to enhanced screenings is giving up a little of our liberty. The stories we're hearing about the treatment of some passengers from TSA workers putting their hands inside a passenger's underwear or busting a passenger's catheter bag and spilling urine everywhere are simply unacceptable to anyone and everyone. I don't know what my wife will do if she has to fly anytime soon and gets subject to what she believes is an inappropriate search. I don't fear for her safety but more for the safety of the TSA agent.
I guess the thing that bothers me most is TSA says these new techniques are the result of trying to prevent another Christmas Day bomber from getting on a plane. I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but if the Christmas Day bomber was the catalyst for this effort, can anyone explain why it took 11 months to implement new security procedures. I mean TSA managed to ban liquids within days of detecting a threat from mixing certain liquid compounds.
I saw an interview on television several days ago with an Israeli security expert who basically said we do everything wrong in terms of airport security. His comments were that airport security has to start before you get in the airport. Further he said all cars are stopped before they get to the airport and all passengers are questioned by college educated, well trained screening personnel. Yes they are profiling passengers, but they start by interviewing all passengers so there is no "discrimination." After an initial interview, all passengers are again interviewed in the airport and anyone who seems suspicious gets detained for an even more detailed screening process.
The current administration in Washington has show a clear propensity to over-reach and I believe the new enhanced screening procedures are just the latest example of over-reach. Instead of studying what other countries do that has proven to be effective, we simply react to what ever we have discovered the terrorists have already tried to do. A wise man once told me reacting to an issue faster than before is NOT the same as being proactive. There is absolutely nothing proactive in these screening procedures. They are simply a reaction to a symptom of the problem.
Let's address the problem of terrorists wanting to get on airplanes by figuring out how to keep them out of the airport - not hoping we can keep them from getting knives or bombs on a plane.
Until then - don't touch my junk.
