A year ago, at an airport near you
Exactly a year ago, in the immediate aftermath of the infamous “liquids plot”, security guru Bruce Schneier published a great piece on why we should Refuse to be Terrorized:
The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.
And we’re doing exactly what the terrorists want.
As I’m sitting here waiting to catch my flight, ready to whip out electronics, change, shoes, belt and the now-ubiquitous Freedom Bag, I can’t say I’m too impressed with the progress we’ve made in a year. We’re spending millions on putting up a show, reacting to specific plots as they come up — essentially, letting the terrorists dictate the new rule du jour at airports everywhere. The UK bans liquids, and the US and Europe trip over themselves to catch up and do the same. The US implements a no-fly list, and the EU wants to do the same. What is this, a Benny Hill flick? The cold war of insanity? Ah, my mistake, we’re just “increasing the baseline for security”.
As the US presidential campaign warms up, people like Bruce getting more audience would be a step in the right direction for all of us.
julien said,
August 30, 2007 @ 6:07 pm
Well, the worst thing is that I really can’t convince myself that it’s worthy… It’s still so damn easy to be a terrorist!
Bruno said,
August 31, 2007 @ 7:53 am
Oh it definitely is a huge waste of time and resources. To quote Bruce again, we have done about 3 things to improve air transport security since 9/11: lock the cockpit doors, assign air marshals, and tell passengers to gang up on any terrorists while in flight. All the rest is governments covering their collective asses by appearing to be doing something. And the worst part is, too many people seem to just gobble this up and ‘feel safer’ when big brother takes away their double soy caramel macchiato. Thankfully I think a lot of us are realizing this now.