Attempted use of explosives onboard NW 253

[Hardy Heinlin]

"During the final hour of flight, customers will have to remain seated, will not be allowed access to carry-on baggage and cannot have personal belongings or other items on their laps."

The authorities must take action. No matter what action. Just any action, even if it's plain nonsense, because otherwise they will be asked: "Why don't you take action? Do something!" :-)

There's nothing they can do -- except nonsense.

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[Phil Bunch]

Here's an excerpt from today's NY Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/us/28terror.html?ref=todayspaper

 When a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official phoned the American Embassy in Abuja in October with a warning that his son had developed radical views, had disappeared and might have traveled to Yemen, embassy officials did not revoke the young man's visa to enter the United States, which was good until June 2010.
Skip to next paragraph

The police searched the basement of a building in London, where it is believed that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been a student.

Instead, officials said Sunday, they marked the file of the son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, for a full investigation should he ever reapply for a visa. And when they passed the information on to Washington, Mr. Abdulmutallab's name was added to 550,000 others with some alleged terrorist connections — but not to the no-fly list. That meant no flags were raised when he used cash to buy a ticket to the United States and boarded a plane, checking no bags.



Congressional leaders said the tip from Mr. Abdulmutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, should have resulted in closer scrutiny of the suspect before he boarded the plane in Amsterdam. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, the ranking minority member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said that his visa should have been revoked, or that he at least should have been given a physical pat-down or a full-body scan.

"This individual should not have been missed," Ms. Collins said in an interview on Sunday. "Clearly, there should have been a red flag next to his name."
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Looks like we could do better, at least with respect to stopping the amateurs.  Lots of luck stopping the professionally trained ones...

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

To date, only 40 of these [full body scanners] have been installed at 19 airports across the United States — meaning only a tiny fraction of passengers pass through them. Amsterdam's airport has 15 of these machines — more than just about any airport in the world — but an official there said Sunday that they were prohibited from using them on passengers bound for the United States, for a reason she did not explain.

I've been through one of these not too long ago, at the M pier at Schiphol, for an EasyJet flight. I think the reason they are not used often is that it takes up to 30 seconds per passenger to pass through. The machines are extremely bulky and with lots of heavy moving parts, nearly a MRI or CAT scanner but then vertically, like a glass cylinder elevator. You enter, the door closes, the thing moves left and right, then it takes half an age before the scan has been processed and inspected. As soon as the queue gets too long, they revert to the normal metal detector gates.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Reasonably well-informed article about (airplane) security:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/29/schneier.air.travel.security.theater/

[Peter Lang]

Today the German spiegel online magazine says that the Obama adminsitration had early clues about this attack. CIA was informed about the guy who tried it - bud did not distribute the information.

Also the father of this guy warned the authorities. More than one month ago.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,669540,00.html

So who is to blame?  The terrorist? Or the "sleepers" in the authorities who have been warned at an early stage?

Onward:

The governement of the netherlands ordered the set up these "naked" body scanners within 3 weeks at EHAM. Starting to scan all people booked on flights into the US. Later on worldwide.

http://www.spiegel.de/reise/aktuell/0,1518,669553,00.html

It can clearly be seen that the failing of the authorities once more leads to more nonsense.  As Hardy said. Thats the only thing they can do.

But perhaps this makes sense. At least so some of these politicians, administrators or "leaders". People who have a long toungue may say: thats just another little step into the world of George Orwells 1984.

In other words: we all have to pay for some authorities beeing - perhaps not even undeliberate - completely screwed up. Or sleeping. Or looking away.

Peter