UK Terror Chief Blocked From Boarding Aircraft 237
Jeremiah Cornelius writes "Two days before toner cartridges threatened western civilization, Britain's Home Office minister Baroness Neville-Jones was en route to a Washington summit when she was found to have an over-sized aerosol can in her bag. While being questioned by airport security staff for transporting a container with more than 100ml of liquid, the Baroness seemingly took offense at being lectured on the importance of security procedure: 'Of course I know how important it is,' she said, 'I'm the Security Minister.' The Baroness is also former head of the British Joint Intelligence Committee, and was traveling at the time to discuss the war on terror with US security chiefs. According to a Home Office spokesman, trained in the use of the passive voice, 'Liquids were inadvertently left in a bag. The item was removed and the Minister fully complied with subsequent checks.'"
Not good (Score:3, Interesting)
This really isn't good. The monster that is airport security is too big to control. Not even high profile politicians can seem to escape it.
Re:Not good (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Gander (Score:5, Interesting)
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Always. It ought to be a rule that anyone voting for, or enforcing, a law that "balances" personal liberty with anything else, including "security" must not only be required to experience the full force of the process, but to do so at least once a month for the duration of their employment.
Someone's got her beat... (Score:5, Interesting)
The Baroness' behaviour sounds positively tame compared to former Canadian Conservative MP Helena Guergis's temper tantrum when trying to catch a flight home earlier this year, going so far as throwing insults and her boots at security officials:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/airport-worker-says-guergis-meltdown-among-worst-hes-seen/article1482043/ [theglobeandmail.com]
Any of us little people would've been tasered, handcuffed and carried away after a stunt like that. Power certainly hath its privileges.
Re:Do as I say not as I do (Score:5, Interesting)
tinfoil hat on
Because stories like these make the general public feel a little less singled out... clearly if even the security bigwig herself is subject to the same rules, then at least they're being 'fair'. If she then throws a mini-fit about it, the general public will realize that she's aware of the annoyance and grievances and she isn't any more fond of them than they are. Then later a statement is released in which she acknowledges this more formally, while pointing out that she deeply believes that these measures are necessary to stop actual terrorist plots... and the general public may just feel a little bit more sympathetic to her given the aforementioned.
tinfoil hat off
Now, about those body scanners...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJGvsAgpfig [youtube.com] (not a rick roll, have pinches of salt ready though).
Re:Wrong Title (Score:5, Interesting)
That's because his title is wrong. It should be Anti-Terror Chief.
No, when I lived in the UK I was far more terrified of the government than terrorists. And, more pedantically, her job is to terrorise Britons into thinking that anyone carrying more than 100ml of liquid onto a plane is trying to kill them, so Terror Chief is really very apt.
My experience with TSA (Score:4, Interesting)
I was waiting to pick a friend up at the airport. I was early and they were late. I had seen a report on the local news that week that they were going to start wiping peoples hands and running them trough a sniffer to see if there was explosive residue on them.
I wanted to find out what chemicals were in the wipes because of alergies. There was a person watching the exit from the secure area who was obviously bored (very small airport, could be 15 minutes between people at times) She needed only to make sure nobody went the wrong way. So I decided to ask her about it. Took awhile to explain what I wanted to know and then confirm she didn't know and was just willing to make stuff up.
I went back to waiting and then suddenly 5 police officers were around me to ask questions. 2nd degree and background check and other fun. I felt like asking if I was being detained, but I could not afford to be taken away for 24 hours.
Eventually I was let go after about 30 minutes. They did not take me anywhere or touch me but it was eye opening.
Re:Do as I say not as I do (Score:1, Interesting)
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJGvsAgpfig [youtube.com]
Her story is not even consistent from minute to minute. I'm not sure I buy it.
Not defending the TSA, who I think needs to go away and is a huge waste of money, but her story is not very believable given that she changes it in mid stream several times.
Re:Sweet delicious irony (Score:4, Interesting)
Terrorists on planes tend to dress very normally to avoid suspicion.
When you complain about people in strange clothing not being subjected to extra humiliating checks, you're just voicing some kind of gut instinct to punish entire cultures you seem to consider your enemy. Just like, say, Bin Laden.
Security Hassle for others (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm actually surprised she was flying on a normal airliner - had she been flying on a charter flight she wouldn't have to go through the pointless hassle of security theater in the airport.
Maybe an unintended side-effect of the recession and the UK government having to cut custs will be that, now that most public officials can't easilly justify the cost of charter flights, they'll be subjected to the same humiliations as us plebes have been facing in UK airports thus coming to the conclusion that (now that they have to go through it) the current security practices are excessive and unjustified.
Re:Hmm, Pity... (Score:5, Interesting)
This has got to stop. To that end, I just sent this letter to both my Representative and Senator (names obscured to protect the guilty):
Dear (Rep|Sen). Soandso,
I am writing today about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), specifically regarding your support in defunding and disbanding this agency.
The TSA is notorious among travelers for being arrogant, rude, and invasive. They routinely conduct searches on the flimsiest of grounds, during the course of which they subject citizens to degrading conduct. The rationale given for all of this behavior is that they are "keeping us safe" from terrorists.
I consider this argument to be absurd. First of all, prior to 9/11, there had only been a handful of plane hijackings in American history. The last one, FedEx Flight 705, was hijacked by a FedEx employee. The TSA would not have helped in this instance. The only commercial flights hijacked within the United States prior to 9/11 were in the 60s and 70s. Given that it had been more than 20 years between the last of those in 1978 and 9/11, it's unfair to say that the TSA have made a difference in hijackings between 9/11 and now.
Secondly, none of the airplane bomb threats to emerge over the last 10 years have been foiled by the TSA. They've all been foiled by a combination of effective intelligence and alert and responsive passengers. There is nothing the TSA has done to make us safer.
Thirdly, even if they did make us safer, I believe very strongly that Dr. Franklin was right: we should not sacrifice liberty for safety, as we will end up with neither.
The last straw, for me, happened recently, when I learned of a young woman, Meg McLain, in Florida being arrested and having her ticket torn up because she did not want to submit to a full-body scan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJGvsAgpfig). This is an outrage. If we can't protect the dignity of our people to be safe from invasion by the government, why did our ancestors fight off the British in the first place?
When I was young, during the Cold War, I remember being shocked at some of the things I heard about living in the Soviet Union. That citizens had to carry passports at all times; that they had to register with the government before they could travel; that they had no right to privacy when traveling; and that their political opinions could result in their being unable to travel. What does it say about our country that every single one of these abhorrent practices are now common place in the United States of America?
I hope you'll agree with me that enough is enough and it's time to return our nation to one of liberty, to make us once again the "land of the free and the home of the brave".
Sincerely,
corbettw