Are we safer yet?

There was an article on Salon by their "Ask the Pilot" columnist, Patrick Smith, talking about our current focus on security. He specifically talks about airport security, but his comments applies to all of our current security madness.

Salon.com Technology | Terrorism, tweezers and terminal madness

After standing in queue for fifteen minutes I approach the metal detectors, where a screener greets me good morning. She is wearing paramilitary-style uniform complete with shoulder braids, combat boots and a beret. Across her back it says SECURITY in heavy gold lettering. This is supposed to look and feel like the ordered confidence you'd encounter in Europe or Asia. But the too-sharp creases in the pantlegs, the snapping gum and the glossy lipstick, all expose the phoniness and desperation of the scene. These aren't even the trappings of a third world state -- something you'd see at the airport in Quito or Entebbe. They're a carnival imitation of those places, with uniforms straight from an old Monty Python wardrobe.

A fork, part of my normal carry-on inventory for years, is confiscated from my luggage. In a few days that fork, along with thousands of other expropriated bits of metal, will be hauled off in a sealed bin by the local fire department. Reminded that forks are still dispensed with inflight meals, the screener replies tersely, 'That's what they want us to do.'

Nearby a National Guardsman is flirting with a group of teenagers. Troopers are cracking jokes, bags are toppling from the belt. 'Take your shoes off please.' I'm ashamed and embarrassed. Is this the new world of flying?

I've been trying to write something about this for the past week. I cannot begrudge our society wanting to feel safer. On the other hand, I don't think that what we're doing is effective. I think some of it is just for show, and some of it is for enhanced law enforcement that wouldn't have been even conceivable in a usually free society. And we're not dealing with the real threats.

First of all, when will we start screening all of air cargo? Right now the system allows "established" shippers to go through unscreened. So, any terrorist who wants to take down an airliner should get a job in the shipping department of a major corporation. Meanwhile, individuals are having to go through the "pageant of humiliation", as Mr. Smith puts it.

Second, why are we doing enhanced law enforcement? Shouldn't we be targeting terrorists? Most of these terrorists haven't broken laws. The intrusion into our private sphere with programs like CAPPS II that compare our names and addresses to credit reports and criminal record databases have too much room for error and misuse. If we thought that the current administration would be respectful of our privacy, we might go along with it. But this current bunch has proven time and time again that it doesn't give a good goddam about individual rights and privacy.

Also, remember that there are people on the current "no-fly" list that are not terrorists, but are anti-war activists and ACLU attorneys. These people aren't the threats, but they've gotten put on the list, either through a mistake, or as a means of harassment.

Finally, we need to remember that all of our terrorists are not from the Middle East. Many are homegrown, disaffected people who have found a receptive environment in the current anti-government anti-community right wing movements. And Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, and the rest of the conservative shouters are just as much responsible for creating this receptive environment as William Pierce, the author of The Turner Diaries. (Dave Neiwart has done a lot of writing about our own homegrown terrorists.)

The right wingnuts, who want every Muslim, every South Asian, and everybody who's to the left of Zell Miller investigated, don't seem to have much of a problem with this homegrown terrorism. Even when they're playing with cyanide bombs and other things that, if found in Iraq, would be considered proof of WMDs.

Every day I have to go through a scanner and have my bags x-rayed as I go into the office, while large trucks back up to our loading dock without any screening at all. More people have been killed by truck bombings of federal buildings than by individual employees. These current measures don't make sense. We as a society need to stand up to fearmongers who promote their own agendas, and say "No, this is too far."