Comments on: Security expert interviews TSA head http://polizeros.com/2007/07/31/security-expert-interviews-tsa-head/ Musings on politics: anti-war, global warming, peak oil and otherwise Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:00:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Joe Hartley http://polizeros.com/2007/07/31/security-expert-interviews-tsa-head/#comment-139565 Joe Hartley Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:37:15 +0000 http://polizeros.com/2007/07/31/security-expert-interviews-tsa-head/#comment-139565 Remember also that security officers of the TSA, the ones who actually implement the regulations, are paid something like $22,000 a year. Israel, for all its faults, has reasonably good security because they place highly trained, sophisticated and therefore expensive personnel to react on their instincts if they sense something is wrong. The American approach is to go cheap. If you're going to go cheap, you're not going to be able to have the level of sophistication that the Israelis have, and you need very simple regulations to implement on the intake level. 3 ounces and a baggie is easy to understand and follow. May not work, but it CAN be implemented. As DJ says, it's the appearance of functioning, not the reality. Remember also that security officers of the TSA, the ones who actually implement the regulations, are paid something like $22,000 a year. Israel, for all its faults, has reasonably good security because they place highly trained, sophisticated and therefore expensive personnel to react on their instincts if they sense something is wrong. The American approach is to go cheap. If you’re going to go cheap, you’re not going to be able to have the level of sophistication that the Israelis have, and you need very simple regulations to implement on the intake level. 3 ounces and a baggie is easy to understand and follow. May not work, but it CAN be implemented. As DJ says, it’s the appearance of functioning, not the reality.

]]> By: DJ http://polizeros.com/2007/07/31/security-expert-interviews-tsa-head/#comment-139523 DJ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:31:18 +0000 http://polizeros.com/2007/07/31/security-expert-interviews-tsa-head/#comment-139523 I've argued for years now that to the TSA (as to the Bush administration), the APPEARANCE of security is much more important than actual security. Anyone who has traveled overseas has no doubt seen how security is done where an actual threat exists. It is in every case I've seen much more efficient, at times more invasive, but always less frustrating. (See the National Insecurity series at http://asymptoticlife.com/categories/Security%20or%20Freedom.aspx) I’ve argued for years now that to the TSA (as to the Bush administration), the APPEARANCE of security is much more important than actual security. Anyone who has traveled overseas has no doubt seen how security is done where an actual threat exists. It is in every case I’ve seen much more efficient, at times more invasive, but always less frustrating.

(See the National Insecurity series at http://asymptoticlife.com/categories/Security%20or%20Freedom.aspx)

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