The Atlantic has a great article looking at airport security in the US, featuring one of my e-heroes, Bruce Schneier (I babble about him quite a bit). It looks at some of the gaping holes in airport security and the fact that most of the 'improvements' in this area since 9/11 have largely been "security theatre" - designed to give the impression of security, without any actual benefits.

On another occasion, at LaGuardia, in New York, the transportation-security officer in charge of my secondary screening emptied my carry-on bag of nearly everything it contained, including a yellow, three-foot-by-four-foot Hezbollah flag, purchased at a Hezbollah gift shop in south Lebanon. The flag features, as its charming main image, an upraised fist clutching an AK-47 automatic rifle. Atop the rifle is a line of Arabic writing that reads Then surely the party of God are they who will be triumphant. The officer took the flag and spread it out on the inspection table. She finished her inspection, gave me back my flag, and told me I could go. I said, “That’s a Hezbollah flag.” She said, “Uh-huh.” Not “Uh-huh, I’ve been trained to recognize the symbols of anti-American terror groups, but after careful inspection of your physical person, your behavior, and your last name, I’ve come to the conclusion that you are not a Bekaa Valley–trained threat to the United States commercial aviation system,” but “Uh-huh, I’m going on break, why are you talking to me?”

The article is a great read and worth the time - once you start thinking about security in the context of security theatre it's amazing to see how ridiculous a lot of security efforts are. Places like the UK and the US are rapidly approaching spooky 1984-esque police states with ubiquitous surveillance of citizens, attempts to monitor emails, and the other things that gradual erode our rights and privacy at the expense of fictious security improvements.

last edited by $ack at 01:35:01 18/Oct/08

A smart terrorist, he says, won’t try to bring a knife aboard a plane, as I had been doing; he’ll make his own, in the airplane bathroom. Schnei­er told me the recipe: “Get some steel epoxy glue at a hardware store. It comes in two tubes, one with steel dust and then a hardener. You make the mold by folding a piece of cardboard in two, and then you mix the two tubes together. You can use a metal spoon for the handle. It hardens in 15 minutes.”

Thanks for the tip!

I walked clean through customs here in brisbane.. Even after i had a dog sit on my foot twice.. I told the customs officer a cat had s*** and piseed allover my bag (well it was the truth) He took one look at the outside of the bag, saw the cat dirt and believed me.. Got to the xray bit and the guy waved me through..

I got a pocket knife through Sydney airport security.

I didnt even know it was in my bag until i was heading home and brisbane airport spotted it.. bugger.

i was flying up to Brisbane the other month from Sydney and forgot to take some screwdrivers out of my bag. the screener found them, i gave him the screwdriver and they scanned my bag again.

when i got to Brisbane i open my bag and find another 2 screwdrivers.

i'm alert but not alarmed.

The thing that gets me about this article is they're spending $7b on something that doesn't work!

“That’s a Hezbollah flag.”

Why would you pull someone up for that?

Its not like terrorists carry flags around with them all the time, so its not a suspicious item.

And you cant (really) kill someone with a flag, so its not a dangerous weapon.



I'd rather they gave a cavity search to the guy carrying a box cutter and zipties rather the one wearing a "HEY GUYS IM A TERRORIST" shirt

Why would you pull someone up for that?

Because it should be a bit of a warning, aha, flag for people in the security field. I think you're completely right, but I think the authors point wasn't that he was ignored because it'd be a stupid thing for a terrorist to have - he was ignored because noone even noticed that it was a flag from a bunch of people that walk around most of the day shouting 'death to America'.

The thing that gets me about this article is they're spending $7b on something that doesn't work!

it isn't about being seen doing something that works, it is just about being seen doing something. just look at the netfilter issue for another example.

I dunno, seems a bit speculative the way he interpreted the 'uh-huh'.

The thing that gets me about this article is they're spending $7b on something that doesn't work!

it isn't about being seen doing something that works, it is just about being seen doing something. just look at the netfilter issue for another example.

Or the qld water commission.