The Security Myth

In response to Mike’s post, why does Mumbai make the threat from asymmetric attacks any greater than it already is? It has always been there and it always will be unless we choose to live in a complete police state.

Take the case of the airports--because of the attack at Glasgow you now can't drive up to a terminal to drop a passenger off or pick someone up. Yet, there's absolutely nothing to stop someone from walking in with a backup containing an explosive and either leaving it in the terminal or detonating it amongst the passengers lined up to go through security. It's a "soft target." Now airports could institute a measure requiring everyone entering the terminal to be searched but then someone could blow themselves up in the parking lot so that would require a perimeter around the airport with every car being searched but then someone could blow them self up at the checkpoint .... and on .... and on. The only real solution would be to shut down air travel. So society wide there is an illusion of security created by the state to encourage people to go about their daily lives but in reality there is little that could be done to stop a determined terrorist. It’s about containment, not elimination, a point I make in the conclusion to my  book (gratuitous plug).

By the way, for an interesting examination of the faults with U.S. airport security see this from the current issue of The Atlantic.

Comments

[Mike Dunn]

I completely agree with you on this, and I think Bruce Schneier's stuff is really useful in taking apart the security myth. I don't think that Mumbai makes the threat any greater but I do think attacks of this sort make it more difficult to be sceptical about the latest FBI warning, whatever it might be.

For anyone who didn't see my link this morning, Schneier's blog is always worth a read:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/

Or you can subscribe to his newsletter:
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram.html

[Reg Whitaker]

Canuckistan's scenarios of why airport security can't work are all answered quite effectively in Israel at Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv. Everyone and their vehicles entering the perimeter are checked by bomb sniffing dogs; the entire airport is protected by rings of electronic fencing, continuous surveillance, robot patrols, etc. The buildings are designed in the first instance with security first in mind, and if you get past all this, there is the famous Israeli screening triage to deal, with all prospective passengers separated into three categories of ascending risk, all based on so-called behavioural profiling. if you are in the high-risk category, chances are you may never meet your flight. And if you get onto an El Al flight, there are the famous and fearsomely traned and fully armed Shin Bet sky marshals on board.

Of course all this is extremely costly, to both the state and to the convenience of the travelling public (for El Al you should arrive four hours prior to your flight). It would require the complete redesign and rebulding of airports around the world, and it would require that passengers submit routinely to a level of intrusive surveillance that Westerners are unlikely to welcome. It also contains within it blatant discrimination against Israeli Arab citizens, and non-Israeli Arabs who are always targeted for special attention - ie., humiliated and harrassed routinely. But, hey, if it's security you want, then the Israelis can show you the way. Actually, they already are. The Israeli system of behavioural profiling is already being exported to Europe and the US. Watch for it at an airport near you.

[Mike Dunn]

This article says that only 1% of people stopped by the TSA's behaviour profiling methods are actually arrested:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-11-17-behavior-detection_N.htm?csp=34

[Dave]

I know how those Israeli-Arabs feel. I'm singled out all the time in the UK and I'm of Swiss and Irish descent! Birmingham International Airport security makes an issue of my British passport because it was issued by the embassy in Washington DC.......of all places... They pull me off the line and make me answer a dozen questions. I then have to wait 20 minutes while they consult with their superiors. My passport is 8 years old, so I've had this problem for a long time. They're always pulling me off the line. New York accent + DC embassy-issued passport = terrorist?

I have to post this. I can't resist.... http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=CLjNJI54GMM