I can agree somewhat about profiling, however even this is not very accurate
as some of the more recent bombings in Israel have been committed by young
women. Since the suicide bombings have been so 'successful' and difficult
to deter, it is increasingly likely that sticking to profiling solely young,
males of middle eastern extraction will not be accurate enough to work on a
consistent basis. Truly good security cannot focus on such a narrow profile
and expect to be effective when faced by organized, well-financed terror
networks, backed by extremist religious leadership. Training and
compensating effective, high-profile security personnel at airports is the
most effective local way to go, sure it'll raise the cost of a ticket 20%+
but in my view it is worth it (too bad its not being taken seriously enough
to make a real difference). Going after the money pot of the terror
networks and actively encouraging moderate Islamic leaders to take a hard
line approach against those that preach terror in the name of religion
(crying fire in a crowded theater is a crime, preaching death to
Americans/non-Muslims/Israelis is similar in my view and is criminal) is
likely to be the only long term effective non-local solution.
I am not terribly supportive of having armed pilots. Pilots are supposed to
fly the plane, not behave as security guards. Sure most of them are
ex-military, that means that they have been trained to shoot a bit (usually
not all that well since pistols are not a pilot's main weapon), some of them
may be willing to take the Sky Marshall training. However a pilot's job is
to fly the plane, a Sky Marshall's job is security. I want security, not a
pilot acting as a security guard. Reinforcing the cockpit door to make it
very difficult to force entry is being done now to all aircraft (I do hope
that this is being done effectively as it is a good security measure that
should have been done long ago). I want the pilot to be able to LAND the
aircraft ASAP in an attempted hijacking, not be tempted to open the
reinforced cockpit door and get killed in the process. Attempted hijackings
will now take place is a very different environment than pre-September 11,
hijackers are now very likely to face a multitude of attacking passengers
before ever getting to the cockpit door. The game has now changed, unless
there are a fair number of well-armed hijackers on board with lots of ammo,
the likelihood of them gaining control of the plane is pretty small, then if
the pilot is armed in this scenario, it really wouldn't matter. Another
thing about arming pilots that isn't so good, if they were the only ones on
board with a gun, wouldn't that make them a further target? So for
terrorists, it would be very convenient to attack the pilot to not only
control the plane, but also get his gun to try and deter the passengers.
Anyway, just my take on it, YMMV
RBHouston@aol.com wrote:
> Am I the only one that thinks Norman Mineta is insane? First he says
airport
> security cannot "profile" when looking for terrorist, in spite of the fact
> that 100% of the terrorism was perpetrated by young, male, middle
easterners?
> How about we only profile 90% of the time and check grandma's and little
> kids the other 10% to keep the politically correct crowd happy?
>
> Now the govenment has announced that pilots will not be allowed to carry
> firearms. The reasons cited now are lack of training (even though the
> majority of pilots are ex-military with previous training and have offered
to
> take the same training as sky marshals) and that a stray bullet might hit
> some "electrical system" (guess they went to electrical system when the
rapid
> depressurization argument was proven invalid). One congressman (D-SC)
> indicated the locked cockpit door should be enough. My guess is he's
never
> flown or never looked up from his first class martini long enough to see
the
> flimsy door. Apparently he also doen't give a damn about the lives of any
of
> the passengers or flight attendents.
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