security

To most Americans, NO, except maybe to stay tuned in to your favorite media outlet.
Don't touch that dial! Other than that, they never give any details of why the terror
alert is high or what things you might do to be more cautious or alert. And is any
thing, any part of living, any safer because of Homeland Security? Again, HA!
You’re fooling yourself if you believe for one minute that you’re safer. While we may
indeed be preventing countless nail clippers and nose hair trimmers from getting
onto airplanes, true security is mediocre at best, and always has been. Face it
people, there’s too many people in the world for even the good ole U.S. of A. to keep
an eye on everybody, no matter how much we’d like to. But hey, if the FBI, the CIA,
Secret Service and all those other government spook shops couldn’t prevent Sept.
11 from happening, the advent of one more bureau is not going to change anything.
We need to correct the problems in the others that failed us to begin with instead of
wasting more and more money on a new branch to continue in the same vein of
those before it. Homeland Security, along with the Patriot Act simply gives our
government free reign to go stomping all over the very rights and freedoms that this
country was founded upon. And not just Ahmed Mattah’s freedoms either, but Jane
Smith and Billy Bob’s too.

Here's a nice story to bolster confidence in our post September 11th "heightened"
security

Air travel in the post 9/11 era has become a feat of patience and endurance that can drive even
generally sane, non-fundamentalist people to seriously consider blowing themselves up. But is it
working, all this “security” we’ve blanketed ourselves with?
Well, last summer, while thousands of Weeboks were examined for traces of explosives and nail
clippers were confiscated by the metric ton, American Lauren Thomas* was able to transport
drugs, a gun and a rocket shell aboard commercial airlines. Here’s how it happened.
Lauren, an Army reservist, was sent to Texas last May for training. There she ran into an old friend
from basic, and the two hung out together until the friend returned to his home base in June.
“He gave me this expended shell casing from an 80mm rocket launcher as kind of a souvenir,”
Lauren says. “I didn’t have anywhere to put it in my dorm, so I just wrapped it in a T-shirt and stuck
it in my duffel. I meant to mail it to my mom’s, but I forgot all about it.”
Not to worry, postal workers: the shell casing, two feet long and as big around as a man’s wrist,
made the 500-mile trip home on a commercial airline (including two plane changes) in Lauren’s
duffel without raising any alarms.
A few months later, Lauren was ordered to join part of her company overseas. She was instructed
to travel in civilian clothing on a commercial airline, with her government-issued sidearm in a locked
case to be checked, and a case of injectable narcotic medications to be delivered to her unit’s
medical officer.
Apparently the trick to boarding a plane with drugs and a gun is the same trick that got you out of
high-school gym class: have an official-looking note. Lauren appeared at the curbside check-in of
an international airport in jeans and a T-shirt, dragging two Army-green duffels, a case of morphine
tucked under one arm and her 9mm semiautomatic in its case in the other.
She presented the ticket agent with a letter from her commanding officer on US Army letterhead.
The ticket agent conferred with his supervisor, who waved Lauren past a long line of glowering
passengers waiting at the checkpoint in their sock feet, shoes and belts in hand. The supervisor
inspected Lauren’s letter and had her open the case to verify the weapon was unloaded. The case
was then secured again, stamped and stickered and sent down the conveyor to the baggage hold.
Narcotics and letter in hand, Lauren was admitted to the plane without further ado. The supervisor
trotted off to explain –for the third time- to an irate man at the next counter that he would not be
allowed to board the plane with his souvenir windproof lighter.
At her destination, some 12 hours and three plane changes later, Lauren collected her baggage
and headed straight for the car rental counter. It was three hours later when she brought the gun
case to her company’s weapons officer for inspection—and found the gun missing.
That’s right: someone opened the locked case, took the weapon and sent the empty case on its
way.
Turned out military and airline officials were already investigating a recent rash of similar firearm
thefts.
Good to know they’re on top of things.