Longtime readers of this blog know that I consider our nation’s airport current security apparatus to be an exercise in theatric futility. A tale of public safety, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Sure, some pieces of the puzzle are sensible, but others (ID checks, the war on hydration, and no-fly lists, for starters) are 99.99999% a waste of time and money.
That said, I’m not going to go to the security line and be a jackass. I don’t grumble, I don’t whine, I just take off my shoes and walk on through. No, I’m no freedom rider, but I know the rules, and yes, I *am* willing to fight for my rights if someone gives me a hard time, but I’m not going in with a bad attitude.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that I don’t have the stones to do what this guy did. He created fake boarding passes, wore pro-al Qaeda t-shirts, packed Hezbollah flags, and wore a Beer Belly full of Bud Light through the checkpoint.
I know he’s a provocateur, poking his fingers into the eyes of authority, over and over again, and I know he’s doing it for a story. But it’s a fun read. And at the end of the day, it reinforces both the moronic construct of our national quest for airport security, and it shows how many gaps in that system there are.
Read the whole thing.
Related:
- Forged boarding passes: Fraud, yes, but where is the security threat?
- Your laptop is a suitcase: How the U.S. government is searching computers, phones, and other electronics at the border
- More than a patdown: TSA wants to read your mind
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October 16th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
One of the points that I completely agree with is the BP triangulation issue.
Often times I misplace (on accident) my ticket between checkin, security, the lounge and the gate. I’ll get a new ticket printed in the lounge or at the gate. Neither of these will have a security mark.
Heck, with Delta I can checkin at the gate with my skymiles card….
October 17th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I wonder how it is possible to have spend so much money on “document checking” and not doing the basic things when it comes to ensure that boarding pass and id are both real.
In good old Europe for example, I print my boarding pass at home which has a barcode, when I pass through security the self printed pass get’s scanned to ensure it’s real and than I can pass security screening.
When boarding a flight I am asked for my picture id which is than compared to my boarding pass and again my boarding pass is scanned.
In some countries the verification between boarding pass and id is also done at separate counters (Zurich for example).
This would take care of the problem with fake boarding passes because if the boarding pass data does not match the airline data it’s a no go.
Why can’t the TSA just invest in simple solutions like that?
October 19th, 2008 at 4:33 am
The phrase “an exercise in theatric futility” so perfectly describes the TSA!