{"id":2020,"date":"2002-03-26T06:34:20","date_gmt":"2002-03-26T11:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2020"},"modified":"2002-03-26T06:34:20","modified_gmt":"2002-03-26T11:34:20","slug":"the_highest_lev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/03\/26\/the_highest_lev.html","title":{"rendered":"The highest level of security"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inspector general of the Dept. of Transportation has been running tests of airport security <\/a>since 9\/11. What’s been found — during a period when the highest level of security was being claimed, and supposedly pursued, is more than a bit dismaying.<\/p>\n

– Investigators carried knives past screeners in more than 70% of tests.
\n– Screeners failed to spot guns in 30% of tests.
\n– Screeners failed to detect simulated explosive devices in 60% of tests.
\n– Overall, screeners failed to stop prohibited items in 48% of tests.
\n– Investigators either secretly boarded an aircraft or gained access to the airport tarmac in 48% of tests.<\/p>\n

Now, we could look at this as a cup-half-full, and note that guns were spotted 70% of the time, etc. And if I were organizing some sort of large conspiracy to hi-jack several planes at the same time, I’d still be worried, since all it would take would be one or two of my guys getting caught to cause a massive shutdown of the air travel system.<\/p>\n

But, still … this seems remarkably poor. What are all those X-rays, magnetometers, and other high tech thangs being used for, if the results are this bad? Especially since the results are worse than in similar tests run in the 70s and 80s.<\/p>\n

I guess I was just unlucky that they spotted my corkscrew that time. Hopefully others with more sanguinary intent will be similarly unlucky, since it appears luck is our greatest protector right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The inspector general of the Dept. of Transportation has been running tests of airport security since 9\/11. What’s been found — during a period when the highest level of security…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeland-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9807,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/30\/but_at_least_theyre_not_a.html","url_meta":{"origin":2020,"position":0},"title":"But at least they’re not allowing 4 ounces of toothpaste through …","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 30-Oct-06 2:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Once again, TSA screeners fail to find all sorts of potentially dangerous stuff. But God help you if you're carrying a full-sized bottle of shampoo! Screeners at Newark Liberty International...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1989,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/03\/29\/more_airport_se.html","url_meta":{"origin":2020,"position":1},"title":"More airport security humor","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 29-Mar-02 10:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"From SatireWire: Washington, D.C. 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