Tuesday August 15, 2006

I've Been Thinking:

Homeland Security has just come clean, and it is a serious blow to the public's understanding of security.
Homeland Security has just admitted that their x-rays do not pick up explosives in shoes and yet, it is policy to scan all shoes of people boarding planes.

The only way to test for most standard explosives is swabbing and then running the swab through a spectrometer.
The spectrometers used at airports throughout the United States do not detect liquid explosives especially peroxide based explosives - the explosive de jour for al Qaeda.

So should we continue to take off our shoes?
Yes we should.
Airport security should swab our shoes and give a spritz from an aerosol can and use any and all other available detection materials.
Airport security should continue to make certain that there are no liquid explosives in, on or around the bags or the people going on planes.

This is not a game.
Citizens of the United States are willing to wait in long security lines in airports and elsewhere, but only if authorities are actually actively making America safer.

Taking off shoes for no reason - that just smells bad.