Pointless "security" from Risks

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 17:27:18 -0600
From: Elaine -HFB- Ashton <elaine () chaos wustl edu>
Subject: Re: [IP] Pointless "security" from Risks
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
*>Now for the rant bit. I can appreciate that the US Government wants to
*>protect the food supply against bio-terrorism, but what in the name of Ghod
*>do they think this is going to achieve? Were I a bio-terrorist, about to
*>ship a boxful of Ebola contaminated sausage to the USA, would I register it
*>on the FDA site? Or would I write "Books" on the Customs form and send it
*>anyway?

Actually, no, there is a loophole as meat is not governed under this new
rule. You can ship all the toxic meat you want since that is under the
rule of the FDA, not under the USDA which is where this new rule is from.
Reindeer meat, however, is still banned due to a strange concern about
radiation levels in the wake of Chernobyl. Cows can graze in the shadow of
the Nevada test sites but Reindeer are off the menu...go figure.

Here in Finland, all of the stores stopped shipping foods to the states as
it was unclear before Christmas how they were even supposed to apply for
the license to ship foods to the US with this new rule. The Posti didn't
even have the forms before the deadline so, like most people, I sent gifts
of food marked as something other than what it was for Christmas to family
in the US.

*>In short, what is the point of this? Other than make-work for Government
*>employees. Still, at least the website works with Mozilla. I guess I should
*>be thankful for small mercies.

My personal guess is that it helps cut down on imports...just a guess, but
I certainly can't think of anything else productive it might actually be
intended for and certainly not for preventing cookie baking terrorists
from sending stuff to the US.

e. 

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