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more on TSA Releases New List of Banned Items
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:42:25 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: Glenn Fleishman <glenn () glennf com> Date: December 22, 2005 6:07:13 PM EST To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] TSA Releases New List of Banned Items Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> wrote:
A 3.999 inch set of scissors can be much more lethal than a one-inch knife blade. Hey, and you can even bring on a seven-inch long screwdriver now! But a small pocketknife remains verboten.
I heard the strangely frank head of TSA on NPR this morning--perhaps he forgot he was speaking to the public?--talk quite honestly about what I would describe as "yield management for risk."
Basically:* The pilots are now protected, so the plane won't be weaponized even if many passengers were to die on board. * Passengers will overwhelm someone armed with relatively minor weapons, even if some passengers die. That's acceptable risk. * A lot of stuff on planes can be used as weapons already (he didn't elaborate). * The evaluated risk of smaller knives is low in their testing -- meaning whatever air marshalls wear for protection will resist punctures from smaller knives.
He said the focus is now on explosive detection.What this means, and I'm glad he was being so frank, is that in the event of an attempt to hijack a plane, a passenger's individual life is less important than the ability of the plane to be used as a weapon.
That's not a bad risk strategy, and it's at least honest, even if not straightforward.
-- Glenn Fleishman seattle . washington unsolicited pundit . glennf.com columnist . seattletimes.com/practicalmac daily wireless networking news . wifinetnews.com ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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