Re: The Things He Carried

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
Date: November 15, 2008 8:11:10 AM EST
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Subject: Re: The Things He Carried


Me and the TSA

by Bruce Schneier
November 15, 2008

There was a great article from The Atlantic about me helping evade
airport security. We printed fake boarding passes, explained how
anyone on the no-fly list could get through security, and brought on
more liquids than should be allowed.

Kip Hawley, head of the TSA, has responded to the article on his blog.

Unfortunately, there's not really anything to his response. It's
obvious he doesn't want to admit that they've been checking ID's all
this time to no purpose whatsoever, so he just emits vague
generalities like a frightened squid filling the water with ink. Yes,
some of the stunts in article are silly (who cares if people fly with
Hezbollah T-shirts?) so that gives him an opportunity to minimize the
real issues.

Hawley says: "Watch-lists and identity checks are important and
effective security measures. We identify dozens of terrorist-related
individuals a week and stop No-Flys regularly with our watch-list
process."

It is simply impossible that the TSA catches dozens of terrorists
every week. If it were true, the administration would be trumpeting
this all over the press -- it would be an amazing success story in
their war on terrorism. But note that Hawley doesn't exactly say
that; he calls them "terrorist-related individuals." Which means
exactly what? People so dangerous they can't be allowed to fly for
any reason, yet so innocent they can't be arrested -- even under the
provisions of the Patriot Act.

And if Secretary Chertoff is telling the truth when he says that
there are only 2,500 people on the no-fly list and fewer than 16,000
people on the selectee list -- they're the ones that get extra
screening -- and that most of them live outside the U.S., then it is
just plain impossible that the TSA identifies "dozens" of these
people every week. The math just doesn't make sense.

...

http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0811.html#2





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