On Monday, December 24, 2001, at 04:45 AM, measl@mfn.org wrote:
This just gets better and better...
"Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Sunday all U.S. airports are required to add random shoe checks of passengers to the already established practice of random baggage checks."
"Shoes for industry!" The general point is that it is going to be very difficult to stop persons willing to die in their acts from carrying them out. Planes are very fragile things and explosives can be formed into ordinary-looking objects (cases of computers, coffee mugs, belt buckles, etc.) and with very little vapor emission (smell). Chemical timers even let bombers get away (acid eating through something in a sealed ampoule...). An attacker who opens an aircraft emergency door in flight could also do a lot of damage (to the airline and travel industry, if nothing else). Fact is, soft targets abound. There are solutions, but not necessarily the police state measures now unfolding. We talked about this a lot after 911. --Tim May "If I'm going to reach out to the the Democrats then I need a third hand.There's no way I'm letting go of my wallet or my gun while they're around." --attribution uncertain, possibly Gunner, on Usenet