Friday, November 26, 2010
On TSA Body Scanning and "Enhanced" Pat-Downs
The justification cited for the TSA's implementation of body scanning and "enhanced" pat-downs of air travellers is last year's attempted act of terrorism by the so-called underwear bomber. Both defenders of the new policy and the TSA cite the criticism the TSA and the administration faced last year over the incident as evidence of bad faith on the part of the new procedures' critics. However, there is a very, very, important point to note here. The criticism both faced as a result of the incident was not in response to the TSA's failure to sufficiently rub Mr. Abdulmutallab 's testicles. It was a result of the fact that the DHS had received prior warnings about Mr. Abdulmutallab's intent from the British and from Mr. Abdulmutallab 's own father regarding his intentions and had failed to act to prevent him or even attempt to prevent him from bringing these plans to fruition. It's not at all clear to me that these problems with intelligence distribution and implementation have been corrected. Instead, the government seems to consider random crotch-groping a more efficient response.
The justification cited for the TSA's implementation of body scanning and "enhanced" pat-downs of air travellers is last year's attempted act of terrorism by the so-called underwear bomber. Both defenders of the new policy and the TSA cite the criticism the TSA and the administration faced last year over the incident as evidence of bad faith on the part of the new procedures' critics. However, there is a very, very, important point to note here. The criticism both faced as a result of the incident was not in response to the TSA's failure to sufficiently rub Mr. Abdulmutallab 's testicles. It was a result of the fact that the DHS had received prior warnings about Mr. Abdulmutallab's intent from the British and from Mr. Abdulmutallab 's own father regarding his intentions and had failed to act to prevent him or even attempt to prevent him from bringing these plans to fruition. It's not at all clear to me that these problems with intelligence distribution and implementation have been corrected. Instead, the government seems to consider random crotch-groping a more efficient response.
