Monday May 28, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Full-body scanners to be put in British airports

World Jan. 04, 2010 - 04:27AM JST ( 14 )

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14 Comments

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bobobolinskiJan. 04, 2010 - 10:27AM JST

None of these measures -- patting down, profiling, no movement or blankets for the last hour of the flight, full-body scanners -- would have stopped the pants bomber. What did prevent a tragedy was apparently a faulty detonator and the bravery of a Dutch passenger. What should have prevented it, but didn't, is much better, coordinated intelligence on individuals who are associating with radical groups and receiving training in places like Yemen.
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Helter_SkelterJan. 04, 2010 - 10:37AM JST

bobo: None of these measures -- patting down, profiling, no movement or blankets for the last hour of the flight, full-body scanners -- would have stopped the pants bomber.

Why is that?
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HonestDictatorJan. 04, 2010 - 10:49AM JST

Dunno about that bobo, there have been some pretty awsome advancements to x-ray equipment lately. As you said though much better coordination with the intelligence was the problem.
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bobobolinskiJan. 04, 2010 - 10:55AM JST

Helter: because there is a lot of doubt whether full-body scanners can detect liquids and soft plastics (see the fuller article in today's Guardian); and because pat downs will not go near the groin area. Unless passengers who are profiled are also strip-searched, this would not work.
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ProfJuanColePhdJan. 04, 2010 - 11:12AM JST

I fear something has radicalized the government and people of Great Britain, and try as we might my colleagues and I at The Dearborn Kabob House cannot fathom why this atmosphere of unfounded suspicion and fear persists.
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nandakandamandaJan. 04, 2010 - 03:20PM JST

Muslim women will have to undergo these scans too. Exposed in public. Why? Because Al Qaida and their supporters have made it necessary. Could they have seen this coming, the shaming of their own women?

If they couldn't see it coming, they are just plain stupid. It's been getting worse and worse, year by year, with each attack.

If they could see it coming, well, then... words fail me. Perhaps you can justify ordering the early deaths of Muslim brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, in the name of a shining Islamic Emirate somewhere, but what kind of twisted logic can you use to justify these body scans?
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Helter_SkelterJan. 04, 2010 - 04:02PM JST

Helter: because there is a lot of doubt whether...

bobo, what about profiling? A twenty-three year old Muslim male traveling alone from Nigeria to the U.S. and paying for his ticket with cash.
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WilliBJan. 04, 2010 - 04:54PM JST

bobobolinsky:

" None of these measures -- patting down, profiling, no movement or blankets for the last hour of the flight, full-body scanners -- would have stopped the pants bomber. "

Profiling would have. He fit the profile of a high-risk passengers to such a degree that it is almost laughable. He hit every profiling parameter; a forest of red flags should have gone up.

Be assured he would never have gotten on an El Al flight with his explosive underpants.
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nandakandamandaJan. 04, 2010 - 05:10PM JST

The paperwork was all in order, but the guy had been travelling from here and there, with no check-on baggage. He had paid a large amount for a round-trip ticket, in cash. Despite the red flags, and even if they had pulled him, they could still have missed the woolly pants trick.
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skipthesongJan. 04, 2010 - 05:49PM JST

Why don't they use those bomb sniffing dogs along with the scanners?

I can understand why some people feel violated, but that might just be the price to pay until someone decides to fight AQ the right way.
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WilliBJan. 04, 2010 - 06:28PM JST

nandakamanda:

" Despite the red flags, and even if they had pulled him, they could still have missed the woolly pants trick. "

With a thorough search, they would have found the explosive pants. And besides, why was he given a visa, and religious one to boot? The futility of the current Western PC approach to the Jihad can not be demonstrated more clearly.
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bobobolinskiJan. 04, 2010 - 06:35PM JST

OK, so he is profiled and subject to what is now being called "enhanced screening". He has a valid visa. The pat down and scan will not find the concealed materials. A strip search would, and this where El Al would no doubt find it, which is why he would not try it with El Al. But I have seen nothing to suggest that enhanced screening will involve anything like the intrusive (literally) searches that El Al conducts. Sniffer dogs, I don't know; but again there has been no indication that this will be an option. So, we have pat downs which check that you have nothing under your armpits, and a scanning process which its own advocates admit is likely to be ineffective.
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adaydreamJan. 05, 2010 - 12:26AM JST

The underwear bomber would not have gotten detected because it would have been screened from being seen by the modesty shield. Also, there wasn't an area that had a concentration of explosive except between his legs. The scanner again would have been blocked by the modesty shield. Pay down might have missed this also. It's not like there was a block of explosive in a pocket or waist band.

But I don't operate the scanner, this is an uneducated observation. < :-)
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Helter_SkelterJan. 05, 2010 - 04:36AM JST

bobo: A strip search would, and this where El Al would no doubt find it, which is why he would not try it with El Al.

Sounds like a good argument for strip searches.