This morning while driving to a client, I listened to the NPR News description of new airport security measures. I heard descriptions of large red bins full of liquids that Homeland Security inspectors made people pour out before boarding their flights.
I immediately recognized the stupidity of that idea. Seems like easy pickin's for any terrorist: go to airport, dump liquid explosive in bin. Wait for explosion. Kill lots of people waiting in security lines. Bonus effect: don't just blow up a plane mid-air. Take a whole terminal out of commission!
BoingBoing notes that other people thought the same thing.
Not to be overly dicky about it or anything. I realize that security is trying to figure out how to deal with it on the fly, but I mean come on. Seems like the current solution is a little dumb.
Comments (1)
I thought this too (and saw the thing on Boing Boing) and then talked to a guy last night at a bar (so maybe dubious) who said that whatever they were going to use would have been a binary explosive that would have to be mixed and would require an electrical charge to detonate - not something super-volatile like nitro glycerin which can go off when agitated. So maybe if all the confiscated containers had explosives this would be a problem, but I'd guess that they'd be dumping the chemicals into a mix of soda, water, etc. that would just dilute whatever it was.
But maybe they should be testing the liquids? Don't we want to know if something contained an explosive chemical?
I dunno, I agree with you - I think they're still trying to figure this out, although on July 4, we had to taste all the water bottles we were carrying with us in front of security before going to the mall to watch fireworks, which seemed unusual at the time, but maybe they've had wind of this for a while?
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August 11, 2006 8:36 AM
Posted on August 11, 2006 08:36