Forum with Finn:

Recently, I was engaged in a discussion on airline travel with a few friends. We were talking about the time amount of time consumed from when you were dropped off at the airport until you boarded the plane. This was when one of my friends used the word “post-9/11” to describe airport security before and after that fateful day. From there discussion took off about the changes that have been made in airline security since 9/11. Had our security really changed for the better? Or is it some type of optical illusion?Let’s rewind the clock ten years ago and examine airline security. I can remember as a kid showing up to the airport with only an hour to spare, checking our bags in, going through the metal detector then waiting to board our plane. In my six times flying prior to 9/11 I was only asked once if I had seen any suspicious packages or had been given luggage from people I did not know; and that was when I was six and only shook my head timidly without even thinking. I never saw anyone being scanned with a metal detecting wand when the detector went off. Only after the attacks did I see someone being taken aside for a secondary search, and he was an elderly man who was a veteran of World War II and stormed the beaches at Normandy, a real suspect. So has airport security really changed?Sure, in the few months after 9/11 there were long lines and armed soldiers dressed in camouflage patrolling the grounds. At Logan International Airport there were more State Police officers on duty and a considerable amount of Transport Security Administration (TSA) people at the baggage screeners and metal detectors. And of course, every time the Terrorist Threat Level would rise there would be a rise in the amount of security personnel working at airports. I however have not had the experience of traveling during a higher terrorist threat level therefore I am unable to comment on the increased security measures. The times that I have flown after 9/11 I didn’t notice any new security measures. For a while, the news told us to get to the airport two hours prior to your departure in order to allow adequate time for security measures. And every time I flew, we would get there two or more hours before our take off time but the security process was just as short as it was before. The only real noticeable difference was when you had to take off your shoes and couldn’t carry on water bottles. One would think, due to past events, that if an attack is going to happen it will happen when we least expect it, so why not be prepared at all times rather than bumping up security whenever there is a evidence to warrant a raised threat level?TSA’s website states that, “48,000 Transportation Security Officers serve on TSA’s frontline in 457 U.S. airports” and that in order to ensure passenger safety, “Good security requires an engaged and empowered workforce.” I’d say that’s a good mission statement, however, each time I have gone through the security checkpoint, (notice how there’s only one checkpoint, where airports in other countries such as Israel, screen travelers before they even set foot on airport property) TSA workers are by no means engaging passengers, they are too busy talking to themselves, too busy to watch the actions of passengers. And empowered? The ones I have seen look like the airport is the last place they want to be, they have no initiative to be active and lookout for any signs of trouble. I have never seen a K9 explosives unit or any other additional security measures when our threat level is as always. Israel trains their people to be the first line of defense, to watch out for any suspicious activity and should the need arise, to raise the alarm immediately and to calmly and efficiently start evacuating the premise until the proper authorities arrive. Are there even Federal Marshalls on the airlines? Since 9/11 there have been two attempts to attack the airline industry, the shoe bomber and this year’s Christmas Day bomber who hid the explosives in his underwear. The shocking part of these stories is not that they managed to get on the plane with explosives, and a fuse sticking out of Richard Reid’s (the shoe bomber) sneaker, it is the fact that both men were subdued by civilians who were in the aircraft! Now it could just be that these were just flights that didn’t have federal agents on them or could it be that we are just told that gun-toting Federal Marshalls travel on our airliners to give us a sense of security? I am not trying to scare or upset anyone, I am just writing about the observations that were made during a conversation. If anything, I hope this article causes you to always be aware of your surroundings and what is going on, we are the first line of defense. Terrorism is not going to go away, terrorists are constantly inventing new ways to smuggle explosives onto their target (shoes and underwear?) so our security forces need to be one step ahead of them and anticipate these new schemes. Our TSA agents need to be doing more than just looking at a screen that tells them what’s in our luggage, and passengers need to do more than think that the current security measures have made them safe. After all, they have failed twice.