Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Next, our continuing look at the impact of 9/11 a decade later.
Tonight, we focus on how it's affected air travel.
NewsHour correspondent Tom Bearden reports.
TOM BEARDEN: This is where the greatest number of Americans have been affected in the post-9/11 world, the nation's commercial airports.
Passengers have been walking through metal detectors and had their carry-on bags X-rayed since the late '60s, but aviation security changed dramatically after September 2001.
Prior to the attacks, passenger screening was done by private companies who were supervised by the Federal Aviation Administration. After 9/11, the government created the Transportation Security Administration, which was the largest single federal startup since World War II.
Terry Crosby went to work for the TSA almost from the beginning. He signed up eight years ago because the attacks made him want to serve his country. He rotates through several different jobs during his shift, from running the X-ray machine for carry-on baggage...
TERRY CROSBY, Transportation Security Administration: He decided to leave his liquids in there.
TOM BEARDEN: ... to hand-searching for suspect items, to physically searching passengers.
TERRY CROSBY: Yes, all right, I'm going to go inside your collar here. All righty.
TOM BEARDEN: It's not his favorite job, but a job he says needs to be done.
TERRY CROSBY: A lot of Americans don't feel that they should be patted down, that it's not necessary to be patted down. But when you have things come in that don't belong or try to take things on the plane that don't belong, then it is necessary.
TOM BEARDEN: Some Americans believe those enhanced pat-downs, which started within the last year, violate their constitutional rights. They're just one part of a raging debate over how far the TSA should be allowed to go.
Since 9/11, security procedures have steadily escalated after a series of failed terrorist attacks. After 2001, passengers had to walk through security in their stocking feet after Richard Reid tried to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes.
In 2006, people started having to carry liquids in small containers inside a plastic bag after a plot to detonate liquid explosives was uncovered. And when Umar Abdulmutallab tried to set off plastic explosives hidden in his underwear in 2009, the government spent hundreds of millions of dollars to speed up deployment of advanced imaging technology machines that can peer beneath clothing.
MY VIEW: Box-cutters, bombs in shoes, liquids that can be mixed later to make an explosive; just to name a few. Just how are we to prevent these from getting on an airline without these measures? These terrorists were not carrying Uzis or AK47s.
There is one excerpt I just cannot believe (on issue of complaints).
JOHN PISTOLE, Transportation Security Administration: And the first thing we want to do is get all the facts that we can, and that may include the closed-circuit TV coverage of the checkpoint, if there is -- if that's available
DUH, with the known issues on searches, NOT having closed-circuit TV recordings of the procedures is not only stupid (from the legal protection point of both parties) but stupid when considering identification of terrorists pre and post. EVERY inspection station should have video and audio recordings.
No comments:
Post a Comment