Psst, Homeland Security Honchos: The Thing To Do Is To Find Actual Terrorists -- Long Before They Hit The Airport
Not to find oil field workers' on-the-job items.
There's a story with a misleading headline, "Explosive found in carry-on bag at Anchorage airport." Steve Quinn of Reuters writes about the "possible threat item" detected as the passenger's carry-on bag was being screened at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Sunday:
JUNEAU, Alaska - Security agents at Alaska's largest commercial airport closed the lone security checkpoint for nearly two hours on Sunday after discovering an oil field worker packing an explosive device.The "possible threat item" was detected as the passenger's carry-on bag was being screened at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Sunday afternoon, said Ann Davis, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman.
The device appeared to be a pipe bomb and the passenger told authorities it was a device used to trigger avalanches, said Airport Manager John Parrott.
The checkpoint area was evacuated and the city's explosive ordinance team took the device to a remote area for disposal, officials said.
The passenger had a ticket to fly on Shared Services Aviation, a joint service between energy companies ConocoPhillips and BP, which transports employees and contractors.
Both firms are oilfield operators on Alaska's oil-rich North Slope.
I know many people who own guns. Not one of them has murdered somebody. They are not murderers but people who want to protect themselves and their family and people who hunt.
What would be meaningful security in this country would be the constitutional kind -- to use probable cause (by trained intelligence agents) to find people plotting terrorist acts, long before they hit the mall or the airport or the Boston Marathon.
You don't stop terrorism by taking away some law-abiding citizen's work equipment. (That's nitwittery, not security.)
UPDATE: "Security" idiocy is contagious. Headline: "UK security confiscates Woody's toy gun..."
I will not defend the TSA. They are un-American and need to be abolished yesterday, and in fact, are a bigger terrorist threat than al-Qaeda.
But this action, it seems to me, was at least somewhat justified.
Hazmat rules exist for good reason, and they mostly do not allow explosives to be carried aboard airplanes, especially those carrying passengers.
If this worker can't get his equipment to his work site any other way, I would think he should get a permit and it should be granted. But lacking any, I don't think this was an overreaction.
jdgalt at February 18, 2014 10:50 AM
This flight sounds less like a passenger route than a scheduled charter flight to some remote airport.
There was a point back in the 60's and 70's that the space race used scheduled airlines from Houston to Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg were routinely held to wait for whichever engineer had to go grab luggage before flying.
This sounds more like a phone call of "John, we're running short on the avalanches packs. Can you bring one up?" So he's thinking a tube of C-4 without a detonator is not a big deal.
This is like a soldier carrying a couple of Claymores. To them it is a daily routine. To a TSA idiot this person is a threat.
Jim P. at February 18, 2014 7:13 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/02/18/psst_homeland_s.html#comment-4268689">comment from Jim P.Again, the existence of an explosive doesn't kill people; the existence of an explosive in the possession of a person with terroristic intentions might. We need to look for criminals -- put all our resources into that -- and not waste time treating every single person who flies as a criminal (and have them given the once-over and a boob- or ball-grab by the likes of the dead-eyed mall food court workers populating the TSA).
Amy Alkon at February 18, 2014 7:46 PM
Both ammunition and pressurized cans are allowed in your checked luggage.
This item probably should have been checked but it makes the news in order to bolster the reputation of the TSA for stopping another non threat.
Isab at February 18, 2014 8:06 PM
What I don't get is why 'avalanche control' devices are necessary for working in the oil fields around Prudhoe Bay. I've worked up there during the winter more than a few times, and not only is there a lot less snow than you'd expect, but the whole place is like a pool table the size of Minnesota...it's that flat. The closest mountains are the Brooks Range, far south of any oil activity.
model_1066 at February 19, 2014 9:05 AM
The closest mountains are the Brooks Range, far south of any oil activity. -- model_1066 at February 19, 2014 9:05 AM
What about the pipeline itself? Is it in range of any avalanche areas? And was the destination necessarily Prudhoe, or could it have been some other port. Or could the flight have been a puddle jumper?
Jim P. at February 19, 2014 10:15 AM
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