CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Airport Security Fails To Detect Stun Gun And Knife

CNN reports that a woman made it through airport security at New York's LaGuardia airport with stun gun and a knife in her purse.

After a layover in Detroit, on her way to Denver, she realized what she had in her purse and alerted a flight attendant. The plane was met at the gate by security personnel and the woman was taken into custody for questioning. She was released without charges.

Good thing the Woman wasn't an evil doer. Does anyone think anyone in the TSA will be disciplined for this breach? I'd like to think someone would be fired.

Land Mines Aren't Allowed

Venomous Kate wonders what this soldier was thinking.

The Associated Press, reports that a U.S. soldier was kicked off a flight after screeners found an inert land mine was found in his luggage.

I think the TSA may have overreacted here. I asked Phil Carter, of Intel Dump, if an "inert land mine was dangerous. Phil replied:

There’s not really much detail in the story, so I can’t tell what the guy was carrying. My guess is that he was carrying a “training” M18A1 Claymore land mine, because those are sometimes called “inert”. In reality, they’re not just inert – they’re just toys. A “training” Claymore is a blue plastic replica of an actual Claymore – it contains no explosive material whatsoever, and could not be made into an actual Claymore. It does have wires and a detonator like an actual Claymore, but those are for training soldiers how to do the 11 steps necessary to employ such a device.

So…this is like keeping a guy off a flight who carries a blue plastic toy pistol, or anything else. I think the soldier was probably dumb to carry the device in his luggage, as opposed to shipping it. But the TSA people probably didn’t know what they were dealing with either.

I don't see what is wrong with putting what amounts to a toy into stowed luggage. Sgt Hook strongly disagrees, saying that this Sgt Moron, "embarassed the United States Army and the Noncommissioned Officers Corps."

Airport Security Measures Work

Via Venomous Kate, and James, at Outside The Beltway, we learn that the new security procedure requiring some visitors to the U.S. to be fingerprinted and photographed has already resulted in 30 criminals being caught.

NEWS.com.au reports:

In Washington, a senior US Homeland Security official said that during the first three days after US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology - or US-VISIT - was installed at 115 US airports, more than 83,000 international passengers had been photographed and fingerprinted.

"Among those we have had 30 criminal hits," Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson said.

Those apprehended includea Salvadoran national stopped at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York:

"When he presented his travel documents everything seemed fine but the biometric identification sounded a warning," he said.

"Turned out he had used false documents to enter the United States illegally 12 times in the past year and had committed some minor offences."

A Google search reveals that this story is not being reported by the U.S. media at all. There are numerous articles about the implementation of the new procedure. There also numerous stories about the negative foreign reaction. Including this Washington Times' article about Secretary of State Powell's defending the new procedure against Brazil's charge that it amounts to "Nazism."

As usual I agree with Kate when she observes:

If nothing else, the passengers themselves will prevent a repeat of 9/11.

I have a friend who is a flight attendant. She has said that a number of pilots have assured their crews that they would fly radical maneuvers to ensure evil doers can't take over another aircraft. Keep those seatbelts buckeled tight.

100 Years Today

On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright sent this telegram to his father, announcing the first successful powered flight:

Success four flights thursday morning all against twenty one mile wind started from level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty one miles longest 57 seconds inform Press home Christmas.

Airliner Missle Defense

El Al, Israel's national airline, has installed the Flight Guard anti- system on some of its airliners. Flight Guard automatically deploys flares to divert an approaching heat-seeking away from the aircraft. It has been used on Israeli military aircraft for a decade.

Last November, unidentified attackers fired two surface-to-air s at an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombasa, Kenya. Fortunately the s failed to hit the plane.

Last week, two El Al flights had to be diverted from their Toronto destination because of reports terrorists were planning a attack on the aircraft.

The Jerusalem Post article can be read here.