In October of 2001 my later partner, Joel, and I took a long planned ‘once in a lifetime’ trip to Hawaii. It was somewhat surreal traveling in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. There were rifle-toting National Guardsmen all over every airport but apart from their conspicuous presence, airport security was still pretty low key and ‘customer service’ oriented (if the security rules that had been in place on 9/11 had actually been FOLLOWED, none of the hijackers would have been allowed to board). Passenger screening had Not yet been "Halliburtoned" into a passenger funded federal agency that has turned checking in for a flight to Phoenix into an experience only slightly less intrusive and de-humanizing than be booked into a typical county jail.
So it was on the return leg of the trip that we had ‘travel day from hell’. Evolving security arrangements had resulted in huge HUGE lines and more than an hour after arriving at Kahului we were just in this endless line that was moving glacially. (Joel had the sense to lie down on the floor and grasp for his asthma inhaler, deftly bringing forward an Aloha Airlines agent who swiftly transferred us their VIP lounge booked us in first class on the next flight to Honolulu). Unfortunately we missed our connection so got to spend the afternoon and evening waiting to take the red eye back to Seattle.
It’s ten pm and a crowd of tired, sun-burned tourists has collected at the departure gate. A whole plane load of them. Then the gate agent says that we all have to leave the gate area and queue up again out in the un airconditioned arcade. And as I waited with all those other tired sweaty people who had done it and Really wanted to go home NOW as a gate agent checked our ID’s and tickets at a glacial pace, which had already been checked at least three times by the airline and the National Guard. This was just overkill and it didn’t make us one iota safer.
If, like me you find it glaringly obvious that the civil liberties revokations New Security Measures serve several agendas entirely unrelated to making us safer and which actually make us both less safe and less free, you don’t really need to read Overblown in which John Mueller makes clear what a scam it all is, from arresting Dionne Warwick for having a joint in her purse to the current procedures which are at once overkill and ineffective. I haven’t the stomach to read all the details and see all the evidence laid out in black and white. But if you do Overblown is Recommended.
Tags: Book Reviews, Books, John Mueller, Overblown, propaganda, scare tactics, Security, Terrorism Industry
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April 5th, 2008 at 1:19 am
I think most of the rules in place on 9/11 were actually followed. Screeners did find knives on some of the terrorists, as I recall. But the let them through because there was no reason not to. There were no rules against carrying knives or short blades on to aircraft. I used to routinely board planes with my Leatherman.
TSA is nothing but theater to make the infrequently traveling voter think the government is doing something, when it really isn’t. All they have accomplished is to waste money and time.
I guess TSA just makes me kind or rant-y
April 5th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
lol, Cromley. The TSA makes me kinda want to scream about the civil rights I used to have
April 6th, 2008 at 7:31 am
I was never a frequent flyer, but aside from being squeezed into a container with a bunch of strangers (and causing mild anxiety), I didn’t mind flying all that much. Now… I’ll do anything I can to avoid it. I’m going back to Chicago for a Gala Extravaganza in July, and rather than a two hour flight I’m very seriously considering a 13 hour drive. Because flying sucks that much.
Oh, and I’ve always loved driving way more than flying anyway. The TSA just made it easier to hate flying.