After the horrible events of the World Trade Center bombings, most countries beefed up their security and politicians boasted about how the world is a safer place.
But just last week, a nobody drove a common SUV truck into New York’s Times Square, with enough explosive force to kill thousands of innocent people, out for a night on the town.
American President Barack Obama told reporters at a news conference shortly after the event that his administration will do whatever is necessary to keep American’s safe.
Bull.
Where was Homeland Security – the American federal department responsible for monitoring and preventing terrorist acts on American soil – when Faisal Shahzad drove his SUV full of explosive materials right into the heart of New York’s Times Square?
The only reason Shahzad didn’t succeed in his bombing attempt, was because of a hot dog vendor’s concerned call to police, about a man acting oddly.
That’s right – for all the billions of dollars the American government has spent on anti-terrorism, a humble merchant peddling hot dogs and sausages from his hot dog cart on the street prevented the latest terrorist threat to the most powerful nation on Earth.
Yet President Obama tells his citizens not to worry, he’s got their back. Yeah right.
He didn’t have their back last week – although Shahzad was on a no-fly list, he was able to purchase and board an airplane bound for Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Had authorities arrived just moments later, the terrorist would have been soaring about 30,000 feet in the sky towards the safety of home.
If American President Obama really did have his finger on the pulse of potential terrorist attacks, then Shahzad and his co-conspirators would have been captured long before he posed any real threat. Or at least, long before he had the opportunity to drive a bomb into a very busy Times Square.
President Obama’s administration dropped the ball on this – and who knows on how many other possible attacks which may be to come. The only reason no one got hurt was pure luck.
I don’t know about you, but relying on luck doesn’t exactly make me feel all the safer traveling through the States.
Canada’s federal Transportation Minister John Baird held a press conference yesterday, where he announced the installation of 44 clothing-penetrating, full body scanners at 11 Canadian airports within the next two-months.
These scanners create a three-dimensional image of a person’s naked body, allowing airport security officers to see you in your birthday suit.
Though not all passengers will be seen sans clothes. Considered an alternative to a physical search, Government officials say these devices will only be used on passengers 18-years-old and older, that security feels merit a secondary screening.
These full body scanners were already being tested in Kelowna, British Columbia, off Canada’s west-coast, and will now be in use at airports in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and in Vancouver.
At a cost of $250,000 CDN a pop, this is no small investment for the Canadian government, but since the Christmas Day attack aboard a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit, the Canadian government is following the lead of the American government and ramping up airport security.
Or is the Canadian government just doing what our American big brother wants us to do?
American authorities want Canada, and all other countries around the world, to do quite a bit to keep America safe.
Using clothing-penetrating full body scanners raises numerous privacy concerns – essentially it allows complete strangers to take and store digital images of you completely naked. Though Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart says she approved the scanners only on the condition that the security officer viewing these naked full body images be in a separate room, and never actually see the passenger being screened. She also demanded that the digital image would have to be deleted once the passenger leaves the airport.
However, there are no guarantees that the federal Privacy Commissioner’s conditions will always be followed. Once a digital image is created, it can be copied, moved and stored pretty much anywhere. Just because it is deleted off the originating machine which created it, doesn’t mean it is gone for good.
When these clothing-penetrating full body scanners were first announced in the U.S., one of the immediate concerns was naked images of celebrities “suddenly” being found online for sale on places such as eBay.
And you don’t have to be famous to end up naked on eBay – anyone could fall victim to this.
So far, this hasn’t happened, but then these devices are relatively new, just starting to make their way into American and Canadian airports.
One of the less discussed, but just as personally intrusive requests the American government is placing on all countries is the sharing of passenger information. The American government has sent formal requests to countries which have airlines flying planes across American airspace, requesting personal passenger information -- even if those passengers will never land at an American airport. This personal information includes full legal names, citizenship, birth date, and destination.
There hasn’t been any indication of what action – if any – American authorities would take having this information. They could advise or warn other countries and/or airlines of possible persons of interest. Or a more drastic action would be to ban specific planes from flying through American airspace if American authorities don’t like one or more of the passengers or crew. And American authorities have been vague with just how long they would keep this information, and for what purposes.
So far, Canadian and many European countries have refused to provide this information for their passengers – it’s been a year since the Americans made the request. But with increased security measures being taken worldwide because of the recent Christmas Day terror incident, the American government could begin demanding this information, restricting air travel through American airspace to airlines which comply.
This would create chaos at airports around the world, as flights were delayed or canceled completely because of the new American airspace restrictions.
And even with all these new security measures in place, we still will never be completely safe. As soon as a security measure is taken, you can almost guarantee someone, somewhere around the world is working on ways to bypass it.
The only real way to prevent terrorism is to stop it in its tracks. George W. Bush coined the phrase the “war on terror,” and that in a literal sense is what it is – a war.
Although former U.S. President Bush’s “war” was questionable – he and his team falsified documents to justify attacking Iraq, claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (which he didn’t) and he sent troops to Afghanistan to “get Bin Laden,” but he never did, nor has anyone else.
The only real way to prevent terrorism is to win the war. Adding security at airports only challenges the terrorists to go further, and incites them to try harder. To win the war, we have to capture and imprison those who recruit, train and motivate people to do terrorist acts, and we have to capture and imprison those who have been recruited, trained and motivated to do these acts.
Until then, clothing-penetrating full body scanners and the sharing of personal passenger information may slow the terrorists down, but it will not stop them.
Score one big victory for the terrorists, after the Christmas Day bombing attempt on an American jumbo jet just days ago.
Security – particularly in the United States – got tighter than ever before over the days, weeks, months and years following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Never in recorded history had humankind been on such a high state of alert. At one point in time, we even had to remove our shoes – our shoes – prior to boarding an airplane.
Then, just as the world’s attention was focused on the holiest day for Christians – Christmas – the world was reminded just how important these measures are, as a man lit what initial reports claimed to be “fireworks” aboard an American flight over western Canada.
One wonders how on Earth – or rather about 30,000 feet in the air – someone can even get on an airliner with anything remotely flammable with all these security precautions.
And far worse, the ramifications since the Christmas Day fire cracker stunt may have gone too far, with little effect. In some American airports, security guards are even testing baby milk brought onboard flights. Maybe if you are real nice, they’ll feed and burp your infant?
Reportedly, British Prime MinisterGordon Brown was briefed weeks ago about increased terrorist activities involving bombing attempts and American-bound flights. The reports said that secret terrorist cells had devised a new way to bypass security measures to get explosives on planes, and that these terrorists were conducting training exercises to ensure success.
The recent attempt this holiday season may have been the terrorist’s first attempt or a trial as part of their training exercises.
Either way, it sure got the world’s attention.
The real problem isn’t going to be fixed by adding more security – though that will be the immediate visible solution. For every additional security measure taken, eventually those unscrupulous minds that want to do harm, will.
For every creative and innovative step taken to prevent a terrorist strike, there are just as creative and innovative people at work figuring out how to circumvent these steps.
The only real way to prevent terrorist attacks of airplanes is to stop flying. And that’ll never happen, because air travel is an important necessity in our global village.
Well, there is one other possible way to put an end to terrorist attacks – world peace. If we could only ever achieve a world that truly is at peace, then, and only then, would we ever really be safe from the harm done by those non-peaceful terrorists.
But world peace will never happen either. There is more to peace than sitting around a campfire, roasting marshmallows and singing Cume-By-Ah.
With deeply held religious beliefs – some may even go so far to call ‘em cult-like beliefs – behind many wars around the world, some wars will never end despite all the attempts at peace.
Then you have beliefs so deeply entrenched in a person’s life, they are willing to actually die for them. Like those who killed by flying planes into the World Trade Center in 2001.
Stopping a belief – no matter how wrong – is virtually impossible. A belief is the foundation towards ideas, and ideas lead to actual solutions to problems.
And those problems, for the terrorists, are how to constantly counter all the security measures so they can fulfill their beliefs. So we come full circle, over and over again.
Because the American named “war on terror” isn’t really about people, bombs, planes, or peace. It’s all about beliefs.
Jordan H. Green began his never-ending journey for life-long learning while writing for the campus paper in university.
From student protests, to student politics, he eventually discovered his passion for knowledge -- and even more importantly, that he could write.
And write he did, for major big city dailies, small town weeklies, monthly magazines, even doing on-air work in television and radio -- Jordan mastered the media.
Jokingly calling this blog his place to "bitch and moan" he's once again mastering the media -- this time that new fangled thing called "the net."
Enjoy.
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