Tougher Airport Screening A Must

[Moose in Belize]

Canada has no choice but to mimic the Americans with tough screening of air travellers after a failed Christmas Day bomb attempt, says Transport Minister John Baird.

"If we want Canadian airlines to fly into the United States, and the United States says you've got to do x, y and z, we don't really have a lot of alternative," Baird told CTV's Question Period yesterday.

Reacting to a report that an 85-year-old, unnamed white woman had been asked to unzip her pants at the Ottawa airport so a guard could poke her abdomen, he said terrorism can come from any source. 

[papashine]

Friggen pervert

[Moose in Belize]

The naked truth about airline passengers having to bare all at airport security is as much about tourism as terrorism, as much about politics as protecting the flying public from suicide bombers with exploding underpants.

A Nigerian man's failed attempt to down a Detroit-bound U.S. jetliner Christmas Day by detonating explosives in his boxers touched off an international security frenzy that put airports across North America and Europe into holiday gridlock.

In response, the government here has ordered that Canada's eight major airports be equipped with controversial "naked scanners" that can see through passengers' clothes.

The move is aimed at reassuring both the travelling public and Canadian voters, a show of tangible government action in supposed crisis.

There is also no question the technologies are capable of detecting plastic weapons and explosives that wouldn't trigger existing airport metal detectors.

Most of all, they will help satisfy the U.S. administration's insistence that all foreign countries with flights heading to the U.S. now have to play by American security rules.

But the one thing all this stripping for Big Brother won't do is prevent terrorist attacks.

As the U.S. president admitted last week, there is no foolproof way to stop terrorists from attacking an airliner.

Canadian airports are certainly no exception. How could we forget Transport Minister John Baird's dubious caper last year when he and Sen. Colin Kenny managed to breach the perimeter fence at Toronto Pearson International Airport, strolling onto the supposedly ultra-secure runway area unimpeded?

Security experts also warn that cargo carried on passenger jets is not being subjected to anything near the security precautions applied to passenger baggage.

Then there are the recurring nightmare stories about airport employees with criminal ties and access to virtually everywhere a terrorist might want to plant a bomb.

As we reported last week, more than 4,000 Canadian airport employees currently have no security clearance at all because the RCMP -- which conducts background checks -- are otherwise preoccupied by the Olympics.

Even the planned deployment of the controversial naked scanners at Canadian airports has loopholes big enough to drive a bomb through.

For instance, travellers under 18 will be exempt from scanning, the government having apparently decided most parents would not respond well to their little children being seen naked by strangers.

Unfortunately, terrorism does not exempt children from being suicide bombers, and horrific as the thought may be, a diaper filled with explosives is just as potentially lethal as exploding boxers on an adult.

Fact is, as security experts keep telling us over and over, the most effective way to thwart a terrorist attack is by stopping the terrorists long before they get anywhere near the airport scanners, wands and pat-downs -- preferably before they get anywhere near the airport.

That means effective intelligence, a point made rather bluntly last week by Barack Obama.

A clearly angry U.S. president admitted the aborted Christmas attack by the boxer bomber wasn't so much a failure of airport screening as it was a major snafu by U.S. intelligence agencies that had long before identified the culprit as a terrorist threat, but hadn't done anything with the information.

Instead, U.S. agents had planned to interview the man -- when he arrived in Detroit.

Until someone finds a cure for inept government, all the airline passengers in the world getting naked won't do much to stop terrorism.

Source: SunMedia Editorial

[clover]

If Moose was in charge of Canada and I was in charge of the United States:

I'm thinking we need to dig a 100 yard wide moat along the Canadian border and post armed guards along its length.......cut off all NAFTA funding, all imports and exports from Canada and curtail all flights to and from Canada, or any Canadian flights into our airspace.  Run their ass out of NATO so they don't get their share of that money.  Let them join that new organization formed by Hugo Chavez and see how they do

http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/gblec02a-eng.htm

[Moose in Belize]

If Moose was in charge of Canada and I was in charge of the United States:

That's a great idea clover. You'll have to wait until the frost is out of the ground before you can dig that moat. 

[clover]

Fortunately the Canadian people are sane, you won't be incharge, so I won't have to be digging that moat now will I.......

Here's a great quote from Mark Twain for ya.....it applies perfectly

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous,
he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between
a dog and a man."

[Moose in Belize]

Fortunately the Canadian people are sane, you won't be incharge, so I won't have to be digging that moat now will I.......

You're correct, but I am also one of the sane ones and I have no desire to be in charge any more than I am right now. 

[2Aggies]

Fortunately the Canadian people are sane, you won't be incharge, so I won't have to be digging that moat now will I.......

Here's a great quote from Mark Twain for ya.....it applies perfectly

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous,
he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between
a dog and a man."

That's because starving men don't like to be picked up! Just scratch'em behind the ears. 

[Moose in Belize]

And the last time I tried, I couldn't lick my balls. 

[klcman]

now THERE is a visual no one needed   

[Moose in Belize]

Temporary emergency measures include no carry-on bags to U.S.A.

On December 26, 2009, CATSA implemented temporary emergency measures at security checkpoints under the direction of Transport Canada. These measures are in response to a failed terrorist attack on board an aircraft from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25, 2009. These new measures affect all flights from Canada to the United States.

U.S.A. bound passengers are permitted zero carry-on bags. Passengers travelling within Canada and internationally are still permitted two carry-on bags (although to make the screening process most efficient, fewer carry-on items is preferred).

Carry-on bag means items to which a passenger has access to during a flight, but does NOT include personal items such as medication or medical devices, small purses, cameras, coats, items for care of infants, laptop computers, crutches, canes, walkers, containers carrying life sustaining items, a special needs item, musical instruments, or diplomatic or consular bags.

[Moose in Belize]

Things appear to be loosening up. One small carry-on bag is now allowed.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/mediaroom/infosheets-menu-5811.htm

[divingcowgirl]

And the last time I tried, I couldn't lick my balls. 

Moose, try more yoga and stretching exercises!