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Homeland Insecurity?

So the Department of Homeland Security has revealed finally that it has the right to detain a person’s laptop at the border, possibly for months, with no suspicion of wrongdoing. (Washington Post article).

“The policies . . . are truly alarming,” said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government’s border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.”

Senator Feingold is half right.

How do you require reasonable suspicion on the one hand and prohibit profiling on the other?

As a very frequent traveler, I am often shocked at what I see in airports these days. A few weeks ago, as I was putting back on my shoes and belt, I looked over to see an elderly, rotund woman, in tears, as she was being patted down and humiliated in plain view. The TSA employee was patting under her breasts with the back of her hand, looking for what, I have no idea. C’mon…When was the last time a 70 year old fat lady tried to hijack a plane? Or a 45 year old high tech executive father of two? Or a high school student? Or a…

You get the idea.

We live in a world where it is somehow deemed more acceptable to humiliate old fat ladies than it is to say out loud what we all know: radical Islamists are the threat, not my 14 year old son or the old lady next door, or me.

How will the DHS proceed if political correctness is a requirement? Will they have to pull aside and seize an equal number of laptops carried by business people, students and children – analyzing these before returning them months later? At what cost to the taxpayer? At what inconvenience to honest Americans?? And for what?!?

We lack the resources to treat everyone as a potential risk.

Put some wood behind the arrow, but aim it at the bullseye, not at me, not at my kids and not at fat ladies in wheelchairs.

That’s my .02!

Martin Suter

(martin.suter@iplicensing.net)

This entry was posted on 2. August 2008 at 06:48 and is filed under Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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3 Responses to “Homeland Insecurity?”

  1. Frequent Flyer says:
    2. August 2008 at 15:02

    The U.S. government hasn’t (and, arguably, can’t) keep up with changes in technology. But the 4th Amendment would seem to apply easily to one’s laptop without any updating or modification.

    The politically correct police say that profiling doesn’t work. Common sense tells us otherwise. I remember when 80-year 20-term Congressman Dingell from Michigan was detained so long he missed a flight because his hipped beeped. (He had a pin in it dating from an injury during WWII.) While they were strip searching this obvious terrorist threat, how many people were no longer on their posts looking for real terrorist threats?

    The biggest joke is cell phones. We can’t use them on a plane (thank goodness – who wants to hear, “Nothing much. Just flying to Idaho for some fishing. What’s new with Grandpa Hank?”) because they might interfere with navigation. Really? Then why don’t the terrorists bring on about 50 phones and turn them all on and call each other? But we can’t bring on more than 3 oz. of shampoo or a bottle of wine.

    TSA – Thousands Standing Around. Think they are doing a good job? Vote for a democrat in November and let the government take over health care and anything else so that they can “make it better” than the free market …

  2. Honest2god says:
    7. September 2008 at 22:45

    We’re moving toward a fascist police state. I have been saying this for years. I rarely fly for this reason and would rather sail, take train, walk, hike and even crawl to get to my destination. The Constitution is the only law I follow. To the death..

    Oh, and thanks for commenting on my blog. We need to link.

    To your success,

    Ptah

  3. Recent Voter says:
    4. November 2008 at 23:58

    I’d like to share some information about the (apparently unknown) country called the United States of America, situated in the Northern Hemisphere somewhere between the island of Bermuda and the Hawaiian archipelago. More specifically, I’d like to talk about its government.

    For the past hundred years, the government of the United States of America has sponsored scientific research and financed massive technological undertakings which the free market would not have touched with a ten-foot pole. For example, the government made possible a transcontinental railroad that opened the Western part of the country to colonization and trade. The government built an interstate highway system that reaches every corner of the country. The government built rockets that launch artificial satellites into orbit and even sent people to walk on Earth’s only natural satellite. The government has set up a force which is referred to as “the military”. For its size (it is apparently the most formidable coherent force ever put together in the history of mankind) there are surprisingly few incidents of dissent and misuse within the organization [its misuse for political expediency can be counteracted by voting for the people most likely *not* to misuse it]. The government also built the first electronic large-scale network, which I am currently using to post this message. The government developed nuclear power plants, from which we derive 20% of our electricity.

    Also, the US’s smaller administrative entities (the “States”) finance universities, which stimulate a tremendous amount of innovation in the form of educated graduates. These graduates take the knowledge they acquire from the state institutions and proceed to create small companies that in turn increase productivity within the “free” marketplace.

    I am still waiting for the free market to accomplish this. Once the free market sends people to the moon, defends countries, builds highways, railroads, airports and finances risky technological undertakings, I will question the rationale for having a government that can “make it better”. In the mean time, I will go to the polls happily voting for whomever will work towards creating the next Internet, Space Shuttle or Interstate Highway System. In the USA, the “free market” should be grateful that its government is doing so much to promote trade, innovation, safety and cohesiveness. The “free market” has much to benefit, and very little to lose, from a close collaboration with the government’s elected officials and scholars.

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