{"id":1312,"date":"2008-10-23T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2008-10-23T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/?p=1312"},"modified":"2008-10-22T11:48:12","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T15:48:12","slug":"security-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/23\/security-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Security Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently started categorizing some posts as “security theatre<\/a>” which is a great term that describes perfectly what the TSA is doing in the US with the airport security screening, no-fly lists, no shoes, no liquids, etc. \u00c2\u00a0It’s described as<\/p>\n

“..intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It helps quite a bit that the term was coined by Bruce Schneier<\/a>, who happens to feature prominently in this article<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0It’s a rather frustrating, but funny piece on airport security and the futility of the current screening and checkpoint process. \u00c2\u00a0The war continues on liquids, shoes, nail clippers and worst of all, water bottles. \u00c2\u00a0 I find this sort of thing incredibly silly and considering the amount of money being wasted on it in the recent economic climate, rather irresponsible. \u00c2\u00a0Still the author of the article has great fun poking huge holes in the whole screening process.<\/p>\n

“On another occasion, at LaGuardia, in New York, the transportation-security officer in charge of my secondary screening emptied my carry-on bag of nearly everything it contained, including a yellow, three-foot-by-four-foot Hezbollah flag, purchased at a Hezbollah gift shop in south Lebanon. The flag features, as its charming main image, an upraised fist clutching an AK-47 automatic rifle. Atop the rifle is a line of Arabic writing that reads\u00c2\u00a0THEN SURELY THE PARTY OF GOD ARE THEY WHO WILL BE TRIUMPHANT<\/span>. The officer took the flag and spread it out on the inspection table. She finished her inspection, gave me back my flag, and told me I could go. I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Hezbollah flag.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Uh-huh.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Uh-huh, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been trained to recognize the symbols of anti-American terror groups, but after careful inspection of your physical person, your behavior, and your last name, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come to the conclusion that you are not a Bekaa Valley\u00e2\u20ac\u201ctrained threat to the United States commercial aviation system,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Uh-huh, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going on break, why are you talking to me?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or even better:<\/p>\n

“…I decided to make myself as nervous as possible. I would try to pass through security with no ID, a fake boarding pass, and an Osama bin Laden T-shirt under my coat. I splashed water on my face to mimic sweat, put on a coat (it was a summer day), hid my driver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s license, and approached security with a bogus boarding pass that Schnei er had made for me. I told the document checker at security that I had lost my identification but was hoping I would still be able to make my flight. He said I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor arrived; he looked smart, unfortunately. I was starting to get genuinely nervous, which I hoped would generate incriminating micro-expressions. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find my driver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s license,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said. I showed him my fake boarding pass. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I need to get to Washington quickly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I added. He asked me if I had any other identification. I showed him a credit card with my name on it, a library card, and a health-insurance card. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nothing else?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You should really travel with a second picture ID, you know.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes, sir,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153All right, you can go,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, pointing me to the X-ray line. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But let this be a lesson for you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I encourage you to go and read the whole thing, it will make you shake your head in wonder at the level of sheer stupidity behind this sort of pointless busywork designed to make us think they are actually doing something about our safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently started categorizing some posts as “security theatre” which is a great term that describes perfectly what the TSA is doing in the US with the airport security screening, no-fly lists, no shoes, no liquids, etc. \u00c2\u00a0It’s described as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,6,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security-theatre","category-stupidity","category-word-of-the-day"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piGNU-la","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1313,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312\/revisions\/1313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vallentyne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}