Schumer says proposed cargo screening rules still leave holes...

Schumer says proposed cargo screening rules still leave holes in air security

NEW YORK (AP) _ Sen. Charles Schumer charged Sunday that the federal government's proposed cargo screening rules would leave gaping holes in New York's air security, putting millions of passengers at risk.

The federal Transportation Security Administration released a plan this month to tighten air cargo security by checking the backgrounds of workers who handle freight and restricting access to sections of airports used for loading and unloading cargo. The plan also requires cargo airlines to screen people who board their planes.

Schumer, D-N.Y., said the rules fall far short of protecting the 9.6 million passengers a year who fly into or out of New York-area airports on jetliners carrying unscreened cargo.

"The holidays aren't just the busiest travel time of the year _ they are the busiest shipping time of the year, too," Schumer said at a news conference in his Manhattan office. "But even as people getting into planes this weekend see strong new precautions at the gate, the cargo and mail flying in the belly of the plane is still virtually unexamined."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--schumer-cargoscre1128nov28,0,3556465.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

The government isn't interested. They know we're gonna get hit again, they just don't know when and where. And when (not if) it happens, all the stops will be pulled, and the Constitution will be suspended (all for our own good, of course). Immediately thereafter the draft will be reinstated, and the military will begin "rounding up" warm bodies for the meat-grinder in Iraq (and probably, by that time, Iran as well).

-Bushco could not exist without the FEAR factor, so it's probably unwise to expect the government to look out for your safety. Your safety is your concern, and yours alone.


Peace
D.L. Bruin
BruinDesign.com

All of the screening at airports is designed to prepare people for even worse things to come. It doesn't actually prevent anything- it just pisses people off.

patting down 70 year old Grandmothers.

the gates is BS! Pure and simple. I said it the first time, shortly after 9/11 when I escorted my 13 year old daughter to DFW and had to go through it and my new husband could not walk with us to the gate to wait for her departure. I was outraged then and am even more outraged now. My small, 13 year old, with her little pink backpack, full of books, a flute and make-up, was searched intimately. Even her little eyeshadow box. I've never gotten over that first experience with the new "homeland" security and I probably never will.

Most recently I was chosen for the "special search" and they confiscated a little phillips head screwdriver they found in my carry on (less than six inches long-I did not know it was in bag from last trip), but my metal "diamond-head" nail file in my purse, sailed right through. Security, hell! We found that making our trip for Christmas is cheaper to rent a car and spend a week in a motel no more expensive than to fly. No wonder the airlines are going under. They can have themselves.

The only problem is weight and that seems to be easily overcome......


Further design challenges came from less explosive concerns. To appeal to airlines, a hardened cargo box has to fight explosions without growing too big or heavy. On both scores, Telair did well. Fingerhut notes that the 79- x 60.4- x 64-inch blast-resistant container is built on the same frame as many of the company's non-hardened models. And at 325 lbs, the hardened container weighs about 130 lbs more than a standard container, but airlines can offset the extra weight by pairing hardened units with newly available ultra light containers. This way, they can put bomb protection where needed without taking on additional weight overall, Fingerhut notes. "Anyway, an all-metal structure capable of containing the same blast would have been far heavier," he adds.

http://www.designnews.com/article/CA257378.html

note....Rick Fingerhut, a Telair research engineer who helped develop the box.