WP,pg 1: TSA Would Allow Sharp Objects on Airliners

TSA Would Allow Sharp Objects on Airliners
Screeners to Focus More on Bombs
By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 30, 2005; Page A01


A new plan by the Transportation Security Administration would allow airline passengers to bring scissors and other sharp objects in their carry-on bags because the items no longer pose the greatest threat to airline security, according to sources familiar with the plans.

In a series of briefings this week, TSA Director Edmund S. "Kip" Hawley told aviation industry leaders that he plans to announce changes at airport security checkpoints that would allow scissors less than four inches long and tools, such as screwdrivers, less than seven inches long, according to people familiar with the TSA's plans. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because the TSA intends to make the plans public Friday....

***

Faced with a tighter budget and morale problems among its workforce, the TSA says its new policy changes are aimed at making the best use of limited resources. Homeland Security Department officials are increasingly concerned about airports' vulnerability to suicide bomb attacks. TSA officials now want airport screeners to spend more of their time looking for improvised explosive devices rather than sharp objects.

The TSA's internal studies show that carry-on-item screeners spend half of their screening time searching for cigarette lighters, a recently banned item, and that they open 1 out of every 4 bags to remove a pair of scissors, according to sources briefed by the agency. Officials believe that other security measures now in place, such as hardened cockpit doors, would prevent a terrorist from commandeering an aircraft with box cutters or scissors.

However, many flight attendants do not believe sharp objects should be allowed on board. They argue that even though such items would not enable another Sept. 11, 2001-style hijacking, the items could be used as weapons against passengers or flight-crew members. "TSA needs to take a moment to reflect on why they were created in the first place -- after the world had seen how ordinary household items could create such devastation," said Corey Caldwell, spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants, which has more than 46,000 members. "When weapons are allowed back on board an aircraft, the pilots will be able to land the plane safety but the aisles will be running with blood."...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901614.html

Why not just allow hunting knives as well?

I wasn't allowed to carry a pair of scissors on a Canadian flight back in 1985.

So, now it's OK to kill passengers and crew who aren't behind a solid steel door?

Pretty please.

And having to explain for the umpteenth time what a CPAP machine is and why I need to carry it.

Most of the screeners have seen them by now. I rarely get asked anymore.

The LAX terminals went absolutely bonkers over a megger, I was carrying.

That would be strange looking to someone not used to it.

"When weapons are allowed back on board an aircraft, the pilots will be able to land the plane safety but the aisles will be running with blood."

what is this woman thinking? the aisles are not going to be running with blood because someone brought a pair of scissors on board.

the point of the article is that screeners could potentially be missing bombs because they're preoccupied with lighters and scissors. jeepers, some people are sooooo scary.

honestly, we need a free, open society with reasonable safeguards. and we need a full investigation into the actual building collapses at the WTC to see if the physicists who insist that the buildings could not have fallen as they did without demolition explosives are right. we need to really know what happened on 9-11 so we can protect against that... not go all silly-ass apeshit over scissors and screwdrivers, which are an essential part of everyday life in America.

stab someone with embroidery scissors, which are currently forbidden, is, well, talented. Keep in mind that knitting needles are okay. You could do extreme damage with them. Put nail clippers? They're too dangerous to have?

Acting as if embroidery scissors and cigarette lighters are really dangerous is utter nonsense. The only way to be 100 percent certain that no hijacking could ever occur again (aside from shutting down all air travel entirely) would be to strip search all passengers, make them don airline-issued clothing, and not allow any carry-on luggage whatsoever. No exceptions.

I want to scream at people who think that a little common sense puts all of us into extreme danger. Think real hard, folks. Why did Sept 11 happen? Was it because box-cutters were allowed on board? Or was it because a small group of very determined men got on board with a particular mission in mind -- taking over the airplanes and crashing them into specific targets?

And to blindly think that there's another whole group of potential Sept 11 style hijackers out there waiting, just waiting for airport security to relax just a little so they can do it all over again. . . well, I think that's just not it.

An hour or so after the last plane crashed on September 11th, I commented that this was it, they'd blown their wad, whoever they were. It's painfully obvious that whoever actually planned those events has not had the resources since then to attempt anything else. Oh, maybe there's a few die-hards out there trying to plan something new, but rest assured it won't be another 9/11 type mission. If anything happens it will be something that catches us completely unawares.

On one trip, the TSA confiscated my little grooming kit because of the scissors and nail file. After passing security, I bought another one on the concourse.

In my opinion, TWO things have made it so that hijackings ala 9/11 can never happen again.

1. Reinforced cockpit doors. These should keep hijackers out of the cockpit, so they can't fly the plane. Unless, of course, some gung-ho pilot opens it to start shooting up the plane with his personal handgun.

2. Passengers won't allow it. A pair of sissors will not hold up against what passengers and crew will do if they think someone is trying to take over the plane. Luggage will probably become the weapon of choice against a pair of scissors.

Why is there so much security on planes compared to other places? Because of the potential for someone to hijack one and crash into something. Or to hijack it and use the passengers as ransom. The security is NOT there because a terrorist is going to take scissors and kill passengers. Or even if the terrorist had a knife or even a gun. Its sill to do that on a plane. If they want the aisles to run with blood, they can easily take shotguns, maybe four or five guys, walk into a theater, block all of the exits and the kill every person in the theater. it isnt that hard. Its a lot easier than walking through airport security with scissors, hoping theyll let you through, and then trying to stab as many people as you can before you get tackled and the shit beat out of you.

See my point? Reinforced doors are great, a hidden agent with a gun on board, great. Checking for bombs and guns instead of lighters and scissors, great.

I know of several pocketknives being taken onboard since 911 screenings. It is a joke, but you realize many other things could be weaponized, like break a CD and slice a throat. dang, another cynical post. I think I need to get out of here for the night.

The woman across the aisle form me had big, long knitting needles.

Pleeze, just let me keep my shoes on, that's all I ask.

Here's the TSA .pdf of allowable/prohibited items.

http://www.tsa.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/Permitted_Prohibited_9_6_2005.pdf

Hey, I can bring a corkscrew!

Makes a nice club until it breaks...

...then it makes a good knife.

:scared:

Passengers are now typically subject to a more intensive, so-called secondary search only if their names match a listing of suspected terrorists or because of anomalies like a last-minute ticket purchase or a one-way trip with no baggage.

....But Jon Adler, executive vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which represents federal air marshals, said that allowing scissors and small tools on planes was a mistake....

You can do a LOT of damage with a seven inch screwdriver--you have to wonder what they are thinking??? How hard is it to CHECK that shit, I mean, really--who NEEDS their screwdriver in-flight???

I get searched every time I fly, and it doesn't matter if it is one way, round trip, direct flight or whatever, and my name is very similar to that of a SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL. Guess they have that individual on the terra list!!!

They should have the whole damn bunch on that list, IMO....

It was WILL that made Sept. 11 possible. Nothing more.
Anyone who has spent any time in security knows that nothing, nothing can make a place 100% secure. All any security does is increase the level of will required; look at security items such as the Club, or a deadbolt. It cuts down on the riff-raff level of crime/theft, but anyone with sufficient will doesn't care about such things.
You can reduce will through other methods. Don't park your Ferrari in the warehouse district at night, and it's less likely to be stolen. Maintain a foreign policy that treats people with dignity, and you're less likely to experience a terrorist attack.
That's it. The rest is window dressing.

(Does this mean the Terr-rists Won?)

TSA to allow scissors, tools on planes

By Leslie Miller, Associated Press Writer | November 30, 2005

WASHINGTON --Airline passengers will be allowed to carry small scissors and tools onto planes, reversing a rule that led to confiscation of many thousands of sharp objects at airports since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a Homeland Security Department official said Wednesday.

Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley on Friday will announce changes to the list of items prohibited in carry-on luggage and to the airport screening process, according to the official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the plan has yet to be announced.

With federal air marshals on planes, bulletproof cockpit doors, armed pilots and 100 percent screening of checked baggage, the threat of a terrorist taking over an airplane has lessened since the 2001 attacks, the official said. The biggest concern now is explosives.

Though the new list of prohibited items hasn't been finalized, certain sharp objects won't be on it, the official said, including scissors less than 4 inches long and wrenches and screwdrivers less than 7 inches long.

<http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/11/30/tsa_to_allow_scissors_tools_on_planes/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News>
(more at link above)

...won't be on it

I don't know about you but I imagine I could do some damage with a 6-inch Phillips...

I wonder what study was used to determine that 7-inch screwdrivers and longer were dangerous and those shorter were not?

Just think of all those quilter terrorists and knitting grannies that will be running rampant! (sarcasm)

Left of Cool

know they would be used on them; its more prudent to ban sharp objects on planes than to invade countries run by despots in the war against Al Quada.

A snippet from later in the article:



In other words, you'll always be able to carry little scissors but walking barefoot through security will happen randomly.
Note that the TSA has never published statistics on the number of suspicious items found in the millions of shoes sent through X-rays every week.

What asinine, amateur night security.

I mean, it's not like we all descended from centipedes.

Really!!!! Thats HUGH!!!


:rofl:

By ERIC LIPTONBy ERIC LIPTON
Published: December 1, 2005

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 - The Transportation Security Administration is making some of the most significant changes in the screening of airline passengers since procedures were revamped after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The changes include a new type of random search, a revision of the pat-down process and the end of a ban on small scissors and certain other sharp tools in carry-on luggage.

The goal of the changes, which will be announced Friday and go into effect on Dec. 20, is to try to disrupt the now-familiar routine associated with security screening, a routine that federal officials fear would-be terrorists may have studied to figure out ways to circumvent it.

"We don't want the predictability of the system to be used against us," said Yolanda L. Clark, a security agency spokeswoman. "So we are introducing an element of randomness that makes it more difficult to manipulate."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/national/nationalspecial3/01security.html?hp&ex=1133413200&en=5af2dca73ec3cbf9&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=login