Box Cutters

That's all the 9-11 hijackers were able to get on board the aircraft.

No explosives, no guns, no anthrax, no suitcase nukes.

Box cutters.

That was before security went gestapo. Before they started tapping our phones, tracking our internet use, watching our buying habits at the stores, and logging what books we borrowed from the library. Before they used it as an excuse to grab all those sweeping new powers of vision, without the required compensating powers of accountability and supervision. The thing is, we DO need to be vigilant, and the government DOES need to do their job and protect us. That's what they are supposed to do, act as our guard dog. I have no objection to our guard dog seeing better -- providing common citizens such as ourselves get a better choke chain, to remind the creature he's a dog, and not a wolf.

Box cutters.

Don't get me wrong people, I think security at airports should be tight. Hell, it's my opinion that people should not bring anything but their IDs and something that will fit in a fanny pack to an airplane. But come on now, be real. Airport security is what it is...it works. It actually worked before "9-11 changed everything." Despite the blathering from the corporate media talking heads, a lack of security measures did not cause 9-11. Doctrine was the point of failure. For the previous forty years, there had been no real policy, or training on how to deal with hijackers that was taught to pilots, flight attendants and the public.

It almost seems that we have been brought us back to the weeks immediately following 9-11. Since yesterday, I heard the same recycled myths perpetrated again on the talking head circuit. You know, the old familiar ones:

**There is a basic, zero-sum trade off between safety and freedom... we can only augment one by diminishing the other.

**The tragedies in the past happened because of a "security breakdown" requiring stringent fixes by a protective government, and this was a "near miss" that was averted by big brother taking your civil liberties and privacy away.

**That only professionals have a role to play in coping with 21st century dangers. Civilians are incapable of taking care of themselves, or helping to protect our own, and need a big government agency to do it for them. That we should all cower in fear instead, and beg to be protected.

**That we are at war, and the war will never end, and this is how it needs to be forever.

So, here we are. What are we going to do about it now? Cower in fear? Or pull a little on the choke chain?

Just my 2 cents on the matter...

NGU.

If I was a capitalist, and everyones lipstick, hairspray, hair gel, etc. had been taken away, I may try an experiment.

Try wheeling a cart down the isle during the flight, with the beverage service with the same type items for sale at a highly inflated price.

Damn, I need to patent that idea before they try it...

they had brought suntan lotion or contact solution onboard? :scared:

March 2, 2002: An article in the Washington Post claims that 9 of the 9/11 hijackers were selected for special security screenings that morning, including two who were singled out because of irregularities in their identification documents. "Six were chosen for extra scrutiny by a computerized screening system, prompting a sweep of their checked baggage for explosives or unauthorized weapons." None of the names selected for screening are given, but a different article makes clear that hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar, on a watch list for international flights at the time are not selected.

They sure were lucky that the men who got checked were the ones with no weapons, right? (cough ...)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID43/5324.html

and we are defeated by 18 swarthy men with boxcutters?? What a waste of money!

Your fear is the dream of a fascist government. It gives them endless power. All they need to do is whip up a fairy tale along with a Reichstag fire and you will give them everything.