Hamas War

Friday, January 25, 2013

Americans are Gambling on Their Security

It wasn't quite the lottery I would have had liked to have won.  Just when I was most nervous about the logistics of flying and catching planes, the security worker said to me:
"You won!"
Ok, what she really said was that I was chosen randomly to be the subject of a further security inspection,  It was a full public pat-down.   Granted I was offered the option for a more private one, and they did bring me my bags after they had been x-rayed.  But it was clear to everyone that I wasn't a risk and they were wasting their time.

I followed their instructions, pointed my toes and lifted my legs, just like they asked.  And then I ran from one end of the Philadelphia airport to the other to catch my plane.

I'm too tired and jetlagged right now to write more, but I honestly don't see the deterrence in these random inspections. The Israeli profiling makes more sense.

3 comments:

Alan said...

That you don't understand thermodynamics, doesn't make it any less valuable.

That you don't understand why random inspections are an important adjunct to quiet profile-based interviews, doesn't make the Mathematical-statistical laws behind the their use, any less valuable. There is a gigantic literature on sampling. You will gain more understanding from skimming through it than you do by spending four months shouting about the importance of voting for Otzma.... and then saying that elections don't really matter.

She "told you" that you were randomly selected. I'm telling you that I'm Venusian with a quite a bit of Martian blood on my mom's side..... do you believe that also?!?

Netivotgirl said...

Your head covering and the fact you came from Israel is why you were chosen, no way random. When I used to wear a hat (now only scarves,) I was asked to remove it at such a search and refused!! I also had the pat-down. I had a he*lish flight once from NY to San Francisco with stops at FOUR different airports. No luggage to collect but a pain. And every place we landed I got the whole pat-down-take-off-your-shoes shebang. America has a lot of homegrown Muslims (formerly regular Americans who went cuckoo) and so I guess the head covering and 'Israel' scares them.....GALUT- YUCK!

Batya said...

Alan you don't understand "hishtadlut."
Netivot, I've also gotten the head and skirt patdown but this was different