August 2, 2007

Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that you can’t have proper security — whether at an airport or a supermarket — unless three things are in place: intelligence, intuition and common sense.

And yet, time and time again, we are reminded that the security protocols in place at our airports — the decisions that are being made — contain neither intelligence, nor intuition nor common sense.

At the TSA inspection level, the federal agency does not give its front line people the opportunity to operate intuitively, to think intelligently or to employ basic common sense. Those hard-working TSA inspectors are then relegated to acting like robotic morons in the performance of their duties.

That isn’t real security. Instead, it’s an attempt to make people who don’t fly very often feel better. And how effective is that?

Flying at the last minute on a one-way ticket with no bags? You’ll be taken out of line. Effective profiling of terrorists? Not really. It’s actually profiling high-profile, high-frequency business travelers.

But this is not just a problem isolated in this country. Overseas, the security is also questionable — especially when it comes to…the questions themselves. If you’ve left from a foreign airport for the U.S. in the last six years, then you know the three questions. They are always the same, and you also know the required answers. Did you pack the bags yourself? Have they been with you at all times? Did anyone give you something to pack?

And your answers are always the same. Yes, yes, and no. Consider that every top security expert or police detective will tell you that when investigating a crime and interrogating a suspect, you never want to ask a question that can be answered with a simple yes or no. It doesn’t help anyone.

For example, if I think you might have murdered someone, I don’t ask you whether or not you killed them. You’ll say no, and it’s a conversation-ender. Instead, I might ask you something like “What did you do with the gun?” And if you answer that question, then we have something to talk about.

At this point, any terrorist simply needs to remember the answer: yes, yes and no. How effective is that? It’s useless.

Now comes the latest “security” decision: As of today, the TSA will relax rules and allow people to bring cigarette lighters with them through security checks and onto airplanes. Can someone explain this to me?

This has nothing to do with whether or not you’re a smoker or against it. It has something to do with safety and security, especially in the wake of the attempt by terrorist Richard Reid to detonate his explosive sneakers on an American Airlines flight between Paris and Miami a few years ago. Banning matches and cigarette lighters was an appropriate security response. Allowing them back on the planes is an inappropriate — and inexplicable decision.

In another example of stupidity, the British Airports authority rule limiting passengers to only one piece of carry-on luggage has proven to be a nightmare for the airports and travelers alike. There is no understandable security reason for this rule, it has only led to chaos at terminal checkpoints and — indirectly — has created an even bigger problem as passengers have been forced to check their bags and the airlines clearly cannot handle the volume.

The result: Every day, thousands of misconnected, delayed or lost bags.

My response: I have boycotted all British airports until the authorities come to their senses.

But for the rest of us, I believe we have a responsibility here to ask our officials to make their case. If you tell me the speed limit is 65 miles per hour, my response is simply to ask you to explain the reasoning behind the rule. If you tell me that you’ve done extensive research, and that if I exceed that limit I will lose control of my car and die, my response is to thank you and drive at 60 miles per hour.

But if your response is to curtly say “because” or…”it’s our policy,” I’ll be driving at 80 miles per hour because you haven’t made your case.

The same applies to security policy-making at airports. Tell me why you made a decision and how — and why — it actually serves the basic good, and I’ll actively support it.

But make a decision without explaining it, and I will question it endlessly.

And that now applies to the continuation of the ineffective three questions, allowing cigarette lighters through security, and limiting carry-on bags. I hope you join me in questioning these loudly — and often. And the minute I receive a reasonable explanation, I’ll be the first to report it.

By Peter Greenberg for PeterGreenberg.com.

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