PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

I have been fairly amazed at the vast and ready ignorance shown by media based commentators in response to the controversy over naked scanning and between the leg rubbing at airports. One doesn’t need facts or even a mildly logical position, it is only necessary to be pithy and angry at those who would protest and let the world know. In contrast to the generally worthless, ill-informed commentary appearing from many outlets, The New York Times ran a discussion, with several qualified people, giving their considered opinion on the matter. Here is an excerpt from one of those commentaries, with a link to the full posting below:

Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and author of several books on computer security, including "Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World."

A short history of airport security: We screen for guns and bombs, so the terrorists use box cutters. We confiscate box cutters and corkscrews, so they put explosives in their sneakers. We screen footwear, so they try to use liquids. We confiscate liquids, so they put PETN bombs in their underwear. We roll out full-body scanners, even though they wouldn’t have caught the Underwear Bomber, so they put a bomb in a printer cartridge. We ban printer cartridges over 16 ounces  “the level of magical thinking here is amazing” and they’re going to do something else.

Take all the money spent on new security measures and spend it on investigation and intelligence.

This is a stupid game, and we should stop playing it.

It’s not even a fair game. It’s not that the terrorist picks an attack and we pick a defense, and we see who wins. It’s that we pick a defense, and then the terrorists look at our defense and pick an attack designed to get around it. Our security measures only work if we happen to guess the plot correctly. If we get it wrong, we’ve wasted our money. This isn’t security; it’s security theater.

Link to the NY Times discussion

http://tinyurl.com/27zlnhb

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