The following updates are courtesy of Schneier on Security’s TSA Security Round-Up…
An Alaska Airlines employee was apparently arrested on suspicion of being under the influence after a disagreement over a giant ball of rubber bands that he volunteered to surrender. The employee in question was subjected to random drug screenings and a ten year background check as part of his job. No rational explanation was available.
A Swedish woman on a flight from Paris to Stockholm had her antihistamines taken away by security even though it was marked with her name. She went into allergic shock and lost consciousness for almost thirty minutes. The airport authority claims it has a long standing policy requiring doctor’s notes for essential medications. We recommend copies of your essential prescriptions for safety’s sake either way, especially when traveling abroad.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the TSA and private security tipped off passenger screeners about undercover agents testing security at San Francisco International Airport, giving specific enough details to compromise the testing. This coomes during reports of other procedural failures at the airport. Despite this, the private security firm has been retained.
Muslims are calling for a boycott of US Airways after six Muslim imams, prayer leaders and elders of mosques, were removed from a flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix on Monday after a passenger voiced suspicions. After hours in handcuffs and questioning by the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police, the men were released that evening. The following morning, when they showed up at the US Airways ticket counter, they were informed they would not be flying with that carrier and their tickets would be refunded. They flew home on Northwest Airlines.
US Airways issued an official statement on the issue, claiming they do not discriminate and would fully investigate the incident. According to them, three of the men had only one-way tickets and no checked baggage, which is a security red flag at the moment. Witnesses accuse the men of speaking angrily near the gate, the men in question insist they were merely praying. All law enforcement and airline officials agree it was a combination of suspicious reports that caused them to remove the imams from the plane to investigate them further. Reports indicate that it was their refusal to leave the aircraft that resulted in them being removed in handcuffs.
Ultimately, prayer is not a suspicious activity in itself. It has seemed that way to many people, as the perceived danger to aircraft is terrorist action, which is most often thought of as carried out by religious extremists. There are realities and truths to consider.
The fear, for which there is intelligence and concrete data to support, is that the most likely group of people to engage in terrorism at this time are Islamic extremists. That does place the duty to give extra scrutiny to Muslims acting in what is though to be a suspicious manner. But, Muslims are people, and these Muslims, as many others are, are U.S. Citizens. And U.S. citizen or not, are entitled to certain rights and dignities. Claims can be made about taking every precaution…but flying while Muslim is not in itself a suspicious act.
We frequently worry about the balance between security and freedom…something we hope those in a position to dictate or enforce policy do as well. The best advice we have for those who travel to avoid problems is to strip yourself of your individuality…avoid carrying suspicious looking items if possible, in case it might get you in trouble. For the religious, secure your prayer books, conduct your prayers on the ground and as quietly and subtly as possible if you must at the airport…for acting like a generic drone is your best defense against overzealous flight and security personnel…or perhaps that makes you seem even more suspicious.
There may be no answer for now. Every incident seems to have two sides, and we don’t always hear the second side of it. There is also the inherent bias of an individual, be it passenger or security/airline personnel to consider. The creation of the TSA and its parent, the DHS, was supposed to help things in the US by organizing our country’s internal security under a unified banner. It hardly seems to be any sort of improvement.
