Airports to ban cigarette lighters beyond checkpoints

Martin Hotze wrote:
land of the free
land of the brave
land of the save

ridicolous .....


http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/du...n/10539621.htm

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Posted on Fri, Dec. 31, 2004

Airports to ban cigarette lighters beyond checkpoints

BY BRYON OKADA
Knight Ridder Newspapers

FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - In what could become a major hassle for air
travelers who smoke, the Homeland Security Department will ban all
cigarette lighters beyond airport checkpoints beginning Feb. 15.

The Intelligence Reform Bill that President Bush signed Dec. 17 orders the
Transportation Security Administration to review its banned-items list and
to prohibit passengers from carrying butane lighters aboard planes.
Legislation stipulates that the ban must be in place in 60 days.

"We are reviewing the necessary changes that the Transportation Security
Administration will need to make based on the new intelligence
legislation," TSA spokeswoman Andrea McCauley said.

The TSA may also expand the banned-items list to include matches, aviation
industry sources have said. No decision has been made, according to one TSA
official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But if a ban is enacted, it isn't clear how screeners would detect matches,
short of a time-consuming physical search.

In 2003, former TSA head James Loy determined that two lighters and four
books of matches were "an acceptable level of risk" to balance security and
customer service. But over the next year, Loy's decision was criticized as
too lax.

After all, two U.S. senators argued last year, would-be terrorist Richard
Reid was one match strike away from igniting explosives in the heel of his
shoe aboard a Paris-to-Miami flight.
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I believe it is all window dressing. After the Lockerbe explosion, they
discovered that it was caused by explosives in a radio. Then they made
you turn on your radio, your computer, your cell phone; anything
electronic. It did not stop 9-11.

Then they discovered that 9-11 happened because of box cutters. So then
they took away nail clippers because they had a sharp edge. I do
believe that the re-enforced doors and the exlposive detection will stop
one kind of terrorist attack, but the terrorists will think of the next
flaw in the system and any TSA action today will not prevent the next
terrorist attack. The terrorists have all the time in the world and the
government is filled with idiots who take away nail clippers.

My favorite story is of the DEA agent who had a gun with the appropriate
paperwork. The TSA agent allowed him with his gun, but took his nail
clippers.

This TSA policy of banning 'scary' items that have any
potential at all for use by terrorists is futile and if carried
to its extreme, will result in only nude passengers drugged
into unconsciousness being permitted airline travel.


Where do I go to sign up for a ticket? At last, maybe I'll get to
sit next to that cute blonde!


You may have missed the 'drugged into unconciousness' part.

Oh.....! BOTH of us?