Airport security cards to have biometric data
Globe & Mail Saturday, October 16, 2004 - Page A13
Montreal -- Airport employees will soon have their biometric data scanned before gaining access to restricted areas, Transport Canada and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority announced yesterday.
A new restricted-area card will include either the fingerprint or iris measurement of the cardholder.
The new cards are now being tested at international airports in Vancouver and Kelowna, B.C.
"The Government of Canada is committed to continuously enhancing the security of our aviation system," Transport Minister Jean Lapierre told a news conference at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, where the cards will next be tested. CP
Airport security cards to have biometric data
Moderators: sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, lilfssister, North Shore, I WAS Birddog
I have to agree with the statement “Money for nothing” as basically this is what airport security is all about. However it makes good press for the political forces behind all this waste, as it is perceived by the public that airports are secure. Everyone knows that perception is a greater force then reality…Meanwhile in the real world the aviation infrastructure is in decline because the money that should be used to upgrade that infrastructure is being wasted on security. The only 100% secure way to operate an airport is to lock the doors of the airport and ground all the aircraft.
And here I thought all our airports were safe due to the 2 billion dollar gun registry!
Give me a tall ship, and a star to stear her by.
Give me a good car...because I'd way rather drive than put up with the shit at airports.
And a small tail-dragger on a grass strip, with no radio, no security and no bullshit!
And you know what??? If somebody wants...I mean REALLY wants...to breach security, they will. No problems mon. The bad guys are always one step ahead of the good guys....they've done the airliner thing. They've hit their target of changing the we do business and live our lives. That was, afterall, their goal! Nobody seems to understand this simple fact? We've turned into a bunch of paranoid pussies...but that was the whole idea...wasn't it?
Give me a tall ship, and a star to stear her by.
Give me a good car...because I'd way rather drive than put up with the shit at airports.
And a small tail-dragger on a grass strip, with no radio, no security and no bullshit!
And you know what??? If somebody wants...I mean REALLY wants...to breach security, they will. No problems mon. The bad guys are always one step ahead of the good guys....they've done the airliner thing. They've hit their target of changing the we do business and live our lives. That was, afterall, their goal! Nobody seems to understand this simple fact? We've turned into a bunch of paranoid pussies...but that was the whole idea...wasn't it?
i agree! obviously security can't be done away with altogether (too bad!), but i don't think that any bad guys will try another 9/11 sort of attack again. i believe that the only reason they got away with it that day is that no one dreamed they'd stoop to such subhuman, vile depths. if such an attempt at hijacking occurred again, obviously the pax have got nothing to lose by jumping the scum.Doc wrote:...they've done the airliner thing. They've hit their target of changing the we do business and live our lives...
Ummm, last time I checked, I thought it was the crazy fundies that we were trying to stop from entering...Montreal -- Airport employees will soon have their biometric data scanned before gaining access to restricted areas, Transport Canada and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority announced yesterday.
*pictures the sign now*
"Employees please wait to be scanned, terrorists enter as you please"
I posted this on the 'Misc. Forum/Political Debate',
although i do not agree with everything he has to say I thought I would post it here as well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.helicoptermonthly.com/detail ... egoryID=13
October 4, 2004
TSA Bashing
Editor
While we have been decrying the folks, either in the press or in politics, who are plodding ahead in reactionary form looking for easily sold and politically safe security answers to our current security predicament, we have missed an easy opportunity of our own...to take some frustration out on the executor of the poor plans, the Transportation Security Administration.
As I was clicking through the cable channels the other night, I came across a news program interviewing an aviation consultant on security preparedness in aviation. Obviously I sat up to take notice. This fella didn't hold back his disdain for the newly formed government heavyweight and called it the biggest waste of dollars, time and energy since 9/11.
He went on to say that we are absolutely no safer today traveling the airlines than we were on September 10, 2001. We just pay more in time, money and frustration than we did before.
You know what? He's right.
Make no mistake about it; the TSA is nothing more than the government's attempt to soothe the concerns of the traveling public. Instead of building a real law enforcement organization that has a laser-like focus on insuring that the bad guys (and gals) don't make it anywhere near our airliners, we have poorly paid and poorly trained civilians with no law enforcement skills doing assembly line work at the security checkpoint.
The difference between what we have now and what we had then? Taxpayers foot the bill instead of the airlines.
I don't mean to bash the folks that are doing the job for the TSA. Hell, I even thought of applying when the organization was first proposed. But if Osama and his crew can successfully operate under the harsh light of every law enforcement organization on the planet, do you really think that they will have any trouble working around college kids and retirees that man the security checkpoints at Newark? I don't.
This is a classic case of the government doing only what it needs to in order to LOOK LIKE they are actually in control of the situation. Real, live law enforcement professionals want NOTHING to do with the TSA. Those folks are used to examining the threat, making judgments on how best to combat or thwart the threat and taking action to insure it doesn't happen. That is being proactive, not reactive.
At the TSA, every so many passengers get a red card at the security checkpoint indicated that they are to be screened further. And this makes sense how? So the little old lady that is having trouble seeing the gate number on her ticket gets screened for explosives while the wild-eyed Muslim with a fuse sticking out of his shoe (or the skin-headed kid with a swastika tattoo and a twitch) standing behind her doesn't? Am I the only one not comfortable with this?
Listen, I know profiling is a bad word to a lot of people, but at least let's have some real law enforcement professionals standing at the gates making the call based on their training and not based on avoiding ticking off the ACLU. I'd feel a lot more comfortable with a uniformed, armed Fed standing at the belt than an unarmed art major from Newbury College. I'd like it even better if he had an Israeli accent.
Which brings us to training. Israel, my friends, is ground zero for terrorism. Love them or hate them, they kinda have an idea of how to protect their public from terrorist threats. How many terrorists in the world would take down an Israeli airliner right now if they could? How about all of them. How many airliners have gone down over the last 10 years in Israel? You get my point. So that being the case, why don't our airports resemble Tel Aviv? Well, that would require real work on the part of our government. Selecting personnel, training and arming them and putting up with the flap from the media on how this may affect our right to privacy or some other drivel.
Why on earth would I propose increasing security at airports? Because, if your going to do it, do it right.
It also helps in our own little world. As it stands now, the TSA is the agency du jour of the federal government. That means this little gem is the group that will also oversee your little field in the middle of your little town. Makes you feel important doesn't it?
It is one thing to have to deal with an amazing lack of common sense at one of the large uber-airports downtown, but it is completely another matter when those same rules are applied to small charter, tour or personal airports.
Imagine if you can, heading out to your aircraft at your local field. As you arrive, you get in line with the rest of the aircraft owners trying to go get their $100 hamburger. Placing your flight bag on the conveyor belt, you are startled by the sudden blast of the alarm going off. The pimply-faced kid in the TSA uniform informs you (with a serious tone to his voice) that you have prohibited items in your flight bag.
"Those are tools," you inform him.
"Tools are prohibited by the TSA on airports, sir. We will have to confiscate them."
"How the hell am I going to change the oil on my aircraft," you ask.
"Rules are rules, sir. Your oil is not my problem."
Am I going a little overboard here? Maybe. But when your security (and your freedom of movement) is in the hands of a bureaucratic organization with no real skill set other than reading a list of do's and don'ts, it is not that far fetched to see where this could lead. Give me the local deputy sheriff making his rounds any day.
It's not as if we already haven't felt the impact of this already. Think about what it used to be like to go to the airport. You walk around the hangars and the flight line, meeting other pilots and looking at their aircraft, comparing notes about everything from avionics to the best wax to use. Young kids would walk with their dads all wide eyed and excited learning important things like staying away from the propeller (or tail rotor), take your ballcap off when you walk on the line, and look but don't touch because "that's someone's pride and joy." And maybe that kid will get a ride from a stranger who just got through waxing his pride and joy and a new member of our community will become hooked.
Weekends were a community event. It was what made us who we are. It's not like that anymore.
Now you have to hope to run into other pilots at the coffee shop or at the FBO. Now that kid is looking at airplanes through the fence in the parking lot like a prisoner looking at a world he wishes he could experience. I know I can't have it, but I want the old world back.
For now, we have to deal with fingerprinting and badges. Maybe that will be as far as it goes. Maybe we won't have to be wanded by security officials just to go out and change our oil or wash our airplane.
Maybe. But if I know anything about a bureaucracy it's this; if allowed to grow, it will.
although i do not agree with everything he has to say I thought I would post it here as well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.helicoptermonthly.com/detail ... egoryID=13
October 4, 2004
TSA Bashing
Editor
While we have been decrying the folks, either in the press or in politics, who are plodding ahead in reactionary form looking for easily sold and politically safe security answers to our current security predicament, we have missed an easy opportunity of our own...to take some frustration out on the executor of the poor plans, the Transportation Security Administration.
As I was clicking through the cable channels the other night, I came across a news program interviewing an aviation consultant on security preparedness in aviation. Obviously I sat up to take notice. This fella didn't hold back his disdain for the newly formed government heavyweight and called it the biggest waste of dollars, time and energy since 9/11.
He went on to say that we are absolutely no safer today traveling the airlines than we were on September 10, 2001. We just pay more in time, money and frustration than we did before.
You know what? He's right.
Make no mistake about it; the TSA is nothing more than the government's attempt to soothe the concerns of the traveling public. Instead of building a real law enforcement organization that has a laser-like focus on insuring that the bad guys (and gals) don't make it anywhere near our airliners, we have poorly paid and poorly trained civilians with no law enforcement skills doing assembly line work at the security checkpoint.
The difference between what we have now and what we had then? Taxpayers foot the bill instead of the airlines.
I don't mean to bash the folks that are doing the job for the TSA. Hell, I even thought of applying when the organization was first proposed. But if Osama and his crew can successfully operate under the harsh light of every law enforcement organization on the planet, do you really think that they will have any trouble working around college kids and retirees that man the security checkpoints at Newark? I don't.
This is a classic case of the government doing only what it needs to in order to LOOK LIKE they are actually in control of the situation. Real, live law enforcement professionals want NOTHING to do with the TSA. Those folks are used to examining the threat, making judgments on how best to combat or thwart the threat and taking action to insure it doesn't happen. That is being proactive, not reactive.
At the TSA, every so many passengers get a red card at the security checkpoint indicated that they are to be screened further. And this makes sense how? So the little old lady that is having trouble seeing the gate number on her ticket gets screened for explosives while the wild-eyed Muslim with a fuse sticking out of his shoe (or the skin-headed kid with a swastika tattoo and a twitch) standing behind her doesn't? Am I the only one not comfortable with this?
Listen, I know profiling is a bad word to a lot of people, but at least let's have some real law enforcement professionals standing at the gates making the call based on their training and not based on avoiding ticking off the ACLU. I'd feel a lot more comfortable with a uniformed, armed Fed standing at the belt than an unarmed art major from Newbury College. I'd like it even better if he had an Israeli accent.
Which brings us to training. Israel, my friends, is ground zero for terrorism. Love them or hate them, they kinda have an idea of how to protect their public from terrorist threats. How many terrorists in the world would take down an Israeli airliner right now if they could? How about all of them. How many airliners have gone down over the last 10 years in Israel? You get my point. So that being the case, why don't our airports resemble Tel Aviv? Well, that would require real work on the part of our government. Selecting personnel, training and arming them and putting up with the flap from the media on how this may affect our right to privacy or some other drivel.
Why on earth would I propose increasing security at airports? Because, if your going to do it, do it right.
It also helps in our own little world. As it stands now, the TSA is the agency du jour of the federal government. That means this little gem is the group that will also oversee your little field in the middle of your little town. Makes you feel important doesn't it?
It is one thing to have to deal with an amazing lack of common sense at one of the large uber-airports downtown, but it is completely another matter when those same rules are applied to small charter, tour or personal airports.
Imagine if you can, heading out to your aircraft at your local field. As you arrive, you get in line with the rest of the aircraft owners trying to go get their $100 hamburger. Placing your flight bag on the conveyor belt, you are startled by the sudden blast of the alarm going off. The pimply-faced kid in the TSA uniform informs you (with a serious tone to his voice) that you have prohibited items in your flight bag.
"Those are tools," you inform him.
"Tools are prohibited by the TSA on airports, sir. We will have to confiscate them."
"How the hell am I going to change the oil on my aircraft," you ask.
"Rules are rules, sir. Your oil is not my problem."
Am I going a little overboard here? Maybe. But when your security (and your freedom of movement) is in the hands of a bureaucratic organization with no real skill set other than reading a list of do's and don'ts, it is not that far fetched to see where this could lead. Give me the local deputy sheriff making his rounds any day.
It's not as if we already haven't felt the impact of this already. Think about what it used to be like to go to the airport. You walk around the hangars and the flight line, meeting other pilots and looking at their aircraft, comparing notes about everything from avionics to the best wax to use. Young kids would walk with their dads all wide eyed and excited learning important things like staying away from the propeller (or tail rotor), take your ballcap off when you walk on the line, and look but don't touch because "that's someone's pride and joy." And maybe that kid will get a ride from a stranger who just got through waxing his pride and joy and a new member of our community will become hooked.
Weekends were a community event. It was what made us who we are. It's not like that anymore.
Now you have to hope to run into other pilots at the coffee shop or at the FBO. Now that kid is looking at airplanes through the fence in the parking lot like a prisoner looking at a world he wishes he could experience. I know I can't have it, but I want the old world back.
For now, we have to deal with fingerprinting and badges. Maybe that will be as far as it goes. Maybe we won't have to be wanded by security officials just to go out and change our oil or wash our airplane.
Maybe. But if I know anything about a bureaucracy it's this; if allowed to grow, it will.
-
Cat Driver
- Top Poster
- Posts: 18921
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:31 pm
I got to watch El Al doing their security checks on their passengers at Amsterdam a while ago.
These checks are the way to go, profiling makes sense.
Taking the congressional medal of honor from an eighty four year old veteran because some brain dead security person figured he could use it as a weapon like happened last year in the U.S. is stupidity beyond beliefe.
Ahhh ya just got ata love our Government.
Cat
These checks are the way to go, profiling makes sense.
Taking the congressional medal of honor from an eighty four year old veteran because some brain dead security person figured he could use it as a weapon like happened last year in the U.S. is stupidity beyond beliefe.
Ahhh ya just got ata love our Government.
Cat
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
About 3 years ago, I attended a meeting with TC where we discussed the "New Reality" and the new security procedures to be implemented as a result of the recent attacks. I quickly became aware of major gaps in the system, most of us know where they are so I won't go into them here. When I addressed them in the meeting there was much changing of subject and backtracking until finally the TC representative admitted that much of these charades were for public perception. (In his own words)
I often see 'man in the street' surveys on TV (Canadian and US) and at least 70% of respondents say they feel safer or that security is more effective now and I have to laugh out loud..... if they only knew. What we have now is a security that regulates the law abiding citizens only, and thats as far as it goes.
As long as the voting populace sees pilots getting hassled by teenagers, they feel that security has improved, and that is all that matters.
I often see 'man in the street' surveys on TV (Canadian and US) and at least 70% of respondents say they feel safer or that security is more effective now and I have to laugh out loud..... if they only knew. What we have now is a security that regulates the law abiding citizens only, and thats as far as it goes.
As long as the voting populace sees pilots getting hassled by teenagers, they feel that security has improved, and that is all that matters.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... 2&ncid=716By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The government agency in charge of airport security spent nearly a half-million dollars on an awards ceremony at a lavish hotel, including $81,000 for plaques and $500 for cheese displays, according to an internal report obtained by The Associated Press.
Awards were presented to 543 Transportation Security Administration employees and 30 organizations, including a "lifetime achievement award" for one worker with the 2-year-old agency. Almost $200,000 was spent on travel and lodging for attendees.
The event planning company, MarCom Group Inc. of Fairfax, Va., was paid $85,552 for its work and given an additional $81,767 for plaques, $5,196 for official photographs, $1,486 for three balloon arches and $1,509 for signs.
The reception included finger food, coffee and cake that averaged $33 per person. Seven cakes cost a total of $1,850; three cheese displays, $1,500.
In a written response, the TSA said the costs "were neither extraordinary nor incurred without careful consideration of the amount, the reasonableness of the cost, and value the activities would have to the employees."
The investigation by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, also found the TSA gave its senior executives bonuses averaging $16,000, higher than at any other federal government agency, and failed to provide adequate justification in more than a third of the 88 cases examined.
See, the thing in Kelowna is, if I want to get airside, I walk to the gate beside the terminal at the GA pad, pound the olde "2542" or whatever and mosey on in. I'd like to see them put an iris scanner out there in the middle of the field.
Kelowna seems like the fort knox of airports. But it ain't. Oh well, I guess I should be thankful that they are taking money away from the grass cutting budget to fund these new so called "Security Measures"
Kelowna seems like the fort knox of airports. But it ain't. Oh well, I guess I should be thankful that they are taking money away from the grass cutting budget to fund these new so called "Security Measures"
