With all the hubbub about al-Qaeda airline pilots and new threat levels an important comment I heard in passing on NPR yesterday seems to have been lost in the shuffle. Even with all of the screening of passengers and luggage at airports, nothing is being done to screen cargo that gets loaded on the planes.
Most people don't realize it, but most passenger liners also carry a fair amount of freight during their flight schedule, and none of it gets physically checked for weapons or explosives. Makes you stop and think doesn't it?
How hard would it be to get a big explosive device into an airliner's cargo hold? How big could it be? How much damage could you do during at the gate while surrounded by other planes and the terminal. The mere thought is appalling.
The Republican response to the threat is worse: they won't even consider setting up security standards and procedures to begin checking air cargo that gets loaded on passenger jets (or full time cargo planes for that matter). I guess real security would cost to much.
In the meantime, 2 year-olds get searched, Marine Corps Generals are told they can't bring their Medal of Honor on the plane, and we are herded like cattle to our destinations, all with the illusion that we're safer than we were 2 years ago.
Benjamin Franklin's dictum that those that would give up their liberty for security deserve neither has been bandied about quite a bit since Sept. 11, 2001, and American have given up a fair amount of their liberty to gain the perception of security. Too bad it's just that: an illusion.
Posted by Chris at December 23, 2003 11:52 AM