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by chimeracoder 4359 days ago
> It's been proven these arbitrary restrictions don't actually enhance security.

Agreed.

> We need to see the TSA move to behavioral analysis for them to actually make a difference.

They've tried this. In practice, it ends up being a very thin cover for racial profiling[0].

Of course, when the TSA itself admits[1] that there is no evidence of a threat of terrorism against aviation in the US, it's not surprising that more "advanced" techniques of detecting terrorism prove to be ineffective.

[0] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/us/racial-profiling-at-bos...

[1] http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/tsa-admits-...

1 comments

Of course there's a flip side of this coin. I think it's a very good bet that this action was not taken in a vacuum. So someone disguised a weapon or a bomb as an electronic device in their hand luggage, and got it on board and was caught.

So who takes responsibility ? Because that's the million dollar question, although in this case, more like 100 million dollar question. If you make the TSA less onerous and the result is a plane plowing into a skyscraper, who pays ?

I think this action is at least partially the result of insurance companies saying "not us".

Do you have a better answer ?