[Noisebridge-discuss] I was thinking about TSA's logic about throwing away liquids...

[Gopiballava Flaherty]

There are trash cans in the airport all ready. Securing the trash cans at screening areas wouldn't do a whole lot. 

The claimed concern is somebody assembling something from various chemicals and adding a trigger. If you catch them before they've finished, it won't be ready. 

Many explosives are very volatile and easy to trigger. Hence the stories about bombers blowing themselves up in apartments. 

I'm not a fan of the TSA at all, but given the supposed threat model this doesn't sound unreasonable. 

That being said, I am surprised that it seems like no non-TSA experts have come out and said 'yes, liquids can pose the threats the TSA claims'. That would do a lot to convince me that the threat really exists. 

(Also: yes, multiple people could bring liquids and combine them. But: it's probably hard to get lots of suicide bombers without risking recruiting an informant, and if you need 10 per plane, that's better than 1 per plane since these sorts of people appear to be in short supply. (People willing to ask others to commit suicide seem to be in infinite supply of course))

Thanks,

gopi at iPhone


On May 14, 2012, at 10:46, Sean Cusack <sean.p.cusack at gmail.com> wrote:

> Here's a little secret as long as you promise not to tell anybody...
> 
> Airport security doesn't really do a lot to make us safer. Its kind of a "theater" if you like. 
> 
> Shhhh! Don't tell the TSA though...they need to spend our tax dollars...
> 
> :-P,
> Sean
> 
> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 7:47 AM, Martin Bogomolni <martinbogo at gmail.com> wrote:
> So, we're not allowed to bring liquids on airplanes, because we might
> be hiding bombs in water bottles.  I can see that, in light of the
> whole "Mother of Satan" acetone peroxide thing.
> 
> but..
> 
> We're told to toss them, these "potential bombs" made of highly
> unstable liquid explosive:
> 
> ... into unreinforced, usually plastic, sometimes steel, trash cans
> ... in lines in areas that have the highest human density at an airport
> ... without having been scanned in any way
> 
> !?what?!
> 
> -M
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