Concerned Traveller and Security

Concerned Traveller and Security

As a regular traveller to the United States I am as concerned, if not more concerned, about security as the average American citizen. I do not want to be blown up in mid air or crashed into a prominent downtown building, and the idea that someone might drive a truck laden with explosives into the side of my American employer's offices when I am in mid presentation is highly unattractive.

So during my latest visit I was both amused and concerned that the American public is being lulled into what I believe is a false sense of security by scenes of heavily armed soldiers strutting their stuff around potential high profile terrorist targets such as Wall Street. Interviews with local and national politicians assuring their voters - the parts of the public they really care about - that no one is going to bring a booby trapped truck into this hallowed ground compound the amusing and yet dangerously naïve attitude that the authorities have to anti terrorist measures.

To justify my position as a concerned visitor let me lay out a couple of scenarios for you to ponder.

Apart from death and destruction one of the goals of terrorism is to disrupt the existing infrastructure and economic stability of the countries these fanatics have labelled as their enemies. In the United States there are a multitude of locations that would come under the heading of economically sensitive or nationally vital to every day life. Lower Manhattan is a typical example of an economic target and Chicago O'Hare is an example of a vital piece of the USA's travel network.

So let us consider the terrorist who has managed to get hold of two dozen Cobalt sources - the kind that are in daily medical use for cancer treatment or internal investigations - and a hundred pounds of C4 explosive. Unlike standard radioactive materials that the International Atomic Energy Agency try to keep under wraps, medical sources are not so well controlled. Thousands of Caesium, Cobalt and Iridium sources whose radioactivity is far more potent than Uranium go missing every year. For example, an indeterminate number of these isotopes have gone missing in post war Iraq, and reports from China suggest that some 2000 of their radioactive sources are missing.

So here we are with a highly radioactive payload packed around a powerful explosive in a helicopter flying high over the roof tops of Lower Manahattan just like any other traffic or TV station flight. Except that in this case the pilot is a suicide bomber who is about use an explosion to scatter radiation over the financial heart of the United States. None of the troops below with their sophisticated weaponry can stop him because they do not even know he is coming. The cordons and security searches imposed upon every office worker will not prevent the cancer causing materials from raining down upon every building, vehicle, pedestrian and office worker within a two mile radius. And nothing will be able to prevent Manhattan surrounded by thousands of square miles of suburbs being turned into a total exclusion zone for decades.

Our second scenario, the one closest to my heart as a regular traveller, is the high tech terrorist who knows that he will not be able to bring an overt weapon into an aircraft so uses his imagination to create one out of a laptop. Apart from a few very slim models, the average laptop computer has a significant amount of free volume available if you remove the DVD drive, the spare battery, the PC card covers, and in the case of older models the floppy disk drive.

Our high tech terrorist knows this and has done just that. He has removed these devices from his computer and filled the voids with explosive - let us say for the sake of argument that it is our old friend C4. To fool the security personnel and their scanners he has cut the covers from the devices he has removed and stuck them back over their former locations with super glue. This would work because laptops are rarely examined if at all, and I have only ever been asked to turn my machine on in Germany which in itself is futile as our bomber's machine would still display a normal start up screen.

Next he wires several keys, the laptop's battery, and a detonator in series so that all he needs to do is to press say three function keys to create an almighty explosion. If he makes a self service check in - where you can chose your own seats - and locates himself over the wing where the bulk of an aircraft's fuel is kept, then he is in the perfect position to bring an aircraft down over a populated or economically sensitive area causing disruption to flight, road, domestic and medical facilities. Again, no amount of policing on the ground below would stop this kind of attack, and making me take my shoes off before I go through the airport metal detector hoop would not catch our terrorist's ingenious device.

So am I saying that placing guards around sensitive targets is a waste of time? No. What I am saying is that the American public should not become complacent about security and the unrelenting determination of fanatics to destroy your way of life just because you have a company of troops and a big shiny tank stationed outside your homes and offices.



	As a regular traveller to the United States I am as concerned, if not more concerned, about security as the average American citizen. I do not want to be blown up in mid air or crashed into a prominent downtown building, and the idea that someone might drive a truck laden with explosives into the side of my American employer's offices when I am in mid presentation is highly unattractive. So during my latest visit I was both amused and concerned that the American public is being lulled into what I believe is a false sense of security by scenes of heavily armed soldiers strutting their stuff around potential high profile terrorist targets such as Wall Street. Interviews with local and national politicians assuring their voters - the parts of the public they really care about - that no one is going to bring a booby trapped truck into this hallowed ground compound the amusing and yet dangerously naïve attitude that the authorities have to anti terrorist measures. To justify my position as a concerned visitor let me lay out a couple of scenarios for you to ponder. Apart from death and destruction one of the goals of terrorism is to disrupt the existing infrastructure and economic stability of the countries these fanatics have labelled as their enemies. In the United States there are a multitude of locations that would come under the heading of economically sensitive or nationally vital to every day life. Lower Manhattan is a typical example of an economic target and Chicago O'Hare is an example of a vital piece of the USA's travel network. So let us consider the terrorist who has managed to get hold of two dozen Cobalt sources - the kind that are in daily medical use for cancer treatment or internal investigations - and a hundred pounds of C4 explosive. Unlike standard radioactive materials that the International Atomic Energy Agency try to keep under wraps, medical sources are not so well controlled. Thousands of Caesium, Cobalt and Iridium sources whose radioactivity is far more potent than Uranium go missing every year. For example, an indeterminate number of these isotopes have gone missing in post war Iraq, and reports from China suggest that some 2000 of their radioactive sources are missing. So here we are with a highly radioactive payload packed around a powerful explosive in a helicopter flying high over the roof tops of Lower Manahattan just like any other traffic or TV station flight. Except that in this case the pilot is a suicide bomber who is about use an explosion to scatter radiation over the financial heart of the United States. None of the troops below with their sophisticated weaponry can stop him because they do not even know he is coming. The cordons and security searches imposed upon every office worker will not prevent the cancer causing materials from raining down upon every building, vehicle, pedestrian and office worker within a two mile radius. And nothing will be able to prevent Manhattan surrounded by thousands of square miles of suburbs being turned into a total exclusion zone for decades. Our second scenario, the one closest to my heart as a regular traveller, is the high tech terrorist who knows that he will not be able to bring an overt weapon into an aircraft so uses his imagination to create one out of a laptop. Apart from a few very slim models, the average laptop computer has a significant amount of free volume available if you remove the DVD drive, the spare battery, the PC card covers, and in the case of older models the floppy disk drive. Our high tech terrorist knows this and has done just that. He has removed these devices from his computer and filled the voids with explosive - let us say for the sake of argument that it is our old friend C4. To fool the security personnel and their scanners he has cut the covers from the devices he has removed and stuck them back over their former locations with super glue. This would work because laptops are rarely examined if at all, and I have only ever been asked to turn my machine on in Germany which in itself is futile as our bomber's machine would still display a normal start up screen. Next he wires several keys, the laptop's battery, and a detonator in series so that all he needs to do is to press say three function keys to create an almighty explosion. If he makes a self service check in - where you can chose your own seats - and locates himself over the wing where the bulk of an aircraft's fuel is kept, then he is in the perfect position to bring an aircraft down over a populated or economically sensitive area causing disruption to flight, road, domestic and medical facilities. Again, no amount of policing on the ground below would stop this kind of attack, and making me take my shoes off before I go through the airport metal detector hoop would not catch our terrorist's ingenious device. So am I saying that placing guards around sensitive targets is a waste of time? No. What I am saying is that the American public should not become complacent about security and the unrelenting determination of fanatics to destroy your way of life just because you have a company of troops and a big shiny tank stationed outside your homes and offices.