On Saturday 18 Oct 2008 8:38:30 am Gautam John wrote: > Just saw this: > > http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200811/airport-security
There is a perception problem that is affectng security agencies in the US (IMVHO of course). The US has never really faced concerted serious terrorist attacks within its own heartland like India, or for that matter Britain, Germany and Spain. Or Russia. With 9-11 and its aftermath, US security agencies took "certain steps" and the US has not had any further attacks. This fact (that the US has not faced further attacks) can now be used to feed the justification that the measures that the US took were and are effective. IOW one can reach the conclusion that it is good and wise to check shampoo bottles. Somehow, I suspect that lawyers in the US are inextricably intertwined with this. I know for a fact that even doctors sometimes delay emergency medical treatment in the US until a patient with a particular emergency is certified by peers as suffering from a problem that has a specific code and that the treatment necessary for that code is applied. If the treatment is given without that code certification, the doctor can get sued. Succesfully. (The antics that doctors in the US need to resort to to make sure they get insurance to cough up and to keep themselves out of trouble is another story) So you can bet that US security agencies opeate under the same "cover your ass" pressure that has less to do with what is humane or sensible and more to do with what keeps them out of trouble. But I do admit that the line s very fine. The more lax you are the more likely that some terrorist can slip through. But that is only one half of the story. Training and indoctrination camps for terrorists are a dime a dozen in Pakistan. In the last few weeks it has been reevaled that a "Taliban commander" killed renectly by a US drone attack was a Pakistani army officer. The US has paid Pakistan more than $ 14 billion in the last 7 years, or which half has been for the Paksitani army. This figure excludes covert payments and payments as rent for use of bases and other faclities. What was that again about the 7 habits of terrorists who get inspired by blogs and inconvenient paperwork? shiv
