Anyone for Tea?

The Victory of Terrorism

The EU defines the term 'Terrorism' as follows:
"The organized recourse to violent and illegal acts with the view to creating extreme fear, social dislocation, intimidation, heavy destruction or governmental disorganization, for political, extremist or personal gain."

As such, given my previous flight from Heathrow via Munich to Bologna, and back from Bologna via Frankfurt to Heathrow... I'd suggest that the "intimidation" bit seems to be working quite nicely!

At least to the extent that following the failed attempts to use liquid explosives on planes earlier in the year, the security services are now under instruction to confiscate bottles of water from passengers. This - when travelling with a young lady who needs to be kept cool if a reasonable level of health is to be maintained - presents a problem!!

Following the check-points, we admittedly are still able to go and buy replacement water from the cafe near the gate (albeit at inflated prices). But - naturally - when we reached our connecting airport, ta-da!, that bottle was confiscated too, despite having been acquired within what was supposedly a 'secure area'. The rules also discriminated against various aerosols, sprays, etc... which staff at the airport were more than happy to take off us and place in bins which, were they containing anything dodgy would be in a nice place for an explosion!

Of course, with these new rules, they're then too busy - so they never checked shoes for plastic explosive, and a friend of mine relayed the story of how his Leatherman knife went with him in his hand luggage on a multi-stage trip around the continent.

So, certainly I understand and appreciate the efforts to thwart terrorism in the EU, but there has to be some more 'joined up' thinking on this! Surely, all of the successful terrorist attacks so far have simply been the product of the instigators looking at the target and asking "where is the weak link?" - so security services need to be asking the same questions themselves.

For example, why not reduce the checking overhead by providing free drinking water within secured areas and then clearly indicating that this is the case? Why not introduce a scheme which allows manufacturers of goods to create 'tamper-proof' containers for air flight which can then be scanned through? And why not ensure that airports are configured in such a way that you ensure a "secure path" for connecting flights within the EU that guarantees that whatever's in it has been checked or purchased within it...

Personally I don't have many answers, but do know that most importantly, we must always remember that the goodwill and cooperation of the public towards Customs & Excise is a vital ally in the effort to keep people safe. So keep the rules simple, communicate them well and you'll be well on the way to keeping the stress down!

posted by RichB @ Tuesday, July 31, 2007