FREE ESSAY ON TERORRISM AND SECURITY MEASURES

TERORRISM AND SECURITY MEASURES

The government can implement many new methods to increase security, or better yet give off
the image of better security which is what they have predominantly done, yet ultimately
there will always be a way to bypass or come up with a new way to infiltrate that
measure. The government so far has done a variety of things ranging from the closing of
the Dulles airport (permanently), working with the FAA on new security measures, having
pilots carry handguns, and a not so specific, profiling.
Well the first and easiest of the new security measures is the permanent closing of the
airport, which is very near the heart of our nation's political machine. Seeing how
airplanes were used as weapons of mass-destruction officials were left with no choice but
to shut down the airport. Even though other airports, which were closed, are now
reopened, Dulles vicinity to the incident and to other major government facilities will
keep this airport permanently closed. The government rational in this situation actually
makes sense because they would not want to have any other incidents and the proximity of
the airport is a major key.
There has been a measure brought to congress by the largest pilot union, boasting over
66000 members to carry handguns in the cockpit and be trained by law enforcement
officials. Strict psychological testing would be done on all the pilots and the FBI would
train all of them. Before these incidents, this proposal would have not been considered,
yet in light of this situation there could be possible implementation of this program.
The government as well as private conglomerates agrees that this plan could work, because
the cockpit has to be defended at all costs, hence, now pilots are being trained to use a
crash-ax, equipped on every plane, as a possible killing weapon. The government believes
that this will work because if the cockpit is infiltrated, the pilots will have a form of
defense that could overpower the terrorist and save the plane and the world from such
atrocities witnessed September 11. 
The FAA has considered many new measures to increase the safety of flight and to make
sure that the aviation system is not compromised by acts of terrorism. Federal marshals
are being hired at exponential rates so more will be on flights to insure security. There
is consideration of making a secure cockpit door that cannot be broken down if locked;
yet, this is a waste of time and money in my opinion, because the terrorist can still
threaten the life of the passengers. Security checkpoints at airports will be monitored
by FBI agents, not by hired people to monitor eye movements and other such behaviors in
hopes of catching the not typical but otherwise looks like a normal passenger passenger.
Carry on luggage will be effected severely as now, they will scrutinized with a fine
tooth comb and no longer will they be so liberal on what can come on and what can not.
The federal government will install the latest technology in bomb-sniffing, x-ray, and
whatever other devices are available, to detect any explosive or incendiary devices
checked on an airplane. With all these new regulations plus a list of similar ones, there
will be several unpleasant side effects for the citizens of this country. Passengers
should expect to arrive 2.5-3 hours in advanced to make sure you will make your flight.
There will be a new security tax on all tickets which will up travel prices. In addition,
more electronic gadgets, which are very often used by the business traveler of today and
tomorrow, will be banned and strictly checked. However, the upside is that it should make
citizens feel safer about traveling.
The fourth way of tightening security is more on a psychological scale. Last week in
Minneapolis, Northwest Airlines officials hauled three Arab-Americans off a flight to
Salt Lake City when other passengers refused to fly with them; the men were grilled and
allowed to board a later flight. In Trenton, N.J., a nervous driver called authorities
when two suspicious men speaking little English got on his bus; the police held the men
at gunpoint before releasing them. Such profiling, which critics say makes a mockery of
the constitutional notion of equal protection, is only one of the challenges to civil
liberties emerging in the wake of the terrorism attacks. This is one of the measures that
is going to be hard to implement and perhaps impossible to implement. The government gave
Immigration and Naturalization Service the right to detain immigrants and hold them
indefinitely (this is a change from 24 hours). This is a fundamental problem that is
being seen, which is Americans attacking Americans because of their color, accent,
ethnicity, and religion. Perhaps the melting pot idea is a figment of imagination to
psychologically soothe everyone from the reality that even though Americans are Americans
they have not assimilated with one another, but actually encourage their individual
diversity. It is proven that crude profiling is ineffective, and will just create more
animosity among supposed brotherly Americans. In Britain, this was seen with the Irish
and even here, in the US has acted similarly with Japanese during WWII. It seems that if
you are now of any type of Middle Eastern descent, you will be scrutinized more heavily.
This is a problem with no solution though, because security personal will be more wary of
Middle Eastern people and more likely to search personally and ask more questions, etc.,
the real problem lies with how Americans profile other Americans. This is an extremely
large unpleasant side effect of this incident. In addition, now US citizen's privacy will
be infringed upon because the administration is expanding surveillance authority to tap
phones, obtain voice-mail messages, monitor computers and obtain customers' credit-card
information from Internet providers with minimal judicial oversight. Since terrorist use
e-mail and cellular phones, roving taps (which basically allow to tap anything used by
the person suspected and all the people he contacts) are allowed, and the government has
been given more rights to invade the privacy of citizens. While this might all be ok with
everyone right now, in the wake of the attacks, a little down the road Americans will be
angry, as citizens privacy from the government has always been a classic argument. 
As one could see there are going to be unpleasant side effects from the unpleasant acts
of terrorism, yet how effective they are will not be so easily measured. However, one
could safely say that the usual hurdles which are put up by citizens themselves (privacy
issues, waiting in line, etc.), are not being cleared sky high, yet when normalcy
returns, there will be disputes over the clearing of such hurdles. Yet overall, even
though it is unfortunate that the attack serves as a wake up call, it does, for American
airports and flight security, which has always been lacking. Even though America was slow
to implement security measures, in consideration of this incident, efforts to have
stellar security will surely be expedited.