Security Theater to a "T"

Bostonians are a unique breed of human being. They have many admirable qualities, but among their not-so-admirable qualities is a distinct blend of impatience, high-strung self-importance, a tendency to overreact, and a perennial inferiority complex toward a certain large city located approximately 220 miles to the southwest. Having lived here many years now, I think I can say all this with some accuracy.

For example, Logan Airport was among the first airports in the country to implement full-body scanners and "enhanced" pat-downs, to which have recently been added the Israeli-style Q&As that have made that country's airport security so famous. Notice I said added. Each new security measure is simply piled on top of all the previous ones; thus, in order to get on a plane at Logan, a hypothetical traveler will be required not only to take off her shoes, put her toiletries into plastic baggies, remove her laptop from its case, pass through a metal detector, and all the rest of the usual rigmarole, but she may also be strip-searched, frisked, and now interrogated. Feel like a criminal yet? Depending on where you're going, you might spend more time at the security checkpoint than in the air.

Another case in point: the Boston subway, commonly referred to as the "T" (short for MBTA, or Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority), has spent the last few years climbing onto the security bandwagon. Not to be outdone by the National Security State formerly known as the New York subway, officials at the T have instituted a nexus of security policies that involves random bag searches, glowering police officers (often with dogs), a perpetual loop of public-service announcements, and CCTV surveillance cameras. Clearly it's important that we passengers never forget that we're in imminent danger of a terrorist attack. Because apparently we are.

Let me set the stage for you. Sometimes as often as twice a week, I pass a bag-search checkpoint either on my morning or evening commute. These checkpoints consist of a folding table with perhaps as many as five or six brightly clad security officers standing ominously around it. (When I say "brightly clad," I mean that literally. They are wearing what appear to be reflective yellow vests.) On this table is an impressive-looking device that can detect residue from explosives. One of the officers will stand in the rush of oncoming commuters, pull aside each tenth person or so, and ask him to place his bag on the table. One simple swipe with a little piece of cloth along the top of your bag, a quick reading of the cloth by the machine, a little beep (they will hand-search your bag if the machine detects anything), and off you go. Congratulations, you've proven you're not a terrorist intent on blowing up the train.

If you object to this procedure--either because you think it's ridiculous and a waste of money, like I do, or because you do intend to blow up the train--you're permitted to forgo the screening and leave the station. At this point, at many of the stations, you can just cross the street and come in through a different entrance. If that's not an option, you can walk to the next station and get on the train there. In my case, the next station is just half a mile away. The only bombers that this airtight security technique is actually succeeding in keeping off the train are the really lazy ones, I guess.

The Boston subway is the oldest in the nation. To my knowledge, there has never been a bombing or a terrorist attack on the T, or even an attempted one. But that didn't stop then-governor and current presidential candidate Mitt Romney from instituting these bag searches in the summer of 2004 when the Democratic National Convention came to Boston. He cited no specific threat, but of course he didn't have to. Since then, the searches have quietly continued. Oh, and by the way, they've never actually turned anything up.

Then there are the obnoxious loudspeaker alerts: "Now, more than ever, it's important to be alert, be aware, and be ready to report any suspicious bags or packages....Remember, if you see something, say something." (It'll give you an idea of how frequently these announcements are played if I tell you that I can rattle them off from memory, inflections and all.) Now, more than ever? Really, more than ever? Again, the message is: be afraid, be very afraid. That person sitting next to you might mean to do you harm.

All that security theater like this does is create a pervasive atmosphere of wariness, if not outright fear. And "no passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear." (Edmund Burke) Each new procedure is tacked on to the last, without much fanfare or protest, and the whole thing grows by small steps into a vast and entrenched security apparatus. We've all become so desensitized to these gradual encroachments, most of them relatively harmless in and of themselves, that we take them for granted. Very few people ever bother to ask: 1) whether it's all really necessary, or 2) whether these particular methods are even effective.

Pointless so-called "security measures" like these are designed and put into place by officials who must appear to be doing something, if only to ensure that they won't be blamed in the event of an actual attack. But perfect security is, and always will be, impossible. Instead of crying "terrorism" at every turn, buying a new million-dollar gizmo, and just making a good show of it, maybe we could look at the root of the problem. Maybe we could re-evaluate our foreign policy so that we aren't creating so many enemies in the first place.

No, to suggest such a thing would be treasonous, wouldn't it?

Recommended Reading

May 15, 2011 "Osama bin Laden: Why He Won"
August 8, 2011 "Want to Sue the FBI for Spying on Your Mosque? Sorry, That's Secret."
August 14, 2011 "When does airport security become physical assault?"
August 21, 2011 "Taking the Justice Out of the Justice System"
August 26, 2011 "Obama's Illegal Assaults"
September 1, 2011 "US court case reveals CIA rendition details"
September 1, 2011 "Welcome to dragnet surveillance"
September 7, 2011 "Anti-Government Conservatism, Sort Of"
September 7, 2011 "Report - A Call to Courage: Reclaiming Our Liberties Ten Years After 9/11"
September 7, 2011 "And Now, a Brief Word From the ACLU"
September 8, 2011 "As Muslims suffer from loss of air travel freedoms, others do, too"
September 9, 2011 "Fortress America"
September 11, 2011 "Jittery nerves disrupt flights on 9/11 anniversary"
September 13, 2011 "CIA investigates whether laws broken helping NYPD"
September 14, 2011 "Woman strip-searched after 9/11 flight landed"
September 14, 2011 "Ohio woman Shoshana Hebshi tells of detention after removal from plane"

Glenn Greenwald Tells It Like It Is

Civil liberties under Obama - Glenn Greenwald from International Socialist on Vimeo.

Recommended Reading

May 22, 2011 "Having private parts is not probable cause for TSA to grope or body scan you"
May 29, 2011 "Dancing protestors arrested at the Jefferson Memorial"
May 30, 2011 "Welcome to Post-Legal America"
May 31, 2011 "Why 'security' keeps winning out over privacy"
June 9, 2011 "The 100% Doctrine in Washington"
June 13, 2011 "The New Powers the FBI Just Granted Itself"
June 15, 2011 "Turn Off That Camera! Filming the Police At Work"
July 5, 2011 Julian Assange and Slavoj Zizek in conversation with Amy Goodman
July 17, 2011 "Post 9/11, biggest terror threat is underground"
July 28, 2011 "An un-American response to the Oslo attack"
August 1, 2011 "The Legislation That Could Kill Internet Privacy for Good"
August 8, 2011 "Three deaths in one weekend puts Taser use by cops in crosshairs"

Checkpoint Charlie, 1988

Recommended Reading

May 14, 2009 "America's growing surveillance state"
July 17, 2010 "Fairfax man returning from Yemen stranded in Cairo after landing on no-fly list"
November 12, 2010 "Surveillance state 'more intrusive than ever'"
November 28, 2010 "Why the TSA pat-downs and body scans are unconstitutional"
November 30, 2010 "The National Security State Cops a Feel"
December 21, 2010 "Expending the Surveillance State"
March 4, 2011 "Muslim student sues FBI over GPS tracking device placed on his car without a warrant"
May 9, 2011 "Bin Laden's death doesn't end his fear-mongering value"
May 16, 2011 "Bin Laden bled U.S. of a cool trillion"
May 16, 2011 "Justices reject appeals on rendition..."
May 23, 2011 "The Secret Sharer"
June 10, 2011 "FBI Agent's Accidental Document Dump--and Uncle Sam's Fear of Antiwar Activists"
June 12, 2011 "F.B.I. Agents Get Leeway to Push Privacy Bounds"
June 15, 2011 "Ex-Spy Alleges Bush White House Sought to Discredit Critic"
June 18, 2011 "Promoting Militarism While Hiding Bloodshed"
June 24, 2011 "The New Civil Liberties Fight"

The TSA's Latest Fear-Mongering

I just love stories like this [emphasis mine].

Officials Warn of Implanted Bombs in Terrorists

U.S. security officials reported today that terrorists plan on attacking commercial airlines by surgically implanting bombs in humans. The implanted device is an effort to get through airport security easily....

There is no imminent threat, although there was a briefing last week for international airlines and airports. John Pistole, TSA administrator, told CNN, "We see this as the latest iteration or the evolution of what terrorist groups are trying to do to circumvent our security layers."

No, "there is no imminent threat," but don't worry, I'm sure the TSA will make your travel as unpleasant as possible anyway. After all, the most important thing is that you're afraid--very afraid--of something the terrorists may or may not be talking about doing at some point.

As security expert Bruce Schneier explains in this video, the TSA's "mission, as we all believe, is to prevent airplane terrorism. But their real mission is to keep the TSA viable. They can't be irrelevant." The agency has to use scare tactics to justify its existence and its funding.

Expect more security theater. Especially now that we're hearing noises about how all this kabuki apparently still isn't enough. And make sure you don't complain about it, or you may get arrested.

Fear breeds compliance.

Introduction

I decided to start this blog because of my growing alarm at what is happening in the United States. The expansion of the National Security State during the so-called "war on terror" has meant increased government surveillance, secrecy, and ham-handed police-state tactics perpetrated on law-abiding citizens. This is a country where law-enforcement agencies spy on Americans without warrants, where public places are increasingly monitored by closed-circuit cameras, and where it's become almost impossible to get from point A to point B without passing through a checkpoint. Buying a plane ticket now constitutes probable cause for suspicion of terrorism, and we are all guilty until proven innocent, subject to virtual strip searches and/or invasive pat-downs at airports. And that's not even the half of it--extraordinary renditions, indefinite detentions, the USA PATRIOT Act, wars without Congressional authorization. Meanwhile the FBI, CIA, DHS, TSA--all of the alphabet-soup agencies--do not hesitate to fear-monger about terrorism in order to create a siege mentality and complacency among the general public.

I'm planning to use this blog to highlight examples of the National Security State in action. I will be focusing primarily on the United States, where I live. I have no partisan agenda, and I won't be giving any political party a pass. Just for the purposes of context: I am not an anti-government ideologue, a Tea Partier, or a libertarian. Paying my taxes doesn't make me feel oppressed, and I wholeheartedly support a government that invests in infrastructure and provides effective social services to those in need--in fact, I consider this a pressing moral responsibility. I am also not an anti-Obama fanatic. But the incremental gutting of civil liberties perpetrated by Barack Obama and Congress (as well as their predecessors, of course) is something I can't ignore or excuse. While the offenses certainly didn't start with this administration, it seems they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

One more thing: I am not a patriotic person, and I do not fetishize the Founding Fathers or the Revolutionary era. I do not believe in American exceptionalism, which is a lazy, small-minded, and corrosive ideology. But I do believe we had a few very good ideas in our early days, ideas that we tend to forget when we're frightened and manipulated by political rhetoric. This interminable "war on terror"--the constant threat of an apparently imminent attack--has been a very useful concept for the paternalistic power elite, with their militarism and their threat levels and their hypervigilance and their mantra of security, security, security. Meanwhile, what I call the "anything to keep us safe" crowd has, for the most part, acquiesced, and thus the National Security State has become the new normal.

I've named this blog Panopticon Letters after Jeremy Bentham's famous design for a prison in which inmates live under the all-seeing but unseen eye of an "inspector." While I'm not the first to use Bentham's design as a metaphor for the Surveillance State, I couldn't resist adopting it here.

Thank you for reading.