Pensieri di un lunatico minore

Smoke, mirrors and security

There’s this common misconception among Americans that the actions of the US Government since September 11th have had anything to do with the security of the common populace. This is a gross mistake. As someone who has been a practitioner of risk management and mitigation in physical, electronic and social mechanisms, much of what I see is nothing but a sham, largely created to distract people from the real problems.

Take airports. The security at airports continues to be abysmal at best, insulting in the worst, and misleading in all actuality. I know people who have boarded plans without photo ID through Dulles International Aiport (IAD) in Washington, DC, and people who are prototypical passengers that would not be suspicious (this is not race based, but behavioral) who are harassed to no end, repeatedly. Why? Not because they are suspicious, but because they were convenient. People are somehow “comforted” by seeing people searched, even if those people are not the ones who could potentially present a security risk.

This is typified by the either intentional or negligent avoidance of dealing with private jets (otherwise known as “political supports”), cargo transports, and other vectors for attacks that are substantially more effective. Why weren’t they dealt with? Because they’re not visible to the “average” person, yet they represent the actual targets that an intelligent terrorist would go after. We’ve been fortunate to not have been targeted by an overly intelligent and concerted effort, just a rather clumsy one so far.

This is also typified in the methodology of Federal agencies in Washington, DC that I work with on a daily basis. Many have erected all sorts of physical barriers, but ignore thousands of other vectors that are exposed. Again, lots of smoke, no fire. The effective reduction of risk is a difficult job, and requires enormous intellectual resources—-not necessarily monetary resources. Much of the current government approaches are focused on spending money—-often just to line pockets of supporters or constituents—-rather than the examination of risks strategies.

As I said, risks can not be eliminated, but can only be mitigated, reduced and managed. I have addressed too many people involved in the “war on terrorism” who feel that there is a 100% solution out there, when that is the fatal flaw. The assumption of perfection creates it’s own enormous risk. Only when we understands the risks can be manage them.

Today, we are no more safe than we were September 10th due to anything the government has done, but we have lost countless liberties that will be difficult to regain. Any increase in security is largely due to the attention of the American people, not the government.