The Security Mentor

The government keeps proposing and implementing drastic measures in the name of keeping us safe. Everyone weighs the supposed tradeoffs between liberty and national security, because everyone takes for granted that the government's actions are aimed at national security.

For example, you'd figure by 2002 it would be impossible to ship a slug of uranium inside a steel pipe (on X-rays that would look like a crude bomb) in a cargo container from Europe to the US. But ABC News did just that, a year to the day after September 11.

You'd figure that the government, concerned for our safety, would immediately close that security gap. But a year later, September 11 2003, ABC News shipped a similar package from al-Qaeda-infested Indonesia to LA. Nobody detected it.

Next question: did the government, concerned with our safety, fix the problem and thank ABC for reporting it? Or did they try to file criminal charges against ABC for performing a safety test?

But that was then, this is 2006. By now the government, working for our safety, will at least have issued ID cards for the people with access to our ports. Right? Not yet, though they were supposed to be available in 2004. Meantime, the government has promised that Real Soon Now they will check port workers's names against lists of suspected terrorists. And we're supposed to have 98% checking of incoming containers for nuclear material -- by late 2007.

We're told that we may have to trade some freedom for safety. Until that safety shows up I think I'll hold on to my freedom.