Deadlier knives that used on 9/11 sold in duty free

[third eye]

So much for security...

Major security concerns have been raised after a Mail on Sunday reporter boarded a British Airways flight to London carrying five knives - bought in an air-side duty free shop - with blades longer than those used by the 9/11 hijackers.

He walked unchecked on to the packed plane after buying the potentially lethal £20 Swiss Army knives at Zurich airport, Switzerland.
The knives are on open sale, despite similar ones being used in a plane hijack attempt only two years ago. The startling revelation poses a massive question mark over the disparity of security checks at airports.

At British airports, passengers face lengthy queues at security checkpoints. They are made to discard sharp and bladed objects, even ordinary scissors, and liquids over 100ml, including suncream.

Officially, EU regulations allow passengers to travel with bladed items no longer than 6cm - the Swiss Army knife is the same length - but an aviation security expert said people would not be able to board flights in the UK if carrying the knives.

Last night, Zurich airport and British Airways insisted they were operating within EU regulations. But critics said rules that can prevent mothers carrying baby milk on board yet allow knives to be carried unchecked were putting passengers in danger.

On US flights, all types of blades, including Swiss Army knives, are banned. In June, the US transport safety authority scrapped a plan to allow some small pocket knives on flights after a public outcry.

Tory MP Nick de Bois said: ‘We need to change the rules. You can’t legislate for the state of mind of the individual carrying the knife so why put the temptation in front of someone? A 6cm toughened blade, which you get in a Swiss Army knife, could be lethal in the wrong hands.
‘People will find it utterly incomprehensible that you can buy knives before getting on planes.’
After going through security, our reporter made two trips to the Victorinox store, which opened in March, and purchased the knives. The shop, yards from a police room, offers an array of knives and even sells knife-sharpeners.

Without even being asked for a boarding pass or passport, our reporter bought three knives on the first visit and two more on the second. Priced between £20 and £27, the knives did not come in protective packaging.

Afterwards, our reporter simply walked through to Departures, even passing under a sign at the departure gate which showed a Swiss Army knife with a red cross over it.
He then travelled on a packed BA flight to Heathrow last Wednesday - with more than 120 people on board including small children. During the flight, our reporter posed for pictures with the blade of one of the knives extended.

 

[walle]

a pale white guy bought a couple of swiss army knifes, big deal. if he was an ethnic the air marshalls would have kick his arse before the plane had taken off.

There are cameras everywhere for a reason.

 

[livingdead]

a pale white guy bought a couple of swiss army knifes, big deal. if he was an ethnic the air marshalls would have kick his arse before the plane had taken off.

There are cameras everywhere for a reason.

there are thousands of people travelling everyday in busy airports.. i dont think we got enough people to monitor all of them.

 

[third eye]

there are thousands of people travelling everyday in busy airports.. i dont think we got enough people to monitor all of them.

Also, It was bought from a Duty Free shop, you reach there after passing through security.

 

[gambit]

Profiling...The best way to go.

 

[JayAtl]

Profiling...The best way to go.

how do you profile this?

 

[gambit]

how do you profile this?

Individually? You cannot. But the uncomfortable truth is that before you can profile an individual, you have to profile a community. And just like the old maps used to say at the edges where the world ends: Here Be Dragons.

I used to read a lot of books from the 'True Crimes' sections written by retired FBI profilers about their craft. It is a blend of objective science and experience based hunches, as in something about a person that just did not 'feel' right about the target. It turned out that their hunches and feelings were not so subjective after all after a case is solved and they examined how did they produced those hunches and uneasy feelings. Every community have unspoken rules for its members and that includes communities inside communities. The target individual always violated some rules in some ways and when the examine the person's behaviors, sometimes a violation is obvious, some times not, and it is when a person deviated from the rules in not so obvious ways that the profiler began to feel uneasy about his target.

Religious and politically motivated crimes are not the same as opportunistic crimes, which are always for personal pleasures. Religious and politically motivated crimes are sacrificial acts in the same mentality as soldiers are: It is a dirty job but somebody has to do it.

When the militias were recruiting military members, the military community was profiled and I assisted in that profiling with my volunteer work with the Southern Poverty Law Center investigators in the Northwest, particularly northern Idaho, a hot bed of white supremacist beliefs. No one complained, not even the military itself because the Pentagon realized the reality and truth that its members have, least of all, unique and desirable skills that are apparent to all and desirable for the racist fringe, let alone hidden moral and intellectual perspectives that must be fleshed out on an individual basis by that same fringe for recruitment. Obviously, blacks and other non-whites and Jewish members would not be targeted. Both sides profiled the same community and recruitment. The 'bad guys' recruit one way and we, the 'good guys', recruit the other way. But profiling was necessary.