AW: [ RadSafe ] New Airport X-Rays Scan Bodies, Not Just Bags

Fri Mar 2 18:49:51 CST 2007

Neil,

You are obviously a US citizen, I wonder whether you will receive any such
hateful and ridiculous reply from Mr. Perle which I did.......

I think we had in Europe rather good safety procedures, which could of
course not prevent single events like the Lockerbie case. BTW I flew the
same day from the USA to London and after having checked in to my hotel and
according to the habit acquired after two months USA I turned on the TV and
immediately got the news about this catastrophe. Well, I did not feel, that
I had probably escaped a similar fate and of course I continued my flight
next day to Vienna.

I mentioned already that I flew a few days after September 11 to Brussels
and a week later back. I flew together with my younger son a few weeks later
to Honolulu and again a few weeks later back to Vienna.

I think that somebody who is all the time using probabilities to contract
cancer from radionuclide exposure should apply the principle of probability
in his personal life. I do it, but obviously many others don't do it at
RADSAFE. Sorry to say, I do not regard my own life, nor of others as being
worth to spend billions of USD for questionable safety features.  

The latest story about the liquids attempted to produce explosives on the
airplane as published in Great Britain has since led to some chaos at
European airports, of which I was many times affected last year. Women had
to discard their very expensive perfumes, children had to discard their
Coke, tooth paste, hand moisturing cremes etc. etc. had to be discarded.
After the control, big signs advertised, that all parfumes, beverages, tooth
pastes, cremes etc. could be paid at the shops in this area......

I was joking, when I was forced to take off my shoes and my belt at the
check in, that the next step will be that we have to take off our clothes -
I knew then already about the US attempts. O.k., now we have it. 

On a cost/benefit basis, these measures are not justified. I wait for an
analysis of this, but I suppose that nobody in the USA will dare to do it,
because this would so obviously contradict the political intentions of the
government. 

I wish you happy flights in the future!

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im Auftrag
von Neill Stanford
Gesendet: Samstag, 03. März 2007 00:52
An: sandyfl at cox.net; 'John Jacobus'; radsafe at radlab.nl
Betreff: RE: [ RadSafe ] New Airport X-Rays Scan Bodies, Not Just Bags

Hey Sandy,
But Richard Reed was 1) flying on AA, 2) flying in 2001. I am talking about
the interview process used for decades by El Al and recently (I noticed it
in Amsterdam last Nov) for EU to USA flights. 
I'm all for effective technology, but shudder when I think of the cost
benefit analysis of the measures put in place over the past 5 years. [But
then, I also think the instructions and equipment dealing with a "ditch over
water" are a big waste of time.] 
My point was that in this country we rely almost solely on machines.
Machines operated by under-paid and under-trained people. While other
countries put more emphasis on better-trained better-paid individuals. Very
subjectively, I feel a lot safer going through that process than I ever have
flying from a US airport.

Neill Stanford, CHP

Stanford Dosimetry, LLC
------------------------------------------
(360) 527 2627
(360) 715 1982 (fax)
(360) 770 7778 (cell)
www.stanforddosimetry.com
------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Perle [mailto:sandyfl at cox.net] 
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 3:21 PM
To: 'Neill Stanford'; 'John Jacobus'; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] New Airport X-Rays Scan Bodies, Not Just Bags

Hi Neill,

The interviews are a good practice. However I look at each technique as
complimentary to another technique. Recall that Richard Reed walked through
the interview process, and if he had tried to use a lighter instead of a
match, that AA flight would have been blown to pieces over the Atlantic. We
need multiple layers of security, recognizing that we will never stop a
dedicated well-trained group from finally succeeding in implementing their
reign of terror. That doesn't mean that because something won't stop 100% of
the attempts, that we eliminate it's potential use. The body scanners will
detect most weapons, but not all. The interview may catch many, but not all.
We need better technology, but nothing will be full-proof. 

While I don't feel 100% safe getting on a 12 hour flight, I can assure you
that I feel safer than I did 10 years ago, and better than I did 5 years
ago. I hope to feel a lot safer in 5 years from now. Let's not throw the
baby out with the bathwater. Let's continue to develop and implement new
technologies to approach 100%, even though we will never get there. There
will always be some risk. Let's keep minimizing it.

Sandy

----------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.

2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614

Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714 Extension 2306
Tel: (949) 419-1000 Extension 2306
Fax:(949) 296-1144

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ Personal Website:
http://sandy-travels.com/ 

-----Original Message-----
From: Neill Stanford [mailto:stanford at stanforddosimetry.com] 
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 2:49 PM
To: sandyfl at cox.net; 'John Jacobus'; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] New Airport X-Rays Scan Bodies, Not Just Bags

None of the new technologies make me feel safer. Every new one inspires me
to think of how easily motivated people could get around them. We remove our
laptops but don't turn them on anymore. No one checks the piles of
electronic stuff that many of us travel with: PDA's, battery packs,
chargers, bags of dosimeters. We are limited to 3 oz bottles of liquid or
gel but what is to stop a group from combining them once on board? These
systems are all well-publicized and well-understood, clever bad guys know
how to get around them.

What does make me feel safer, much safer, is the detailed personal interview
at the gate that many European airports have implemented for flights to the
USA. Similar to El Al's time tested techniques. Well-trained interviewers
asking questions designed to catch you off guard, and observing reactions.
Much more effective than the parroted "were you in possession of the bags
since..."   

Neill Stanford, CHP
Stanford Dosimetry, LLC
------------------------------------------
(360) 527 2627
(360) 715 1982 (fax)
(360) 770 7778 (cell)
www.stanforddosimetry.com
------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf
Of Sandy Perle
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 2:18 PM
To: John Jacobus; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: Re: AW: AW: [ RadSafe ] New Airport X-Rays Scan Bodies, Not Just
Bags

John,

Re-read my comment ... I said that the 9/11 were sub-human. They still are
in my opinion..

Sandy

Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless  

-----Original Message-----
From: John Jacobus <crispy_bird at yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 13:56:56
To:Sandy Perle <sandyfl at cox.net>, radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: RE: AW: AW: [ RadSafe ] New Airport X-Rays Scan Bodies, Not Just
Bags

Wasn't the hijackings on Sept. 11 first thought to be like kidnapping the
plane to fly to another country? 
Again, you are framing the issue as if our current round of terrorist is
unique.  It is not.  Our solution has certainly not changed the risks we
face. 
We are just trying to build higher fences.

I would add that your comment that the 19 hijackers of Sept 11 were not
subhuman.  Maybe that is the problem with Americans looking at the problems
in the Middle East and other areas.  They many not have shared your beliefs,
but your comments do remind me of the U.S.'s view of the Japanese during
WWII.  They were subhuman also.  Times change.

--- Sandy Perle <sandyfl at cox.net> wrote:

> John,
> 
> One can't compare terrorism to the 60s where a person simply got on a 
> plane with a gun where there was no security check performed. It 
> wasn't until much later that metal detectors were implemented and 
> x-ray checking of carry-on.
> Heck, wasn't that long ago that that checked bags were X-rayed. The 
> terrorist of the 60s didn't want to kill themselves .. and that reason 
> was also blown up on 9/11 where 19 sub-humans preferred to die along 
> with the thousands of innocents that they murdered. You can't compare 
> apples and oranges.
> 
> Sandy
> 
>
----------------------------------------------------------------
> Sandy Perle
> Senior Vice President, Technical Operations Global Dosimetry 
> Solutions, Inc.
> 2652 McGaw Avenue
> Irvine, CA 92614
>  
> Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714 Extension 2306
> Tel: (949) 419-1000 Extension 2306
> Fax:(949) 296-1144
>  
> Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ Personal Website: 
> http://sandy-travels.com/
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Jacobus [mailto:crispy_bird at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 10:23 AM
> To: Sandy Perle; radsafe at radlab.nl
> Subject: RE: AW: AW: [ RadSafe ] New Airport X-Rays Scan Bodies, Not 
> Just Bags
> 
> In the
> 1970s and 1980s we had sky marshalls. 
>
http://jobprofiles.monster.com/Content/job_content/JC_Military/JSC_PrivateSe
>
curity/JOB_FederalAirMarshall/jobzilla_html?jobprofiles=1
> That seemed to stop planes being hijacked to Cuba. 
> Is
> there a lesson here?  Low technology works well
> 
> 

+++++++++++++++++++
"We must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or
omniscient - that we are only 6 percent of the world's population; that we
cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankind; that we cannot
right every wrong or reverse each adversity; and therefore there cannot be
an American solution to every world problem."
-- John F. Kennedy 

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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