CNN news 2010-01-15 加文本

cnn news 2010-01-15

RANDI KAYE, cnn CORRESPONDENT: We take our shoes off, remove our laptops, and toss our bottled water all in the name of safety. But are we any safer today than we were before 9/11? Not exactly, says Bruce Schneier, author and security technologist.

BRUCE SCHNEIER, SECURITY TECHNOLOGIST: We take away guns and bombs, the terrorists use box cutters. We take away box cutters and knitting needles, and they put explosives in their shoes. We screen shoes, they use liquids. We limit liquids, they strap explosives in their underwear. This is a stupid game, we can't win, and we should stop playing it.

KAYE: But the game goes on. The TSA tried puffer machines, which blow air on you to release explosive material. They didn't work and are being phased out. And those airport pat downs?

SCHNEIER: Any pat down that you experience that doesn't embarrass you physically is one that's not very effective.

KAYE: Schneier does give metal detectors higher marks. He says metal detectors likely forced the would-be Christmas Day bomber to build an inefficient bomb for his underwear, which needed a syringe and a home-brewed detonator that failed. But the next guy may be better at it. Would those x-ray body scanners do the trick?

SCHNEIER: It won't detect things that are not very dense or if the explosive is spread out over a large area, maybe it's in a fabric.

KAYE: Like the explosive PETN sewed into underwear. For some, without a magic machine that's terrorist proof, the answer is profiling, countries and individuals. The Obama administration says now, travelers from countries considered "state sponsors of terrorism" and other "countries of interest" will face extra scrutiny. Does profiling work? Candice Delong was an FBI profiler for 20 years.