World's Most Stupid Security Measures

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Sascha
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World's Most Stupid Security Measures

Post by Sascha » Apr 9th 2003, 8:54 am

Privacy International today announced the results of its competition to find the worlds most pointless, intrusive and egregious security measures.

Check out the nominees and "winners" at

http://www.privacyinternational.org/act ... dsecurity/


My favorites: :roll:

In the latest in a series of airport security nightmares, a woman flying from New York to Florida was forced to drink three bottles of her own breast milk before being allowed to board a flight at JFK International Airport - in an incident that has one prominent New York civil rights attorney ready to sue.

Elizabeth McGanny of Oceanside, N.Y., called WABC Radio's Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby Tuesday morning to relate the story.

Guards at JFK's Delta terminal first "patted me down and made me take my shoes off," McGanny told the morning radio duo. "One security guard took my 4-month-old out of my arms and then they went through the baby's diaper bag."

There the guards discovered the three suspect bottles, McGanny said, and promptly ordered her to drink the contents.

"I'm not drinking that. It's breast milk," she replied. "They said, 'Either drink all three bottles or you're not getting on the plane.'"

McGanny said that when she asked the guards why they were putting her through the ordeal, they explained, "There could be explosives in the baby bottles and I could throw something at the stewardesses."

"I asked them if I could just taste it; if I could just show them how you would check a baby's bottle - that it was warm milk and everything. And they said, 'No,'" ordering her to "drink it all."

The nursing mom then offered to feed the milk to her baby as the guards looked on, but they refused.


__________________________________________



Cologne at Airport Brings Rash of Quarantines

Thu February 20, 2003

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - An innocent spray of cologne from a Saudi Arabian college student caused authorities in Philadelphia to quarantine a hospital emergency room, a doughnut shop and a drug store on Wednesday, officials said.

The incident began at Philadelphia International Airport around 12:45 a.m. EST, when the 22-year-old man arrived at a security checkpoint while trying to make a flight to Saudi Arabia after a day of travel problems spawned by a major snowstorm.

The student's visa was fine, the FBI said later. But airport security asked him about a container of liquid in his luggage. While trying to show that the container was a bottle of cologne, the man inadvertently sprayed its aromatic contents on two airport security guards, officials said.

"First he sprayed himself," said FBI special agent Linda Vizi. "It was merely to demonstrate that he had cologne."

But the action prompted airport security to issue a code-red hazardous materials alert, which brought FBI agents, city police officers and hazardous materials specialists from the Philadelphia Fire Department rushing to the site.

Fearing the cologne could be a harmful biological or chemical agent, authorities sent the two guards to a nearby hospital, which quarantined its emergency room for three hours until what hospital officials referred to as "the unknown substance" could be identified as cologne.

Two city police officers, who also came into contact with the cologne while examining its container, later went off to a doughnut shop and a 24-hour Rite Aid pharmacy in Philadelphia, officials said. When authorities found out, they ordered both stores shut for 45 minutes until the analysis was complete.

The Saudi student, whom authorities did not identify, was questioned by the FBI and released without charges.

"We were able to verify his status, and the fire department was able to verify that what he had was cologne," Vizi said.



We're living in a crazy world... :roll:

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fnordboy
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Post by fnordboy » Apr 9th 2003, 12:46 pm

I actually listen to that radio show every morning (Curtis and Kuby) that is related to the breast milk incident. I heard when she called in, and as she was relaying her story you could hear the dollar signs popping into Kuby's eyes.

He told her to stay on the line after she was done with her story because she should sue the airport, Kuby is a lawyer. Though I don't think he is representing her since he is, to my knowledge, a defense lawyer.

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