Saturday, January 16, 2010

Breaching airport security at LAX -- by accident

Reading about the latest breach of airport security reminded me of something that happened to me a few days ago at LAX. I had arrived early to pick up a passenger, and I took a somewhat obscure but nonetheless publicly accessible route into the terminal. I ended up behind the security barriers newly erected in the aftermath of the undiebomber. I'm not sure who was more surprised, me, or the TSA security guard who asked me what I was doing there.

I debated with myself for quite a while over what to do. I had just penetrated a significant layer of security at one of the country's major airports by accident, without even trying or intending to. Should I report it? To whom? A TSA agent already knew I was there and didn't seem to care. Could I expect less apathy from someone else higher up in the chain of command? Could I even *find* someone higher up in the chain of command? Did I have any reason to believe that when I pointed out that I had gotten somewhere that I wasn't supposed to be that they wouldn't arrest me and ship me off to gitmo?

I decided I really didn't feel like being detained, so I discreetly vacated the restricted area, picked up my passenger, and went home. But I'm posting this as an experiment. This is a public blog, and I'm reporting a serious security breach as a major U.S. airport. I wonder if anyone in our country's intelligence apparatus is going to notice this and contact me for more information. I'll give long odds against it.

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