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Let's say a terrorist had a plastic container with a wirelessly detonatable bomb inside surgically implanted in his abdomen. After a few weeks to allow the inci
by ShabbyDoo 16y ago
Let's say a terrorist had a plastic container with a wirelessly detonatable bomb inside surgically implanted in his abdomen. After a few weeks to allow the incision to heal, the guy went through airport security. Given the number of implantable devices on the market, I bet the TSA folks are quite used to feeling the odd lumps of pacemakers, etc. on people's torsos. While the backscatter xrays might show a bunch of wires and such, would the image look much different than someone who had a pacemaker implanted with various leads into the heart? What if that guy was rubbed down with the bomb detection cloth pad (name?) which is then placed in the explosives detector? After a few weeks of being sewn up, would he trigger an alarm?
What's interesting about this scheme is that the bomb would be ready-to-go, and the terrorist could throw himself right before hitting his remote control button toward the area of the plane deemed to maximize the likelihood of death.
Is this scenario at all possible? How could the TSA possibly deal with it without harassing a bunch of people with pacemakers installed? If a single terrorist tries such a scheme, I predict that everyone with any sort of implanted object will have be added to some sort of pre-screening registry so the TSA can sort-of verify the legitimacy of the thing which shows-up on xray/pat-downs/etc.
As is obvious to most HN readers, the TSA's security measures can only make it more difficult for terrorists to operate. However, the scenarios thought to still be possible do not seem terribly sophisticated compared to the incentive to commit these acts.