I N C I D E N T A L L Y: Security Gone Mad
Privacy International is a London based human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations. It has announced the results of its competition to find the world”s most pointless and intrusive security measures. The competition, launched in February, attracted almost 5,000 nominations from 35 countries. While the air security sector dominated the competition, nominations arose from almost all areas of private and public sector activity. The winner in the airport section was Philadelphia International closely followed by Heathrow.
Philadelphia's distinction springs from an incident in February when a Saudi student was stopped at an airport security checkpoint after screeners spotted a spray bottle in his carry-on bag. The student explained that the bottle, in a commercial container, was cologne. When asked to, he sprayed a little in the air. He was then waved through. But then someone at the checkpoint had second thoughts and called a Code Red hazardous materials emergency alarm. Police, FBI agents and fire fighters rushed in. It was determined that two Philadelphia police officers who had sniffed the cologne bottle needed to go to a hospital immediately for examination for possible bio-hazardous contamination. On the way to the hospital, the two officers and the emergency workers driving them stopped at a doughnut shop and a drugstore. When the authorities learned of this, they rushed to the doughnut shop and drugstore and quarantined customers inside for nearly an hour. The hospital emergency room was also quarantined for three hours. The genuine student wasn't charged.
And, yes, it was just cologne.
PS. The editor would like to point out that recently at another US gateway he and his wife were asked to take their shoes off for inspection. Some may say that this is good practice but with a change of role one wonders if the mat in question had been disinfected. http://www.privacyinternational.org
And in case anyone is thinking of commenting on our Glasgow SARS remark from last week it now reads Successfully Amazed Rangers Supporters. However something must be done about the antics of teams like Porto and one suggestion is to yellow card any player who deliberately runs off the pitch for non football reasons. It would cut down the goal celebration nonsense.