The Cure and The Disease

The guy who tried to blow up a Christmas Day flight to Detroit hid two containers of flammable materials inside his underwear.

His unsuccessful effort  - he set fire to his own scrotum and created some minor panic – end when passengers seized him and doused the smouldering bits of his crotch with anything liquid close to hand.

In the security,  American and Canadian authorities made it even more difficult to get on an airplane in the first place without actually making it any less likely that someone with stuff secreted around their genitals can get on an airplane in the first place.

The initial response included manual searches of carry-on baggage.

Remember that the guy hid the package next to his package not in his luggage.

They also conducted pat searches.

Again, unless they grabbed everyone’s package the odds of finding a little do-it-yourself flame kit would be slim.

Now the geniuses who now decided passengers can’t take a whiz in the last hour before landing  - will they now hand out catheters at check-in? - have decided to ban carry-on luggage.

Not surprisingly, real security experts – as opposed to the Mensa masterminds actually in charge of security screening at airports – are pointing out that the stuff happening across North America this holiday season is nothing more than theatre.

That’s right.

A show.

Something to make it look like they were doing something to prevent loons with glowing Johnsons from getting on airplanes.

And in the process they have virtually guaranteed the airline industry will lose passengers.

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Defence report notes threat to oil refineries

According to CanWest's David Pugliese, an internal defence department report notes that oil refineries across Canada could become a target for terrorists aimed at crippling the North American economy.

A military exercise planned for the NorthWest Territories in April will apparently include a scenario involving threats against an oil refinery. Troops involved in the exercise will come from Western Canada and the Maritimes.

Offshore rig security is not a new issue. In February, a message posted to an al-Queda website called for attacks on energy infrastructure in North America, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.

Canada's special operations unit, JTF 2, has trained for security incidents involving offshore oil rigs. [Photo: Department of National Defence]

Pugliese notes that some of the possible threats globally include attacks on choke points where tankers pass on the way to and from oil storage and refining facilities.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, such a choke point exists in Placentia Bay. Tankers laden with crude from the local offshore and from the Middle East regularly transit the Bay on the way to and from both the Come by Chance refinery and the Whiffen Head oil transshipment facility.

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