Are liquids and gels about to get off the no-fly list?
Is the Transportation Security Administration about to loosen its restrictions on liquids and gels? A new report says so.
The TSA is considering relaxing its liquid restrictions by next year. The X-ray machines that would be used are already in place, but the software to detect and evaluate liquids is still being tested and won’t be ready for at least another year.
In its latest blog entry, the TSA is emphasizing that “checkpoint security operations are based on intelligence and information sharing with partners here and around the world.” Terrorists are still interested in creating bombs based on liquid explosives and other ingredients.
Just last week, German authorities arrested two men on a KLM flight in Cologne-Bonn airport. The two had been under surveillance for some time. Though unarmed, documents say that they were ready to fight and die in a jihad.
Last year, Fritz Gelowicz, a German who converted to Islam, was arrested with two other Muslim extremists. They were ready to “build a bomb in southern Germany capable of killing as many as possible.”
Gelowicz and Adem Yilmaz, his closest confidant, rented a Ford S-Max with three canisters of hydrogen peroxide. “When the solution is boiled down and other ingredients are added, the resulting mixture can be highly explosive. The brew is called ‘Satan’s Mother’ in the terrorist community.”
It is because of these two cases, and others like them, that liquids remain on the TSA’s no-fly list. At least for now.
You may also be interested in these articles
Comments
One Response to “Are liquids and gels about to get off the no-fly list?”
Please share your thoughts...
I hope they can come up with reliable detection software. This would be genuine security! I hate the liquids ban, but it seems necessary at this point.