Terrorism in the 21st Century
Jacqueline Wright
HST/145
May 14, 2012
Mary Norris

Terrorism in the 21st Century Prior to September 11, 2001 the country moved along at its regular daily pace. Conflict and wars have been a component of the United States since the beginning of time. There are three sources conflict: human rights, global terrorism, and environmental problems. Many see terrorism as a way to hide greed, racism, and the conquests of power. Terrorism is defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigations “as an unlawful use of force or violence against person or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2002-2005). Terrorism makes the statement that demands attention and affects every person in every country around the world.
Prior to 9/11 Prior to September 11, 2001 the hiring and firing of airline personnel was not as stringent. Those in charge of checking passenger’s luggage and person were not trained effectively. They would miss illegal weapons, drugs, and any other paraphernalia the airline industry did not want on aircraft. The workers took a lax attitude toward his or her job duties, which made for a high turnover rate. Along with the lax attitude the workers or screeners as they were called received low wages and little to no benefits. The infrastructure of the airport terminals were not monitored and maintained as well as they could or should have been. The Agents were usually those that had been hired to conduct the security searches and monitored the daily activities in the facilities. “Agents used fictitious law enforcement badges and credentials to gain access to secure areas, bypass security checkpoints at two airports, and walk unescorted to aircraft departure gates" (Dillingham, 2003 p.6). “These agents could have been carrying threats to the aircraft or its passengers. With their fake credentials, the agents were able to access secure areas 70% of the time. At the time there were no real regulations with regards to employee and passenger background checks” (International Foundation for Protection Officers, 2003). Just looking at the so-called security officers or screeners they were going through the motions without much regard to the seriousness of the job they currently held. Considering the number of activities that transpire at an airport each day such as, the thefts to autos and personal property along with the issuing of tickets, fraud, and homelessness in the airport terminals one would think the security personnel would have been more trained and able to notice when things did not seem right or out of place.
Post 9/11 In November 2001, airports enacted new long and short-term goals. President Bush wanted to have these goals in effect for the upcoming holiday season during Thanksgiving and Christmas. After the attacks of 9/11 the Aviation and Transportation Security Act was created on November 19, 2001, which formed the Transportation and Security Administration to help improve airline and airport security measures. On November 25, 2002 the Transportation and Security Administration was assigned to the newly formed Department of Homeland Security by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Three of the major changes to airport security are that “people are no longer allowed to greet their family and friends right out of the gate like they used to be able to do. The reasoning behind this is by allowing people near the gate it creates too much commotion that airport security simply cannot handle and keep everyone safe at the same time” (Sullivan, 2010). The security at the airports started to hire more employees who were actually trained to do security checks. Security also instituted a process of random checks of those who may be acting awkward or had an air of distrust. This has led to more random searches of those of Arab decent, and has been criticized as unjust to those of Arab decent. The securities personnel will also do drug testing of luggage by rubbing a cloth on the property and running the luggage through the scanner. Passengers are required to remove his or shoes because of attempts to board aircrafts with bombs inside the soles and heels of the shoes by an extremist named Richard Reid. Some places have tried to institute the use of full body scans. The question is always how to decide who should and who should not have a full body scan because of its invasiveness. Limitations have been placed into effect limiting what they can and cannot take aboard. Passengers are allowed only to bring one quart Ziploc bag of three ounce bottle of liquid. Larger amounts may be taken if they are in a passengers checked luggage. These changes have made travel in the United States and abroad far less scary than what they were right after 9/11.
Invasion of Privacy and Human Rights Richard Reid was born in London England; he was introduced to the Muslim way of life by his father Robin Reid. Robin Reid had chosen to join the Muslim way because he was tired of racial discrimination and the Muslims had treated him more fairly than his Caucasian counterparts. Richard Reid began to practice an intense kind of Islam with beliefs that would make you kill yourself for your religion. Richard Reid spent time traveling to Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Pakistan, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. These countries are referred to as terror cities it has been said to test the security measures in place in these countries. On a flight from Paris to Miami on December 22, 2001 Richard Reid attempted to blow up this flight with a shoe bomb. He was overpowered by the passengers and crew and turned over to authorities. (2001) In the months following the attacks of 9/11 there were at least 134 new laws added in the first year and a half. The Patriot Act was enacted in October 2001 after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Patriot Act had the objectives to prevent terrorists from attacking again. First the Department of Homeland Security is to be in the offensive on regard to information sharing. Both federal and state agencies are to collaborate with each other. Second investigations are to be done to identify, apprehend, and capture terrorists before they can finish a mission. To assist in the apprehension of these terrorists will be the Federal Air Marshals, Border Patrol offices, United States Coast Guard, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) is against the use of The of the Patriot Act and submitted a statement to this effect: The Patriot Act vastly and unconstitutionally expanded the government’s authority to pry into people’s private lives with little or no evidence of wrongdoing. Years after its implementation, there is little evidence to demonstrate that the Patriot Act has made America more secure from terrorists. But there are many unfortunate examples that the government abused these authorities in ways that both violated the rights of innocent people and squandered precious security resources (Dean, 2011-2012).
The top 10 changes were: “television and music censorship, stellar wind, changes in university programs, Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, president’s surveillance program, foreign intelligence surveillance act amendments of 2008, intelligence reform and terrorism prevention act, national defense programs, USA Patriot Act, and the United States Department of Homeland Security” (Top Tenz.net, 2012).
Securing Me and Mine Biometrics is one of many measures that have been put into place to help secure the country. Biometrics is used to identify individuals by characteristics or traits. Biometrics can be used as verification or for identification. If used for verification it would verify the person is who they say they are with the use of user ID numbers or smartcard systems. For identification one or more identify areas must match before the system will verify the individual’s identification. “Body characteristics, such as DNA, fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns and hand measurements, for authentication purposes” (Lennard-Peter, 2008).
The Department of Homeland Security was established to protect the country and the people who dwell therein from disruptions like terrorism attacks or any other disasters from other countries. They have five main goals. The first goal is to protect the people in the United States of America from dangerous entities. The second goal is to protect the United States from nuclear, biological, and chemical dangers. Third they are to protect the infrastructure of the communication, security, and transportation systems. Fourth they oversee the preparedness of the country in the way they respond to calamities. Last they are to make sure the Department of Homeland Security stays strong and unified in the way they work from day to day. Because of the attacks of September 11, 2001 everyone is not as naïve anymore. People have come to realize that we are not the most loved country in the world. In fact there are so many countries that do not like the United States it is amazing something just as drastic had not happened earlier. The country along with my family has watched day-by-day as the different tales have been spun telling of the torture and lies that may or may not have triggered the attacks. All of us sit and wonder what the true cause was, will it happen again and if it does how soon will it.
Conclusion
Security is an important issue at every airport around the world. The security teams are the first line of attack against terrorist and those wanting to do harm. These heavily trained individuals make air travel safer than they were before the September 11 attacks. With the assistance of the Department of Homeland Security the country is more secure and has someone who is actively watching for the next attack. It is a shame a tragedy had to occur before changes were made, but sometimes we cannot see the danger until it taps us on the shoulder. References
Dean, J. (2011-2012). Civil Rights. Retrieved from http://verdict.justia.com/2011/09/09/reflections-on-the-911-attacks-lasting-impact-on-america-and-american-law
Dillingham, G. L., 2003, September 9). Aviation security: progress since September 11, 2001, and the challenges ahead. (1-46).
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2002-2005). Terrorism. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005 International Foundation for Protection Officers. (2003). Evolution of Airline Security since 9/11. Retrieved from http://www.ifpo.org/articlebank/evolution_of_airline.html
Lennard-Peter, S. (2008). Search Security. Retrieved from http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/biometrics
Sullivan, C. R. (2010, July). Changes in Airport Security Since 9-11. Ezine@articles, ().
Top tenz.net. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-u-s-government-changes-since-911.php
(2001, December 28). Who is Richard Reid?. BBC News World Edition, p. .

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Jacqueline Wright