RE: Border Security System Left Open

["StyleWar" <stylewar () cox net>]

Great respect to Valdis -- Comments embedded are in jest only, and not
intended to offend anyone except armchair quarterbacks .... 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu [mailto:Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu] 
> Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 9:23 PM
> To: stylewar () cox net
> Cc: 'James Kehl'; nick () virus-l demon co uk; funsec () linuxbox org
> Subject: Re: [funsec] Border Security System Left Open 
>
> On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 12:00:41 CDT, StyleWar said:
> > I guess I don't get it James.
> >
> > My point was that until 9/11 HAPPENED, that anything on the 
> order of 
> > what happened would have been considered a 'movie plot' threat as 
> > described by Valdis.
>
> Coincidentally, in this month's Cryptogram, Bruce Schneier writes:
>
>       Movie-Plot Threat Contest
>
> For a while now, I have been writing about our penchant for 
> "movie-plot
> threats": terrorist fears based on very specific attack 
> scenarios.  Terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists 
> exploding baby carriages in subways, terrorists filling 
> school buses with explosives
> -- these are all movie-plot threats.  They're good for 
> scaring people, but it's just silly to build national 
> security policy around them.

Realizing that Bruce is the one positing here, his comments frustrate me a
bit... 

Particularly because it suggests that the end result is what policy is built
around, rather than formative cause (no logical fallacy lessons here-- just
frustration at the venerable Schne-iberal).  

Is it a plane smashed into a tower that we build national security policy
around? or is it fair to suggest that immigration and visa policy might need
an uptick in attention span? Is it truck rental policy (reference to
Mcveigh) that we build policy around? or do we build checks into the system
for the accumulation of known explosive types to one entity?

This kind of wag the dog diatribe is proof that Bruce should stick with
encryption and math, and stay away from National Security policy or
politics.

He may have an opinion, and he may have a book or two, but it doesn't make
him right about anything all the time.

> But if we're going to worry about unlikely attacks, why can't 
> they be exciting and innovative ones?  If Americans are going 
> to be scared, shouldn't they be scared of things that are 
> really scary?  "Blowing up the Super Bowl" is a movie plot to 
> be sure, but it's not a very good movie.  Let's kick this up a notch.

Yea - I got one.  Let's suggest a BOOK BURNING.  And first on the list
is.....
 
> It is in this spirit I announce the (possibly First) 
> Movie-Plot Threat Contest.  Entrants are invited to submit 
> the most unlikely, yet still plausible, terrorist attack 
> scenarios they can come up with.
>
> Your goal: cause terror.  Make the American people notice.  
> Inflict lasting damage on the U.S. economy.  Change the 
> political landscape, or the culture.  The more grandiose the 
> goal, the better.

Someone just cut the first 10 pages out of Bruce's first book and I'm
positively TERRIFIED of what might happen now!!!

> Assume an attacker profile on the order of 9/11: 20 to 30 
> unskilled people, and about $500,000 with which to buy 
> skills, equipment, etc.
>
> Post your movie plots here on this blog.
>
> Judging will be by me, swayed by popular acclaim in the blog 
> comments section.  The prize will be an autographed copy of 
> Beyond Fear.  And if I can swing it, a phone call with a real 
> live movie producer.

A producer who's name has been published multiple times in several very
nearly interesting underground magazines.

> Entries close at the end of the month -- April 30.
>
> This is not an April Fool's joke, although it's in the spirit 
> of the season.  The purpose of this contest is absurd humor, 
> but I hope it also makes a point.  Terrorism is a real 
> threat, but we're not any safer through security measures 
> that require us to correctly guess what the terrorists are 
> going to do next.

Bruce S. for President!  He's got the answers, and they don't involve any of
the measures taken over the last several years to prevent the crazies from
starring in their own movies - lack of terrorist attacks notwithstanding!

 
> Good luck.
>
> Post your entries, and read the others, here:
> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/04/announcing_movi.html
>
> Movie-plot threats:
> http://www.schneier.com/essay-087.html
>
> http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,175951,00.html
> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/10/exploding_baby.html
> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/02/school_bus_driv.html
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075765
>
> There are hundreds of ideas here:
> http://cockeyed.com/citizen/terror/plans/terrorwatch.html


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