It is impossible to get terrorists to stop trying to use airplanes.
The Transportation Security Administration was created as part of the response after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and the current airport scanning procedures also stem from them. Are they discouraging terrorists?
“Terrorists will always use airlines,” said Stuart Gottlieb, a terrorism expert and adjunct professor of international affairs at Columbia University.
“I think aviation is certainly still an attractive venue in which certain terrorist organizations would launch an attack,” said Dr. Richard Bloom, a terrorism expert and associate vice president of academics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Gottlieb also said that pumping more money towards defending them often had the unintended consequence of making any airport penetration propaganda material.
“Because of the challenge they see it as a big publicity victory for them,” Gottlieb said.
The difficulty level of hijacking an airplane may be extremely high, but Gottlieb said that the possibilities are infinite for how a terrorist could potentially hit a plane, especially if they know someone on the inside.
Neither expert would concede that we should stop preparing for long security lines. Even if they do not have many passengers, airlines are a naturally attractive target for terrorism no matter how many security checkpoints are put in.
Bloom said that because a terrorist’s goal is to maximize psychological impact of an attack, airplanes are uniquely powerful symbolic target in addition to an economic one.
“For many people aviation to a certain degree represents freedom,” Bloom said. “People can go anywhere they want, you just get on the plane and you’re in a different location after a while. To have people worry about that really increases the probability that a terrorist can achieve whatever their objectives might be, politically, religiously or otherwise.”
The psychological motivation is just too great for terrorists to ever abandon airlines. And as long as the threat is there, neither expert thought the US should spend less money on airport security.
But how can you feel secure with infinite possibilities of attack? If knowing someone on the inside of the TSA is enough to negate most of the security measures, as Gottlieb said, then how should the US minimize the threat of terrorism using airlines without just throwing money at it?
The experts did not know.
