Irrelevant, but irritating

latetoschool
Wed, 16 Aug 2006 03:42:59 +0000

A friend of mine is retired government exec from one of the intelligence services, and he set himself up as a consultant, as many do after public service - anyway, he flies all over the world to consult with various port authorities, governments, etc. He was telling me that he has some sort of designation - cannot remember what he called it, or if it’s connected to his passport, or what, but anyway, he’s on some sort of “good guy” list. I seem to remember that he said this designation is only available to international travelers.

But anyway, his solution is - instead of trying to isolate the newest crop of terrorists or trying to determine what commercial product is going to be the next weapon, there should be a “good guy” list for domestic and foreign flights, with specific criteria to be listed. Then, he reasoned, the people who cannot qualify to be on the “good guy” list will be the ones watched.

It sounds dramatic, but it’s been working in banking all over the world.