Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (539574)	12/30/2009 1:14:29 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1574270

This is why the president waited before speaking to the American public.......pretty much most of what we heard about the Nigerian was not true including his buying a one way ticket. Profiling would not have worked. I don't know why I ever pay attention to wingers: Dutch to Use Full-Body Scanners on Flights to U.S. The major international airport of the Netherlands will begin using full-body scanners on passengers flying to the United States to prevent a recurrence of the security breach that allowed a would-be bomber to smuggle explosives onto a flight to Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day, the Dutch authorities said Wednesday. The new measures were announced as the Dutch interior minister discussed the government’s early investigation into the thwarted bombing. At a news conference at The Hague in the Netherlands the interior minister, Guusje Ter Horst, characterized preparations for the attack as professional but its execution as amateurish, according to The Associated Press. “It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster,” Ms. Ter Horst said. Dutch officials said the accused bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, had raised no red flags as he arrived in Amsterdam from Nigeria and transferred to his Detroit-bound flight at Schiphol Airport. He arrived at 5:37 a.m. on Dec. 25, passed through security screening at a metal detector without setting off any alarms and departed for the United States at 8:55 a.m. He had a visa to enter the United States, and he presented a valid Nigerian passport as he boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253. The Interior Ministry’s report said Mr. Abdulmutallab was traveling on a round-trip ticket purchased in Ghana. Ms. Ter Horst said the explosives used in the attack appeared to be professionally made, and that it appeared they had been given to Mr. Abdulmutallab. In a letter to the Dutch Parliament posted on the counterterrorism office’s Web site, Ms. Ter Horst said the attack demonstrated “a fairly professional approach, comparable to earlier attempted attacks against civil aviation,” referring to the thwarted 2001 attack by the “shoe bomber,” Richard Reid. Although Dutch officials said they would deploy the scanners “immediately,” a spokesman for the country’s counterterrorism office said only 7 of the airport’s 15 full-body scanners were currently ready for use. The rest would be deployed within three weeks after receiving software upgrades. Homeland Security officials earlier this week questioned assertions by Dutch authorities that American officials had told them to not use the whole-body scanners on passengers headed to the United States. Judith Sluiter, spokesman for the National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism, had said on Sunday that “Dutch authorities have not been given permission to use them on passengers for U.S.-bound flights.” But by Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said, the secretary had called her counterpart in the Netherlands to urge them to put the machines into use. About 40 full-body scanners are used in airports across the United States. “Schiphol Airport does not need the United States’ permission to screen above and beyond ICAO standards,” said Amy Kudwa, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, referring to the levels set by the International Civil Aviation Organization. “We obviously support advanced imaging technology, as we use it here. Secretary Napolitano spoke earlier today to Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin,” Ms. Kudwa said on Tuesday, “and he conveyed to her that they are now using advanced imaging technology to screen U.S.-bound passengers at Schiphol.” The Dutch airport has been using such scanners since 2007 on flights to various destinations as a test. The European Union has not approved their routine use. “Flying is voluntary, and if a body scan is needed to protect others, then this is more important,” said Ton Heerts, a member of the Dutch Parliament. Besides, he said, the machine is less intrusive than physical patdowns. Marlise Simons contributed reporting from Paris and Eric Lipton contributed from Washington.

To: i-node who wrote (539574)	12/30/2009 1:22:24 PM
From: RetiredNow	Respond to of 1574270

Well, you do touch on the only reason why I care about health care reform, and that is because I do realize it will destroy this country's economy over the longer run unless something is done to reform it. However, our current energy policy is the driving force behind all of the wars we engage in, the hatred many of our current enemies have for us, and the idea that we should continue to sit out the next great business opportunity of our lifetimes. So I think we can solve a lot of problems by using renewable energy to create a new engine of economic and jobs growth for this country. That's why I care so much about it.