Or, how fetching do I look in this tinfoil hat?
My first thought when watching the news this weekend about the computer glitch that shut down international traffic for over 10 hours at the Los Angeles Airport was:
THIS IS A TEST.
A test of how to control incoming/outgoing traffic at our nation's airports. A test of how to shut down incoming/outgoing traffic at our nation's airports.
A test of just how much people will tolerate in the name of paranoia.
Though the entire system was up and running by 11:45 p.m. Saturday, it took officials until around 4 a.m. Sunday to finish processing the backlog of incoming passengers, Fleming said.
"We just can't take a risk knowing that one bad guy can harm our country significantly," he said.
Get that? Over 17,000 people waiting around on the tarmac, in the airport, in the arrivals waiting area for hours on end with limited access to water, food, and restrooms. Because one bad guy MIGHT be trying to enter the country.
Yes, they had to shut down operations until the computer glitch was fixed. Mostly because they would look like assholes if a an incident occurred in two weeks that could be traced back to somebody sneaking through during the glitch.
But what the hell? Why aren't there backup systems in place? How vulnerable are the Homeland Security computer systems? Why is it so difficult to get systems back online?