The United States and its co-conspirator governments are prepared to impose a new round of “security” mandates on airlines in response to an alleged discovery of explosives in Yemeni-based flights destined for Chicago. Giovanni Bisignani, the CEO of the International Air Transport Association, cautioned against yet another round of knee-jerk authoritarianism, and suggested at a minimum that airlines should not be made to bare the cost of new mandates alone:
Responsibility for security must be spread throughout the supply chain, beginning with the manufacturer, and airports shouldn’t be regarded as the first line of defense, IATA Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Bisignani said. Rapid development of technology is also needed to enhance cargo scanning, he said.
“Effective solutions are not developed unilaterally or in haste,” Bisignani said in Frankfurt. “If there are any longer- term adjustments required we must do so with all the facts in hand, with measures targeted to meet specific risks.”
Passenger airlines only now returning to profit after the recession shattered demand for travel would be impacted by stricter security rules because about 42 percent of air cargo is transported as “belly freight” on ordinary aircraft. One of the devices found last week en route from Yemen to Chicago was reportedly carried on two scheduled Qatar Airways Ltd. services.
Security measures cost airlines $5.9 billion a year, based in 2009 figures, Bisignani said in an interview, exceeding the $5.3 billion profit IATA forecasts for the industry in 2011.
Of course, airlines are a perennial whipping boy for governments eager to shift public attention away from the state’s failures. Even as the United States looks to demand more from air cargo operators in terms of “security,” the Justice Department has imposed over $1.6 billion in illegal taxes on these same airlines under the pretense of punishing antitrust violations. Just yesterday the DOJ’s Antitrust Division announced a $73 million tax on Air Nippon because, in the opinion of government prosecutors, Air Nippon’s prices between 2000 and 2006 were too high.
The Division claims that Air Nippon and its competitors met illegally — that is, without government permission — to discuss prices for certain services. In a market where all property is privately owned, this would not be controversial. Ownership includes the right to discuss the potential sale or distribution of your property with others, even if they happen to own similar types of property. But as we all know, we do not live in a free market, especially when it comes to air transport. Ergo, the Division has imposed what amounts to a windfall-profits tax to punish the air cargo firms, while taking some political prisoners for good measure:
Including today’s charge, as a result of this investigation, a total of 19 airlines and 14 executives have been charged in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing in the air transportation industry. To date, more than $1.6 billion in criminal fines have been obtained and four executives have been sentenced to serve prison time. Charges are pending against the remaining 10 executives.
We’re talking about a substantial burden on the air cargo industry. The $1.6 billion in taxes levied to date are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s the unknown costs of the DOJ investigation, the legal fees paid by individuals and firms, additional civil lawsuits brought by “injured” customers, and the subsequent reluctance of industry participants to engage in conduct that may benefit the market for fear of further DOJ retaliation.
In theory, a government that knew how to prioritize might have told the Antitrust Division to abandon its campaign early on; the $1.6 billion-plus in new taxes would have been better used to bolster air cargo security. But governments never prioritize; they want the “freedom” to pursue multiple contradictory goals simultaneously. After all, they’re not paying for any of this. And unlike, say, members of Congress, bureaucrats are not subject to periodic election. An Antitrust Division attorney is judged by how much private wealth he confiscates, not whether his actions make sense in any sort of grand policy scheme.
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Government actions like this never happen in a vacuum. Government is the means in this case, not the origin. So it appears that someone wants to do serious damage to the air transport industry. Is someone looking to consolidate power in air transport, or are they trying weaken the industry to bolster other forms of cargo transport? It might be interesting to see who gains the most in this drama.
I’ve long suspected that the government will nationalize the airlines – at least, as much as politically possible. So any steps that can be taken to weaken the airlines will just bolster their case to take them over.
You are probably right. Before 9/11, airport security was performed by the airlines. Then after 9/11 the Federal Government took over – remember Tom Daschle’s one-liner “You have to postalize to professionalize”. (In fact he did not want to professionalize , just unionize so that they could pay union dues to democrats.) The best way to nationalize the airlines is to pass rules and regulations that make them unprofitable. Then they have to come to the Federal Government for a bailout – et voila!
The Feds were agitating to take over airline security for years before 9/11. It really burned some tails that the airlines had control, not fed bureaucrats. The truth is, the TSA is no more effective or professional than the private guards were. The major changes have been in the rules regarding what’s allowed and what isn’t.
The airlines may have paid for their own security but it was not a competitive aspect of business in any way. The rules and procedures for baggage and passenger screening were uniform and mandated by the FAA just like the rule that pilots must be unarmed.
Whoever it was, they’ll get theirs soon enough. Like a heartless monster, the state sees all things, even its benefactors, as prey. That it slaughters your enemies is not evidence that you are its master.
Somewhat related, I was reading that the TSA is implementing more thorough pat-down procedures for passengers who do not wish to use the full body scanners. The TSA screeners will now run their hands up the entire inseam until they feel “resistance”. Essentially the idea is to make passengers feel uncomfortable so that they choose the full body scanner option instead.
Michael O’Leary (Ryan Air CEO) was interviewed by the Irish press immediately after the two alleged bombs were discovered. Like a good son of Eire he was not afraid to talk about the natural consequences: “Lord only knows what we’ll have now. We will be confiscating white powder at the airports. Talcum powder will probably now be put on a list of banned weapons at airport security” and “So I have no doubt we will have all the securicrats tut-tutting through the remainder of this week about the need for increased security when in actual fact we already have ludicrously over-the- top and, sadly, totally ineffective security measures”.
In my opinion this is clearly aimed not at the US, but at its European allies.
Three days before the ink cartridges were found, British Airways asked for some security measures to be eliminated. NATO members have started talks about cutting military budgets which would mean less warships and soldiers to be sent to the Hindu Kush, the Horn of Africa or wherever the New Rome on the Potomac seems fit.
I am no conspiracy theorist but this sounds a little too convenient to me.
Jeff Huber lets loose on antiwar.com:
http://original.antiwar.com/huber/2010/11/01/80-billion-down-the-plumbing/
“This past week we experienced the Rapture of the Airmail Bombing plot, and oh my God, if there’s a single substantiated syllable in that entire narrative, I have yet to encounter it in the New York Times. In a series of articles from 29, 30, and 31 October, our newspaper of tarnished record created enough cognitive dissonance to drive the Dalai Lama to a therapist’s couch.
We had President Obama telling us that two bombs found on airplanes underscored “the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism.” Mr. Obama said, “The American people should be confident that we will not waver in our resolve to defeat al-Qaeda.” But there’s some question not only as to whether al-Qaeda was behind the attempted airplane bombings, but as to whether any actual bombs were involved. The bomb they found in or around the plane in Dubai was similar to the package found in England, but maybe the package found in England wasn’t actually a bomb.
Maybe uber-evildoer Anwar al-Awlaki was involved, which might connect the Airmail Bombing to the Panty Bomber and the Screw-Up, but maybe not because maybe al-Awlaki had nothing to do with the Airmail Bombing nor with the Panty Bombing nor with the Screw-Up Bombing neither. Intelligence officials and government officials and generic officials say the Airmail Bomb deal has all the earmarks of an al-Qaeda plot but al-Qaeda might not be involved at all. Whoever mailed the bombs that might not be bombs was probably trying to target synagogues in Chicago unless they were trying to target passenger aircraft or unless they were trying to target cargo aircraft. Yemeni students studying English or computers or maybe both English and computers might have been behind the plot but maybe they weren’t.
The take-away from all this is that in the last year $80 billion of your tax dollars went toward a self-preserving continuum that aggressively feeds you disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda designed to keep you confused and afraid and on board with a war against a phantom adversary that has no army or navy or air force and no budget to speak of at all.”
Earmarks … aren’t those the markings that people put on the pets and other domesticated animals that they own? And the terrists have whose earmarks exactly? (as if we don’t already know)
Remember the well-dressed American-English speaking stranger who told the Dutch to put the underwear-man on their plane … “We do this all the time,” he said.
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