Security screening is a nuisance for most passengers, but one that they have to endure perhaps a few times a year. Aircrew are subjected to the same process every time they go to work, often three or four times a day.
According to confidential incident reports, at many UK airports security staff are increasingly aggressive, hostile and rude to aircrew, and seem to delight in carrying out frequent full-body searches, emptying bags, and generally making life difficult.
-The Times
Did Mr Hoon tell any of the three Iraq “inquiries” to which he gave evidence that the intelligence community told him it was “absolutely sure” that Saddam had WMD (Hoon admits fatal errors in planning for postwar Iraq, May 2)? If he did, it was not reflected in the conclusions of the intelligence and security committee, Hutton or Butler. In fact he was criticised by the ISC, and gave his excuses in the house for not volunteering the information that I and a colleague, as the senior expert WMD-intelligence analysts in his department, had recorded our concern over the degree of certainty expressed in the notorious dossier of September 2002.
-The Guardian
Beleaguered Iraqis now fear their own security forces more than the insurgents
The so-called “surge”, the dispatch of 20,000 extra American troops to Iraq with the prime mission of getting control of Baghdad, is visibly failing.
The problem about the US security plan is that it does not provide security. It had some impact to begin with and the number of bodies found in the street went down. This was mainly because the Shia Mehdi Army was stood down by its leader, Muqtada al-Sadr.
– The Independent
“It is clear to us that the greatest weakness in the system with regard to electoral fraud is not failure of the Royal Mail and it is not returning officers or their staff,” said David Monks, chairman of the Solace elections panel. “The security risk which emerges with postal voting is the potential for interception and this increases by allowing party representatives who have a stake in the outcome of the vote to become involved in the postal voting process.”
-The Times
