underpants bomber
GRITtv: Can We Scan Ourselves to Safety?
"There's money to be made and there are people out there who are going to say it can be done. And, yeah, it's techie and sexy and sounds good." That's Bruce Schneier quoted in a piece by Liliana Segura at AlterNet, talking about new airport security technology. In the wake of the failed underpants bombing attempt, new rules have been added, and discussion has ramped up of the use of full-body scanners and other invasive technologies. We ask Segura and Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent if we can scan ourselves to safety, or if this is just more security theater designed to get us to give up our civil liberties.
Email this pageGRITtv: Is Yemen the New Front in the "War On Terror"?
Suddenly newspapers and cable news shows are talking about Yemen as the newest site for Al Qaeda. Yemeni authorities have been ramping up attacks against militants, with U.S. aid, and after the failed attempt to bring down a U.S.-bound airplane over Christmas, the rhetoric has just grown more incendiary. John McCain said, "The government of Yemen is going to need our help in combating Al-Qaeda. There needs to be significant effort made at improving their economy." So what's really going on? Abdul-Ghani Al-Iryani, a political analyst, spoke to us from Sana'a, Yemen, and then Michael Bronner, investigative journalist and Vanity Fair contributor, and Christoph Wilcke, Human Rights Watch Senior Researcher, Middle East and North Africa Division, join us in studio to discuss the situation further.
