On Christmas Day, a young misguided Nigerian named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to cause an explosion on flight NW253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. He brought with him 80 grams of pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a useful amount for his purposes, but insufficient knowledge on how to use it. There was only one way he could have caused serious damage to the plane, which involved putting it in a box and banging it against the wall. The way he did it, there was never any danger (Google translation from Dutch to English).

Since the incident, travellers on flights to the U.S. and on U.S. internal flights have had to endure heightened security measures and the minister of justice in the Netherlands is using this incident as a means to force the E.U.’s plans of using  full body scanners at air ports. Body scanners are devices that pierce through one’s clothing to see what he or she is carrying, greatly compromising the privacy of countless people, who are, let’s not forget still innocent. With these devices, the pentaerythritol tetranitrate on Abdulmutallab would have been found.

Abdulmutallab’s father had been warning U.S. authorities that his son was growing more radical for some time, but the man was ignored. Not because of policy, but because someone didn’t pay attention. Had these warnings been taken seriously, Abdulmutallab’s name would have been placed on a no-fly list, and he would never have gotten on board flight NW253, or any other flight toward the U.S. No body scan needed.

We give up irresponsible amounts or our civil rights into the hands of those we put in charge of our safety, because they deem it necessary, and when they screw up, the solution is to give up more privacy? Why not just fire the ones who were sleeping and tell the rest to actually use the power we gave them?