Security Theatre: The Slovakian Farce

After ridiculously planting explosives on innocent passengers, Slovakian authorities are now blaming everyone but themselves for the fiasco. Here's the latest from the Irish Times:

The Slovakian government has insisted the authorities in Ireland were aware a passenger was carrying plastic explosives in his bag on a flight to Dublin last Saturday morning before the plane even took off for Ireland.

A strongly worded statement has been issued by the Slovakian Ministry of the Interior defending its handling of the debacle and criticising the actions of the Garda.

The statement also criticised what it claimed was the inaccurate reporting of the case by the media in Ireland.

It pointed out that contrary to media reports in Ireland, plastic explosives had been planted in the luggage of just one passenger, and not eight as has widely been reported.

Planting explosives on one passenger without his consent is acceptable? Look at what the poor chap had to endure:

The gardai were immediately contacted and they raided the Slovak man’s flat on Lower Dorset St in Dublin’s north inner city. They closed off the busy road network around the flat for an hour and evacuated homes and businesses.

The area was declared safe at 12.05pm and the explosives removed for examination by the Garda.

The Slovak man was arrested at the flat and detained for three hours at Mountjoy Garda station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. He was released when gardaí satisfied themselves the man was completely innocent.

According to the Slovakians, the whole episode was caused by one rogue cop: “The police officer made a silly and unprofessional mistake, which turned the good purpose of protecting people into a problem. The head of the Border Police is going to undertake disciplinary measures against this police officer and he will investigate possible responsibility of other people as well. We have apologised to the person involved and to his wife. The minister of interior has decided (to) end this type of trainings. We will search for new forms of sniffer dog trainings, so this situation will not be repeated in the future.”

The full report reads like something out of a Monty Python skit. If our security rests in such hands, God help us!