COVERAGE AND DETERRENCE: QUESTIONING THE US FEDDRAL AIR MARSHAL PROGRAMME

摘要

On Christmas Day 2009 a young man from Nigeria, travelling from Amsterdam to Detroit, attempted to ignite a bomb sewn into his underwear. The attempt, mimicking that of Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives in his shoes on 22 December 2001, was also a failure. The latest would-be bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was subdued by passengers on the aircraft - there were no Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) on board. Shortly thereafter, an alarmed general public began calling for better security at airport screening checkpoints.