Security Theater: When security becomes a show

Although intelligence is a better anti-terror weapon than wars, there are some side effects of arrests such as the recent ones for the trans-Atlantic flight bomb plot.One of these side effects is what is termed Security theater, coined by Bruce Shneier.This is for government actions that are designed to look like they are improving security, but really do not. This is like the old joke that goes like this:

Someone is sprinkling pepper on their front lawn. A neighbor asks "Why are you doing this?"The reply: "to keep tigers off my lawn"."But there are no tigers in California!""See, I told you, it works ..."