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>Thanks Fred... the last few posts re the "former Quantas baggage handler" Bilal Khazal/Khazzal are very troubling.

I travel quite a bit at times and (without going into detail in public - at times like this I wish I could, but common sense tells me otherwise) have always observed not only glaring lapses in security, and several patterns of behavior that can be expolited to get around aspects of security at some of the worlds major airports, but also how sleeper RoP cells could easily exploit some of the many access points to both aircraft, and the passengers (enabling them to hand off items within "secure" zones).

It's not the first time RoPers with airside access have been arrested or declined access to the aircraft recently. In the last year alone, there were reports of the arrest of a RoPer (Amin Asmin Tariq) airport worker with "all areas pass" at Heathrow during the liquid bomb plot, RoP baggage handlers in Paris have come under scrutiny, and reported incidences like this will only be the tip of the iceberg.

Security is only as strong as its weakest link and often that can come down to one individual... and it seems just about any focused terrorist group can still quite easily plant sleepers within the system, biding their time until the day they are activated to "do their duty."

We need to remember the original Bojinka plot... it was never intended to be a mass suicide mission. KSA et al, may have evolved it into 9/11 because they had expendable assets in place who needed to be used and others have been revisiting and tinkering with Bojinka's original details over the last year or so, but in my mind, and surely in theirs too, Bojinka is still very "do able" despite recent additions to security.

It's not a comforting thought each time you climb to 37,000 feet in an aluminum tube, but who wants to listen, never mind act...

If I can't drive, I don't go. Thank goodness I'm retired.

> let me try that. when I first heard that muslims could get jobs as baggage handlers, the hair stood up on the back of my neck...

doesn't work for me...

>Thx for the post, USF. You are certainly correct about the weakest link...and I imagine there are plenty of very weak links in commercial aviation. It is just a matter of time, IMO.