So our great airport security is somehow not catching the old "vest bombs" .... amazing.
Having just flown back from Minneapolis on Friday, after being delayed two extra days and having to reroute, I am very disappointed in the "spotty" airport security that is being rolled out.
In Seattle, you can't even get a plastic butter knife at the airport, in LA you can't come near the airport to pickup or drop off passengers. But in Minneapolis? After being scanned three times, twice via walkthrough and the third with a wand, I got through and went to the restaurant for a three hour wait for my flight. I was given a steak menu. I asked the waiter if I get a steak knife with the steak? He said certainly. And then he laughed knowing how absurd that was based on what we are going through and said "Yeah, one day they took all our knives away and the next they gave them back after running them through the x-ray." Like that makes the steak knifes safer or something.
Then, before getting on the plane, I went to the rest room and for the first time in any airport I see a plastic bio-waste disposable container stuck on the wall full of used hypodermic needles from Insulin users I assume. Now, if I was a terrorist, it sure would be an easy backup weapon to claim that this hypo containes AIDS tainted blood or something.
I just don't feel that the airports or the FAA has a clue on how to make us safer ... they seem to be doing everything to slow the airports down but seem to be missing a lot of "thought processes" of what they should be doing.
Ok, since you posted it, I will elaborate. It became obvious to me that trying to eliminate any possible weapon on the plane is foolish to the extreme. All you are doing is insuring that trained fighters won't face any weapons. There are plenty of fast acting poisons that are pretty easily available. Any of these in a plastic hypodermic make a very effective weapon. Are we going to strip and body cavity search everyone to prevent these type of weapons from being aboard the plane? We can't, so it is best the rethink the whole policy, and understand that a "disarmed victim zone" is not the way to stop terrorists!
I understand entirely, there's so much to read.