I agree with you that the airlines are probably not where the threat is anymore. Frankly, the terrorists just aren't that smart - they could have brought America down to its knees with hysteria long ago if they were. Besides their lack of intelligence, though, is another factor which plays in the favor of sanity. That is, as many Muslims as there are in this country who HATE America and theoretically would like to wage war against us (I assure you there are MANY here), most people, even Muslims, when they are comfortable and content (as people living in our country generally are, physically) do not want to throw away life and kill innocent people. Things could easily snowball, though.
Thank you for your clarification of the current state of airport security - that is helpful to kep in mind. Do you have any links to add to that info?
As to Mineta - if you think anyone picked by the Clintons to run a Cabinet position (taking Ron Brown's place, at that!) is okay to leave in a position of power, then you either do not know the Clintons at all, or how they operate, or you don't have an appreciation of the inevitably destructive power of official corruption. It is ruining us much faster than all the terrorist attacks you can think of. Since you posted Mineta's "resume," you must have the former misconception, and think that Mineta is not corrupt or compromised. I would bet everything I own that he is, if there was a way to prove it (and there may be). The Clintons never, EVER appoint anyone to a position, great or small, who is not compromised, controllable, and corrupt. Never. That's the way it was in AR; that's the way it was at the White House; that's the way it is now.
But thank you for rebutting Pruden's article and my own words with thought and civility - it's refreshing.
I can't provide a link for you ... my cousin is the office administrator at the Minneapolis Airport Commission, and she had to type and distribute all these new tarmac/access rules to the airlines, unions, vendors, cops, bureaucrats, security guards, private flight operations centers, Air Traffic Controllers blah blah blah. I saw her the Saturday after she finished and of course, instead of letting her distance herself from the project, I thoroughly debriefed her on the subject. That stuff interests me, and luckily she loves me, so she patiently laid it out. There's a lot of stuff happening frankly that should have been an operational given years before. Like ... making sure you don't have felons on parole for robbery and grand theft working in your secure and unsupervised BAGGAGE DEPOT!!!! God - Northwest had such an employee. You can't believe how many bad actors there were in the catering and maintenance detail! Guys with warrants, owing child support ... there was one driver for a shuttle bus from the pilot/employee lot to the main terminal that had his Drivers Licence revoked by the state in 1995!!!!!! That's our America!