" It's impossible to screen travelers carefully and thoroughly in a timely manner and still not bankrupt the airlines."
The present system of airline security is only an interim solution, implemented knee jerk style in the aftermath of 9-11. Technology solutions are comming online pretty quickly, and promise to put most of those white shirt TSA employees back to work at McDonalds. Thanks to Richard Reid with his TriAcetone-TriPeroxide shoes, we will all have to put up with the shoe searches for a few more years. The current explosive detection technology misses this substance entirely, but sensors are under development.
I was watching this guy on C-SPAN in my hotel room Thursday night. Yes it was that boring being on the road.
He was basically saying that if anyone put a little thought into it, airport security can be defeated close to 100% of the time.
It is also apperent that the FAA doesn't want the public to know they are paying billions for a put-on show that really is not making them any more secure.
Real security comes from finding Osama's address book in a cave and killing every person listed in it.