TSO Ron Said
Where do you think Reid was heading on his flight? Brazil? Melbourne?
As for how many shoe bombs, I honestly don’t know, and neither do you. To claim otherwise would be a lie. Is it still a viable method of getting explosives on board an aircraft? Yes. Can other things be concealed in the same manner? Yes. How often does this happen? Several times a week.
Actually we do know how many shoe bombs have happened since Richard Reid, ZERO, and that was eight years ago. Had someone been caught trying to board an airplane with a shoe bomb this news of this would have been announced to the media. While we are all well aware of where Richard Reid was flying to you did not answer the question;
Name other countries that require passengers to remove their shoes for X-ray prior to boarding a flight? This cannot include countries that require shoe inspection when flying to the United States. I doubt if you can name five. Countries like Israel, France, Germany, England, Spain, and Italy have all had past or current problems with terrorists and yet they don’t have this poorly designed policy.
TSO Ron Said
I don’t agree. I have been in this business far longer than 20 years, knowing when to get supervisory approval to vary from established procedure is essential. Knowing when you have gone to far is also essential. I have no expectation of being charged with crimes against humanity or genocide. Its not going to happen. So the analogy is less than accurate.
Ron your military experience leaves you at vast disadvantage to my experience. You have been trained to follow orders without question, something that does not happen in the real world, unless you work for the TSA. What we are talking about is your statement of:
TSO Ron Said
The thing is to not vary from the written, and if you have no choice then you get the OK from your supervisor to do it. That puts the monkey on their back.
In other words; if my supervisor tells me to do something that is against the law or could endanger others and you do it, it’s the supervisors problem. No one is going to charge you with war crimes, you can however be held legally liable for doing something you knew was against the law or endanger others, even if you were told to do it by a supervisor.