Originally Posted by
cparekh
And to jump completely off topic, when are we going to realize that there was no security failure at the checkpoint on 9/11? The criminals did nothing illegal up until the moment they hijacked the aircraft.* The box cutters were legal to bring on board and were possibly detected in the x-ray of the carry on luggage.
Why, exactly, do we need TSA when there was no problem in the first place? I guess for the same reason toothpaste is illegal when in poses no danger to the flight.
*It's possible they did illegal stuff like over stay their visa or speed to the airport, but 9/11 was not a screening problem.
The problem with your post is that it actually provides a good argument for the increased "security" measures we have today. Terrorists were able to bring down planes using allowed items that they brought on board, so if we further limit what can be brought on board we can prevent this from happening again.
I'm not saying that I agree with the above argument, but I don't think it's fair to say that "there was no problem in the first place" because boxcutters are safe to have on planes (evidently we were wrong on that), therefore toothpaste should also be safe.