"Well, duh," will be your reaction; please bear with a newbie. If this is a topic that has already been beaten to death, please direct me to the relevant threads.

It occurs to me that a bomb in checked luggage or shipped as cargo is a bigger danger than one carried to the cabin, if for no other reason than that the suicide bomber can succeed no more than once.

I know that we try to avoid that by matching a list of those who check to a list of those who board. But how hard would it be to circumvent this?

I know that checked baggage is subject to some scrutiny....but, in the opinion of FT observers, is this scrutiny truly effective. Especially because x-rays are a major element in that scrutiny, and as many are pointing out, x-rays cannot detect explosives.