Originally Posted by
Steve M
It's not the giving the passenger access to the bags that increases security, but the fact that between the baggage carousel and the transfer baggage re-check desks is Customs inspection. This means a Customs officer gets to eyeball each passenger and their bags, go through their passport, ask them questions, and optionally inspect the checked bags in the passenger's presence.
But what's the point if this. Customs officers are there to look for illegal or taxable goods entering teh country. Not to detect for bombs. Even if they could also look for bombs, what's the point. We don't have them inspect bags for domestic flights, not domestic to international, so why do they need to do international to international.
If we don't trust foreign airports to properly screen, then just x ray it in the US. Wouldn't a LHR-MIA-SDQ bag then get the same inspection as a DFW-MIA-SDQ bag.