Read something last night about how the real threat these days is the high explosive PETN. This is what the TSA expects to be used. A 3 inch ball could take out an airplane in flight. It is the explosive used in all the recent attempts. No news there.

But what I did not know is that it is VERY hard to detect. The sniffers and swab machines at the airport won't detect it except in high concentration. It can easily be packed in plastic bags that are then washed and there will be no external residue to detect even with the best machines.

It seems like the volume of a 3 inch ball could easily be concealed in body cavities, in the stomach, or even under the skin using a small incision. No scanner would stand a chance of detecting it. A detonator could be made in flight using two chemicals, in small quantities, that lots of people routinely carry on planes.

So, it seems hopeless to detect a determined terrorist through any kind of screening including strip and cavity searches. So why not focus the billions we spend on intelligence and behavior profiling?

Intelligence is what allowed the recent cargo bombs to be detected. Intelligence should have caught the underwear bomber (his father alerted US authorities that he was planning something). The other recent incidents going back to 9/11, Richard Reid etc, were all members of extremist groups that were known.

I admit, as a white male I am less likely to be affected by profiling than some people. But I am not suggesting racial profiling, I think behavior profiling could be done without being too invasive. I know that we as Americans have an aversion to that but we also have an aversion to the current practices. Short of eliminating security entirely, which I don't hear anyone advocating, what should we realistically do given that the threat is real (if overblown)?