One additional observation I'll make (for no other reason than to inflame my fellow FTers ) is that during this whole stupid episode, I was able to observe the separate employee lane (which is to the far right as one is entering security); over there, even though they had their own functioning WTMD, most employees just walked around it, exchanging hearty "Hola!!!"s with the security guy charged with manning that area (occasionally, some particularly disreputable looking dude would get stopped and made to walk through it-- all the hot chicas working there definitely got a free pass....).

I felt like the outsider who tries to go to a trendy club without knowing the owners or bouncer.

Oh well, as long as the Costa Rican government is able to keep the U.S. government off its back (via the TSA)-- guess it's all good.... not.

It's interesting (but makes sense) that the TSA has been "assisting" Costa Rica. The irrational program they have implemented bears all the fingerprints of a TSA sponsored operation: stringent, manpower-intensive procedures targeted toward the masses (security theatre) coupled with gaping holes.

Someone with bad intent will simply observe those lowly-paid employees routinely allowed to circumvent airport security and co-opt one of them to smuggle through a gun or bomb, rather than spend significant sums of money attempting to devise some sort of device that can be secretly assembled on-board out of wire hangars and then used to somehow pierce the reinforced flight deck door.