Originally Posted by
TSORon
Some were, some were not. Again, read the 9/11 Commission report. You would be amazed by how much you don’t know about that day.
Checkpoint Operations Guide. This document was approved by the
FAA. The edition of this guide in place on September 11, 2001, classified “box cutters,”
for example as “Restricted” items that were not permitted in the passenger cabin of an
aircraft. The checkpoint supervisor was required to be notified if an item in this category
was encountered. Passengers would be given the option of having those items
transported as checked baggage. “Mace,” “pepper spray,” as well as “tear gas” were
categorized as hazardous materials and passengers could not take items in that category
on an airplane without the express permission of the airline.
On the other hand, pocket utility knives (less than 4 inch blade) were allowed. The
Checkpoint Operations Guide provided no further guidance on how to distinguish
between “box cutters” and “pocket utility knives.”
...
they had to develop a plan they felt would work anywhere they
were screened, regardless of the quality of the screener. We believe they developed such
a plan and practiced it in the months before the attacks, including in test flights, to be sure
their tactics would work. In other words, we believe they did not count on a sloppy screener.
...
Our best working hypothesis is that a number of the hijackers were carrying permissible
utility knives or pocket knives. One example of such a utility knife is this “Leatherman”
item. We know that at least two knives like this were actually purchased by hijackers and
have not been found in the belongings the hijackers left behind.
Unless Ron subsequently found some other weapons which everyone else somehow didn't, the evidence is that the
act of screening did not fail.
A revisionist could claim that the rules per the Checkpoint Operations Guide were insufficient, and perhaps they were, but that has no bearing on whether the private employees were or were not less competent than their current government equivalents.