Originally Posted by
Schmurrr
The interviewees were people with a military background who ended up on an FAA red team that was responsible for testing checkpoints pre-9/11. As I recall, they said that the red team tried bringing guns and other prohibited items through the checkpoint at ~25 airports, and the best of these airports detected only 20% of the items. Presumably, the security at the time was WTMDs and carry-on baggage x-rays. (I don't know how they got the items through. Low-quality equipment? Poor training of security staff?) Part of the "joke" is that the interviewees said they brought this terrible detection rate to the attention of FAA leaders and were ignored.
I think the point of the film is that the same miserable and ineffective policies and attitudes that were in place pre-9/11 are still present in the TSA today. It is the short-sighted failure of imagination, 'shutting the barn door after the horses are out', strict adherence to failed paradigms, notifying agents that there will be testing today, etc that are the real barriers to more effective airport security.
And I believe
chollie is right: Even after 9/11, formation of the TSA and all the other changes, the failure rate on these tests is still nearly as bad as it was pre-9/11. That is the point of the documentary... that while 9/11 changed 'everything', in reality it has changed nothing.
I do think that the reinforced cockpit doors and 'don't cooperate with hijackers' attitude are the primary safety improvements since 9/11. I am happy with pre-9/11 airport security procedures (even better if those procedures were properly implemented, fairly tested, and people were fired when they fail) along with those two measures.