<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Points Scrounger:
I always assumed that the rationale for the gate checks was to catch cell members who had infiltrated the sterile zone.</font>
Yes, that was part of the reason for the gate screening. They have been working to reduce the vunerability to this type of attack on a number of fronts so what they are saying is that they've tightened the security sufficently to eliminate the gate checks.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">If gate screening was intended as a second filter to catch the items missed the first time at security, I'd say it was unnecessary.</font>
That was also part of the reason for the gate screening.
After the creation of the TSA, but before the TSA took over airport screening, they did a number of tests to see how well the screening system was working. The results were not good indicating that they needed some significant long-term changes in the way screening is accomplished. These long-term changes were going to take some time to impliment so they kept the gate screening in place during the implimentation period. We are now nearing the point where the TSA will staff all of the screening points.