Recently I flew out of LBF in North Platte, Nebraska, on a Beech 1900 twin turboprop to DIA. This plane seats at most 18 passengers. LBF has one security checkpoint, staffed by 5 TSA screeners (3 male, 2 female) at about 5:00 p.m. CDT. My boarding pass did not have the dreaded SSSS in the corner. I followed the instructions of the TSA screener before walking through the metal detector, even to the point of removing my penny loafers that do not alarm but have heel-sole combination just over 1" thick. After the WTMD did not alarm, she told me to follow the instructions of the TSA screener to her right. I was wanded and patted down, lower torso only. Bags were not searched.

I saw one other passenger wanded and patted down, another attorney who was in North Platte for the same deposition I attended. She is a strawberry blond, 15 weeks pregnant, and did not have SSSS on her boarding pass. When some other passengers who were attorneys at our deposition commented on our grumbling, I pointed out to them that much of the cargo carried on passenger airliners is not screened. Pat downs of American passengers is a useless gesture in light of the failure to examine all cargo loaded onto commercial airliners. We ought to hammer that point home, that if security is actually the goal, rather than the appearance of security (kabuki security), TSA must search cargo with the same zeal that it searches passengers.