Originally Posted by Cholula
eyecue, thanks for the heads-up. In another thread, I mentioned that there was probably some magic number of shoes that needed to be inspected, without finding a shoe bomb, before this frustrating policy would be relaxed or eliminated.
Guess that 10 billionth shoe must have passed through a WTMD in the last few days.
It had not passed through CLE lately. I recently was there when 3 senior citizens were treated like deaf people with mental disabilities. One elderly gentleman was yelled at for not removing his jacket before entering the WTMD. Another man, age approximately 65, American, was the target of about 5 straight minutes of hand wanding because of something beeping. Several of us in line remarked that he looked like a terrorist who could quickly kill someone with a No. 2 pencil. Meanwhile, two airport/airline employees (individuals with laminated badges that appeared official-looking) walked through the WTMD with their work boots on. Neither beeped, but then again as we all know TSA is not just looking for metal (on passengers).
As several of us have sketched, with this protocol it would be simple for such an employee to smuggle through explosives to a comrade who dutifully removes
his shoes at the WTMD. That terrorist passenger would then pick up employee's IED footwear in the "sterile" area. Once aboard the plane, BOOM! The irony is that it would be almost impossible to prove the switch of footwear, so the shoe carnival would return with a vengeance.