Originally Posted by mizzou65201
Now that's a statement I can agree with. Let's also not leave out the cargo hold.
TSA would argue this is already in place, and it's called Selectee Screening and the No-Fly List.
I would argue that if we take the measures you advocate in the first paragraph, these "intrusive measures" should be taken if there is an unresolvable alarm, without regard to the age, gender, or apparent nationality of the person involved.
But short of requiring a passport at each and every checkpoint, TSA is going to have no way of knowing if a pax on the Milwaukee to Chicago milk run is from Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the Phillipines, Los Angeles, or down the street.
Sorry to forget about mentioning the cargo hold ... I have been a broken phonograph on this issue, which is currently ignored, except for the Known Shipper farce.
Regarding passports, if someone at a checkpoint is jabbering away in a foreign language, I submit that such a passenger is more deserving of a secondary search than an obvious American speaking an American dialect of English. Using the Israeli method of asking a few questions to gauge the reaction of the passenger would also assist in determining which passengers may require additional screening.