Originally Posted by FWAAA
I don't follow this part of your post.
Yes, upon arrival from an international flight, you don't arrive in the sterile area of the domestic airport, but my point is that the US government has exported some of its collective insanity about airport security to foreign governments. And, of course, those foreign governments are always free to adopt, on their own accord, some of the ridiculous dog and pony aspects of our airport security wisdom.
All I meant by this was pretty much what you said in your paragraph there. It surprised me coming back from Britain once, where the security was just as extensive (I think) as the US, and then having to re go through security in the US. I would think that it would make sense to let passengers coming in who had connecting flights to catch enter the main terminal directly after clearing customs. I would consider customs a sterile area in just about every airport I've been in.