I agree with Punki: Lots of money and billions of hours of wasted time likely would not have made any difference on Sept. 11. The prison-lockdown atmosphere of our airports is ridiculous and, if seen by bin Laden, must provoke a chuckle. ("stupid Americans.")

Mineta, along with all other bureaucrats, failed to do anything useful on that terrible day. Our reward for their incompetence? Mineta recently declared war on the few remaining business travelers left in the system. His announcement that they will shut down terminals and cause massive delays will inevitable lead to fewer travelers, not more.

No system of security screening will ever work perfectly, especially when the screeners are searching for innocuous non-weapons like nail clippers, nail files, pocketknives, scissors, etc.

No matter who employs the screeners, and no matter how educated, motivated, highly paid and conscientious they are, the system will reamain broken until they go back to looking for real weapons like guns and large knives.

As long as the screeners are told to search for and confiscate safe objects from non-hijackers, we can rest assured that airlines will continue to bleed and need periodic infusions of cash.