The few times I've been selected, I've insisted on positioning myself during the wanding and baggage search process so that I can watch my belongings. This has upset some of the security people...but when I politely and firmly tell them that I am watching my belongings they back down. Security insisted I run my wallet through the X-ray machine at the San Jose airport while they were wanding me. That was a tense moment until I got my wallet back with the contents intact.

I don't think the security people are federal employees. At this point in time, the federal government took over the security contracts that the airlines had so the employees still work for Global, Argenbright, and the other contract companies. Now the federal government has the task of weeding through the employees, keeping the good ones and getting rid of the bad ones, etc. From what I've read it will take most of the rest of this year to move from the contract companies to a federal employee staff. I hope they take their time in selecting good employees and accelerate doing the background checks and weeding out the convicted felons, illegal aliens, and thieves from the existing contracted workforce. Considering that air security is part of our national defense, my preference is for these jobs to be limited to US citizens.

If anyone is to blame for the state of affairs of the security force it is our nation as a whole pushing for cheap tickets. With the airlines in charge they did exactly what we as a nation wanted....cut costs by contracting for minimum wage people as part of the formula to ensure cheap airfares while trying to make a profit.