Originally Posted by Jack M. Rice

All of this is beside the point. As the Israeli security chief testified after 9/11, it's foolish to depend exclusively on mechanical screening, the inference being that it can never be 100% effective, or even close. The numerous tests of the system which have exposed holes -- from lax inspection to machine shortcomings -- only confirms this. He said, what's vital is the active acreening, including, yes, profiling and scrutiny at every layer, from booking to check-in to airport police to vendor to cabin crew, to recognize certain behavior ...