Originally Posted by
TerminalBliss
I disagree. Atta and his cohorts orchestrated several dry runs, presumably sans anything that was banned at that time (yeah, I'm familiar with the whole box cutter argument). Their mere actions represented a security threat, one which they exploited quite spectacularly. Checking IDs is indeed a valid security measure.
What "mere actions" are you talking about ? If simply making multiple airline trips represents a security threat then there's a whole
bunch of suspects right here on FT. Since they all had acceptable IDs they exploited
nothing whatsoever with regard to ID; what they exploited was the boxcutter loophole and the cooperation paradigm extant at the time.
Checking IDs is only a valid security measure if you do not trust the TSOs to discover weapons and explosives during screening. I forget which Hawleylayer that is.