how you can even post nonsense like this is beyond reality... a stick of tnt up someone's a*s is NEVER going to be detected at a checkpoint. locate a crews family member? real hard to follow you home then put your mom's head in a vice and get you to do something. close to a plane? in fll you could hit them with rocks from i-95. yea and real hard to get a cleaning crew to do something wrong. you and your attitude is what is wrong with tso. well that and the fact that you serve no purpose....

I realize that I've had a few beers just before reading the above, but even if I was completely sober, I doubt it would make any sense whatsoever. Comments?

Well, Ron, I recently had someone "on the inside" open up my luggage and steal a pair of shoes. I'm fairly sure they could have placed a bomb in there if that was their intent. Just how does TSA guarantee it couldn't happen?

Well, Ron, if you were really a security professional, you'd know that last year when a Mexican government aircraft crashed on approach into Mexico City, the scenario you so cavalierly dismiss was thought to be one possible explanation for the crash.

Well, first of all let me say that I am glad the attitude has changed and I don't get jumped on. The aim of my suggestions is certainly not to give terrorists any ideas. It would be stupid to think they cannot think of these things themselves. Indeed, most of these methods have been used before, as pointed out by others. So I only used the most commonly available methods that are rather realistic and that show that there are so many possible ways to bring down an airplane (I didn't even include the SAM missile method), that the stuff TSA is doing is really of little use for actual security.

If you think about it critically and you ask cui bono (who is it good for?) then there are a couple of answers.

Government profits because they are seen as doing something to protect the people (at least the majority of people are stupid enough to believe that).

Government profits because this might help to employ people that are otherwise unemployable (sorry but had to be frank).

Government profits because it can gather intel and pass laws that give it more control over the people. More control over the people is always good.

Security companies profit because they make money with tax payer funds.

In addition, we all know that cargo planes and cargo on passenger planes is subject to much less screening and that sea ports are pretty much wide open.

As even Napolitano said you can't thermoseal the country and it is frankly not funny to live in fear. It seems to be more appropriate to make some real diplomatic and human efforts to calm those that are so pissed at us (righteously or not) that they are willing to blow themselves up. This does not mean that military and counter intelligence efforts should be stopped when and where they are needed.

But the TSA thing is a farce. Nothing more. Giant BS. I'd gladly go back to pre 9-11 methods.

Till

Could you grab me a brew next time you're up? Thanks bro.

In your convulated explanation, you are correct about US law allowing the government certain liberties in dealing with the public.

So explain how the TSA somehow can make up it's own laws (rules), most which are secret and unknown to anyone outside the TSA circle.

If there is absolutely no law on the books about transporting US currency within the confines of the USA, tell me how the TSA can somehow make this a reason for suspicion?

Yes, US Law is quite specific. If there is not a law that prohibits or grants an act, then it is agreed that there is NO restriction on that act.

Just as there is no law that says I can or can't read a book while in bed, it is then assumed that I can do either with out fear of being arrested.

I think the TSA far over-steps the bounds of law.

Absolutely. As long as you're drinking real beer, not the pale yellow crap that most large brewing conglomerates dispense.

You were good up until number 4. It would make for an awesome movie though.

There is one kind of explosive thats damn near impossible to catch on the Xray. It would pretty much have to be bundled up and gift wrapped to raise any suspicion. I honestly hope anyone who wants to down a plane doesn't get their hands on it.

Why bother with human delivery systems? Even suicide bombers might be hesitant to risk their lives inserting explosives into bodily orifices. Pets, OTOH, while involving extra expenses ($100+, depending on the airline ), allow for multiple insertion attempts.

Now try to put a pet through the x-ray and people go crazy ("animal abuse", etc.), ignoring the fact that the flight probably exposes the pet to a similar level of ionizing radiation than the x-ray.

You sure its your bra? I put in about 3 Years in a category X airport and screened thousands of passengers. I have seen some pretty outrageous things alarm the WTMD but Never a bra.

See, that's what I'm saying. I come up with a few modest plane attack ideas with my limited mind and then our friend Ralf who is as certainly not a terrorist as I am not a terrorist comes up with an even better idea. Now you'd think people who spend more than five minutes on this can come up with even better ways.

Just don't try to put anything up the arse of your Rottweiler. You might die sooner than expected.

Crazyace, what a category X airport?

For the bra, I don't wear any but I can imagine there is quite a bit of metal in bigger size underwire bras. On the other hand, I just talked to a friend of mine who is a true FF and he even leaves his belt on (big buckle) and his complete wallet in his trousers (with coins I believe). He says he never gets an alarm from the metal detector.

Till

The problem is the morons at TSA think the terrorists are just as dumb as they are.

Thats pretty dang dumb on the dumb-o-meter scale!

Shiner Boch is my favorite, along with most Mexican beers and just about any hefeweizen. That do ya?

As to TSA, I think most of us are in favor of security in principle at airports, but maybe we have different ideas of how best to execute that principle. TSA isn't a waste, just maybe it needs to be fine tuned to some degree or other. Of course, if you ask 10 Flyer Talkers what's most important you'll get 9 different answers. I say 9 because Spiff will vote for non-stop canning on general priniciple.

Off on a tangent-
Have you seen the HBO series The Wire? After I watched it I felt that there are only two conclusions that could be reached- 1) America is broken, 2) most countries are even more screwed up.

Security is just like this - I can come up with so many valid, effective attacks it's scary. So why aren't planes dropping out of the sky? Why aren't buildings collapsing willy-nilly?

The only conclusion I can come to is that they're even more screwed up than security.

Not just that, but that terrorism is very, very rare. TSA has never caught a terrorist, not because wily terrorists are slipping through security under the eagle-eyed watch of the likes of Ronny and BartBart, but because there are very, very few terrorists to begin with. TSA does not seem to understand this, which is why they keep adding contrived "layers" that will never do anything but harass innocent people, because many, many millions times more innocent people fly by air than terrorists, and that at any given moment, the number of terrorists on airplanes, or attempting to board airplanes, or thinking about boarding airplanes, is zero.