Possumblog

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

REDIRECT ALERT! (Scroll down past this mess if you're trying to read an archived post. Thanks. No, really, thanks.)

Due to my inability to control my temper and complacently accept continued silliness with not-quite-as-reliable-as-it-ought-to-be Blogger/Blogspot, your beloved Possumblog will now waddle across the Information Dirt Road and park its prehensile tail at http://possumblog.mu.nu.

This site will remain in place as a backup in case Munuvia gets hit by a bus or something, but I don't think they have as much trouble with this as some places do. ::cough::blogspot::cough:: So click here and adjust your links. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it's one of those things.

Monday, March 25, 2002

Restoring Confidence to the Flying Public

The Transportation Department inspector general found airport security screeners on several dozen occasions failed to catch guns and simulated explosives, even after the September terrorist attacks, a person familiar with the report said Monday.

Inspector General Kenneth Mead's report found that screeners missed knives 70 percent of the time and guns 30 percent of the time and also concluded that the screeners failed to detect simulated explosives 60 percent of the time, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. The source said Mead's report also said that banned items got through screeners almost half of the time. [...] Former FAA security chief Billie Vincent said the report was not surprising, considering that the checkpoints were staffed by the same low-paid, poorly trained screeners who were there before the Sept. 11 attacks. In addition, Vincent said, current equipment cannot detect explosives, nor can it detect many varieties of cutting tools. "The technology at the screening points is not there," Vincent said. "The current metal detectors won't do the job. If you turn it high enough to detect that much metal, you will have an alarm on every person going through."

I feel better knowing that those old, low-paid, poorly trained screeners will be replaced by high-paid, richly trained screeners. Nothing will get past them, nosiree.

You know, maybe if someone would decide that a four-year old girl and her grandma are not quite the same security risk as a sweaty, shifty-looking dude who bought his one-way ticket with cash...aw, who am I kidding.

posted by Terry at 11:06:00 AM

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