The screening of passengers is a joke, just look at who isn't screened.

Any airport with construction going on (which is most of them right now it seems) has a massive hole in security. Those guys are checked even less than the ground crews - basically never. How hard would it be for one or two of them to slip something onto a plane? Or walk into the 'secure' area of the terminal?

The name checking thing that was recently introduced is worse than a joke. It's a pain for absolutely zero benefit. The person at security who check your ID against you boarding pass has no way of knowing if you're on a watch list or if the boarding pass is real. And since you booked the flight and checked-in both on-line there's no check that the name on that boarding pass is real. Anyone see the hole yet? Book the flight under a false name. Once you've checked in on-line change the name on the boarding pass to match whatever ID you have, use that to clear security and the real one to board the plane. You could probably use the altered one to board if you didn't damage the bar-code piece - since on most carriers they just scan that now.

Financially speaking, flights that are entirely within the US simply don't need all that much security. And yes, I'm perfectly aware that the 9/11 hijacking flights fall into this category. But they are so unusual that it isn't worth the money.

The fact is that quite a bit of money is spent on convicing nervous passengers that, hey, it's okay, we've got it covered. This is not TSA's fault, it's the fault of nervous passengers who after all are paying for the whole thing, rightly or wrongly.

Money spent on security is not only about providing security, it's at least as much about providing the feeling of security. Again, this is not TSA's fault, they're just working with human nature.

Wouldn't it be interesting to see someone at TSA or Homeland Security TRY to answer this column, point by point? Don't think it can be done, to be honest.

Left side or right?

After 9/11 many people held up the Israeli example of how profile should and could be done in the U.S.

But how many of those advocating such a system have been through Israeli profiling? Forget about how they treat law abiding Israeli-Arabs...just ask American Jews what they've gone through. Questions as to where they "true" loyalty lies, threats and intimidation to have their children serve in the Israeli army, etc etc...

Considering how well the TSA is run now, does ANYONE really think they are capable of implementing a real "behavior profiling system" that doesn't degenerate into a "harass the dark ones" system?

Even by some MIRACLE such a system is implemented and run effectively, as the author points out airport terminals will become targets. Or, material will be smuggled in by any of the other gaping holes in airport security...

So profiling will simply turn into "security theatre" much as the current TSA procedure.

Smith is right on the mark. More power to him.

Maybe the other comment was right, that part of this is to reassure passengers. I think the larger motivation - and remember, this was under the president who launched the "shock and awe" bombing raids on the almost entirely innocent people of Baghdad, for no good reason (Iraq was never any credible threat) - is to terrorize people, by reminding them that they're in a virtual state of unending, perpetual war.

This is what the Rethuglicans do so well: frighten people, and make it look like someone else's fault. It's good for them politically, and if they can rewrite the US Constitution to look more like a fascist theocracy, then it only becomes easier for them.

The tragic thing is that I don't think it's politically possible for even Obama to do something like Smith's recommendations. We're stuck with security theater, rather than good security.

See you in line at the airport, and don't make any jokes :(

I have a friend with a rather common muslim name. He's a nice guy, well educated, hard worker, very smart, friendly, and in other respects not unusual at all.

He tells stories about being pulled to the side at the airport *every time* because of his name!

This makes the US look like a country of idiots.

And as usual, I agree with your voice of reason on matters security-related. But I got hung up on one phrase:

an Air Malta jet bound from the capital, Valletta

Because, of course, there's no airport in Valetta. The one and only airport in the country is officially in Luqa. It is, of course, reasonably close to Valetta, but there's not really anywhere in the country that's not. Everything's so compact in Malta, there's something like 4 different towns of similar size to Valetta just bordering the runway.

I'd love to ask some Palestinians for their opinion of the passenger screening program. Or anybody passing through BGI with even slightly dark skin.

This isn't the answer. Passenger screening is going to lead to a lot of innocent people being harassed and delayed, and will leave us open to another security hole the first time a white man in a suit decides to hijack a plane.

"Weren't no bombs that knocked down the World Trade Center," he replied. "It was those knife things..."

Indeed. While riding the Blue Line here in Chicago, one end of which connects to O'Hare, I'm saddened by the outward appearances of those who I see commuting to and from the airport in their TSA outfits. Don't judge a book by its cover and all that, but I'd be surprised if these were the sorts of people who were well-trained to look for all likely threats. They unfortunately don't appear to be any more experienced than the people from whom I occasionally order a chalupa at 1 am.

If I were the sort of person who opposed healthcare reform, I'd hold the TSA up as a prime example of a government operation that is run poorly, expensively, and ultimately fails to achieve its goals. Meanwhile they continue to work on the same premise--that we've gone back in time to September 10th, 2001, and we have to stop that horrible event from happening again. And so it goes.

I happen to be "Muslim-looking" with a foreign name, and someone who travels a fair amount both for work and for vacation. As a tip, I've found that knowing the drill ahead of time--shoes, jacket, wallet, phone, keys, belt, liquids bag, and laptop in bin, and ID and boarding pass in hand--while going through the process with your best Pan Am smile will help prevent you from being singled out. Knock on wood.

Is it sad to have to go through this process? Of course. But it's what we're stuck with for now.