Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

So that headline is an understatement eh?

Screeners at the Newark Liberty International Airport passed a recent test (sort of) when they detected a test package of explosives using the latest bomb detection machines. Thats right they dectected the test explosives just fine tough guy. However (and this is a minor oversight surely) they then seem to have lost the test device after said detection and somehow it was loaded onto a Continental flight to Amsterdam. So we KNOW its a bomb, we just dont know how to NOT PUT IT ON A PLANE after we detect that, good work TSA.

I know that nobody appointed me sarcasm czar for the day but lets just say the US efforts at "security" when it comes to airline transportation are now and always have been (in my time) VERY PATHETIC (and thus IMHO the scorn and tone is earned).

(And for the record there is no such thing as "secure" on any transportaion vehicle unless every item on that vehicle has been inspected. Its not a complicated equation. It might be expensive and or time consuming but the only way you can at all be effective is to ensure that EVERY passenger, EVERY bag, EVERY vendor item and EVERY piece of cargo is fully inspected. Short of that you are hedging your bets and you should not call anything secure. And there are airlines in the world that do this, and it seems to work just fine for them. In the states we cant seem to come to grips with inspecting every bag and especially every piece of cargo (which are often not inspected at all). Yes things have gotten better at an enormous expense but things are not good enough and things should NEVER HAVE BEEN SO PISS POOR even BEFORE 9-11-01.)   Airport Staff Loses Fake Explosives in Test