The airline security thread made me think about the reasons why we are unable to secure our country. Two reasons come up most.
The United States of America, the most powerful and affluent nation on earth, is afraid of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Our government kowtows to them at every opportunity.
Under an agreement with have with the Saudis, we can't deny entry to any Saudi resident that is traveling on "approved" business. That is "approved" by them, not us. That is why there are active terrorist cells in our country. There are KNOWN terrorists here. Because we can't deny them entry.
The Saudi government actively sponsors and funds terrorist groups. They sponsored 15 of the 19 alleged participants in the Sept. 11 attacks. We couldn't deny them entry. The original Sept. 11 Commission report detailed this. About 200 pages of the report were excised because the Saudi government objected to it.
Question: What is the easiest way to sneak a bomb on to an aircraft?
Answer: Become an employee of an airline, an airport or a company that does business with either.
If you are one of the above, you are not screened at any time. You have often unmonitored access to aircraft.
This was all part of a very frightening report from a couple of years ago (I believe done by Salon.com, but also published in a book). One person dressed as a caterer and went to an airport with a catering company. Placed a realistic looking fake bomb in a box and placed it in the regular catering boxes. Walked unchecked into the airport and onto a plane, where it was placed under a seat. Where it made a couple of flights before someone finally discovered it.
Another person placed a different box in a cockpit supply area. Similarly undetected.
Catering and cleaning people are often minimum wage. How much would it take for a terrorist to bribe one of them to place a bomb on an airplane? Probably not much.