It'll never be airtight.
A report made public Wednesday said government investigators smuggled liquid explosives and detonators past airport security, exposing a dangerous hole in the nation's ability to keep these forbidden items off of airplanes.
The investigators learned about the components to make an improvised explosive device and an improvised incendiary device on the Internet and purchased the parts at local stores, said the report by the Government Accountability Office. Investigators were able to purchase the components for the two devices for under $150, and they studied the published guidelines for screening to determine how to conceal the prohibited items as they went through checkpoint security.
At the end of the testing, investigators concluded that terrorists could use publicly available information and a few cheaply available supplies to damage an airplane and threaten passenger safety.
The covert tests were conducted at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at 19 airports in March, May and June of this year. The GAO did not identify the airports.
Most security efforts are really for show. You basically try to make it as inconvenient as possible for potential terrorists to make an attempt. But a determined enemy can thwart most attacks.
For example, the armored cockpit doors are great if you're in the air, but when you first walk on a plane, the door is always open. Sure, the terrorists would have to learn to take off, but still, the opportunity is there to commandeer a plane and try to ram it into something (even if it's just the neighborhood the airport is located in) before fighter jets are scrambled to intercept.
That's why our best tools in this fight are law enforcement and the intelligence services.
Update: Devilstower in the comments:
Another 9/11 was impossible on 9/12, because all that made it possible was the assumption that the best way to survive a hijacking was to go along with it. Absolutely nothing needed to be done to make air travel safer.
Everything we've spent there has been more about congressmen looking busy than making people safe.
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