On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 13:54:30 GMT, "Doug Kanter" wrote:

"JohnH" wrote in message
.. .


No, Chuck, I said, "I think federalizing the security folks was a
Democrat-pushed idea that the administration caved under." By this I meant
the
federalizing of the thousands of screening personnel at the airports.
Perhaps I
was unclear. I apologize. I think the Department of Homeland Security was
a good
idea, as long as it consolidated and made more efficient the operations of
the
agencies it subsumed.

Bull****.

The privately hired screeners were overwhelmingly incompetent. What would
YOUR solution have been, if YOU were king of the world? Take the CEOs of the
private security companies out for a round of golf and make them buy dinner
afterward, to punish them for being such slobs???

Were I king of the world - wow!

I would prevent the airplane from being used as a weapon. I would close the
(reinforced) cockpit doors and tell the flight crew to stay in the cockpit. We
would play the Israeli game. Pilots don't go back to save stewards. They fly the
plane.

I would attempt to stop only those weapons which could bring down the airplane.
This would include firearms, explosives, and rocket-propelled grenades (or their
equivalent). I would not waste my time with knives, box cutters, or any other
item which can be used as a weapon against only an individual. Individuals are
important, but no more so in the air than on the ground.

This would relieve the security personnel of the requirement to find each and
every little thing that can be used as a weapon against only individuals. Your
'incompetency' arguments were based primarily on news reports which should Joe
Lib taking forty-seven pairs of scissors and twelve box-cutters through
security.

The private security companies were not being held to any standards. Who
controlled them? I would have had no problems with the government becoming the
contracting officer and monitoring the security companies. Of course, this would
not have required doubling the strength of the AFGE.

John
On the 'Poco Loco' out of Deale, MD