I have a friend who works for the TSA and he jokes about what a farce the whole thing is. But he is a supervisor or some kind of manager and makes good money with good benefits.
His attitude is hey they are going to pay someone good money to do this job it may as well be me even if he doesn't buy into their theater.
He has told me some fairly surprising things. He took things very seriously when he first started. But he said as it became more and more evident this was just for show and that when real things happened or flaws were found in some of the screening techniques and no changes were ever made as a result he just accepted this was a joke. He said he expected the agency to learn from experience and modify their approach to screening and overall security based on experience.
He now fully believes you need some minimal physical security checks for sharp objects, knives, weapons and large amounts of explosives but believes the Israelis have it right.
You screen for behavior. Some argue that model won't work in the U.S. given the sheer number of passengers and flights. There is some merit to that argument but..... if we are screening for things rather than people, the people will get through with bad things.
Drug smugglers are known to swallow condoms full of heroin or shove them up their anus. One ingenious drug smuggler I read about had his abdomen opened by a surgeon, drugs in plastic bags placed just under the skin. He was "taped up". He would have done fine if customs hadn't noticed he was leaving a little trail of blood due to bleeding from the incisions.
But those are examples of how people will get THINGS through security. You need to stop the PEOPLE and not worry so much about the things.
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