Airport 'security' touches a nerve

Last week's column -- on sham airline security measures -- hit a nerve with readers. By noon of the day of publication, I had 41 e-mails, the most I have ever received on any topic by the noon-time count I do each week -- and a record 129 by week's end.

All but two e-mailers agreed with my view that the requirement to show a picture ID before you check a bag or receive a boarding pass, along with the requirement to answer three luggage-related questions (Did you pack your own bags? Did anyone you don't know give you something to carry? Did you have your bags under your control at all times?), are, at best, silly, sometimes costly and always intrusive incursions on individual freedom by fear industry bureaucrats --with no corresponding security benefit.

Many e-mailers told me their own stories of missing flights because of a misplaced picture ID or a lost wallet. One told of being questioned by airport police after asking a ticket agent, "Are you ever embarrassed by having to ask these stupid questions?" and then objecting when she said, "This is for your safety, sir." "No, I'm sorry," he said, "It's so your airline can get more revenues from business passengers who would otherwise fly on 21-day advance-purchase, reduced-fare tickets."

Of course, he is correct. More money from business travelers is precisely the reason the airlines asked the government to impose the picture ID requirement, a sham condition because any illegal alien can tell you where to get a phony picture ID for $5 in five minutes.

The luggage questions are worse than a sham because they force many travelers, especially business travelers, to lie or face delays for telling the truth. Reason: Business travelers typically check their luggage in a hotel or client's cloakroom (i.e., outside of their control) during their final day's work in a client's city. If they tell the truth, they may be slowed up by an intensified search process.

Several wrote about another requirement -- what one female traveler called the "strip search" of a passenger's carry-on luggage. "I first experienced this on an America West flight out of Phoenix, when my bag received a big orange tag. After going through the X-ray machine, the security people asked me to remove all the contents out of every cavity and orifice of my shoulder bag. They then sent the emptied item back through the X-ray. Question: If dangerous items can escape detection in a filled bag, then why aren't all bags strip searched?"

She continued, "A month or so later I received another big orange ticket from US Air. Another strip search -- and a time delay that caused me to lose my reserved aisle seat, which they gave away 20 minutes before flight time. A couple of weeks later, I got another big orange ticket, again from US Air. This time, I deposited it in a trash bin on the way to the gate and escaped the strip search. So much for security."

Another reader, running late, told of missing her plane because security asked her to turn on her laptop computer. The result: A 10-minute delay as Murphy's Law kicked in -- her battery had run down; she had packed her AC adapter in her checked luggage; and the security supervisor was on a break. She said, "I would think that a terrorist smart enough to put a bomb in a laptop would be smart enough to rig a make-believe spreadsheet to satisfy a security geek." Another example of sham security.

As two e-mailers noted, these requirements are not just silly, they also breed cynicism by assuming the general public is too stupid to know what is going on. One said, "The next time Ted Koppel, Bill Moyers or Charlie Rose start wondering why Americans are so cynical about big government and so distrustful of large business institutions, they don't need to search for rogue militia groups. They should go to any major airport, where they can see the 'big lie' you describe in action."