Who's afraid of the big, bad Starbuck?

Boarding my flight today to O'Hare, the TSA was there with their latest bomb-sniffing gadget. They pulled aside every economy-class passenger with a drink and waved their new toy around the lid. Someone asked them what they were checking for, and the agent responded: "Explosives." Mind you that these were all folks who had been screened already and had bought their drinks inside the security perimeter.

What I learned about what the TSA thinks from today's experience:

1. Terrorists only fly coach
2. Security is so bad that airport employees are now a danger

The former seems to be them balancing the reaction of the high-paying airline customers with security, which seems like a stupid tradeoff to me.

The latter seems to reflect a movie-plot style threat: Since terrorists can't get explosives in through the front door, they co-opt a pre-cleared airport employee and get them to hand off the goods to a co-conspirator once he's cleared security. It's not all that far-fetched. The security screening of airport staff is notoriously poor. But the idea clearly shows a lack of thinking on the part of the TSA.

Once you've got a guy on the inside, there's no need to try to use a difficult to handle, under-powered liquid explosive. Your guy on the inside is free to hand-off a couple of pounds of C4 or RDX or what have you to his buddy who's going on the flight. They can do a bag swap in the Starbucks or neighboring bathroom stalls much easier than they can make the exchange as a couple of water bottles in plain view of everyone.

*Sigh*