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U.S security is still somewhat lacking.
Last month, I was in Norfolk Virginia on a conference. Due to the close proximity to Washington D.C., the security was the highest I have seen at any airport since 9/11.
After picking up my boarding pass, they took my luggage (and the luggage of every other boarding passenger) and put it through a quick visual check and also wiped it down with a small pad, which they then ran through a device to detect explosives.
Due to my line of work (my "real" occupation is an engineer) they detected slight remnants of an explosive in my luggage. (I travel to a large number of conferences throughout the year. Often, to show the effects of different stresses on structures, small charges are attached to structual models).
Due to the alarm, they asked me to move to another desk where they took all items out of my luggage and did a more detailed inspection.
Now, here's the rub...I also had my carry-on bag with me. Right from the start, I asked if they would also like to go through this bag. Their answer,...NO...just the bags that I was going to check through for loading onto the plane. Now correct me if I am wrong, but if there was explosive residue in the one piece of luggage, wouldn't logic dictate that I may have transported the material in my luggage and then transferred it to the carry-on before arriving at the airport?
All I can fathom from this is the fact that I am one of those sorts that usually puts most people at ease immediately and pretty much everyone trusts from the get go. But, the security of the U.S. must look beyond this apparent "niceness" and take every detection seriously. After all, look at my side occupation (adult webmaster)...you can't judge a book by it's cover.
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