The clues were there for the Fort Hood shooter and the Crotch bomber.

[dkf]

Instead of fixing some obvious failures, the Feds want to inconvenience us and make flying as painful as possible. Where is the competence we demand from our Government?

Why is our Government so lax in reviewing possible dangers? Is it simply carelessness? Or is there a lack of investigative resources?

I would like to know how bad our Government is at this and if it is fixable or not. From the heightened airport security, I gather they have little faith that they have adequate info to prevent dangerous people from flying.

[customerserviceguy]

1. It's just the same thing that the farmers used to describe

as "closing the barn door after the horse is gone." It's human nature to respond to a near-tragedy with excessive obsession about that very same thing happening again.

I guess I just expected our government to handle it differently than it was done during the Bush years. I figured that was all about manipulating people with imagined terror in order to get them to vote a certain way out of fear.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

[dkf]

2. But they ARE preventing the same thing from happening.

And it still isn't working.

Why?

[lazer47]

3. Lack of common sense.

[katsy]

4. Needle. Haystack.

Doubt they will ever catch every homicidal criminal that wants to cause harm. It's not reasonable to expect that unless you douse the cabins with sleeping gas and keep every one asleep during the flight.

There's no doubt in my mind that the Feds and law enforcement are doing a good job but even that will not prevent every crime. In this case, one failure is too much.

[secondwind]

5. What is Amsterdam saying about all of this? They seem to be MUTE on the entire matter.

A wingnut and his wife were by the ticket counter, and he heard "an Indian man" asking the ticket agent to help the bomber get an airline ticket. The wingnut heard the fellow saying "he doesn't have a passport"......they spoke back and forth,and the agent went for his/her supervisor.

BTW - the wingnut says he reported all of this to the FBI.

[dkf]

6. The lack of passport is outrageous if true.

But the Visa is even more egregious.

[Myrina]

7. ... because humans are in charge and they're fallible ...

... and because shit happens, regardless of how much anyone tries to plan against it.