Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Let's Be Thankful...

...that it wasn't a suicide monkey, see Airplane Passenger Smuggles Monkey Under His Hat Into U.S. @ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292496,00.html.

Not only did DHS/CBP (Customs and Border Protection) apparently fail to catch this at the border, but DHS/TSA apparently failed to catch it in Florida. I am not necessarily faulting anyone, I know better in this case because I worked for Customs for about 15 years at JFKIA (not doing inspection work, but often working with inspectors). It would be something easy to miss, but so too would some plastic explosives. I am faulting the system, the airlines, politicians, and travelers in general - all who don't want to accept a much stricter system of checks at the airports and who accept the risk of taking chances with homeland security for all of us. I can tell you one airline on which this be much less likely to occur - El Al. They know how to check folks and secure an aircraft.

All the best,
Glenn B

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