These kinds of devices are not really new. They are standard at nuke plants, although of a different variety. Because the security stations at nuke plants are not as busy as airports, they can afford to use ones that take longer, and don’t use “puffs” of air. It’s a constant stream of air, and you must stand there for a while, roughly six or seven seconds. I don’t know how prone to breaking they were, but they were never out of order when I was there.

Something that works well in one situation may not work so well when adapted to a different one. Such is the case with these machines. The only actual way to tell whether they’ll work under airport conditions is to stick them in airports and try them. It isn’t that they don’t work (they do), they simply don’t work well enough under those conditions to justify the cost and extensive maintenance needed to keep them working. So someone in the government actually had a good idea and canceled the program, and folks are complaining?

90% of airport screening is purely psychological. If we REALLY wanted to be secure, the public AND the airlines would never stand for it. Look at all the whining about the extremely effective full body scanners currently being tested. The person who sees the images never sees the people, so unless you’ve got a 3rd leg or something, nobody’s going to know who you are, or care. Oh, but folks would rather not have their delicate sensibilities offended even if that means going down in a fiery ball of twisted metal.

I don’t know of a single airport in the country where maintenance workers, with full access to the entire terminal and the airplanes have to pass ANY sort of security. What are the odds of paying some minimum wage schlub who in most parts of the country isn’t even a US citizen to stick a package on a plane? Maybe hold his family hostage back in their home country for added incentive? And, of course, the guy (or girl) could just waltz in or out without anybody saying anything.

I know whereof I speak, I personally trained many of the TSA supervisors employed around the country (at least those hired in the TSA’s 1st year of existence).

Even El Al’s security is based mainly on appearances. The only airline operating on US soil that the TSA isn’t allowed to handle security for, we’re (or at least were) required to observe them, and their procedures are a joke. After screening the passengers luggage (at JFK), they hand the luggage back to the passengers to take up to the counter (on a long, densely packed line). The passengers at this point haven’t gone through ANY security screening, and someone with a bomb in their pocket could easily slip it inside their luggage after their luggage has been scanned.

Oh, and if you’re one of the goyim, expect to be selected for extra and in-depth screening, because you WILL get it. We can’t get away with that sort of profiling, but they can. Of course, even then they don’t follow correct procedure taking far too many samples before testing for explosives. Anything collected with their first swipe would likely be well worn off of their swab before it was ever tested.