Therumancer said:
My initial impression is to call "BS" on this.
I think the guy intentionally smuggled the weapon, which was not in plain sight, or had it passed to him at his destination specifically to mess with security and make a scene. Sort of like people at the casino where I worked deciding to plant false bombs so they could pretend to find them and then be "big heroes" for it, or just to try and make security look like a group of idiots, except in this case it appears he wasn't caught red handed doing it.
Simply put, if this did happen it's a sign that our security is not tight enough, probably due to all the complaints and the busy season. That or security is ironically treating Muslims with kid gloves stupidly enough. After all, this is all due to Muslim terrorists, but our domestic policies are such that singling Muslims out is wrong, so ironically with all the complaints I wouldn't be surprised if the group that should be being checked out the most intensely is being given a pass to "prove we aren't being discriminatory". It's possible that if this guy is a Muslim (and I'm guessing this is probably the case with a name like "Farid") his backround as a long time businessman might have convinced security to let him through unusually easy so they could point to him later and say "see we don't hassle all Muslims", except in this case it kind of backfired.
Still, just the fact that this made it into the media, and how idiotic it makes the system look, leads me to believe that it was set up intentionally. After all if *I* was in that position and got a gun through security accidently, the last thing I'd do is walk up and say "hey look, I got this gun through security".
If I was the guy in charge of this right now, I'd pull a "Judge Dredd", just because he admits to the crime doesn't mean it's not a crime. Time to invoke "The Patriot Act" bring him in for the most rigorous interrigation the law allows, in this country or an allied nation which is less picky (even if we're not supposed to do that) and get to the bottom of it. If it turns out that it's him trying to make a scene to undermine confidence in the system, we treat him like a terrorist, perhaps even going so far as to make it treason if he's a US citizen. If it's not, then he still brought a gun on a plane and we have a nice cell waiting for him for however many years in a regular prison it carries.
With a system this important, I think this guy did some damage by going public with it and speaking to the media. I believe strongly enough in this kind of security and the need for it at the moment that I think just letting this go is a bad move. To put it bluntly, if security fails, and someone points out a security failure which might encourage other people to exploit it, that's a problem.
actually we've known the TSA have been doing a really bad job, there was no damage done. They had their little hand-wand metal detector thingy beep at my pocket, and they asked what was in my pocket and I told them it was my wallet then they said, "oh." didn't even ask to see my wallet.
and according to you, "if this did happen it's a sign that our security is not tight enough."
and the truth is, it isn't. If you watched the little ABC clip, the TSA's testing of the TSA officers on their ability of find contraband such as guns, blades and grenades there was a 70% fail rate at major airports.
only with the US government can a 30% success rate be seen as, "oh that seems alright."
I have no idea how much brainwashing you have gone through to have so much faith in our government. "Oh, that man said our government is wrong, lets KILL HIM!" okay, not an exact quote from you, but a paraphrased idea. I have no idea what is wrong with you.
This country was founded by people who basically said, "This government sucks, lets start a new one." If it was up to people like you, America would have never separated from the British. now who is unpatriotic? your argument is in direct disagreement with the founding fathers.
When someone discovers something wrong with the government we have the right to say, "Hey, you guys screwed up, and you're not fixing it. What's wrong with you?" And that is exactly what this man did, and you want to imprison this man for being a terrorist for doing something that betters our government by doing his American duty by revealing our flaws so we know what to fix? What's wrong with you?
You're trying to paint this as some sort of conspiracy against the country? Well it isn't. The simple truth is that our government isn't perfect and you're trying to just glaze this over as if the TSA are perfect warriors of justice and freedom. To be honest with you, that is un-American and just downright lazy.
