Ruh-roh, trusted traveler may be out before it starts, and apparently TSA is trying to prove at the same time that their equipment actually works. US Soldier Caught Boarding Flight with Explosive
Scary but not the brightest bulb around. He washed out of the training course in explosives and got himself arrested on the way home with a sample in a tobacco tin. TSA caught themselves a dimwit. A real sleeper won't be caught in that manner.
Christopher Eric Wey, U.S. Soldier, Tries To Board Flight With Explosives Don't have all the details yet. Just putting it out there fyi. (Let's just say if he were swarthy and had a multi-syllabic name, I bet he'd be getting excoriated in the comments there, which isn't happening. And yes, I do think he was foolish.)
Agreed. There's a disturbing trend in these comments sections that "if we only profiled brown people we'd be fine." Sorry. Wrong Answer. Try again.
I'm not so sure this soldier would have qualified as a so-called "trusted traveler." Hard to tell since there is no written policy, yet. My guess is that a Private First Class on his first hitch would not automatically qualify as opposed to a Sergeant First Class with 15 years of service, an established security clearance and established service record. I do agree that this casts doubt on risk based security before it even gets started, and that may be a good thing. But I don't think it should kill the initiative before it has a chance to prove itself. Here's where my warped sense of reality comes into play: so what! Yeah, he had C-4, yeah, he violated a laundry list of federal laws, military regulations and will probably become the next butt-boy at Cell Block 6 at the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks. But he never posed a terrorist threat to commercial aviation. He had no intent of blowing up the airplane. He was probably going to blow up some sandboxes at home to show his buddies exactly what C-4 can do, but at no time was he really a terrorist threat. This in no way condones what he did. I'm just pointing out that he is not a terrorist threat. Young troops are notorious for pulling bonehead stunts like this. He is, to put it in military terms, in deep kimchi.
Hi Ho Ho off to Leavenworth he goes...... Yeah, he's in deep trouble. Kansas has two seasons: cold with wet and hot with dry. He'll have a federal felony conviction on top of everything else.
