In an episode similar to one at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport a week and a half ago, airport screeners at New Jersey's Newark Airport (search) have lost a bag containing test explosives.

Last night, a security supervisor placed simulated plastic explosives into a piece of luggage for a training exercise, and then sent it through a bomb-detection machine. The machine caught the explosives, and an alarm sounded. But in the aftermath of the alarm the screeners lost sight of the bag. Authorities searched the entire terminal, but couldn't find it. They presume it made its way onto an outbound flight.



Mike

__________________
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1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
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1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
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1985 300TD
270,000 miles
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1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
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That's pretty sad. I'd laugh, but if I did, it'd explode, and that would not be funny.

On another note, what's going to happen with our DHS? Ridge is gone without securing our own airport system. It remains open to such occurrances because we are not screening for explosives; all we seem to have done is keep fingernail clippers from passengers.

__________________
'83 240D with 617.952 and 2.88
'01 VW Beetle TDI
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD
'89 Toyota 4x4, needs 2L-T
'78 280Z with L28ET - 12.86@110
Oil Burner Kartel #35

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...oD/bioclip.jpg

Oh no! Don't forget the fact that shoe bombs are now prohibited too. Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Made it to Amsterdam where the locals recovered it. The TSA knew which plane it had been loaded on to and advised the receiving country of the pending arrival.

__________________
Mike Tangas
'73 280SEL 4.5 (9/72)- RIP
Only 8,173 units built from 5/71 thru 11/72

'02 CLK320 Cabriolet - wifey's mid-life crisis

2012 VW Jetta Sportwagon TDI...at least its a diesel

Non illegitemae carborundum.

THe problem isn't that it was federalised, but that the same knuckleheads are doing the job. ANd half of them couldn't get hired by McDonalds for lack of attention to detail.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

We are wasting a huge amount of money, or are being very dense about the potential. By not having a continuing series of events we’re being lulled into thinking we’re accomplishing something.
We lived on our boat in LA Harbor for a long time. This is not Marina del Rey - very seedy, but for actually living on a boat, it’s the best. In a weekenders marina you feel like you live in a fishbowl. Anyway, there has always been a large law enforcement presence, and I always assumed it was because of the drug traffic – it’s huge. They never seemed to do much to clean up that scene, and my thought was that it was just more of a control and contain type of deal. No – come to find out it was all about watching for terrorists – this is late eighties/mid-nineties. They’ve long realized the potential, but to really do anything about it means significantly reducing our privacy and freedom.
We’ve got to have a national ID card and a severe infringement on our privacy or we will not be safe. A paper passport is an antique. We’ve got to become involved and informed about the political process to control Big Brother, but we’ve also got to allow him in our life. We have a wildly inefficient way of wasting money now and an ID card could go a long way to halting that waste. This morning, since sunup, over twenty Border Patrol vehicles have driven by in new SUV’s, and I guarantee that they are just going through the motions, because they accomplish nothing! I’m in Mexico two or three times a week and the only time I’m ever checked is by the Mexicans. They (our team) recently got this big multi – bucks X-Ray truck that passes over a vehicle to see inside it. When they first got it they sent me along with about four other cars over to the area where they keep it – I had my less than friendly Chow Chow with me and no leash, big mess controlling him – but that was it! That thing is just setting there idle, every time I go across. They’ve not looked in my trunk in hundreds and hundreds of trips across the border – I’ve even joked with them about it.
I’m one of the most independent off the radar type persons you’ll ever meet, and I’ve long ago realized that my personal liberty is more a state of mind than a matter of how much information the government may have on me. If you’re not up to something you have nothing to fear if you’re even slightly bright about the paper trial you create of your life. Divorce attorneys have taught me this.
I’m just afraid that while China just sits back and watches us burn up our capital we’ll wait once again until it too late and have no ability to over react in our typically inefficient way.

__________________
89 300E
79 240D
72 Westy
63 Bug sunroof
85 Jeep CJ7
86 Chevy 6.2l diesel PU

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
Marcus Aurelius

The comment is based on???

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Based on the Fact that the same people work there as did before it was federalised....and the fact that they routinely miss things that they should see, such as guns bombs etc......You actually think at minimume wage you are going to get the best and brightest people....or even the most attention focused people? If you do you sadly mistaken....they are lucky to get enough people that actualy pass screening.

Heck this week the alarm went off and they still let a package pass through with a simulated bomb.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I agree.

But at least when it was privately owned, they could have actually FIRED the worst of them....Do you realize how difficult it is to fire a federal employee? It's worse than most local unions! It's ridiculous.

Mike

__________________
_____
1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
_____
1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
_____
1985 300TD
270,000 miles
_____
1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
www.myspace.com/openskystudio
www.myspace.com/speedxband
www.myspace.com/openskyseparators
www.myspace.com/doubledrivemusic

bhd and mm speak truth. My understanding is that the minimum standards to be a 'federalized' airport screener are lower than they previously were in most places. And at least here in Atlanta, it's scary who is manning the machines. Many of them look about sixteen years old, and it's not unusual to see five or six standing around behind a screening machine (not sure they're x-ray anymore!) and not one of them actually looking at the screen.

Amen, bothers and sister, amen. This is a perfect instance of a job that should never have been federalized.

However, I have seen some airports in which the screeners were very alert and polite. Unfortunately, none of those were New Orleans.