That raises the question of just exactly what the Bush administration did the past seven years to put a system in place to stop these explosives from coming on planes. Not much, it seems.
But Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism analyst at Georgetown University, called the suspect's ability to smuggle the device on board profoundly disturbing, given that the TSA has spent more than $30 billion on aviation security since 2004, the world's airlines collectively spend an additional $5.9 billion a year, and PETN is well-known as a favored material for terrorist suicide bombers.I can appreciate the privacy issues involved in using those devices that basically show you 100% nude. And spare me the explanations about how the guys watching you are in a secure room with no ability to copy your nude photo - it's called a cell phone camera. But what I can't abide is all this talk about the "cost" being prohibitive." The cost? You mean the Bush administration was happy to spend a couple of trillion on unnecessary tax cuts, another trillion on two wars, one of which was unnecessary, but they chose not to spend money on making sure another shoe bomber didn't try to blow us up, partly because of concerns about costs?
Just to give you an idea of how "expensive" these devices are:
The machines currently cost $100,000 to $200,000 apiece, though they could replace other equipment. Deploying them throughout the U.S. aviation system could cost about $150 million.Ooh, $150m. I've seen bigger earmarks written by children on the Hill. In Washington terms, $150m is nothing. This is not about money. And I have a hard time believing that the Bush administration gave a lick about anyone's privacy. So why didn't George Bush and Dick Cheney go ahead and make the airways safer?
