Those African airports

As the article notes, security at many African airports is more than a bit lacking. But it's not clear if great security would have caught the underwear bomber, and in fact, at the Amsterdam airport, it didn't.

I'm reminded of the time I flew in Africa back in 1999 or so. I was doing a project in Cote d'Ivoire, and took a side trip to Mali (truly a fascinating country, Mali). I don't recall if it was the flight between Mali and Cote d'Ivoire, or the flight within Mali, but at one point we walked through an airport metal detector that was visibly unplugged.