Airport Safety
Fails Government Standards

The Government Accountability Office and the Department of Homeland Security will release their recent studies on airport security two years following federal takeover of airport passenger clearance.

Federal screeners, the report will say, have been more successful at seizing prohibited items at checkpoints, which continue to include passengers' knives (160,000 per month,) box cutters (2,000 per month,) and guns (about 70 per month.) But the overall rating is the same as it was prior to 9-11.

Rep. John Mica chairs the House aviation subcommittee and was briefed on the report 15 April. He told the Associated Press that people are likely to be shocked that billions of dollars spent thus far still haven't provided adequate safety standards.

Delaine Marcello of Brooklyn, NY, regularly travels for her interior design business and she has grown used to post-9-11 security measures at JFK International Airport. She says measures have added 20 percent more "wasted" time to her travel schedule, but that time cannot be billed.

"To think what they put us through at these check-in counters, and for what? Now you tell me security is no better than it was before 9-11?" she said. "Well, you know what -- this is exactly why I voted for [Sen. John] Kerry, because this administration doesn't know what they are doing."

Another JFK flight passenger who wished not to be named agreed with Marcello and said the United States is floundering in Iraq and at home and yet the voters refuse to recognize when they are being "screwed" by the government.

Jon Park, of Chicago, IL, said he still feels safer however, "Its obvious no one can come through those gates with a weapon, because they would be stopped."

"I think they are doing a good job, even if the new report shows differently," Park said.