Airport security stories

In the litany of security screening madness, this account from autumn of 2001 must rank high:

''As I was waiting in line to go through the screening myself, several Guardsmen were permitted to cut to the front of the line as they were about to take their place on the other side of the magnetometers,'' recalled Mr. Bace, a research director at Gartner Inc. in Chicago.

What happened next astonished him. One by one, the men placed their loaded M-16 rifles and their pistols on the conveyer belt, sending them through the X-ray machine to be scanned, and then meekly walked past the security guards to retrieve the weapons. ''I started to say, 'But why?' '' Mr. Bace said. ''But a sergeant just said, 'Don't ask. They were told everything had to be scanned.' The look on his face said it all to me: 'You just have to pass through here. I stay here and work with these people.' ''

Posted by David on July 8, 2003 3:06 PM