Quit whining about security and just take it

To the editor:

Here is a contrarian view of the Transportation Security Administration's performance in ensuring airline passenger safety: I think they're doing a heck of a job.

They should not cave in to the namby-pamby passenger's whining about full-body scans and pat-downs. And everyone -- including nuns, children, elderly and disabled persons -- has to be checked. If passengers do not want to be subjected to a full-body scan, a pat-down or whatever else is required to ensure safety, then there is a simple solution: Choose another mode of travel.

Roger Witcher

Las Vegas

Watch cargo

To the editor:

I worked for a major airline for 43 years, and I have worked all over the world. While I was an active employee, I was subjected to many different security systems, some more restrictive than others from country to country.

It has been said many times that terrorists only have to succeed once, while our airport security is constantly changing tactics in efforts to make flights safe. Personally, I don't mind the hand wands and shoe removal and -- to tell you the truth -- I have had knee replacement, so I ring the buzzer every time I go through security.

The new search methods, in my estimation, are embarrassing to most of the traveling public. Homeland Security should use a little common sense and drop this political correctness about who is a threat to our safety. It's certainly not grandmas and grandpas.

The Israeli airline, El Al, has never had a highjacking. Why? Because they selectively single people out who fit the terrorist profile. They will approach the individual and ask certain questions. The response to those questions and body language determines whether that passenger boards their flight. It's no secret that they have sky marshals on all of their flights.

We need to profile the traveling public -- and you need to know the person who fits the profile of a terrorist is from 18 to 40 years old and is of European descent or from the Middle East. We are not violating his or her rights when we ask certain questions and do a pat-down.

Officials at Homeland Security had better get their act together on all cargo flights worldwide. The terrorists have made several attempts that failed or were discovered before blowing an airplane out of the sky.

Travis Whitley

Las Vegas

TSA idiocy

To the editor:

With regard to our security, the leadership at TSA, the pilots union and pilot Chesley Sullenberger could not be dumber if they tried. They have established that putting pilots through the same scanning as passengers is unnecessary because they are trusted and not a security problem. Well, who could argue with that?

Wait. What if some terrorists procure uniforms and IDs in order to pose as pilots? Could that happen?

Shame on the pilots for allowing this to take place. For reasons unknown to passengers, they are already given VIP treatment by being allowed to barge in ahead of passengers.

Who is running the TSA, anyway? Since when are they inclined to be beholden to a union? What possible pressure can the pilots union apply to a federal agency that serves as the designer of security systems for all of us?

The core of TSA's idiocy rests with its "sensitivity" to everyone but the passengers. The full-body scanners are in place and accepted as the ultimate control for screening. If they simply required everyone to go through the scanner -- period -- pilots and passengers alike could decide whether they want to fly. If they would eliminate pat-downs and exceptions to the scanning, we would be safer and the cost of security would plummet.

Jim Cassidy

Henderson

Pat-down pride

To the editor:

Are we all missing the point of the extra airport searches? We are at war with terrorists.

During World War II, my understanding was that Americans took pride in protecting America, and now too many complain about being patted down?

Las Vegas now has that opportunity to seize this instant in time to make a statement that will be heard around the world regarding those pat-downs. We might consider a video opportunity with three pat-down lines. A normal line, a line with all the top male entertainers in town and a few Chippendale guys in the mix, and then a line of Mayor Oscar Goodman's showgirls (of course, with Mayor Goodman, martini in hand, supervising them) as well as our top female entertainers.

If one idea often begets another perhaps our experts can seize upon the opportunity and take this concept to a different level without ignoring my first point.

Ira Seaver

Henderson