[itistoday]

It's perfectly possible that an organization headed by the government whose primary focus is the security of airline passengers is completely incompetent and ineffective.

But is it not also possible that the TSA is purposefully putting on the guise of an incompetent governmental entity? That would seem like an excellent strategy to take, as it follows the principles in Sun Tzu's Art of War to the letter. If you are strong, appear weak, if you are weak, appear strong, etc.

If these terrorists think they can easily game the system, it will likely lead them to be less cautious, exactly as stated in the article:

Paradoxically, the best terrorist strategy (as long as they have enough volunteers) under unpredictable screening may be to prepare a cadre of suicide bombers for the least rigorous screening to which they might be subjected, and not, as the strategy assumes, for the most rigorous.

That seems like a good thing to me, and if this is the TSA's actual strategy, it's a smart one. Say one thing publicly, but do another privately.

[pvg]

But is it not also possible that the TSA is purposefully putting on the guise of an incompetent governmental entity?

It's extremely unlikely. For one thing, appearing incompetent in order to encourage the incautious, freelancers, amateurs and copycats is essentially using the public as bait - if you happen to miss one, people die. As a strategy it's morally and probably legally questionable.

[kscaldef]

Personally, my take on the "unpredictable security measures" is that what's really being said is "things are pretty chaotic here and we don't really have a well-though-out plan in place, but we're going to try to cover that up by claiming that the inconsistency is actually intentional".

[thesethings]

Whoa. You must blew my mind. I really want this to be true :D