Faux Airport Security Twenty-Five Year After the 9/11 Terrorist Attack

99% of us shouldn't be subject to ineffective screening measures to protect the feelings of 1% of us when two key reforms would let 99.9% of travelers glide through security.

On September 11, 2026, we will memorialize the twenty-fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, took down over 250 stories of buildings in New York City, struck an enormous hole in the Pentagon, and showed Americans at their best in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In most ways, we’ve returned to our pre-9/11 mentality and lifestyles in which we attend events without a constant sense of dread in the backs of our minds. When it comes to air travel, however, we remained mired in the processes pushed out in the days, months, and years after the 9/11 attack. The technology used at security screenings has gotten better and programs like TSA Pre-check and CLEAR make navigating security screenings a bit easier for those who can afford participation in those programs. For the rest of America, the security screening process has little improved.

As part of the team that helped stand up the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) after their creation, I am stupefied at what has NOT changed in twenty-five years. Sixteen years after the 9/11 attack, here is what I wrote in “End the Airport Security Charade” in U.S. News and World Report:

The all or nothing approach is not necessary because we simply can’t remove hay from the haystack to make it easier to find the terrorist needle; rather, it is required because we refuse to remove most of the hay due to political correctness and an erroneous view that treating people differently is unconstitutional.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, the focus of policymakers and America’s national security apparatus has been on not discriminating against Muslims. By trying to avoid that kind of repugnant discrimination, our policymakers and security entities instead have discriminated against the vast majority of Americans (and non-Americans) who possess not even a scintilla of any nexus to terrorist activity.

We the vast many are subject to screenings, pat-downs, random invasive searches, the confiscation of our possessions and other humiliating actions when everyone knows we are not the target of these activities. Our government puts Lil’ Billy, Grandma Ethel and Businessman Bob through a useless process simply to justify using the same actions against people suspected of being terrorists. We watch handicapped people emasculated, children driven to tears and the elderly pulled aside for secondary screening despite the fact that every person involved in the process and witnessing it knows unequivocally the terrorist risk from those people is zero.

This madness must end.

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There are two reforms we should institute to focus our time and finite resources on people most likely to pose a threat to our aviation system. First, the federal government should create a free screening process for all Americans that allows us to voluntary submit whatever data is necessary to fully remove us from the screening process and any electronics ban. This proactive process would be similar to the TSA Pre-Check system, but even better in that approval would allow us to walk through security as easily as we walk through the airport front doors.

If they know most of us pose no risk, why continue the charade of security screenings as if we do? Imagine how much easier traveling would be with this single reform.

The second reform would be to apply screening and bans to people who possess a nexus to countries in which terrorist activity poses a higher risk. This expressly does not mean Muslims. The nexus could be attached to people who:

• Come from certain higher-risk countries;

• travel to and from certain higher-risk countries;

• call or receive calls from certain higher-risk countries;

• send or receive money or mail from certain higher-risk countries;

• send or receive email or texts from certain higher-risk countries;

• and are connected to suspected terrorists on social media apps.

These categories could be narrowed by age and time intervals (e.g., years since last trip to a higher-risk country). A process also must exist for individuals who fall into a category to voluntary submit data for review to have themselves removed from the screening process and bans.

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The point is that most Americans, including many Muslims, wouldn’t fall under any of the categories listed above. If that is the case, why should we expend billions of dollars every year on people, equipment, processes and other items to screen people who pose no risk?

Nine year later, not much has changed. It is my sincere hope that new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullins will spend some time reforming TSA’s security screening processes so Lil’ Billy and Grandma Ethel can smoothly glide through security without much hassle.