Reply #14: What makes me even madder is [View All]

apparently our government has known this to be a potential threat for a long time:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Terrorism/story?id=2300460&page=1

A Threat the Government Could See Coming

This kind of plot may sound new to most of us, but it's a threat government agencies have known about for years.

It's a loophole in security they haven't fixed.

In February 2005, a Government Accountability Office report determined that the Transportation Security Administration had "delayed the development of a device to detect weapons, liquid explosives … in containers found in carry-on baggage or passenger's effects."

A different report, issued jointly by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, noted in its title the "Possible Terrorist Use of Liquid Explosive Materials in Future Attacks."

This report mentioned that liquid explosives could be set off by the filament of a single Christmas light.

Meanwhile, people of every age were waiting in line at the airport, shoes in hand.

This time, however, shoes were not the problem.

U.S. agencies knew there was a threat of liquid explosives for which they weren't prepared.