Sir, are you sure you emptied your pockets?

I was directed to this little story by Dennis Prager on the radio today. This serves as counterpoint to my sad post of a few hours ago. In the Los Angeles Times there is a story of an Iraqi man being detained after having been caught smuggling suspicious items. This is a segment of the article.

Fadhel Al-Maliki, a 35-year-old Iraqi national living in Atlantic City, N.J., had been flagged by security officials at LAX and was undergoing a secondary "selectee screening" when he set off a metal detector. Al-Maliki, a former security guard, told screeners that he knew what had triggered the alarm and proceeded to remove items from his rectum, including a rock, chewing gum and thin wire filament...
...The rock, authorities said he told them, was from another planet.

I must say that there are very few things that can honestly say I would not do as a job, but I must now include removing and studying space rocks for perspective terrorists rectums.

In all seriousness, these types of incidents are not a joking matter. Annie Jacobsen has pointed out that these suspicious but inconclusive activities are often probes for security weaknesses. She relates that in August of 2001 actor James Woods was admittedly present when 9/11 leader Mohammad Atta and 3 associates perpetrated a false hijacking as a final test before the actual attacks.