Speculation New Bill Could Ban All Carry-On Bags on Airplanes
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is a rush transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," December, 30 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
DAVID ASMAN, GUEST HOST: Well, Canada is now banning carry-on bags on U.S.-bound flights after the attempted bombing. Passengers are only being allowed to carry the bare essentials, things like medical devices, bags containing life-sustaining items.
Aviation expert Michael Boyd says it is only a matter of time before we see the same approach here.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Well, will it work?
MICHAEL BOYD, PRESIDENT, THE BOYD GROUP: Not really. Bottom line, this whole thing is a joke.
Taking carry-on luggage away from passengers in Canada is not going to fix the problem that we saw over in Amsterdam. But we have been monkeying around with the wrong things with security for eight years. And now the bill is going to due. It may be too late.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}We are doing things like this, rather than hardening — hardening our airports and our airport security. So, yes, we have — we have got people in Congress who would love to see this happen.
ASMAN: Well, we have been monkeying around with wrong things. What are the right things?
BOYD: Well, the right things is, you know, we want to look at airport security. Screening wasn't the issue on 9/11. It was airport and aviation security.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And all we're looking at now is body scanners. All we're looking at now is carry-on luggage. All we're looking at now are liquids. We should looking at, what about the backdoor to the airport? How did this guy get on that airplane with that stuff on him? How is it we had such weak security over in Amsterdam?
We have to look at those things. And just buying body screen devices here is not going to fix anything.
ASMAN: I don't know if you heard me talking to Steve Emerson earlier, but we were talking about personnel, and it's not so much that you need machines; it's that you need better personnel at the TSA or wherever to stop these guys from getting on.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BOYD: Well, that is true. And we haven't had that. Since day one, when Bush appointed Magaw to be the head of the TSA, he wasn't qualified.
The last guy there under the Bush administration, he wasn't qualified. We are putting people like Janet Napolitano, a dried-out governor, into the job. She said, oh, the system worked.
Well, maybe it didn't work. When we have leadership like that, bin Laden is probably dying laughing right now.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ASMAN: Well, Michael, by the way, what do you think about the current nominee for the TSA? Of course, Jim DeMint and Harry Reid are getting into this match about whether he is qualified or not. What do you think about him, former FBI guy? Of course, he does want to unionize — or indicated he would unionize the TSA.
What do you think of him?
BOYD: He shouldn't be in — he shouldn't be in the job. If that is his first priority is to unionize the screeners, when we have all these other problems, he is a political appointee who shouldn't be in the job.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ASMAN: Michael Boyd, aviation expert.
Michael, great to see you. Thanks for being here. Happy new year.
BOYD: Good to see you, sir. Happy new year.
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