The whole Nathaniel Heatwole fiasco has been in the news for awhile now. I thought I post some of what what the Smoking Gun wrote to show people how serious the breach to airport security was.

Remarkably, Heatwole sent an e-mail to the Transportation Security Administration on September 15 with a subject line reading, "Information Regarding 6 Recent Security Breaches." The e-mail, which carried Heatwole's name and telephone number, detailed how the writer smuggled box cutters, blades, a knife, bleach, and "a simulated plastic explosive" onto planes at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Despite Heatwole's acknowledgement in the e-mail that his actions were illegal, TSA representatives apparently never bothered to investigate his claim. Heatwole's gambit, a misguided attempt to call attention to what he saw as lapses in airline security, triggered the inspection last week of the entire commercial air fleet, about 7,000 planes.