Even the current head of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) now admits that airport security as we know it is largely a failure. In light of the fact that reactionary security changes have done nothing to thwart supposed terrorist plots and everything to target innocent Americans, some government officials, as well as TSA administrator John Pistole, are now recommending that the airport security paradigm be altered to become a more "intelligence-based" system rather than a technology-based one.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, airport security measures have escalated to the point that everyday Americans are now subjected to being herded like cattle through intense security lines wher X-ray machines blast them with extreme doses of ionizing radiation and TSA agents invasively grope their every bodily crevice in search of hidden weapons and explosives. But none of this has effectively prevented a single terrorist attack.

"Let's be honest: We've been lucky the last few times," explained Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman, in a Boston Globe report. "With the Christmas Day bomber over Detroit and the Times Square bomber and the air cargo attempt, they did not succeed, but that's because of their own inadequacies, not because we were able to stop them."

Rather than continue to add to the list of security restrictions and requirements at airports -- which since 2002 has cost American taxpayers over $57 billion -- officials are now suggesting that intelligence programs that analyze individual passenger data be used instead. However what types of information officials plan to collect and analyze is unclear, and such a proposition could be an even worse invasion of privacy than current protocols.