Online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3177408.stm 

Isn't it amazing all the ways the government can come up with to reward
their blood-sucking contractor friends with expensive bullpucky contracts?

Leon

Time runs out for airport weapons haul 

If you've ever had a favourite penknife, hockey stick or tear-gas canister
confiscated at a US airport, prepare for bereavement now. 

The US Government has awarded a contract for the disposal and destruction
of the millions of items seized from careless travellers over the past two
years. 

Stringent airline security measures - which have banned a vast range of
everyday items from luggage - were put in place after the September 11
attacks, leaving the authorities with more than 7.5 million knives,
firearms, cigarette lighters and other potential weapons on their hands. 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had considered a
nationwide programme to return confiscated items, but gave up after the
scheme proved a logistical nightmare. 

[Translation: It would have taken some work.]

Out of pocket 

Now, the TSA is paying an initial $2m - and up to $17m over five years - to
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to oversee the
disposal. 

Metal objects, including more than 2.3 million knives, will be sold as
scrap metal, while hazardous chemicals will be separated and disposed of as
cleanly as possible. 

The plan has caused a murmur of discontent in the US, where many perfectly
innocent travellers have been left out of pocket after having to say
goodbye to their belongings. 

But the TSA points out that regulations are quite clear - confiscated items
automatically become federal property - and insists that the threat to
security is very real. 

In August alone, almost 600,000 prohibited items were discovered in
baggage. 

Not all airports are enforcing the law entirely ruthlessly, however: a
handful have set up lost-and-found offices to allow the innocent to reclaim
their property within a limited period. 

[Can you imagine that? Who would have ever come up with an idea like
setting up a "lost-and-found" office? ]

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