For incoming flights to the US the US has security, immigration and customs personnel and procedures in many foreign airports to deal with those and vice versa. Off the top of my head I think this is governed by treaty.
Why have a "smartly dressed Indian/Asian man" guide him on his fateful journey? Wouldn't they want this to be a little more inconspicuous (until the failed attempt)? Why would they want the suspect (that they plan to be caught) to have a noticeable "co-conspirator" ?
just like the initial reports out of fort hood were that there were more than 1 shooter. yes - and as i said, instead of ensuring that they follow established procedure in the future they have decided they have to naked body scan and grope. does this qualify as a D&D thread yet? i flew out of guatemala city to houston last june - the security there was ridiculous. aside from the standard metal detector and x-ray scan of bags they had people doing full pat-downs - didnt touch junk, but got uncomfortably close there. searched baggage. and then right before boarding the plane they did another bag search at the gate. i was on a flight w/ some church group of teenagers who had been down there for a month - there was like 50 of them and they all got the same search. i flew out of amsterdam back in 2005 and had no issues. coming into detroit i got the full search though - they tore my bags apart and held me up for about 45 minutes.
