The TSA let a potential shoe-bomber go?

That's just crazy

Michelle Malkin links to a story by Annie Jacobsen, a writer for Womans Wall Street and a close observer of airline security issues She describes a recent airport incident involving a 50-year old Egytian man:

According to CBS 2 investigative reporter Scott Weinberger, "Badawi was wearing high-top sneakers that, CBS 2 was told, had tape around them and rubber bands sticking out of them." Also according to Weinberger, at the time that Badawi had passed through U.S. Customs with his unusual shoes and entered the airport to make a connecting flight, "the computerized system that takes a visitor's fingerprints and checks it against various databases -- including the terror watch list" -- was down. So it appears that when the system is down, immigration officials simply clear people without checking them and, in this case, they cleared Badawi.

Federal sources told CBS 2 that Badawi then headed toward his next gate -- to catch a Delta flight to Iowa via Chicago -- when a TSA screener stopped him. Badawi's shoes were checked for explosives and the results tested positive -- five times. "The reading for explosives was off the charts," Weinberger reported, quoting one federal source, calling the resultant reading for explosives "the highest ever."

The TSA kept the unusual sneakers but let Badawi continue on his travels. He missed his connection to Iowa, spent the night at JFK and then caught a flight on Saturday.

(my bold)

What I want to know is why they let Badawi go?

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