DFC,
Your arguement is a crock of s*ite I'm afraid. As IO points out, anyone interested in committing crime can and will do so regardless, and arguements like yours simply f*ck it up for the rest of us. This happened at a south coast airfield, where some d*ck head made some flippant remark about security to some wannabe journalist, and how easy it was to fly in from abroad, and what we saw next was the introduction of some arse pain procedures, which are totally un-nescessary. I'm sure these forums are browsed by the press / CAA etc.
Airside access is no big deal, infact its as much of a big deal as walking amongst a bunch of parked cars in a multi storey car park. You won't get far if you start tinkering with the engine of a 737 parked on the ramp, regardless whether you hold a pilots licence.
How do you know that an Afgan pilot is a) intent of committing crime and b) an inferior pilot to yourself? In fact if the CAA recognise the licence and ALLOW the holder to fly on it, then I don't think that you can say that the pilot is inferior. If it is indeed a forgery, then this person is breaking the law, and we go back to square 1. Incidentally, if I was going to forge a licence, I'd forge a CAA issued one, for the fact that a) I can print an exact copy on my lazer printer here, now, today, and no one will be able to tell the difference, and b) Its less likely to be questioned by the CFI in you example. For REAL security the UK licence should be like the UK driving licence, with a photo on it, but I guess thats too hard for the CAA to print on a lazer printer and would probably raise the fee several hundred pounds.
You comment about the UK driving licence is flawed on several grounds. 1) You CAN drive on your foreign licence for more than a year. Not legally, but if you get pulled by the police, who is to know how long you have been in the country? If you come and go in and out of the UK, you could in theory drive on a foreign licence forever legally and 2) you DO need to take the UK driving test to be issued an EU/UK driving licence.
What I would call a "Gaping security hole" is the fact that armed Air marshals are allowed onboard aircraft. How long is it going to be before Al Quieda or whoever manage to get a trainee AM through the candidate selection process and onboard an aircraft. Now there is no need to smuggle weapons onboard a passenger jet, they are already there!
Rgds
EA