I cannot believe that a government contractor would or could be so incomprehensibly idiotic in his actions. He definately needs to bare the wrath of the authorities and at the least, lose his 'role' with the government.
As for the photographer, pure lunacy.
There is too much ongoing and increasing potential danger for all the airlines, their crew and their passengers already without lapse security checks. Unfortunately it was the poor security guard that bore the brunt, but I don't want to (and I'm sure no-one else does) imagine the outcome if he hadn't checked it and it had gone off onboard mid flight.
The world is getting scarier and scarier. If this can happen 'unintentionally', then what it someone wanted to do it 'intentionally' as terrorists. Security should be as tight as it can be and not as tight as is 'comfortable' as with many airports still.
Full marks to any security that pick up on these people and items, but for those that are picked up, we all know there are more that get through although the vast majority of those are innocent passengers with no malicious intent and carrying onboard minor items such as toothpicks, penknives, etc.