There is a school of thought that producing a negitive result is in fact reassuring the public.
I think
bjcc is absolutely correct about the existence of this orientation. This "school of thought" seems to be widely shared among the secocrats, especially in the U.S. This is the school of thought that believes that pilots and cabin crew should be explicitly treated to an evaluation of their [security] "suitability to operate"
in public. What happened in this case is a reflection of an explicit policy that is now showing itself for what it is.
As I understand it, after 9/11, the state of mind in the U.S. was such that pilots were very nearly subject to much more public humiliation including being frisked
in public prior to every flight - with the
in public bit being entirely intentional.
What takes place now is a "concession". While accepting that the mood at the time was not one conducive to negotiation and discussion, I don't feel that our representatives did a particuarly good job. Pilots are now treated as being little different to passengers in terms of the risk they bring to the very aeroplanes they fly.
I find the discussion above depressing, based on the simple observation that yet again we have the threat of arrest being bandied about when a perfectly reasonable position is taken. Allways depressing are the - ever present - pilots who take the "security" line without so much as a thought for what they are saying. Remember, there will allways be a pilot who will want to argue that it is possible that another pilot will be a terrorist and that pilots should therefore undergo special checks, strip searches/"internal investigations", suspension on the "slightest suspicion", etc. (After all,
pilots get into the cockpit!! They can do terrible things there!!). We just need to be able to recognise such idiots for what they are and get back to looking after our interests in this "security game" a bit better.
By the way, I think that such testing in public would have exactly the opposite effect as that suggested. I also think it is a form of public humiliation.