I agree with Stratocaster. I answer the questions seriously but only out of politeness to the handling agent. The possibility that these questions will reveal a serious attempt are zero.
HOWEVER, I can see the valid point raised by PanicButton, that they serve to remind pax to be thoughtful when packing. (Fat chance!)
Stratocaster also points out that the Shoe Man on the AA flight was probably not a very genial person and was not spotted. Here is a fascinating quote from Johnelle Bryant. She is a loan officer at the US Dept of Agriculture and was approached by Mohammed Atta in May 2000 for a loan to buy a crop dusting aircraft.
She states (BBC 7th June 2002) that the loan request was rejected as he was not a US citizen, so it did not make financial sense for the government. She referred him to other agencies and a bank.
Ms Bryant says that she and Atta discussed a-Qaeda and Bin Laden during his visit to her office in Homestead, Florida, and he asked her about security at the World Trade Centre and what she knew of Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles.
One can only speculate that, had he have been successful, he might have loaded the crop dusting a/c with dangerous chemicals. Following this, Atta obviously 'upgraded' his plans.
When the attacks took place, Ms Bryant put two and two together and notified her employer and the FBI. The
really interesting point is that Ms Bryant said,
How could somebody be that evil, be that close to me and I didn't recognise it?
The interview with ABC was reported on the BBC and is interesting on a number of points. One can but surmise that the reason Ms Bryant did not notice anything is that, since no one had driven aircraft into buildings at that time, regular folks would have no reason to think that way. She must be feeling very uncomfortable.
To return to the thread, the chance of so called 'security' questions revealing ANYTHING are zero.