How did he do it?

The most common comment i've heard about abdul the wanna be highjacker is "how did he manage to get through security?". This leaves me baffled because it seems blatantly obvious to me (and I would think anyone who has flown in the last 5 years) that the "security" for air travel is idiotic and almost totally pointless. As long as you're not carrying metal, there's nothing I've ever seen to stop you from smuggling anything on board under your clothes. Even if you're unlucky enough to be pulled out of line for special search, they don't look in your underwear or do a serious pat down in my experience. I'm personally surprised that there haven't been many more plane bombings because there's not much to stop it as far as on site security is concerned. I like to think that its superior intelligence analysis which occurs long before a terrorist ever gets close to the airport which is preventing more attacks, but who knows. With the vast overload of data and poor communication between agencies its hard to believe that either. But my point is, this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. The only pleasant surprise is that this asshole was unlucky or incompetent enough to have a faulty detonator. Now that's a festivus miracle.