With Osama bin Laden continuing to send video footage that predicts impending terrorist attacks and the United States’ terror alert status remaining at the yellow or “elevated” level, the Transportation Security Administration’s decision to make it easier for airports to replace federal baggage and passenger screeners with privately employed workers may not be the wisest – or safest – decision.

The agency announced Tuesday that airports had an extended deadline to apply for permission to switch to private contractors. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, airports were required by the agency to switch from privately employed screeners to an all-government workforce.

Although the country has undergone many changes since the attacks, the switch back to privately contracted screeners will only open the doors to more problems – and the risk involved just isn’t worth it.

It is unlikely that private contractors would screen potential candidates as rigorously as the federal government screens its workers. Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee, said private screeners would have the same qualifications as federal screeners. But that doesn’t mean each group would be subject to the same hiring procedures.

The government instills more fear in people than workers in the private sector can ever hope to. The sight of a federal employee rifling through purses and carry-on bags at the metal detectors is more intimidating than a private screener who took the job just because it paid well or because it was more appealing than working security at an office building.

Airport directors critical of the federal screeners are happy about the decision because they think private contractors can do a better job. These critics find the federal bureaucracies too inflexible when it comes to assigning workers to handle large crowds of travelers. They say it results in long lines at security checkpoints.

It’s true that a longer wait to pass through airport security may be a bit of an inconvenience, both for passengers and airport personnel. But even a five-minute inconvenience is worth the wait if it prevents potential terrorists from slipping through security and enacting the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks all over again.