But They Were Ham Sandwiches!

Last week a 57-year-old middle school principal from Des Moines was treated like a disciple of Osama bin Laden after she accidentally packed a bread knife in a food cooler she was bringing aboard a plane departing from Los Angeles. Cecilia Beaman had brought the knife, along with two others that she packed in checked luggage, to make sandwiches for the 37 schoolchildren she was supervising during a trip to a band competition in California. KOMO-TV in Seattle reports that a Transportation Security Administration screener told Beaman, "You've committed a felony….And you're considered a terrorist."

Beaman says she was told her name would go on a terrorist watch-list and that she would have to pay a $500 fine.

"I'm a 57-year-old woman who is taking care of 37 kids," she told them. "I'm not gonna commit a terrorist act." Beaman says they took information from her Washington drivers license and confiscated and photographed the knife according to standard operating procedure.

She says screeners refused to give her paperwork or documentation of her violation, documentation of the pending fine, or a copy of the photograph of the knife.

"They said 'no' and they said it's a national security issue. And I said what about my constitutional rights? And they said 'not at this point…you don't have any.' "

[Thanks to Kirk Gray for the link.]