TSA Hails the "Blogesphere" for Letting It Know What the Heck Screeners Are Up To Out There
Scott Beale (an old pal of mine) told the world on Jan 31 that San Francisco airport screeners had begun requiring all electronic devices–down to cables–to be taken out of carryon luggage as it went through screening. Now, on a TSA blog (get those permalinks set up!) they apologize and explain:
On Monday afternoon we began receiving questions about airports that were requiring ALL electronics to be removed from carry-on bags (everything, including blackberrys, iPods and even cords). This practice was also mentioned on several other blogs and left us scratching our heads.
So…we checked with our security operations team to figure out what was going on. After some calls to our airports, we learned that this exercise was set up by local TSA offices and was not part of any grand plan across the country. These practices were stopped on Monday afternoon and blackberrys, cords and iPods began to flow through checkpoints like the booze was flowing on Bourbon Street Tuesday night. (Fat Tuesday of course).
As a commenter in the TSA blog thread says:
It's an embarassment that the TSA does not know what's going on it its own house without this blog. Rogue screeners have been creating their own rules since the inception of the TSA, yet this is hailed as a major victory?
Please, figure out what's going on in your own house, clean it up thoroughly, then come brag to us about it.