Having second thoughts about those new full-body scanners being used at airports by the Transportation Security Administration? The federal agency charged with protecting the nation’s transportation systems may want to take a second look — at you.
Talk about déjà vu. It’s a holiday weekend. The Transportation Security Administration releases a vague new security directive, but it won’t tell us what’s in it. People start talking. Next thing you know, a blogger has published the entire document on his site.
If you’re unlucky enough to have a medical emergency on a plane, your flight attendants are trained to help. Same thing goes for other public places, like restaurants and schools. But an internal memo circulated to employees at one airport suggests the TSA would rather you take your heart attack elsewhere.
Maybe there’s something in the water in Orlando, but the Transportation Security Administration just can’t stay out of the news there.
Since the last time I wrote about the Transportation Security Administration, the agency charged with protecting air travel has encountered some unexpected turbulence.
The Department of Homeland Security has withdrawn a subpoena that would have required me to furnish it with all documents related to the Dec. 25 TSA Security Directive published on this Web site.
We had just put the kids in the bathtub when Special Agent Robert Flaherty knocked on my front door with a subpoena. He was very polite, and used “sir” a lot, but he said he just wanted a name: Who sent me the security directive?
The Transportation Security Administration’s campaign to confuse airline passengers has intensified. After posting a revised statement and Q&A about Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to its Web site yesterday that essentially said nothing, travelers are expressing frustration with the agency that’s supposed to safeguard America’s transportation systems.
Since the government has been unresponsive to my requests to clarify its new security measures, I thought it would be best to publish the security directive in its entirety.
The Transportation Security Administration has ordered airlines to perform a manual pat-down screening of all passengers on inbound international flights, “concentrating on upper legs and torso,” according to a memo sent to US Airways employees. The search must be performed by airline personnel during the boarding process, in addition to the regular screening at the checkpoint.
