Thread: TSA screening manual posted online reveals secrets

Dec 08, 2009

TSA screening manual posted online reveals secrets

06:30 PM

ABC News is reporting that the Transportation Security Administration inadvertently posted its airport screening procedures manual on the Web.

The security breach resulted from blacked-out sections that could be undone by computer users and involves special rules for screening diplomats, CIA agents and police.

ABC says the 93-page manual reveals that only 20% of checked bags are hand searched for explosives, and it details limitations of x-ray screening.

ABC has posted a link to the manual.

"This is an appalling and astounding breach of security that terrorists could easily exploit," said Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow about stopping terrorist travel. Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) called the release "an embarrassing mistake that calls into question the judgment of agency managers." Here's his statement.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine,the ranking Republican on the committee, labeled it a "shocking breach undercuts the public's confidence in the security procedures at our airports."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... ecrets-1/1

TSA Leaks Sensitive Airport Screening Manual

By Kim Zetter
December 7, 2009 | 3:12 pm

Who needs anonymous sources when the government is perfectly capable of leaking its own secrets?

Government workers preparing the release of a Transportation Security Administration manual that details airport screening procedures badly bungled their redaction of the .pdf file. Result: The full text of a document considered “sensitive security informationâ€

I agree with Ron Paul, fly at our own risk, which is exactly what we are doing now. Quit the long, useless lines at the airports. Where there is a will here is a way and they will, one day, find a way.

Oops.