Himeno

Same goes for DHS and DfT.

jms_uk

From BBC website:

stimpy

A female friend wondered today if vibrators will be classified as personal electronics devices and fall under this nonsense. I told her it was possible that any idiot security staffer at the airport could indeed make that interpretation now.

Blogndog

Not all electronic devices are designed to be operated on battery power. Some require to have mains power to operate. That doesn't mean you can't travel with them.

jms_uk

I will be testing exactly that on Saturday and Sunday.

GUWonder

Already taken place. There is even one report of such on FT.

alanR

Should be interesting if she has to prove that "it works".

alanR

After 4 years of a Con-Dem'd government assuming that they thought it up after a drinking session and wrote it on the back of a fag packet is a reasonable assumption.

Simplistic idea - check
Consequences not thought through - check.

Yup, fits exactly

WillCAD

No doubt, TSA has lied to the public - and even to Congress - on numerous occasions, but the overwhelming majority of TSAs problems don't stem from some vast systemic aversion to the truth. Rather, the majority of the problems stem from ignorance, apathy, stupidity, and gullibility.

Look at some of the most egregious things they do:

1) The 311 rule is based on a complete misunderstanding of the fundamentals of chemistry. A few idiots in London thought Die Hard III was real, and decided they wanted to try the fictitious "binary liquid explosive" as a threat vector. Government, in its infinite stupidity, also thought Die Hard III was real, and so banned liquids on the assumption that if you don't have liquids, you can't make liquid explosives. Both the would-be terrorists and the government which responded failed to realize that such a liquid explosive simply does not exist.

2) FT member Chollie's recent experience traveling with nitro pills. A TSO told him that his nitro pills were prohibited, because explosives were prohibited. "No explosives, no exceptions," is what the TSO told him, and all levels of supervision backed that up. Fine - except that nitro pills are not explosive and cannot be made into explosive, ever. The TSO, and his supervisors, were all banning a lilfesaving medication based solely on an urban myth which has no basis whatsoever in actual fact.

3) Bulk cash/sequential checks. Many TSOs are completely ignorant of their agency's Constitutional limits. They actually believe that they are part of the "war on terror" and they believe that they are "federal agents" with police-like power, who are supposed to be looking for drugs, paraphernalia, and evidence of crimes being committed. They truly have no idea that this is illegal and prohibited under the Administrative Search exception to the 4th Amendment.

4) BDO. Most TSOs have completely bought into the junk science of BDO. They truly believe that a BDO is a human lie-detector who can spot terrorists by observing micro-expressions and body language. While I don't believe it's impossible for a human being to develop such skills - we all have very rudimentary versions of them - I also don't believe it's possible for anyone to reach the claimed level of ability of a BDO without years of intensive training and experience.

5) ID. Virtually the entire agency from top to bottom are firm believers in the mantra that "ID matters", when it truly doesn't. And even if it did, the way that TSA implements it, by having untrained people scrutinize ID repeatedly, simply to compare the names on the ID to the names on BPs, is laughably ineffective. All it takes is a few minutes thought to realize why it doesn't work, yet the agency has predicated the existence of a significant percentage of its employees on this canard, and most of the employees are fervent believers.

It's all ignorance and stupidity, not malice. Heck, even most of the deliberate falshoods are made for the purposes of covering up the ignorance and stupidity and saving the agency's face!

GUWonder

Without legal due process, TSA may confiscate private property in the form of passengers' legally-possessed, no-charge/non-functioning electronic devices at the screening checkpoint?

http://flyingwithfish.boardingarea.c...s-whos-behind/

How is governmentally-forced disposal/surrender of passengers' legitimately-possessed private property at a screening checkpoint (during screening) distinct from governmental seizure of property without legal due process? Liberty and the rights of free people are anything but guaranteed when property seizures can take place in this manner.

chollie

I wonder what exactly TSA means when the directive says pax can dispose of the item themselves. Does that actually mean that the pax can no longer leave the checkpoint to 'dispose' of the item by dropping it in the mail, giving it to a friend, putting in his/her car?

Are conditions attached to pax disposal? If it is up to me, if I have to either dispose of it or surrender it at the checkpoint, then what is TSA going to charge me with when I try to destroy the item before disposing of it? Smashing the dead cellphone, for example. If it's going to be disposed of anyway, and has to be disposed of in front of the TSO, as long as it's quick and no glass/plastic/metal flying everywhere, why would an honest TSO object?

It's not like an honest TSO would be planning on fishing the dead electronic item back out of the trash to take home for personal use or to sell on Ebay, right?

RadioGirl

But this is nothing new. Theft is theft.

TSA have been stealing requiring the "voluntary surrender"* of shampoo, water, yogurt, cupcakes, knives, souvenir baseball bats, 1" molded plastic guns, cable ties, and so on for years. The difference now is merely in the value of the item: a $300 smartphone vs a $3 bottle of water is going to generate more outrage. No one has stopped them from stealing $2 yogurts or $5 cupcakes or $15 multitools, so now they feel empowered to go after the big stuff.

*Sometimes by fishing it out of the passenger's bag and throwing it directly into the trash can. "Voluntary"?

Airbridge

"Credible" intelligence would mean they know, the essential W's (Who Where When)

"Credible" intelligence would mean they would carry out surveillance and make arrests

"Credible" intelligence would mean they would be shouting from the rooftops about the success they had thwarting a plot

Given that all we have is theater just how "Credible" do you expect us to believe this is?

"Credible" intelligence tends to be discrete and low key in its operation not louder than a Brazilian football fans cries of disbelief,

Perhaps in an abundance of caution I should hang a Xmas stocking large enough to contain a Lear jet this year - after all there were credible whispers from all around the world that Santa is real and even the USAF tracks him every year- it must be true

84fiero

Very disturbing if that's indeed how they're going to implement this (which sadly I have little doubt it is).

Good point indeed!

Dieuwer

The next step for the TSA will be to declare that chargers are dangerous and could be made into a bomb. Result: No more charging for you at the airport or in the plane!