Tom, I asked AD to clarify the words he'd already expressed here, and to offer his opinion on the general topic of the risks of allowing photography in public (and essentially public) places. You said that if you were in AD's position, you wouldn't respond. I then said something to the effect of, "you mean you wouldn't say anything, even if you were just being asked _______ about what you'd just said?"

To the degree that I care about people I don't know but who seem, based on very limited information, like nice people, yes, I would care. He hasn't claimed that his job is at risk.

At this time, I'm not interested in United's policies. I'm interested in what AD means when he uses the phrase "security issue" (including how a "security issue" can be something that someone else can look at for him), and in his opinion of how one person photographing something that thousands of members of the public can (and likely do) stare at for hours every day creates any additional risk to the security or safety of an airplane or its passengers.

I'm not asking him to debate his employer's policy. To my knowledge, I'm not even discussing his employer's policy. I just want him to back his claims -- which, without further explanation, seem rather absurd to me.

People toss around the word "security" without even thinking about it nowadays, and our following them is in many cases eroding our liberties with little to no benefit. I suspect AD has done that. He's yet to indicate that there was any thought behind what he said. Were he now to say, "You know, this doesn't really make sense to me, either, now that I think about it. I can't tell you what a `security issue' is, other than something vaguely related to something that might involve security or safety, or a talking point from those who profit from keeping us all afraid of bogeymen. I just repeated what I've heard all the sheep around me saying, and now that you mention it, it does all sound pretty ridiculous," and mean it, I'd find that to be a satisfactory resolution (one of many, but the one that I suspect is based in reality). Instead, he refuses to clarify what he meant when he said what he already said.