Dear Rep. Pete King,

Today you published a letter written to Janet Napolitano in which you expressed alarm that the "specific procedures for calibrating magnetometers" was released in the poorly redacted TSA SOP.

That procedure is widely known as any internet search will reveal. In fact the Department of Justice has an in depth document describing the details of that procedure. The DOJ hosted document also includes mechanical drawings and specifications for test objects.

You can find the in depth DOJ document at http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/193510.pdf

You also expressed alarm over the fact that the TSA SOP has been reposted on websites not under Government control. In your letter you revealed your eagerness to punish those that dared to post NON-secret information. As I am sure you are aware SSI stands for SENSITIVE Security Information.

This SOP and the much more sensitive Screening Checkpoint and Checked
Baggage Screening SOPs are entrusted to entry level, low paid, TSOs with no security clearance. With the TSA workforce turnover rate hovering around 20% a more likely scenario for a terrorist organization to use to discover SSI is the simple bribery of a disgruntled screener.

Instead of wishing to inappropriately punish those that exposed this breach in TSA policy, you should be thanking them. That SOP was online for nine months before being found by accident. How many times do you think the terrorist organizations, and the countries that sponsor them, have scoured Government websites for errors such as this.

Unlike the terrorists and the covert operations agents of rogue Governments, the citizens that discovered this leak brought attention to the public and to Government officials such as yourself.