Dear Representative 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, UNclassified information. A knee-jerk response to this would result in a miscarriage of justice. Reform and oversight of the DHS/TSA operation is in order because of this and many other issues recently brought to light.

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 U.S. 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, affording the TSA the opportunity to plug the security holes it created .

Those that you are trying to demonize are not against airport security, in fact the person that discovered this document revealed it on a forum for FREQUENT flyers. These are the very people that interact with the TSA on a daily basis. These are the citizens that want real security, not the dog and pony show that the TSA has provided to date.

There are far more serious security hazards created by TSA policy than this inadvertent leak of non-secret, unclassified information, such as the fact that the screeners are not screened before, during or after their shifts. The fact that luggage is not secured from molestation by TSA or airline employees, making it very easy to plant a bomb. If you can take something you can plant something. The fact that forced ID verification at the checkpoint is useless and those resources should be placed looking for weapons, explosives and incendiaries.

I realize that you get a pass on selectee screening as a perquisite of your position and may not be able to fully grasp what happens to your constituents at the TSA checkpoint, so I invite you to fly several times without the benefit of your Congressional identification.

I trust that once you take me up on my challenge you will be appalled at the gaping holes in security caused by the TSA that are not related to this latest faux pas.