Istanbul last weekend.

Advice: DO NOT fly Delta out of Istanbul. Choose a foreign carrier, even if it means connecting in London, Paris, Rome, or elsewhere. Avoid Delta.

Istanbul has the (normal for that part of the world) airport security check just to enter the terminal. X-Ray and WTMD. For Delta flights, you again have to pass through an x-ray and WTMD at the gate. Normally, this is no big deal EXCEPT it was quite understaffed a bit over an hour before departure, resulting in a 15 minute wait just to get through.

Each passenger that went through the WTMD was then wanded with a HHMD, and a partial pat-down. What do they expect to find with the HHMD? You just went through a metal detector?

At that point, the were pulling almost every passenger for a secondary. 90+ percent of the passengers. Swab the bags for explosive trace, then a full pat-down. ANd you were forced to sign a sheet of paper indicating that you'd been given a "random" secondary (taking 90% of the passengers is NOT "random").

Took about 25 minutes to clear security at the gate including waiting time. Even the guy sitting next to me in J remarked about the intrusive security.

On the way to my gate, Turkish Airlines was boarding their IAD flight - with no special gate rape.

Oh, and to top it off, TSA flagged me for a secondary at JFK at the Customs checkpoint. Said "the machine" (WTMD) had flagged me for same.