Yep, that's what I was told today. I travel by commercial air almost every week, and almost always carry an ABS-plastic cigar travel humidor (it's a
Herf-a-dor in case anyone cares) with me in my briefcase. Over several years and hundreds and hundreds of flights it's never been an issue, and I've never even received so much as a comment about it, even when opting out of the AIT and getting a bag check - until today.
Today I passed through one of my weekly-used PreCheck checkpoints. The x-ray operator was spending way more than usual time scanning each bag, and sending what appeared to be nearly every other bag down the chute for additional screening. My briefcase was selected.
The TSO who searched my briefcase had a copy of the x-ray image of it up on a monitor in front of her. She rummaged around in my briefcase while looking at it, exclaimed, "Aha!", pulled the plastic humidor out, and said, "I have to open this."
After fumbling with the latches, she popped open the humidor, and there were my cigars. She looked at the top layer, but didn't touch them. I asked her if that was really what triggered the bag search, and she said, "Oh yes." I expressed incredulity, and mentioned that I had carried that same humidor through her checkpoint at least a hundred times without ever having it opened or even glanced at.
She looked at me with a solemn, earnest face, and said, "Cigars can be made into bombs." When I heard this pile of nonsense, I couldn't help it - I just shook my head. She said, "If you had seen what we've seen, you'd understand."
Thanks to goalie's
This Week in TSA History threads, I happen to know that TSA has never reported finding any cigar bombs. I have great pity for that poor deluded TSO.