Again, please note:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TransWorldOne:
...In this particular case, I would say the TSA overreacted by closing down the entire terminal...</font>
As for explaining away this woman's actions, perhaps Richard Reid had a perfectly logical explanation for his shoe bombs. Should one be able to talk their way out of security breaches? While hauling her off to the police station
was an overreaction, as was closing the terminal,
she certainly should have been scrutinized to verify that she was, in fact, benign. Once the fact that she was a sweet old lady who was just a little discombobulated was verified, she should have been assisted to retrieve her item. Only then.