Originally Posted by
Section 107
In the same way, we expect that the devices bad guys making into incendiaries and bombs with "large electronics" are likely to have damage, missing parts, etc. It is easy to understand a person building a bomb will have shaking hands when using a screwdriver to open a laptop. Also, they might well not have the particular driver for the tamper-resistant screws used by the manufacturer and so they did what the Army does when the right tool doesn't work - they just used a bigger hammer.
Also, most people take good care of their (relatively) expensive sensitive electronics so seeing one with significant damage, missing parts/doors, broken casing, etc, might well indicate a person that does not care about a device (since they aren't expecting to use it again.....)
With all due respect, is there any actual evidence or data to support these ideas? That bomb-makers will be clumsy (especially after reading that this is now something TSA and other security services consider suspicious)?
I'm also skeptical of the second claim, but that's probably partly because my own anecdotal evidence is so contrary. I know a lot of active outdoor people and youngsters. Trust me, I've seen buffalo head nickels with fewer scratches and nicks than some of their electronics. My own cellphone is battered but usable and anyone who takes P&S cameras mountain biking and rock climbing likely has damage to show for it. One particular ding in my current favorite P&S actually made the camera slightly easier to grip.
This sounds to me very much like TSA's voodoo non-scientific BDO program, where perfectly ordinary actions are used to justify harassing innocent pax because those actions might also be performed by a 'bad guy'. They're just an overly-simplistic excuse to justify targeting certain pax based on the assumption that they are already guilty.