"Refusal to complete screening"

Doh! You just let the cat out of the bag. Similar to when I let the terrorists know that a bomb could be made to look like a Snickers bar.

I did. No sweat.

This was at AUS.

I wonder if this point could have been made more delicately.

I relish the opportunity to explain to corporate IT that my laptop was stolen by CBP. Our laptops are whole-disk encrypted and automatically backed up, so I won't really lose anything and will get a replacement as soon as I get to a site. (A colleague accidentally ran over his laptop with a car and was given no hassle, just a new laptop with the old but still running hard drive.) While company policy encourages us to "cooperate" with border patrol in any country, I have no qualms about refusing to give up the password to the US CBP and letting the company lawyers sort it out. The company has a history of claiming that individual design documents are worth billions of dollars, so if CBP did break through the encryption, there might be some fun press.

What scares me is them confiscating my camera memory cards or personal cell phone. Usually when traveling I have no realistic way to upload gigabytes of photos. I have occasionally taken to putting reduced-size copies of the photos on an SD card that I keep separate and in a location away from other electronics. And losing my cell phone would just be a nightmare. Are there even pay phones in airports any more? And do I really know or have written down the phone numbers I need? Could I buy a prepaid phone in a terminal? (guess I should look into that)

Ah, thank you for that clarification.

So, what's the current process? If they test and get a positive, what's the next step? Test again? Control test, then test again? Go right to rpd?

I'm fairly positive the next step is rpd, no exceptions. (specifically referring to a positive test on gloves after an opt-out)

I have heard, but not experienced, that if you ask them to test the gloves prior to the patdown and the gloves alarm, that they will change them without penalizing you. (which should be blatantly obvious, but this is TSA we're talking about)

I rather unsure of policy about alarms on objects or devices. In this midst of my rpd-related bag search, my laptop allegedly alarmed for nitrates, and their response was to go x-ray it again.

take your pants off next time, out in public like the guy in Oregon.

Feel like filing a lawsuit? Sounds to me like they are punishing you for exercising your 5th Amendment rights.

The other possibility... they knew what you were doing was legal, no red flags, and they just wanted to f%@ with you.

In either case, it might be a good idea to apply for Global Entry to find out either way. If they deny you, then you have more evidence of retaliation. If you get GE, then you never have to answer questions from CBP when you enter the country.
Is it possible that they are taking stats? It would be nice if someone is recording false positives.

The TSA recording stats that demonstrate how ineffective they really are? It'd be nice, but they'll never be released after being declared "SSI" along with all of the other ridiculously useless things the TSA does.

False. You normally don't, but not "never". The program is very clear about that.

They reported the start and end of the RPD to some management over a radio. So I think they are counting "false positives" indirectly in the sense that every RPD is a false alarm for all practical purposes.

To my knowledge, they never took any of my personal information. If they did, they were very subtle about reading/memorizing the info and reporting it after I was gone.

Or spend a little bit of time in a stall in the restroom to retrieve the explosives. Get a bunch of women to do it and they can all go to the restroom at the same time without arousing suspicion. You could end up with a buttload of explosives that way.

What's an RPD?

I almost always get sent to secondary inspection as I always refuse to use MMWs. But I've never been ordered to a private room. Then again I've never set off a positive alert on the bomb detector.

I am not sure how I would handle OP situation as most of my international trips are tightly scheduled for essential business meetings where missing the flight is not an option. I think I would ask for LEO and if that was denied I would ask them exactly where they intend to search. And then threaten to drop trow in public if that was the area of interest. My fallback would be MMW. I don't think TSA has the right to do body cavity searches on a whim.

Here is a method that works on Iphone 4 and higher:
http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/05/remot...phone-or-ipad/

You can remotely wipe your Iphone clean, complete factory reset. All you need is an internet connection.

They say this also works with a laptop but I wouldn't be so sure since hard drives can be recovered even after being deleted.

Till

RPD = Resolution Patdown = what happens if you get a positive alert on the ETD ("bomb detector")

Essentially, they force you to go into a private room and repeat the same opt-down patdown that you are familiar with, except that they use the palm of their hand on your crotch and butt instead of the back of their hands.