This generally pisses me off when going through the usual nonsense fear inducing paranoid crap at the airport: "Take Your Laptop Out Of Its Case".

WHY??!?!?!?!?

What on this little green planet of clocks makes a laptop computer any more worthy of special examination than my video camera? I regularly travel with the following items for carry-on: a laptop bag stuffed to the brim with a laptop, D/A converters, extra hard drives, powersupplies, 1394 and USB cables and gobs of other delicate crap. The other bag is stuffed to the brim with a largish video camera, batteries, tapes, power supplies, lenses, etc.

EVERYTIME I go to an airport the knuckle-dragging obsequious dupe of the conspiracy wearing a TSA badge tells me to take the laptop out.

WHY??!?!?!!?!?

Because the battery might be made of plastic explosives? Why not the Camera- heck the camera's bigger than the damn laptop! Each of my batteries could be hand grenades! But no - they just run it through the machine, no questions asked. But the laptop? OooOOOooo - it's a COMPUTER!!!! It CAN THINK (or at least think better than the crypto-fascist anti-intellectual jackass who came up with the policy of separating laptops from the rest...) so it has to be handled SEPARATELY! But my iPod, which is ALSO A COMPUTER, is NOT handled separately.

At first, I figured, OK - this nation of mediocretins is all freaked out and it'll blow over. But no - it hasn't. If anything, my "fellow americans" are more paranoid than ever, but then, an illegal unprovoked war against a sovereign nation and then murdering its men, women, and children and torturing prisoners DOES tend to engender a bit of irritation on a GLOBAL BASIS, so perhaps Americans are feeling as guilty (as they should) as they are afraid (which they shouldn't), especially as the corporate media gives them a steady diet of fear. And I figure, having to STILL PULL laptops out of their carefully set up cases is just another example of the reigning idiocy we call the contemporary American Imperial Political Consciousness.

But frankly I'm sick of it. All they do is run the damn computer under the same xray device as the video cameram, and the only thing that's a problem is I have the then PUT MY DAMN COMPUTER BAG back together, which isn't necessarily easy or straight-forward. but the tinhorn TSA doesn't care. Why should they?

So, I ask this august forum, my (obviously irritated) question:

WHY LAPTOPS???

I think it's bulls***.

Leo Studebaker

It's historical. From the earliest days of screening back when laptops first became available, they were always singled out for "out of the bag" screening. But CD players and digital cameras didn't exist then. The early screening equipment I think just saw it as a blob of metal that would mask what might also be behind it if it was in a bag. By taking it out of the bag you "unblock" the view. Maybe today the screening equipment is more sophisticated that seperating it is no longer necessary, but like evrything else government related, old procedures die hard and take on a life of their own. Thirty years from now you'll still be taking your shoes off.

I find it interesting that in Asia, you don't have to remove it from the bag. And I remember travelling through Germany in the early 90s they would actually weigh it and compare it to a list they had for every make and model to see if the weight matched the manufacturer's spec.

Oh, and BTW....... Welcome to FT!

To BOTH posters above, welcome to America (not). It happens - stoo-pid requirements. Which are NOT required overseas. But doesn't matter WHICH bottom line as long as you know the answer. Live & learn. Cheers.

Even though you feel this way about people of TSA, I'll answer your question.

First, stop and read the TSA signs before getting to the x-ray. They now state laptops and video cameras out of bags. TSA must have been reading your mind here I guess.

The equipment in place has difficultly seeing through the laptop's, esp. the battery packs. It's the same with some, I repeat some, video cameras.

I don't know if Rapiscan/Heimann are used in other countries or not. The TSA decided to have them removed to help clear up the x-ray screen because it's very difficult to see through the laptop.

Next time do a search for laptop related post, this question has been asked to many damn times by you people to have to keep repeating it.

The US is not the only place where laptops are treated differently at security. Best example is a flight I take very often from FRA-MUC-FRA:
In FRA the laptop stays in the bag (I often tell the screener there is a laptop in the bag), in MUC it has to be taken out of the bag, always! If you put your bag through without taking it out they make you go back, seperate laptop from bag and have it all screened again!

Go figure.....

Studebaker,
Welcome to FlyerTalk. I'm a TSA employee. I come in here to share information with frequent flyers and other subscribers to this forum because I believe we can work together through understanding each other's concerns. I think your obvious attempt to insult TSA employees is inappropriate for this forum. This isn't yahoo or AOL. Please clean it up and drop the namecalling.

Actually, x-ray operators can have any bag checked, especially those with electronic items. It isn't limited to only laptop computers. By the way, camcorders are also supposed to be removed and x-rayed separately.

There are valid reasons for this. Even though people in this forum think sensitive security information, or SSI, is a cop-out excuse by TSA employees to avoid answering questions, this one reason is truly SSI.

However, I can answer the question in general without getting into the SSI. Apparently, you've never stood in front of an x-ray machine. Certain common electronics, such as CD players, most DVD players, calculators, etc. are easily x-rayed because they have a simple internal configuration. Laptop computers, camcorders, professional cameras and other similar items have a much more complex and dense configuration. Whenever you leave the laptop inside of a bag, other items such as power supplies, cables, removable hard drives and other common computer accessories add to the density and complexity of the x-ray image. It simply becomes too difficult to properly view the image and clear it. Removing the laptop clears the clutter and, more importantly, gives us a clean view of the laptop.

Cute rant. Fact remains that Americans were slaughtered by terrorists on 9/11, and this nation is trying to come to terms with how to prepare itself better for the next attack when it comes. I tend to dismiss the sort of comments you posted as naive idealism advoacted by misguided individuals who have never experienced the effects of terrorism, horrors of combat or extraordinary stressful intensity a police officer experiences when domestic disturbance turns into a shoot-out.

Again, welcome to FlyerTalk. Please clean it up, and I'll be happy to share my insights with you. Stick to the hyperbole and rhetoric you've posted thus far, and I'll simply ignore you. Read the other threads and you'll see that while we do engage in some pretty spirited debate, we don't resort to cheap rhetoric and name-calling. (Well, some of us don't.)

I agree. After September 11, we have to take everything seriously, and do a thorough scan. Some people complain about being "embarassed" as they go through personal clothing items, or just annoyed at the length, but what's worse - being embarassed / impatient, or losing a hundred thousand Americans in an attack?

Jen

Mr. Studebaker,

The above sentence and others are not necessary in your comments and degrades your postings and the impression of you from others on this forum. TSA personnel are following the policies and procedures set forth by the TSA administration. Many TSA personnel may not agree with the policies but are charged with following and enforcing them and as such you are requested to separate items when passing through the security screening checkpoint.

Your comments are obviously drawn from your frustrations and need of self gratification by degrading others. While I may understand your frustration, name calling is uncalled for and insulting.

TSAMGR

The only way we can have a hundred thousand casualties in one attack would be to set off a well placed nuke, and I don't think you are going to discover that in any of the present TSA checks.

If I was carrying around a nuke that I paid a lot for, I sure as hell would put it in my carry-on! I mean would you risk getting sent to who knows where in your checked bags?!?!

However, I can answer the question in general without getting into the SSI. Apparently, you've never stood in front of an x-ray machine. Certain common electronics, such as CD players, most DVD players, calculators, etc. are easily x-rayed because they have a simple internal configuration. Laptop computers, camcorders, professional cameras and other similar items have a much more complex and dense configuration. Whenever you leave the laptop inside of a bag, other items such as power supplies, cables, removable hard drives and other common computer accessories add to the density and complexity of the x-ray image. It simply becomes too difficult to properly view the image and clear it. Removing the laptop clears the clutter and, more importantly, gives us a clean view of the laptop.



I can give you this, but then why can't the laptop stay in the little foam holder I have it in within my computer case? It will offer an extra protection while it is going through the x-ray, and distingish it from others so the chance of it being taken by someone else may be a little less. I am sure a 3/4" padding of foam around the laptop won't make the laptop to difficult to view.

Probably because there are many different types of laptop holders and cases made of different materials and it would be a pain to have to explain to passengers which ones are ok for laptops to be left in, and which ones aren't.

Because if part of the problem with laptops is that they can't "see" through parts of them, there's no guarantee that you don't have anything stashed under there. At least that's my guess!

I am convinced that the laptop obsession derives from movies. (It won't be the first time that US defence policy has come from the suggestion of a movie.)

There has never, ever been a case of commandeering an aircraft, exploding an aircraft, or anything else involving a laptop computer.

The only electronics involved in air sabotage have been a Toshiba radio (Pan Am 103) and a Casio wristwatch (Philippine Airlines.). Both items worked if they were turned on. The wristwatch contained no explosives.

But computers seem somehow scarier and more powerful. They are the kind of equipment unfamiliar to ageing former cops who write TSA policies.

Although the shoe obsession is absurd, at least it was based on an actual incident. The danger of laptops is entirely within the imagination of myopic bureaucrats at the TSA.

Perhaps the TSA will tell us that they have "credible" information that is "highly classified" about the dangers of laptops. It's about as credible as the warnings regarding Al Qaeda scuba attacks, poisoned ink pens, unmanned aircraft, poisoned prescription drugs, the list goes on and on.

Prior to 9/11, there was never a case of anyone hijacking an airplane with box cutters.

Prior to 9/11, there was never a case of someone flying a commercial jetliner into buildings as a missile.