I am not afraid or intimated ... just annoyed and pissed off.

btw, you cracked me up ... you know what a shoe looks like. LOL! I wouldn't be surprised if screeners had nightmares about shoes with all the shoe checking they do daily.

Oh c'mon! You love it. Admit it, you have a foot fetish

M8

Not sure if your making fun of me or not, a little tired tonight. But you probably are since I seem to amuse you. What I meant was that we know what shoes look like on the x-ray. PS. Only a few nightmares about shoes chasing me.

Nope, not making fun of you at all and not getting into the whole explosives thing as Spiff already covered that. It just made me chuckle.

Just as a FWIW on detecting things... I've been out of IAD 5 times in the last two months- Same carry on bag, same briefcase. Last week I was told I had a lighter in the bag, and one in the briefcase. I told them have a ball, as I had, to the best of my knowledge, taken the lighters out of everything; and I showed her the matches I was carrying with my cigarettes.

Guess what- They found two lighters I was embarassed, until I got to thinking about it... One was buried in the bottom of a pocket in the center of the briefcase, the other had slipped inside a bag of mints in the carry on bag.

Then I got a little ticked- 5 times and this was the FIRST catch? So at least 15 screeners had looked at those two bags- IAD, LAX, SFO, NRT, SYD and not a single one caught anything???? I asked for the TSA Supervisor, they refused to get him, so I went and talked to the Duty Airport PD Sgt. He laughed and said he was not surprised... They had seen people come through with knives and other assorted paraphenalia quite a bit.

I think the only thing you are really doing with the "new" screening process is keeping the honest people honest... Just like the PC number of certain ethnicities you can screen per flight, so you "have" to check the little old ladies, or take the Medal of Honor away from an 86 year old veteran named Joe Foss and pass it around, then say he can't have it back because it has sharp edges. Give us a break.

From reading what some TSA screeners have posted, the lighters are difficult to detect in the first place. And even if one is detected, they may not be apt to send the bag for secondary. So I can't really blame them for this at all.

On the other hand, I carry a Swiss Army "instrument". Why I call it instrument instead of knife is because I have broken off the blade and blunted the end of the scissors. Most airports don't notice it, but IAH usually sees it and pulls it out. They say that I can't take it on board and I say why. Well because it is a knife and can't be in carry-on. Don't assume things they are told. Finally they realize that it is okay to be airside. My point is, that many times the object that appears to be a prohibited item on the x-ray is not found. EWR didn't see it this week, but they sure didn't like my non-criteria shoes (at least I only got an ETD swab).

I inadvertantly left a two-inch thick (wide) Swiss Army Knife in my briefcase twice. Both times, I found it at my destination after leaving home. Simply put -- DEN TSA missed it twice.

I thought TSA folks couldn't turn down a requst to speak with a supervisor. My advice is to find the nearest TSAer near a podium, chances are he/she is a supervisor. Also, looks for the three stripes on the epaulet -- that's a supervisor (two stripes is the team leader).

Understood ND Sol, while I don't disagree in pricipal, they are still not doing their jobs- Lighters are strictly prohibited, according to their own literature!

Less O2- They will do anything they can get away with at IAD- Too busy is always the excuse... Same thing with the ALL shoes mandate- It's not required under CFR49 unless the threatcon is raised, but if you ask them the direct question and push for an answer, amazingly you seem to be "randomly" picked for a more indepth screening every time...

Hmmm. This thread is getting repetitive. Time for me to unsubscribe

From what I have read, the TSA did not want the lighter prohibition. Remember it was a couple of Democratic senators that pushed for it as an attachment to another bill. It passed. What does dismay me about the implementation is that the TSA went further than the law required in not only banning butane lighters, but all lighters (eg. Zippos).

The fact is that certain ethnic minorities get the haraSSSSment screening at a higher percentage than Americans of European ethnicities. So while you see "PC police" at work, the TSA is actually "extra-"screening "certain ethnicities" far more frequently than the general population and also screening them far more thoroughly/often as percentage of their trips. I don't see what the complaint is -- unless it relates to advocating an apartheid system of racist profiling that faces resistance. Foreigners get screened per the haraSSSSment standard more often too. Maybe the lists should be expanded? I think not!

Yes, the "'new' screening process" at the WTMD-area security checkpoints in the US are bothering "honest people" more than anyone.

Sorry, or as they say in Israel: Sleecha, but your story does not fly. I've traveled TLV many time and also in SDV and ETH. Never, not once, have I seen armed soldiers at an israeli airport who were not regular pax or waiting for their familly to land. In Israel, soldiers are everywhere obly because there is a draft and they often go about personal chores n uniform and armed. El Al security and TLV security in general is not uniformed and if armed they have nothing visible. I espessialy doubt that there would be armed ISRAELI soldiers with Uzis in Amsterdam. Oh, and besides that, most Israeli soldiers carry the M-16 assault rifle, not an Uzi. That is not to say some don't have uzis, I would not know.