The two are not mutually exclusive-- illegal things "happen all the time" notwithstanding that they may be illegal.

As far as the poster's assertion that it is a violation of US law, no normal person would interpret that law to apply to stickers on the outside of a passport.

It is very common in Europe to place a security sticker on the back of US and other passports.

I agree with you on that! In fact, most of my countrymen are revolting and amoral criminals despite the fact that most never see the inside of a jail cell.

When I check in at CPH it is the norm that my baggage claim tags are affixed too the front, or more often back, of my passport. Quite annoying but hardly a big crime. The Danish police would laugh if I were to complain about that. Yet, they prefer to laugh at their citizens, when they are not killing them.

I've only been SSSSed three times so far. Once was on CO on a company-purchased ticket. Oddly enough, I was travelling with a TV crew, all of whom were toting as much gear as they could as carryons, whilst all I had was one tiny overnight bag and a book. Out of the 8 of us, I got the SSSS.

The other two occasions were last-minute-ticket-syndrome. Once at MKE, when an AA flight I had boarded went mechanical and they put me on YX & AK to get home, and once at FLL - my husband and I switched our flights from AC to US at the last minute to avoid weather cancellations in YYZ and we both got the SSSS. I had brought back some mini-jams from Harbour Island (all <100ml and sealed in a Kippie, of course!) and the TSA agents had fun checking each jam to make sure it really was guava and not some kind of fruity tropical explosive.

I want to comment but am bound by Federal Regulations not to discuss this further.

Also, as has already been discussed on numerous other threads, the SSSS could be part of the TSA watchlist processing (currently run by the carriers), or could be the 'random' component that is part of CAPPS (TSA rules but run by the carriers).

Oh, I'm sure you can comment if you want to - this is an anonymous forum. Either way, we've already discussed a number of ways to get SSSS

1) last minute ticket purchase
2) last minute or multiple seat changes (not seen for awhile as a trigger, used to be a big flag on AA)
3) cash or traceless payment
4) purchase not made by passenger
5) one-way flight (hit and miss on this one)
6) open-jaw flight (hit and miss on this one)
7) certain CAPPS tracks - being flagged for seating or flight proximity with a person flagged by CAPPS or on watch list, or taking multiple flights with someone on a watch list
8) airline agent manual add - being flagged by airline employee

The only terrorist who is going to be caught by using SSSS screening is Mr. Ahmed Magoo.

That has to do w/ forgery or false use. As long as they don't sticker the interior no one seems to have a problem.

I buy tix for my ex-wife and kid on separate itineraries on my credit card. They never get flagged. Buy them thru my UA account and they have UA MP numbers so maybe that helps.