Next time you fly, if you reload....

[AFA1CY]

Could be interesting.....

TSA to swab airline passengers' hands in search for explosives - CNN.com

TSA to swab airline passengers' hands in search for explosives

By Jeanne Meserve and Mike M. Ahlers, CNN





STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• After Christmas Day attack, agency to begin random swabbings
• Previously, screeners swabbed some carry-on luggage and other objects
• Security experts call hand swabbing a good move
• Privacy advocates back tests, provided TSA tests only for security, doesn't discriminate

Washington (CNN) -- To the list of instructions you hear at airport checkpoints, add this: "Put your palms forward, please."
The Transportation Security Administration soon will begin randomly swabbing passengers' hands at checkpoints and airport gates to test them for traces of explosives.
Previously, screeners swabbed some carry-on luggage and other objects as they searched for the needle in the security haystack -- components of terrorist bombs in an endless stream of luggage.
But after the Christmas Day attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit, Michigan, the TSA began a program of swabbing passengers' hands, which could be contaminated by explosive materials, experts say. The TSA will greatly expand the swabbing in the coming weeks, the agency said.
"The point is to make sure that the air environment is a safe environment," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN. "We know that al Qaeda [and other] terrorists continue to think of aviation as a way to attack the United States. One way we keep it safe is by new technology [and] random use of different types of technology."
Security experts consulted by CNN said swabbing hands is a good move, and privacy advocates said they support the new swabbing protocols, provided the agency tests only for security-related objects and does not discriminate when it selects people to be tested.
It's a "very good idea," said security expert Tony Fainberg. TSA screeners currently swab luggage handles and parts of bags that are likely be contaminated by human hands, he said, and swabbing a person's hands increases the chances of finding explosive materials. "Looking at the hands means you will probably get a better dose," he said.
Under the new protocols, tests will be conducted at various locations -- including in checkpoint lines, during the screening process and at gates. Newer, more portable machines make it easier to conduct tests away from fixed locations such as the checkpoint.
The TSA has more than 7,000 explosive trace detection (ETD) machines and has purchased 400 additional units with $16 million in federal stimulus money. The president's fiscal 2011 budget calls for $60 million to purchase approximately 800 portable ETD machines.
Napolitano said the tests will not significantly increase wait times at airport checkpoints.
The American Civil Liberties Union has "always supported explosive detection as a good form of security that doesn't really invade privacy," said Jay Stanley, an attorney and privacy expert with the organization.
Stanley said the ACLU is chiefly concerned that the TSA does not discriminate when selecting people for enhanced screening -- something the agency said it does not do -- and that it treat people with dignity.
"We would not want to see it implemented in a discriminatory fashion, for example, in a disproportionate way against Muslims and Arabs or, for example, people with red hair or anything else. Security experts from across the spectrum will tell you that that's not just unfair and unjust and not the American way, it's also a terrible way to do security," Stanley said.
Swabbing also should not be used to test for nonsecurity-related contraband, such as drugs, he said. "Under the Constitution, searches in airports are only for the purpose of protecting the security of airline transportation; they are not general law enforcement stops. And so it wouldn't be permissible for the government to use these trace portal detectors to look for drugs," Stanley said.
The TSA said the machines test only for explosives. It declined to specify which explosives, citing security reasons.
Because some legal substances -- such as fertilizers and heart medicines -- can result in "false positives," Stanley said the ACLU also wants to ensure that people who test positive be treated respectfully.
"It's important that the government treat people who do show up as a positive -- fairly and with dignity -- and not parade them off in handcuffs and treat them as terrorists, but do rational things to investigate what the problem might be," he said.
But swabbing hands does not, by itself, raise civil liberty problems, Stanley said. "There's really not a big privacy interest at stake here," he said. "They are basically looking for particles of explosives, which is not something that people normally have."

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[jeremy]

Great just another reason I do want to come home on leave for...

 

[Leadeye]

Reconfigured

 

[Leadeye]

So, this makes terrorists wear gloves and gets shooters detained at airports?

 

[singlestacksig]

they have been doing this for years.. i have been swabbed many times.. most of the time it gets nothing..
If you work with fertilizer you are more likly to set it off.

 

[AFA1CY]

I had my bag pulled off the inspection conveyer at Detroit because their machine "smelled" explosives. The TSA guy said that if I had it in the same room where I reload or shoot that would be enough for them to sense it.

 

[cosermann]

. . . or fertilize your yard.

 

[360]

I had my bag pulled off the inspection conveyer at Detroit because their machine "smelled" explosives. The TSA guy said that if I had it in the same room where I reload or shoot that would be enough for them to sense it.

It happens to me nearly every time I fly. I try to avoid that air machine whenever possible, but I almost ALWAYS get detained until I explain to them that I usually carry a weapon in my laptop bag.

 

[Bill of Rights]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix9en-A3tXU]YouTube - Jeff Dunham Airport Lotion Security (deutsche Untertitel)[/ame]

Sorry about the subtitles.

 

[6birds]

NEVER leave the prarie dog shoot and drive right to the airport to get home..... without first scrubbing you hands, clothes and luggage handles. Ask me how I know!

 

[a.bentonab]

I heard about this and thought the exact same thing. Thanks to this thread, I will also no longer put ammo/guns in my luggage when I go home so that when I travel next year (hopefully?) it won't alarm anywhere!

 

[weaverml34]

My dress shoes set that thing off one time. The security guard was beating around the bush as to why I would have explosives on my shoes. I told him I had no idea. He asked me if I had been in any fields or anything that would have fertilizer in them. I told him that I had been hunting the weekend before. He asked me if I had wore those shoes. I was like yeah I went hunting in my dress shoes. Luckily I was working as an On-Site Rep at United Airlines at the time. The other guard found my I.D. badge in my bag. Kept me from more trouble than it was worth.