The 93-page manual details screening procedures and includes photos of IDs used by members of Congress, CIA employees and federal air marshals.
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
Posted on December 9, 2009, Printed on December 9, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/144466/
Remember this summer, when the U.S. government "accidentally" released a "highly confidential" 266-page document mapping out the country's nuclear sites? "These screw-ups happen," was the response of one official and, indeed, he was right.
The Washington Post reports that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has confirmed it "inadvertently revealed closely guarded secrets related to airport passenger screening practices when it posted online this spring a document as part of a contract solicitation." A document apparently labeled "sensitive security information."
The 93-page TSA operating manual details procedures for screening passengers and checked baggage, such as technical settings used by X-ray machines and explosives detectors. It also includes pictures of credentials used by members of Congress, CIA employees and federal air marshals, and it identifies 12 countries whose passport holders are automatically subjected to added scrutiny.
Those countries will come as no surprise -- they are "Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen and Algeria" -- but the accidental posting of such sensitive materials online seems like a pretty epic blunder, even by government standards. "It increases the risk that terrorists will find a way through the defenses," former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Stuart Baker told the Post. "The problem is there are so many different holes that while [the TSA] can fix any one of them by changing procedures and making adjustments in the process ... they can't change everything about the way they operate."
The TSA document was "first publicized" by a New York man named Seth Miller, who writes a travel blog called WanderingAramean.com. "After getting over the initial shock of how stupid it seemed they were for putting out a document like that," he told the Post, "I think the most significant risk is that when ... you see some of the things that are marked as security sensitive information, you have to sort of smack your hand on your forehead and say, 'What are they thinking?'"
Indeed. In fact, "What are they thinking" is a pretty apt description for a lot of what's afoot at DHS these days. (If you want to read about how the agency is using your taxpayer money to develop mind-reading machines, check out my last piece.)
In a statement, the TSA said that it "takes this matter very seriously" and is now undertaking a "full review."
"TSA has many layers of security to keep the traveling public safe and to constantly adapt to evolving threats. TSA is confident that screening procedures currently in place remain strong."
I feel safer already.
Liliana Segura is a staff writer and editor of AlterNet's Rights and Liberties and World Special Coverage. Follow her on Twitter.
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