TSA Sending 'Mixed Signals' on Airport Security in Aftermath of Bin Laden Death
In response to the threat of Al Qaeda retaliation for the death of Osama Bin Laden, the TSA has increased security pretty much as expected. They've increased the searches of cars outside the airport, and they're more heavily patrolling pre-security areas with dogs. That's according to WPXI in Pittsburgh, which observed the increased airport security measures firsthand at PIT. Either that or there's been no change in security measures, which is what the Dallas Morning News is going with based on TSA statements. Or it's both and security officials are sending "mixed signals," which is per the Christian Science Monitor.
The upshot is that some airports have increased their security and some haven't (at least according to the latter's official statements). That's a sign that TSA isn't really providing any guidance from the top. The reasons for that are political and bureaucratic, and we'll get to some of them below, but the upshot for travelers is that you don't know what you'll be getting until you get there.
You're highly advised to leave a few minutes earlier than usual for the airport. Otherwise you might find yourself in a long line of cars, with each car being stopped and potentially searched, watching the minutes to your flight tick by. Just thinking about it raises our blood pressure.
Why the confusion? The current crop of TSA officials came into office insisting that their predecessors—which is to say, Bush administration officials—were often too quick to pull the security alert trigger. There are arguments on both sides of that debate, but that's what they insisted. So they changed the alert system, and under the current guidelines the threat level stays put unless there's specific information on a specific plot. Apparently TSA doesn't have any intelligence like that, which makes sense since by definition any retaliatory plot is haphazardly being formed right now.
So the threat level is officially staying where it is, even though some airports are acting as if it's elevated, which kind of defeats the purpose of not elevating it. Oh well. Just leave yourself some extra time.
[Photo: TSA]
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