TSA Erroneously Posts Screening Manual Online

[Amish RakeFight]

http://gothamist.com/2009/12/08/tsa_posts_secret_airport_screening.php

In a spectacular snafu, the Transportation Security Administration stupidly posted an entire airport screening procedures manual on a government website. The 93-page document included details on special screening rules for diplomats, CIA and law enforcement officers; a list of items for which screening is not required (including wheelchairs, casts, orthopedic shoes); and the fun fact that during peak travel times, TSA screeners who check IDs are only required to use black lights to authenticate 25% of documents. Some of these secrets were revealed because, apparently, somebody erroneously believed they were redacted. But The Wandering Armenian blog, which discovered the oopsy, explains why that didn't work:

They apparently don’t understand how redaction works in the electronic document world. See, rather than actually removing the offending text from the document they just drew a black box on top of it. Turns out that PDF documents don’t really care about the black box like that and the actual content of the document is still in the file. Yup, their crack legal staff managed to screw this one up pretty badly. Want to know which twelve passports will instantly get you shunted over for secondary screening, simply by showing them to the ID-checking agent? Check out Section 2A-2 (C) (1) (b) (iv). Want to know the procedure for CIA-escorted passengers to be processed through the checkpoint? That’s in the document, too. Details on the calibration process of the metal detectors is in there. So is the procedure for screening foreign dignitaries.
​

The aforementioned passport-holders automatically targeted for secondary "selective" screening are, by the way, from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen or Algeria. The manual, which was posted on FedBizOpps, a government clearinghouse that lists federal contracting opportunities for vendors, is no longer on that site, but the whistleblower site Cryptome has it for download, with the formerly-redacted portions highlighted in red boxes.

The document, dated May 28, 2008, features this warning: "NO PART OF THIS RECORD MAY BE DISCLOSED TO PERSONS WITHOUT A 'NEED TO KNOW.'" A TSA spokesperson says the agency "took swift action when this was discovered" and "a full review" is underway. But the TSA also downplayed the leak's severity, noting that the document was an "outdated version" of its operating procedures. That excuse doesn't fly with Robert MacLean, a former Federal Air Marshal who was fired for revealing holes in TSA's security after the 9/11 attacks. He tells ABC: "Screening is like a big puzzle and this SOP gives you directions on putting the puzzle together. How much in screening procedure changes in 17 months? It's a one-dimensional process."

 

[Amish RakeFight]

Here's the document. It's the zipfile at the top:

"TSA Sensitive Screening Doc Redactions Lifted"

http://cryptome.org/

It contains the unredacted version in PDF format.

 

[scoreboardII]

passport-holders automatically targeted for secondary "selective" screening are, by the way, from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen or Algeria.

This is a secret?

 

[Jar Jar]

But Pakistan is okay.

TSA: The biggest joke of the decade.

 

[180ToTheMarker]

Our southern borders are getting overrun by wet-backs.

We gotta spook in DC that's hell-bent on chasing towel-heads and sand-ni**ers in parts of the world it can't even figure out...

Don't sugarcoat it...tell us how you really feel...

 

[LearLove]

We gotta spook in DC that's hell-bent on chasing towel-heads and sand-ni**ers in parts of the world it can't even figure out...

ring ring....
hello....
yeah sure he's here.

Hey Ultrarunner, its the 60's calling, they'd like their "derrogatory slur" for a black person/people back.

 

[glasspilot]

Wow, I thought I drank and posted too much. Hey Ultra, put down the bottle. Sleep it off, read what you posted tomorrow and come up with some sort of damage control...

"Spook in the White House"...sheesh. How f'ed up do you have to be? I'd puke on myself and crap my pants drunk before I posted that little nugget...

 

[GuppyWN]

You gotta admit though...............

Gup

 

[Raoul Duke]

could not have happened to a better agency. . .

 

[hyper]

Popcorn. In. Hand.