Recent TSA Experience

[bavaria]

I have had my hands swabbed for explosives, in a few countries outside America.

I do think that the OP is confused about 'hard drive scanning' - as bumber points out, not easy to do. There are times when CBP and similar agencies MAY stop returning international travellers for secondary screening, and that may include doing a quick search of the hard drive, to see if the laptop may have been purchased overseas and not declared.

I travel with at least two laptops and two external harddrives, and this has happened to me once or twice. They simply open the explorer function and check file dates - not very accurate maybe, but a simple way to see if the laptop has most likely been in use for awhile (of couse, the physical state of my ruggedised laptops is also an indicator that they are well-used and well-worn!)

I have also been asked to show my watch by random plain clothes strangers in various airports; they are customs officers who are checking for travellers returning with undeclared watches or jewellry. This happens to me a few times a year in MUC and when they see my cheap Disneyland Paris watch they just move along very quickly.

I still honestly believe that this thread was started by a well-intentioned but misguided and confused traveller who didn't understand what she saw or heard, and may have miscontrued a sarcastic or untrue remark as truth. It is also clear from the link posted that the OP may not understand the different roles and responsibilities and areas of jurisdiction of the various types of officials within an airport.

 

[tinkmom2]

I have had my hands swabbed for explosives, in a few countries outside America.

I do think that the OP is confused about 'hard drive scanning' - as bumber points out, not easy to do. There are times when CBP and similar agencies MAY stop returning international travellers for secondary screening, and that may include doing a quick search of the hard drive, to see if the laptop may have been purchased overseas and not declared.

I travel with at least two laptops and two external harddrives, and this has happened to me once or twice. They simply open the explorer function and check file dates - not very accurate maybe, but a simple way to see if the laptop has most likely been in use for awhile (of couse, the physical state of my ruggedised laptops is also an indicator that they are well-used and well-worn!)

I have also been asked to show my watch by random plain clothes strangers in various airports; they are customs officers who are checking for travellers returning with undeclared watches or jewellry. This happens to me a few times a year in MUC and when they see my cheap Disneyland Paris watch they just move along very quickly.

I still honestly believe that this thread was started by a well-intentioned but misguided and confused traveller who didn't understand what she saw or heard, and may have miscontrued a sarcastic or untrue remark as truth. It is also clear from the link posted that the OP may not understand the different roles and responsibilities and areas of jurisdiction of the various types of officials within an airport.

Well you have the option to read or not to read and you have chosen to voice your opinion very openly. Who makes you the authority on air travel? Basically calling me crazy is not the way to go. I am only relating what I was told at the air port.
I sent my letter to the TSA. I should have a response by the TSA within the week. Just because something doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all. If it bothers you so much don't read or comment about it.

 

[Lewisc]

Well you have the option to read or not to read and you have chosen to voice your opinion very openly. Who makes you the authority on air travel? Basically calling me crazy is not the way to go. I am only relating what I was told at the air port.
I sent my letter to the TSA. I should have a response by the TSA within the week. Just because something doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all. If it bothers you so much don't read or comment about it.

I didn't carefully read every post in this thread but I don't think anyone is calling you crazy. I don't doubt the TSA jerk told you they were testing for H1N1. I don't know if he TSA agent was lying to you, or if he didn't know what he's talking about.

Testing for H1N1 requires blood or a throat/nose swab.

 

[bavaria]

Well you have the option to read or not to read and you have chosen to voice your opinion very openly. Who makes you the authority on air travel? Basically calling me crazy is not the way to go. I am only relating what I was told at the air port.
I sent my letter to the TSA. I should have a response by the TSA within the week. Just because something doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all. If it bothers you so much don't read or comment about it.

Er, I was being NICE and giving you the benefit of the doubt. Nothing that you posted adds up, and nothing has a factual basis.

It is clear that you don't understand the article that you yourself posted. Nobody called you crazy; you may be misinformed or unaware of facts, but not 'crazy'. I even said that you were trying to be helpful.

The problem is that it isn't helpful when someone just posts some random things and takes it as fact, and insists that others do the same.

 

[dburg30]

Well you have the option to read or not to read and you have chosen to voice your opinion very openly. Who makes you the authority on air travel? Basically calling me crazy is not the way to go. I am only relating what I was told at the air port.
I sent my letter to the TSA. I should have a response by the TSA within the week. Just because something doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all. If it bothers you so much don't read or comment about it.

As much as some of these people on these forums travel / fly, a couple of them probably are authorities on air travel .

Anywho, no one called you crazy, there are other travel sites out there that would have exploded if there were in fact widespread h1n1 swabs going on, or actual computer inspections more then the standard mechanical checks thru the machines..

 

[bavaria]

As much as some of these people on these forums travel / fly, a couple of them probably are authorities on air travel .

There is at least one TSA agent, as well as a few airline employees who post here, and are very well informed. I would take their word over the word over a random, infrequent flyer any day.

 

[bavaria]

I sent my letter to the TSA. I should have a response by the TSA within the week.

I wouldn't hold your breath for anything at all; if you do receive something, it would be a form letter at best.

Those of us who have contacted TSA have usually just received a canned response.

Now, if you chose to get a LEO involved and go the legal route while at MCO, that may have resulted in some factual explanations from TSA.

 

[DVCconvert]

Tin Foil Hat Wearers of the World UNITE!!!!!



Tinksmom...do some more research!

 

[bavaria]

RUN!

 

[bavaria]

Again, in an effort to be helpful....

OP, here is the Travel Safety/Security forum at Flyertalk.com http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security-222/

It is populated with various experts including TSOs (as well as having an abundant supply of tinfoil) If you post your thread over there, you may get some very interesting responses including answers directly from the officials concerned.

 

[tonyrocks922]

Well you have the option to read or not to read and you have chosen to voice your opinion very openly. Who makes you the authority on air travel? Basically calling me crazy is not the way to go. I am only relating what I was told at the air port.
I sent my letter to the TSA. I should have a response by the TSA within the week. Just because something doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all. If it bothers you so much don't read or comment about it.

When one posts something as serious as claiming federal employees are conducting random mouth swabs of travelers, it is in everyone's interest to determine the truth of the situation.

This is not a matter of opinion, you have made a claim that something is occurring which most people find very unbelievable. The burden is on you to back up these claims if you think they are true. Bavaria, Bumbershoot, and others should not refrain from reading or commenting, as they are providing valid criticism of your claims and will hopefully prevent a naive reader from taking your story at face value and assuming it is true.

 

[Lewisc]

Hi All!
Just wanted to tell you all about our recent trip and how the air ports were. On the way to Disney we had no problem getting through security and the family line out of Milwaukee. On the way back from MCO was a different story.

I am all for safety but when does something cross the line?
My husbands' hands were swabbed after he went through the metal detector gate. They said it was testing for swine flu. Also they hand searched my daughters Nintendo DS because they said her chip sent off a silent alarm. We co-operated in both instances.

However, I am thinking to myself "What if my DH does have the flu and is stuck here? What would we do? Where would he stay? What would I do?" I also heard they are scanning peoples hard drives on their computers. That's a big reason I didn't bring mine plus I wanted to be disconnected from technology.

When we got to our planes' gate we were also surprised to see some TSA employees swabbing people I guess they suspected of illness and swabbed peoples drink straws.

No harm done. Just wanted to tell everyone what they may encounter.

Most (all?) of the previous posters in this thread believe the TSA agent told the OP what he reported. We think the TSA gave the OP BS. A hand swab doesn't test for swine flu.

When one posts something as serious as claiming federal employees are conducting random mouth swabs of travelers, it is in everyone's interest to determine the truth of the situation.

This is not a matter of opinion, you have made a claim that something is occurring which most people find very unbelievable. The burden is on you to back up these claims if you think they are true. Bavaria, Bumbershoot, and others should not refrain from reading or commenting, as they are providing valid criticism of your claims and will hopefully prevent a naive reader from taking your story at face value and assuming it is true.

When attacking another poster you should carefully read the post and not misrepresent what was said. He didn't say he was given a mouth swab. Bavaria and others were not commenting on the honesty of the OP but rather the honesty of the TSA official who claimed a hand swab was being used to test for H1N1.

 

[bavaria]

Actually Lewis in post 8 OP moves from hand swabbing to mouth and straw swabbing. I found it an odd leap i.e. that it wasn't mentioned in the first post.

I didn't bother to reply until after that post was made, because hand swabbing was nothing unusual to me, but the claim that TSA was taking mouth and straw samples moved into the realm of the er, unusual.

I didn't think so either. I thought it strange too that they were swabbing peoples straws and the insides of their mouths. I have heard of how they are using devices to detect peoples temperature to see if they are sick or not though in other countries.

 

[Lewisc]

I missed post 8. Post 1 the OP relates what happened to their family. Plausible. Post 8 the OP talks about what they observed happening to other travelers. I suspect they didn't see exactly what they thought.

The OP should head over to FT. A lot of tin hat people post.

Actually Lewis in post 8 OP moves from hand swabbing to mouth and straw swabbing. I found it an odd leap i.e. that it wasn't mentioned in the first post.

I didn't bother to reply until after that post was made, because hand swabbing was nothing unusual to me, but the claim that TSA was taking mouth and straw samples moved into the realm of the er, unusual.

 

[Targsmom]

I don't like many of the procedures that TSA uses, but they are on quite solid ground in terms of swabbing hands . . . or feet for that matter. I wouldn't waste my breath asking for a warrant, but you can . . .

Personally, they can swab my hands all they want.. but mouths? I'm not sure if I read that they were swabing mouths or not.. nobody swabs my mouth (or any orafice unless they buy me dinner first )

 

[pr surfer]

Can anyone provide any proof that TSA is testing for H1N1 and is scanning/copying computer hard drives? All that we have is an account by a poster who seems to be confused about what she saw/heard, and no concrete proof.

Believe me, if this was the case, it would be all over Flyertalk and all over the internet and in the media.

I've caught the TSA trying to boot up lappy. This was a LAS (one of my least favorite airports), and needless to say they didn't get very far. 3 passwords and 1 fingerprint are needed to boot up my PC laptop, and 2 passwords for my mac laptop. None of which I was going to offer.

A supervisor got my laptop back, apologized, and actually gave me a complaint form and the TSO's name and "badge" number

 

[dburg30]

I've caught the TSA trying to boot up lappy. This was a LAS (one of my least favorite airports), and needless to say they didn't get very far. 3 passwords and 1 fingerprint are needed to boot up my PC laptop, and 2 passwords for my mac laptop. None of which I was going to offer.

A supervisor got my laptop back, apologized, and actually gave me a complaint form and the TSO's name and "badge" number

So they arent allowed to confirm it's a working laptop? Or they are supposed to have you present when they do? or...??

 

[tonyrocks922]

So they arent allowed to confirm it's a working laptop? Or they are supposed to have you present when they do? or...??

You can turn a laptop on without the security credentials. That is enough to verify that it is a working laptop, they shouldn't have been trying to log in to the operating system.

(Although, as others have mentioned customs agents may have you log in to a computer to verify it was not purchased abroad)

 

[Lewisc]

Customs officials have the right to turn on your laptop and search your files.

Child porn is one example.
http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/full_story.asp?StoryNumber=41936
http://www.theinsider.com/news/567476_US_Customs_Check_Your_Laptops

I don't know how long before someone decides customs should check for pirated software, music and videos.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/06/AR2008020604763.html

edited--I don't want anyone to get confused. The articles are talking about customs inspections. That's for international passengers arriving in the United States. It doesn't refer to TSA inspections for domestic passengers.

 

[dburg30]

You can turn a laptop on without the security credentials. That is enough to verify that it is a working laptop, they shouldn't have been trying to log in to the operating system.

(Although, as others have mentioned customs agents may have you log in to a computer to verify it was not purchased abroad)

Right, I was just curious when the PP said 'caught them booting up', that was the only question I had.