From the Houston Chronicle:
In early November of last year, baggage screeners at one of Houston’s airports reportedly saw some items that looked ominous in a passenger’s piece of checked luggage: a plastic bag containing a 9-volt battery, wires, pipes and a brown clay-like substance.
More than six months later, the screeners’ decision to seize the suspicious objects made its way into a bulletin sent out to other government and law enforcement agencies.
Three similar incidents were cited, leading to a scary first paragraph.
“A surge in recent suspicious incidents at U.S. airports may indicate terrorists are conducting pre-attack security probes and ‘dry runs’ similar to dress rehearsals,” the Transportation Security Administration reported in a two-page bulletin dated July 20.
After the bulletin was leaked to the media Wednesday, the TSA downplayed its alarming tone, insisting the information was routine and did not really indicate a threat to airline passengers.
“There is no intelligence that indicates a specific or credible threat to the homeland,” the TSA said in a statement posted on its Web site. “During the past six months TSA has produced more than 90 unclassified bulletins of this nature on a wide variety of security-related subjects.
Ah, so it wasn’t the runs a dry run then? It was just routine.
Tags: TSA, Dry Run, Airline Security
