[Infowarrior] - TSA screens Atlanta arrivals for metal on LEAVING airport

[Richard Forno]

(c/o G.A. Via boingboing)

< - >

http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2007/01/12/askthepilot216/print.html

My second grievance involves an experience I had several days ago at
Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta. Just when I thought I'd seen
everything: As we know from an earlier column, passengers arriving at U.S.
airports from cities overseas must, after clearing customs and immigration,
pass through a TSA checkpoint prior to boarding a domestic connecting
flight. But what if I told you that in Atlanta, passengers arriving from
overseas must pass through the checkpoint simply to exit the airport?

Let's say you live in Atlanta and you've just come in from Frankfurt,
Germany. You're not connecting, you're headed for the parking lot or the
taxi stand or the MARTA station. Well, sorry, pal, first you have to stand
in line, take off your coat and shoes, remove your computer, hand over your
liquids and gels, and have your bags X-rayed. Mind you, this is the world's
busiest airport in passengers (about 86 million annually). On a recent
afternoon in the arrivals hall, the checkpoint line was half an hour long.
Not only is the procedure inconvenient, it's bad for business, as people
making tight connections are trapped in a queue behind those merely trying
to leave the building.

Looking for answers, I called TSA headquarters in Washington, and was
promptly put on hold for more than 45 minutes. During that stretch I was
treated to an interminable tape loop of recorded baggage recommendations,
including a reminder that "dips and sauces" are now among airport
contraband.

I finally reached Christopher White, the agency's regional spokesman, who
provided a logical, if semi-satisfactory explanation: At Hartsfield-Jackson,
all passengers landing from overseas collect their checked luggage and pass
through U.S. customs and immigration within the international arrivals
building, better known as concourse E. Having had access to their bags,
these passengers cannot reenter the airport's secured areas without
rescreening. That makes sense, as conceivably one could remove a dangerous
item -- a legally packed weapon, say, or a 5-ounce tube of toothpaste --
from his or her suitcase. Unfortunately, concourse E was not constructed
with a dedicated exit route. All channels of egress -- namely the
interterminal walkways and/or "people mover" train -- pass through each of
the remaining four concourses (five, actually, if you count the "T-Gates")
on the way out. So, after clearing customs, suitcases are shuttled ahead
separately to central baggage claim, while their owners are herded toward
the X-ray machines.

"It's troublesome for people, I realize," says White, who reminds us that a
new and better-designed international facility is scheduled to open at ATL
by 2010. "But remember, concourse E was designed long before Sept. 11."

Be that as it may, passengers who've been in contact with checked luggage
have always required rechecks before proceeding through secure zones, have
they not? Sounds more like a design flaw. Not providing a dedicated exit
was, if you ask me, a little like forgetting to install bathrooms. There are
plenty of nice things about concourse E -- it's an attractive and spacious
building with some interesting gate-side art exhibits -- but this isn't one
of them.

And we have to wonder, what happens if an arriving passenger doesn't
cooperate? What if somebody refuses to take off his shoes? Is he prohibited
from going home?

Somebody ought to try it and find out. Seriously, after months of ridiculing
the TSA's methods, I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps the best way of
undermining the agency's folly isn't to employ some protest and civil
disobedience. Granted, nobody wants to get his or her name on a government
no-fly list, but in a nation where the mildest injustices bring out the
pickets and sandwich boards, we've been abashedly sheepish at the airport.
Where's the uppity David Stempler and his Air Travelers Association? Where's
old Nat Heatwole? For that matter, where's Boyd Rice or Jello Biafra? That's
so early '80s, I know, but they were such incisive pranksters, and what
better laboratory for farce than a TSA checkpoint? What happens, for
instance, if I try to carry a snowman onto an airplane?

While you're mulling that over, allow me to correct something. A few
paragraphs ago I spoke of "customs and immigration." That's a misnomer, of
course, now that the name has been changed to the more paramilitary-sounding
Customs and Border Protection. One of those games we play with signage and
uniforms. We don't want newly landed foreigners getting any funny ideas as
they wait to be photographed and fingerprinted.