The Transportation Security Administration has confirmed an ineffectively censored copy of its airport screening procedures manual was posted online. It was taken down after the mistake was discovered but not before the unsophisticated redactions of sensitive material were cleaned up and the uncensored version became widely available on the Internet. AVweb has chosen not to make it available on our site. The TSA told ABC News the manual was an outdated version (June 2008) “improperly posted by the agency to the Federal Business Opportunities Web site wherein redacted material was not properly protected.”
The 93-page manual details who, what, when and how often hand searches are done, describes the limitations of its equipment and includes sections on how to deal with diplomats, government officials and law enforcement personnel. It also includes samples of identification used by CIA, Homeland Security, Federal Air Marshals and members of Congress. “This is an appalling and astounding breach of security that terrorists could easily exploit,” Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security, told ABC. “The TSA should immediately convene an internal investigation and discipline those responsible.”
