In response to an upsurge in the threat of attack and an increased fear that terrorists are working on a bomb which can be brought onto an airplane undetected, the Transportation Security Administration will soon be issuing orders that will require some overseas airports to require passengers boarding US bound flights to power up their electronic devices. Devices that do not power-up properly will not be allowed on board and the owners of those devices may have to be further screened.
‘‘As the traveling public knows, all electronic devices are screened by security officers,’’ the TSA said in the Sunday release announcing the new policy.
US intelligence is wary that al-Qaida have been hard at work to produce an explosive device which can by-pass today’s security measures. However, there is no indication that such a bomb has indeed been developed.
Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security said recently that the TSA will be utilizing additional security measures at some international airports that have direct flights to the US. Although the TSA has no jurisdiction abroad, they can still demand certain screening criteria for flights which travel directly to the US.
In an interview on the NBC news show “Meet the Press” Johnson would not say whether the new procedures would also be required at domestic airports at some future date.
‘‘We continue to evaluate things,’’ he said. ‘‘The screening we have right domestically from one domestic airport to another is pretty robust, as the American traveling public knows. In this instance we felt that it was important to crank it up some at the last point of departure airports and we’ll continually evaluate the situation.’’
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