New TSA Restrictions on Uncharged Devices on International Flights

NBC News:

The Transportation Security Administration will not allow cellphones or other electronic devices on U.S.-bound planes at some overseas airports if the devices are not charged up, the agency said on Sunday.

The new measure is part of the TSA’s effort announced last week to boost security amid concerns that Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamist Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, are plotting to blow up an airliner, U.S. officials said.

Shouldn’t that second paragraph be unnecessary? Isn’t the entire point of the TSA that we assume there are people trying to blow up commercial airliners? And the airport is a common place for travelers to have their phones run out of power.

And isn’t the whole notion predicated on the assumption that a would-be terrorist couldn’t just pack the explosives into a laptop or other device that can still turn on the display?

★ Monday, 7 July 2014