UPDATE: Jon Corbett video and TSA response

by Lisa Simeone on March 9, 2012

As I wrote on March 6th, engineer Jonathan Corbett easily slipped a small metal case sewn into a side pocket past the airport scanners, both MMW (millimeter wave) and BKSX (backscatter).

Since Corbett’s account appeared at TSA News, dozens of other media outlets have picked up the story. Not surprisingly, so has the TSA. And it’s not happy.

Yesterday, this was the latest headline at Corbett’s blog:

BREAKING: TSA Threatens Mainstream Media Not To Cover Story

Corbett reproduced a screen-shot of an email, with identifying info redacted, that he says he received from “a South Florida reporter.” Here’s the gist of it, in Corbett’s words:

I’ve been on the phone all day for the last 2 days with reporters and journalists of all kinds, including the big bad MSM, and one South Florida reporter told me that he had been “strongly cautioned” by the TSA not to cover this story. Absolutely unbelievable:

Update: The name of the TSA spokeswoman who attempted to intimidate this journalist is Sari Koshetz.

And here’s the screen-shot of the email:

Later in the day, Corbett added this:

Update 2: Second journalist comes forward in comments on this post: SmarterTravel March 8, 2012 at 3:34 pm | #11 Reply | Quote | Edit We were also “strongly cautioned” not to cover the story. We did anyway at SmarterTravel: http://tinyurl.com/7te5wj8

Over at the TSA Blog, Blogger Bob pooh-poohed Corbett’s account of making it past the scanners with his contraband undetected, referring to Corbett as “some guy.” For a while, commenters weighed in. But before the end of the day, the TSA Blog wasn’t posting any more comments. Perhaps they were overwhelmed.

As of this writing, the last comment posted yesterday, March 8th, at 2:03 pm.

 

Tagged as: Airport, jon corbett, scanners, Security, Travel, TSA, tsa blog