U.S. Guidelines: Individuals with Lebanese Passports Should be Given Additional Screening
Five U.S. Transportation Security Administration employees have been placed on administrative leave since it was discovered that sensitive guidelines about airport passenger screening were posted on the Internet.
Along with other information, the document says individuals from several countries, inducing Lebanon, should be given additional screening.
Assistant Homeland Security secretary David Heyman told senators Wednesday that a full investigation into the Internet security lapse is under way and the TSA employees have been taken off duty pending the results of that probe.
The Homeland Security Department has also stopped posting documents with security information either in full or in part on the Internet until the TSA review is complete, Heyman said.
"Even what appeared to be an innocent posting to help federal contractors can have serious consequences for our security," Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, said Wednesday.
Heyman said he did not know who at TSA approved the document going on the Web.
The TSA removed the document from the Internet on Sunday after the lapse was reported on a blog.
Among many sensitive sections, the document outlines who is exempt from certain additional screening measures, including members of the U.S. armed forces, governors and lieutenant governors, the mayor of Washington and their immediate families.
It also offers examples of identification documents that screeners accept, including congressional, federal air marshal and CIA ID cards; and it explains that diplomatic pouches and certain foreign dignitaries with law enforcement escorts are not subjected to any screening at all. It said certain methods of verifying identification documents aren”t used on all travelers during peak travel crushes.
TSA said the document is now outdated. It was posted in March by TSA on the Federal Business Opportunity site. The posting was improper because sensitive information was not properly protected, TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee said.
Noting that the transportation agency uses multiple layers of security, Lee said, "TSA is confident that screening procedures currently in place remain strong."
The document also describes these screening protocols:
Individuals with a passport from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, or Algeria, should be given additional screening unless there are specific instructions not to.
Former TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said the document is not something a security agency would want to inadvertently post online, but he said it”s not a road map for terrorists. "Hyperventilating that this is a breach of security that”s going to endanger the public is flat wrong," Hawley said.