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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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Ice Packs Helped Prompt TSA Bulletin

66-year-old mom with bad back fields question about Osama

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(Newser) – This week's TSA bulletin warning of a possible attempt to penetrate security checkpoints with "peculiar items" was caused in part by an incident involving a 66-year-old woman and the ice packs she uses on her bad back. The clay-filled, tape-wrapped packages ignited hazmat suspicions, though their owner says she's been traveling with them for years, ABC News reports.

After security scanners flagged Sara Weiss' checked baggage, she was brought into an interrogation room and asked, "Do you know Osama bin Laden?" And although she was released with no charges—ice packs in tow—the incident nonetheless made its way into the TSA announcement. "I was astonished," says Weiss.

TSA workers screen passengers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Thursday, May 31, 2007. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
TSA workers screen passengers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Thursday, May 31, 2007. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)   (Associated Press)
Passengers wait at a TSA screening check point at Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport, Saturday, June 30, 2007. U.S. airports and mass transit systems will tighten security in response to apparent terrorist incidents in Britain. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Passengers wait at a TSA screening check point at Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport, Saturday, June 30, 2007. U.S. airports and mass transit systems will tighten security in response to apparent...   (Associated Press)
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News Arc

Details of the bulletin and the incidents that prompted it
Bloomberg

The TSA backs off the scary warning
Newsday

Better safe than sorry, experts say
Associated Press


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