Tali-banned

Dear Kip Hawley, TSA Administrator :

I am an American citizen who flies (with fair regularity) to and from East Asia. On my way home from my most recent journey, I was asked about my destination by a security worker at Guangzhou International Airport. When I told him "Los Angeles," he pointed me to a special inspection line, for carry-on screening. While waiting for my bags to be screened through the X-ray machine, I noticed an "Effective Immediately" sign posted on the wall; it was from the US State Department. The notice was regarding the new ban on liquids.

This was my first flight back into the country since the liquid bomb plot was uncovered on August 10 of last year. (Thankfully I had just arrived at LAX from Hong Kong one day earlier and just missed the calamity that ensued as airport workers scrambled to enforce the perfunctorily assembled restrictions.) First: congratulations! I had no idea that either the State Department or TSA had the authority to enforce its will on the airports of any great nation other than our own. Second: Shame on you for making not only foreign guests but American citizens as well abide by your ridiculous new regulations!

As noted earlier, my April 1, 2007 flight was the first international traveling I had done back to America since August of last year, so I was unaware that the new rules were applied to all flights, both domestic and international, into the United States. If you're going to enforce this sort of thing abroad, you should also be sure that workers at the check-in counter inform passengers that they should pack all liquids into their checked baggage. I mean, really, what good is that little notice on the wall going to do me when I've already been separated from my check-in bags and it's too late to move things into them from my carry-ons?

What's a good American to do when confronted with this sort of thing? Naturally, I crossed my fingers and hoped that my expensive Sheseido facial soap and lotions would not be discovered in my backpack. Actually, I would have sailed through inspections undetected, had my electric toothbrush not betrayed me in the X-ray machine. The screener asked if I had an electric toothbrush; I confessed, and she asked to see it. When I opened my toiletry bag in a crafty manner, trying not to reveal my cosmetic contraband, she said “嘿，给我看一下！" ["Hey, let's see what you've got there."] So I opened the bag, and her henchwoman came over to comb through its contents.

She confiscated both my Sheseido facial soap and emollient, along with my prescription Desonide for my eczema, my non-prescription Rogaine (which is in a bottle clearly identifying it as being two ounces, and therefore under the three ounce limit), my Origins acne "Spot Remover" (again, clearly labeled on the bottle as 0.3 ounces and so small that it clearly posed no threat to anyone other than whiteheads), along with a random assortment of other goodies. She questioned me about my nose hair trimmer (not scissor-like, but electric), whose purpose in my state of embarrassment I was unable to render into Chinese. I thought about using sign language to indicate its function, but I thought that might just complicate things (complicate things = give me further embarrassment), so I shrugged and she let me keep it. After she was through, the henchwoman looked at me with a big smile and said, "Okay, bye-bye!"

Mr. Hawley, I am not writing to tell you that on my twelve-and-a-half hour flight I developed no less than four pimples, brought on by the stress of watching my hard-earned American dollars dumped into a bin, or possibly just because the blemishes sensed that with my defenses down, this was their hour of triumph. Nor am I writing to complain that these increasingly severe restrictions are making us look more like a certain former Afghani government we deposed (in part) because of its oppressive austerity against things like cosmetics (see title of this posting if you are confused about to whom I am alluding, Mr. Hawley). I am not even writing to say that in China, a country which I grew up learning was significantly less free than our own, there are no domestic restrictions on in-flight fluids other than alcohol (and maybe highly flammable liquids). I am sure you daily receive hundreds of emails lodging these very complaints, so I will not waste your time by reiterating that of which you have already been apprised.

Perhaps this missive is approaching a length somewhat inappropriate for a "business" letter, so let me cut to the point(s):

1. If you liquids are banned from carry-on baggage and must be stowed in check-in luggage, passengers must be given notice of this prior to the time they are separated from their check-in bags. You should also consider alerting travellers (via your website) that these policies are in effect not only on domestic American flights, but on international flights into the country as well.
2. If you use foreign agents to implement American security policies, they should be American-trained to ensure proper enforcement of those policies. It does no good when a traveller's 0.3 oz acne medication is apprehended, but his 5 fl. oz container of anti-shine refreshing lotion (which could be anything inside it's opaque bottle) goes unnoticed. Since these new restrictions were put in place (ostensibly) for our safety, as a tax-paying citizen, I have the right to expect that you not only create new regulations, but enforce them, too.
3. (Really an extention of point #2) Exemptions from the policy also need to be properly enforced. This means that if a traveller has small containers of toiletry items under the 3 oz. weight limit, he should be allowed to carry them aboard an aircraft in accordance with the TSA's guidelines.

In short, shoddy enforcement of TSA rules abroad puts the lives of the travelling public in danger, while simultaneously creating gross economic inefficiency, in as far as airplane passangers must throw away perfectly permissible goods at the security gate. This is unacceptable. Period.

Your fellow American,

JT