If cosmetics are the cause, then wouldn’t there be false positives for American women and their cosmetics in an equal ratio representative of the population. Or is it just that Pakistani cosmetics pop positive more, because they are more likely to have been packed in the same bag that Ahmed used last week for transporting C4?!

That assumes that they are searching American women with no regard for race. They may be (unfortunately for upstanding citizens of middle-eastern descent) looking more closely at people who look middle-eastern. Or, when a false positive comes up for Britney McWhiteyface, they’re more likely to label it a false positive. That’s just profiling, and it sure delivers more bang (well, “unbang” in this case) for your National Security buck.

If this does pan out, it’s a huge score for TSA.

- Hillary C. “Bill, order those dogs found and shot; this interferes with my ‘the President is weak on security’ idea to gain back the House & Senate in the fall”.
- Bill C. “Honey, I don’t have that kind of influence any more”.
- Hillary C., muttering, “I wish they had cigar-sniffing dogs in the late 90s”.

“But law enforcement sources say the substances that tested positive were cosmetic-based products and not a threat CBS News reports.”

If this were the case the bomb dogs would be exhausted after 10 minutes at an airport. Not kosher.

It looks like this might be a false alarm. It might have been her cosmetics that triggered the alarm. I can’t imagine how someone would have missed all the news about not taking liquids on flights. It seems to me that a Pakistani from Michigan might ….

Kim Preistap has a round-up and Rusty has been monitoring a live feed from a local WV TV station. As of this writing, all that is know is that the woman attempted to go through a routine security checkpoint when……

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060817/NEWS01/60817009

But then you’d ban me!

Update: As expected. CBS says it was cosmetics that set off the sniffers.

Weapon of Mascara Destruction?

Here’s hoping this is another false alarm. Either way, it appears that transportation security is indeed on full alert, and possible threats are being handled quickly and decisively. The Charleston, W.V. Gazette: HUNTINGTON — Tri-State Airport in Hun…

Specificity = (true negatives)/(true negatives + false positives)

Chris Yates from Jane’s Aviation told the BBC that both the swab and sniffer dog tests were extremely sensitive.

The likelihood that a container that had not come into contact with explosives would come up positive on both tests was extremely low, he said.

Erm, these seem to conflict. “Sensitive,” when used to describe a measuring instrument or test means “Registering very slight differences or changes of condition.” That means that a sensitive test is more prone to false positives, not less prone.

Maybe he just misspoke and meant “insensitive.”

CEREDO, West Virginia — A West Virginia airport terminal was evacuated Thursday after a female passenger’s water bottle twice tested positive for explosives, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said. The bomb squad is on site and th…

It looks like someone was trying to get on a plane in West Virginia with liquids and some of them have been tested positive for explosives. Tri-State Airport in Wayne County has been evacuated. A perimeter has been set up,…

It may be a ploy by the terrorist and their sympathizers (Democrats) to do this…as we all know the democrats want to hurt the President..and they don’t care if they have to stand on the smoldering ruins of America to do it..