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posted by on Tuesday March 21 2017, @09:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the pure-coincidence dept.

Vague and secretive order bans devices larger than a phone on certain flights to US

It looks like the TSA has finally got round to reading XKCD 651. They have quietly banned electronic devices "larger than a phone" from the cabins of all airlines from a list of 13 countries. It isn't clear whether the ban affects electronic devices used by the aircraft's crew, for example the "electronic flight bag" used by the flight crew, which typically include a tablet.

The affected airlines have just 96 hours to comply.

US Bans Tablets and Laptops on Flights From Eight Muslim-Majority Countries

The Department of Homeland Security today announced new carry-on restrictions for flights to the US from eight Middle Eastern countries, confirming reports from yesterday that such a ban would be implemented as soon as this week. The restrictions forbid electronic devices larger than a smartphone from being carried in the cabin of the airplane, including laptops, tablets, e-readers, cameras, portable DVD players, and handheld gaming devices (larger than a smartphone).

Those devices can, however, all be placed into checked baggage. Neither DHS nor the Transportation Security Administration provided a firm rationale for the ban, how it chose which airports would be embroiled in the new security measures, or whether the ban is in any way related to an active terrorist plot. News of the ban first began percolating online yesterday when the Royal Jordanian airline partially disclosed it in a since-deleted tweet, which was framed as a message for passengers.

"Evaluated intelligence indicates that terrorist groups continue to target commercial aviation, to include smuggling explosive devices in various consumer items," reads a DHS press release put out this morning. "Based on this trend, the Transportation Security Administration, in consultation with relevant Departments and Agencies, has determined it is prudent to enhance security, to include airport security procedures for passengers at certain last point of departure airports to the United States."

The action will affect nine airlines in eight countries across 10 airports, senior administration officials confirmed in a press briefing Monday. The list of countries includes Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. The list of airlines affected includes Royal Jordanian, Egypt Air, Turkish Airlines, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Etihad Airways. The order is being issued as a security directive from the TSA. Airlines will have 96 hours to comply or the DHS will work with the FAA to revoke clearance for those airlines to land in the US, officials said.

Source: The Verge

Other outlets covering this story: Ars Technica The Register


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday March 22 2017, @12:08PM (1 child)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 22 2017, @12:08PM (#482667)

    So it'll cost a couple billions but save a trillion dollar "war on terror". I don't think your argument is helping.

    Also paranoia excepted, silicon valley has more than its share of dirtbags but nowhere near 100% are terrorists. Not even 0.1% probably.

    Maybe if we didn't turn foreigners into doctors we'd have enough doctors to lower prices a bit.

    Ditto the tourism thing. We had billions of tourism bucks before certain people started spontaneously exploding, we'll continue to have billions of tourism bucks without them.

    Exports to the middle east are more like tens of billions, I can see you didn't research that at all, but its mostly military weapons, cars, food (wheat), heavy machinery (for oil mostly) and, oddly enough, we do occasionally send refined gasoline to the middle east when we have excess capacity and they don't. None of which is shipped by couriers on passenger flights, and most of which isn't affected by terrorist bans which mostly only affect, well, terrorists and their immediate neighbors.

    I see the terror ban as being incredibly humanitarian of Trump. The last couple presidents especially the war monger with the Nobel peace prize thought it was funny to use drones to randomly kill civilians. Obama killed thousands of innocent people, Trump just sends them back home on a nice airplane. For a guy who is "literally Hitler" Trump seems like a pretty nice guy.

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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 22 2017, @07:12PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday March 22 2017, @07:12PM (#482898) Journal

    Maybe if we didn't turn foreigners into doctors we'd have enough doctors to lower prices a bit.

    Wait, if we turned fewer people into doctors, we'd have more doctors? Somehow I don't get that logic …

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.