Airports brace for possible protests

From the Baltimore Sun:

Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and other airports across the country are bracing for possible protests at security checkpoints on the busiest travel day of the year as opposition to the Transportation Security Administration's security screening methods has intensified.

Activists from both the left and right have declared Wednesday to be National Opt-Out Day and are urging airline passengers to decline to go through the whole-body imaging machines installed by the TSA at BWI and many other U.S. airports.

By 'opting out,' however, passengers will be required to undergo the enhanced pat-down, a modified version recently introduced by the TSA in order to detect concealed devices that might have escaped under the previous inspection regimen.

The objective of the protest, according to one website, is to slow down the security screening process by forcing TSA to conduct more of the time-consuming pat-downs. TSA opponents have expressed the hope that the resulting delays will prompt airlines to press the agency to back off some of the procedures that have prompted objections.