"Not all parts of the government are accountable to the public, especially the TSA"

Robert Graham of Errata Security was detained by the TSA for 30 minutes for taking pictures at the security checkpoint.  He details his experience here.  The quote in the title refers to part of a conversation he had with a TSA agent:

TSA: Don’t you have normal operating procedures at your work?

Robert: Yes

TSA: How would you like it if somebody came to your work and disrupted your procedures? How would you like it if people took pictures of you at your work?

Robert: I don’t work for the government. Government agencies need to be accountable to the public, and therefore suffer disruptions like this.

TSA: Not all parts of the government are accountable to the public, especially the TSA.

Robert: Wow. No, ALL parts of the government are accountable to the people, especially the TSA. I’m not sure what type of country you think we live in.

According to the most recently-available policies, taking pictures at a TSA security checkpoint is expressly permitted, provided that it does not interfere with the operations of the agents.

You really should read the rest of his blog post here as it is totally worth your few minutes of time.