Bruce Schneier is a telepath of unimaginable power. That's the only possible explanation for the stunning reversal at the top of the Transportation Security Administration.

For years, Schneier, the well-known security gadfly, has blasted the TSA for its brain dead approach to passenger screening: the "security theater" of naked scanners and slipped-off shoes; the focus on terrorist weapons instead of the terrorists themselves; the one-size-fits-all security protocols, instead of measures driven by the latest intelligence. For years, the TSA ignored his critiques.

But late last month, at the Aspen Security Forum, TSA chief John Pistole opened his mouth – and Schneier's words came tumbling out. Pistole said it was high time to "recognize that the vast majority of people traveling every day are not terrorists." To "try to apply some more common sense to the process," even.

Forget patting down kids and telling people with top secret security clearances to take off their shoes. "I think we can do a different way of screening children that recognizes that, in the very high likelihood, they do not have a bomb on them," he said.

Besides, he added, "the best layer of security we have ... is intelligence."

Clearly, Schneier had figured out some way of getting into TSA administrator's head. The man was some kind of Charles Xavier type.

Or maybe – just maybe – Pistole, after a year on the job, was finally feeling comfortable enough at the administration to make the changes he's been itching to implement from the start.

The changes won't come quickly, as I note in my op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal. At four select airports beginning this fall, "trusted travelers" — elite-level members of American and Delta Airlines' frequent flier programs — will be able this fall to skip some of the sillier security protocols. The airlines know who they are, the thinking goes, and they travel constantly. So the chances that one of them is carrying a bomb are vanishingly small. Some travelers may keep their shoes on; others may not have to remove their laptops from their cases. If it goes well, the pilot project will expand beyond Atlanta, Detroit, Miami and Dallas-Fort Worth, and include more airlines.

The TSA chief is promising even more changes ahead. Children won’t get felt up quite as often. TSA officers may get more flexibility to bend those maddening rules about which items are banned from a flight. The focus is going to be on stopping those weapons that can actually bring down a plane, not just nick a stewardess.

Already, you can hear the pissing and moaning about all the new vulnerabilities that the TSA is introducing by refusing to remove grandpa's loafers. But Pistole (or is it Schneier?) feels like he's on solid ground. If these pilots go according to plan, the mind-meld between the TSA chief and its most vocal critic may well continue.

Photo: Wikimedia.org

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