I was coming back to the United States from a trip with friends in Reykjavik, Iceland.  I got my boarding pass and there it was.  The dreaded quadruple S.  For those who don’t know, the SSSS stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection.  

You can see the four S’ in the bottom right of the picture.  This then causes an employee to pull you out of the screening line for extra screening.  My extra screening consisted of taking me to a little room and rubbing some sort of material on my books and my clothing.  They then inserted the material into a machine.  We waited a bit.  Then I was sent on my way.  A small sign outside the door of the little room explained that it was the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), not the Icelandic officials, that made the secondary screening decision.  Why was I selected?  What database decided that I needed to be looked at more closely?  What possibly could it be based upon?  These are all questions in search of answers.  I am going to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the TSA, the Department of Justice, and possibly other agencies in an attempt to determine why I was selected.  I will also keep this blog up to date on what I discover.  I am sure it will be a long, bureaucratic experience.  Here goes nothing.