Source: USA Today
Author: Ben Mutzabaugh

The Transportation Security Administration is back in the news again today, this time after NBC News ran a story about the agency's efforts to examine drinks fliers buy from post-security checkpoints.

"There is something new," NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams said during Tuesday evening's 7 p.m. newscast. "Would believe testing the liquids you yourself buy inside the terminal where were we're allowed to have liquids?"

NBC's report then showed video submitted by passengers traveling through Ohio's Columbus International Airport on Sunday (Sept. 2). In that video, TSA agents can be seen testing passengers' beverages near a gate. NBC notes the passengers whose drinks were being tested had already cleared security and had purchased their drinks at a post-security retail outlet.

Despite NBC's report, the TSA insists it's nothing new.

In a follow-up story on NBC's news website, the TSA said on Tuesday that its policy of randomly checking fliers' drinks – such as in the Columbus video – has been going on for nearly five years.

NBC writes that "as part of this process — which TSA justifies as part of the 'random, constantly changing' security profile at the nation's airports — a TSA agent uses a test strip and dropper that contains a non-toxic solution."