You were being tested for explosive residue on your person and your clothing.
Anybody who thinks it’s easy to get your name removed from the watch-list…do some Googling. Ther’s no official way to get yourself removed. If your name is a close match to one they’re watching, then tough luck. And yes, this is supposedly a secure system.
Actually, it was the first time I’ve traveled by air since long before 9/11/01, so I have no basis for comparison as yet. I was simply told, when I presented my ticket and ID at a pre-screening checkpoint, that I had been “selected” for . . . well, I forget what the lady called it, it had the word “security” in it, and she pointed me in the direction of the shorter line. What additional level of screening the other passengers in that line were undergoing (compared to those in the more numerous, longer lines) was not clear to me; as I said, only two of us were waved out of line for the all-over body search.
There was a local TV news item just last night of a local woman whose name matched a name on the no-fly list. It took her two hours at the airport to finally find someone who could be bothered to listen that the name on the no-fly list was a man in Scotland, and she was a woman in Oakland.
The good news is that she and her husband just barely made it onto the flight for their Hawaiian vacation. The bad news is she had much the same experience leaving Hawaii a week later and that the TSA has an onerous process where she can get a special ID card that basically says “I’m not that guy from Scotland” by submitting her Social Security card, drivers license, passport and probably her last two years’ worth of electric bills and her sixth-grade report card.
Shortly after 9-11, my wife and I (White bread conservatives from NH), took a vacation to Williamsburg VA. We flew in and out of Norfolk VA.
We got the search, including the checked luggage unpacking, and all over search of the time. (including armed National Guard guards in the airport) The boarding agent said it was random, but I suspect that it was due to the fact that we arrived 2.5 hours prior to the departure, and they could be pretty certain that we had plenty of time to spare for the search, and it “ticked off” one of their quota numbers.
All in all, no big deal IMO. If you’re pressed for time, you should have left earlier. (Professional traveler in part of my life, don’t complain that you can’t make it to the airport on time, plan your trip better) Though I think what they will not allow you to have onboard the plane is silly, it’s the realities that we live in.