RE “FLIERS face new queries at Logan’’ (Page A1, Aug. 2): The correct answers to the Transportation Security Administration’s questions, “Where are you traveling today?’’, “How long have you been in town?’’, and “How did you get to the airport?’’ are: “On lawful personal business,’’ “None of your business,’’ and “By legal conveyance.’’ But the passenger only wishing to catch his flight without delay will say no such things. Under intimidation, he will confess everything.
I learned this after landing at Logan on a flight from Munich. I was detained, asked personal questions, and the contents of my bag were opened and examined. An old passport showing a younger self with a great deal of hair was passed around to other agents, who disregarded other passengers in order to enjoy a good laugh. Finally, my examiner inexplicably asked, “Do you have a girlfriend?’’
As a journalist I am practiced in talking back. But tired from a long flight, only wanting to get home, and envisioning myself kept for hours if I showed any attitude, I melted abjectly.
After the atrocities of 2001 and the passage of the Patriot Act, I regarded alarm about a police state as coming from the outer reaches of the political left and political right. Did we want to be safe or again sorry? Nowadays, count me as fearing a gradually encroaching police state.
There is no way thousands of TSA employees can be adequately trained to quickly question passengers, then accurately assess them. The plan is a government assault on our people’s free coming and going, and is to be opposed.
David A. Mittell Jr.
Jamaica Plain 
