Did you miss the part where the machines gave him a positive for explosives?
I'm going to assume that if they let him go eventually they could have let him go immediately (or soon) after checking all of his belongings.
Can you offer an alternative scenario of how you would have reacted if you were one of the officers?
Thoroughly re x-ray and hand inspect the contents of his bags. Thorough pat-down of his person. Interviewing him as they went. Upon finding nothing, send him on his way. 30 minutes tops.
Since there's no proof of this "positive", this claim sits in doubt. If he was already targeted, they'd claim the machine would say anything.
...and since there's no proof of his story, his story sits in doubt. Right?
Is that the modus operandi?
I was commenting under the assumption that his experiences were conveyed truthfully and that the explosive alert actually happened and wasn't bogus.
Is there reason for me to automatically doubt the sincerity of those who tested him?
Is there reason to believe that they didn't want to tell him what exactly the machine told them because they were lying to him? Or is it a more reasonable explanation that they're not allowed to?
Racial profiling is bad. They acted differently towards him than they'd do to other people, but that doesn't mean we have to ignore everything and assume that every single person there was out to get him and put an innocent person through hell.
Not for me. The author has more credibility in my eyes than any employee of the TSA.
> Is there reason for me to automatically doubt the sincerity of those who tested him?
Since they lied to him through the entire ordeal ("We’ll just be a few minutes, and then you’ll be able to go."), the rest of their declarations are equally suspect.