Will TSA let the liquids flow in '09?

There’s a different take on this issue every month, but this one is straight from the horse’s mouth:

The Transportation Security Administration will likely relax the restrictions on carrying liquids through airport security screening checkpoints in a year, TSA Chief Kip Hawley said in an interview.

“I think realistically in one year we, the TSA and foreign colleagues, will be a position” to relax liquids restrictions,” Hawley told the Middle Seat Thursday. “We are within a year of having the ability to differentiate threat liquids through the screening process.”

TSA has been testing X-ray machines that can detect liquid materials used in bomb-making and the technology is close to be ready for widespread use. The X-ray machines themselves are already widely deployed in the U.S., but the software necessary for the liquids detection and evaluation is still being tested.

from the WSJ’s The Middle Seat Terminal blog