I think more than most folks about the TSA. I'm afraid of them, and they don't seem to like me very much, so we agree to disagree about me. Still, I participate in screenings at airports not with exasperation but with what I imagine to be the casual enthusiasm of a person who, unlike myself, can't conjure up a sequence of events where I end up in a no-man's-land prison complex sporting an orange jumpsuit.

That said, it sounds like maybe the European oceanographers and researchers who went through this screening for ID cards to work around boats may want a do-over:

A German graduate student in oceanography at M.I.T. applied to the Transportation Security Administration for a new ID card allowing him to work around ships and docks.

What the student, Wilken-Jon von Appen, received in return was a letter that not only turned him down but added an ominous warning from John M. Busch, a security administration official: "I have determined that you pose a security threat."

Similar letters have gone to 5,000 applicants across the country who have at least initially been turned down for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, an ID card meant to guard against acts of terrorism, agency officials said Monday.

The officials also said they were sorry about the language, which they may change in the future, but had no intention of withdrawing letters already sent.

"It's an unfortunate choice of words in a bureaucratic letter," said Ellen Howe, a security agency spokeswoman.