Special agents of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) served civil subpoenas to two travel bloggers - Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott – for having ‘leaked’ a TSA security directive which pertained to revision of passenger screening procedures following a recent bombing attempt by the ostensible underwear bomber.

The TSA directive came in the wake of a Christmas Day incident in which an alleged terrorist, a 23-year-old Nigerian man named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, managed to bring aboard a bomb on the Northwest Airlines’ Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight; and tried to blow it up. Luckily, the bomb, which was allegedly hidden in Abdulmutallab’s underwear, malfunctioned and there were no casualties.

Despite the fact that the December 25-dated TSA security directive – which stated temporary new requirements of conducting “pat-downs” of legs and torsos while screening passengers through December 30 - was “not for public disclosure,” both the bloggers published the document on December 27.

As such, the special agents are asking the bloggers to reveal the identity of the ‘anonymous’ source that supposedly leaked the security document to them.

Meanwhile, noting that TSA had sent the directive to airlines and airports the world over, Steven Frischling said in defense that the TSA agents were apparently “looking for information about a security document sent to 10,000-plus people internationally.” He added that the agency should not expect “privacy” after such a widespread disclosure of the security document.