TSA
TSA officers were no match for a nine-year-old boy from Minneapolis, who slipped through without a ticket and caught a flight to Las Vegas last Thursday. Reuters

Protect your organs; the U.S. government thinks you might be hiding a bomb inside them.

Government officials are warning the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that terrorists might start hiding explosive devices inside their bodies. Airport security and air marshals have already thwarted shoe- and underwear-bombs, but surgically implanted weapons could be next, the U.S. fears.

While there is no specific terrorist plot referenced, the government is making sure agents are on the alert. According to the Huffington Post, TSA says that foreigners travelling into the United States may experience a longer, in-depth screening process.

Is this unnecessary paranoia or a productive preemptive measure?

TSA has already introduced the highly controversial body-scanners, which blast radiation at passengers so that security agents can see them naked. If the government really does fear organ-bombers, perhaps the next step would be full body x-rays. Currently, travelers can opt-out of the scanners in exchange for an aggressive pat-down, but can agents feel a bomb inside a human being?

Hiding bombs in people seems like an idea straight out of an action movie. The Joker in The Dark Knight used a cell phone triggered bomb sewn into an inmate to escape from jail.

But apparently there is some basis in reality, and the tactic has been used before. An al Qaeda bomber trying to kill a Saudi prince in 2009 apparently had explosives hidden inside him.

Perhaps the government was also shocked by the trailer for 30 Minutes or Less, the upcoming Jesse Eisenberg movie where two people lock a bomb on a pizza delivery boy and make him rob a bank.

Or, maybe they fear that militants will implant bombs into kidnapped passengers - like they did to the boy's body in the move The Hurt Locker.

Either way, security lines in airports are going to get a lot longer and lot more invasive in the near future. Each traveler will surely react differently to the new measures. Those who are always scanning the terminal for sinister looking characters can rest a little easier. Those who want a little privacy during their $1000 flight to LAX may just have to grin and bear it.