journalist who was threatened with arrest by the TSA merely for asking for the names of an agent and supervisor at JFK airport, and was then publicly denounced on the TSA’s blog, has hit back with a scathing response.

As we have reported this week, talk radio host and syndicated columnist Amy Alkon related the run-in she had with the TSA recently, saying she had her genitals inappropriately touched after opting out of a body scan. When Alkon asked to submit a formal complaint, a TSA supervisor refused to cooperate, refused to identify himself, and threatened the journalist with arrest.

In response to Alkon’s written account of what happened, TSA employee Bob Burns posted a piece on the offiical TSA blog, calling Alkon’s comments “offensive” and publicly smearing the journalist as “somebody who makes a living by agitating situations and writing about them.” Burns also suggested “I can assure you of one thing, an infinitesimal number of our employees know of Ms. Alkon.”