At the time, an iPod might have been as innocent enough to not warrant any concern at a security checkpoint. Cellphones, cameras, and any other obvious recordin

At the time, an iPod might have been as innocent enough to not warrant any concern at a security checkpoint. Cellphones, cameras, and any other obvious recording equipment would be more scrutinized whereas a music player would not. Someone like a janitor listening to music while mopping would get less scrutiny than a visitor trying to take a tour of restricted areas with an iPod in their pocket. The visitor has to pass through the same checkpoints but the janitor is a known person, they show up to work all the time and maybe they have a story about how they won a new iPod in a raffle (while actually getting paid to walk around with it). Guards trust the janitor since he's already been vetted so they let him through with it. Or maybe he sneaks it in in the hope that he receives less punishment if caught because it's just an iPod, it's not like he smuggled in a camera. A visitor getting caught with the same iPod would be immediately kicked out get in a lot more trouble because they just received instructions not to bring anything in.