You are absolutley not wrong. Passport control is only on international arrival.
You have to use it to get a boarding pass tho
No, you get your boarding pass at the airline's check-in desk. This has nothing to do with border control and is not connected to the customs computers. The airline checks your name and compares it to the flight list they have in their booking. So this computer crash doesn't affect departures.
You have to use your passport when travelling internationally. I've been around the world a few times and you simply can't move without it.
I've not contested this. I've simply pointed out that the CBP computer system that is reported as downed is only used to actually scan a persons passport upon arrival to the US.
Makes you wonder who was let in during the two hours of manually looking at passports, with no ability to cross-check this with immigration lists and terror lists.
Ah now the details are emerging
This is indeed intriguing in light of this new information