STILL more evidence the TSA is evil and wants to ruin flying for everyone

This is from a guy we know who does massive bike trips around the world with his wife:

If anyone on the mailing list has any contact with the TSA, I would
greatly appreciate any help you can give. My fuel bottle, and
incredibly difficult to find fuel pump for my MSR Whisperlite
International Stove, were removed by the TSA in San Francisco, without
us being paged (we were at the flight over four hours early),
and despite the fact that this fuel bottle and fuel pump have never
been used, and never contained any fuel within them (and thus are
completely safe for flying).

I'm not sure what we're going to be able to do. We're incredibly
beat after 40 hours of travel, and have no more internet time.
If anyone could help with this, I'd greatly, greatly appreciate it.

Here's some of the details:

Hello,

My name is Greg Kaiser. I flew Delta Flight 618 out of SFO on
Saturday, Feb. 14. I received notice that a fuel bottle was
removed from my luggage. I got then notice when I arrived at my
final destination, CPT (Cape Town, South Africa). According to the
card, this was done by Covenant Aviation Security, LLC,
Screener ID: 126374.

This fuel bottle has never been used, nor never contained any fuel
of any sort. Thus, it is not in violation of any TSA Safety Restrictions.
Furthermore, within this fuel bottle was the fuel pump for my Mountain
Safety Research (MSR) Whisperlite International Camp Stove. Like the
fuel bottle, this fuel pump has never been used, and never been exposed
to any fuel.

My wife and I now find ourselves in Cape Town, South Africa, about to
embark on a large scale bicycle tour
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bicycle-safari), and find ourselves
without the means to cook food, or without our backup source for
boiling water. We have all the other components of this piece of
equipment which is vital to our survival (including the stove itself,
which your agents correctly did not remove from our luggage, and an
entire field repair kit).

If you still have this fuel bottle and fuel pump in your possession,
we request that you immediately ship it to our hotel in Cape Town.
Time is very short, as Feb. 20 will be our last day in the hotel.
If you do not still have this fuel bottle and fuel pump in your
possession, we request that you immediately contact Mountain Safety
Research to get at least a replacement fuel pump to our hotel no
later than Feb. 20 to correct this mistake.

The hotel my wife (Mary Kelly) and I (Greg Kaiser) are at through
Feb. 20 is:

Best Western Cape Suites Hotel
Corner De Villiers & Constitution Street,
Cape Town 7925
South Africa

We have very limited internet access and are 7 to 10 hours time
difference from your officies. We hope you can resolve this
mistake immediately, as we put considerable effort into assuring
that all of our luggage meets TSA standards, and do not want our
once-in-a-lifetime trip, or our health and survival on this trip,
threatened by your mistake.

Thank you,

Greg Kaiser