TSA Inspections Are Still A Farce
from the security-theater dept
If you thought taking your shoes off and putting your liquids in little plastic bags was going to stop terrorists from smuggling bombs onto planes, think again. A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that investigators were able to smuggle bomb components through TSA checkpoints without being caught. This isn't much of a surprise; a similar test last year found that the TSA caught only 2 out of 22 people who tried to smuggle dummy weapons through checkpoints in a Newark airport. This is not really surprising. The TSA's strategy has been basically reactive: the 9/11 hijackers used box cutters, so those get banned. Somebody tries to smuggle explosives onboard in his shoes, so the TSA makes us all take our shoes off. Somebody tries to smuggle liquid explosives onto a plane, so the TSA bans bottled water. There's no reason to think these rules actually make us safer, but they do allow the TSA to pretend they're "doing something" about terrorism. A TSA spokeswoman insists that this wasn't a fair test because they only got by one of their "19 layers of security." I wouldn't be surprised if the other 18 layers were as ineffectual than the others, but one thing that can be said for them is that they're a lot less annoying for travelers. How about if the TSA stops wasting resources forcing 5-year-old girls to take their shoes off, and shift those resources to the sort of in-depth police work that led to the foiling of last year's liquid explosives plot.
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Filed Under: airports, inspections, security, tsa
Companies: tsa
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19 Layers of Security?
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Re: 19 Layers of Security?
Unfortunately, the screeners at the airport terminals are not doing a good job. They're giving the rest of the agency an extremely bad impression. They should definitely step it up.
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Hopefully no bav :)
Thats why dentists activate x rays from the next room over behind a leaded wall even if the beam is aimed away from them, because if they were continually xrayed it would cause cancer.
read here -> http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/examinations/x-ray.htm
if you want an example of that. Of course UK medical studies state that xrays only cause 0.6% of cancer cases which I'm sure is a magic number for them since xrays cause cancer.
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OH NOES!!!!1!!
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Re:
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Oh NoES!!!!
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http://asp.usatoday.com/community/utils/idmap/29949738.story
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Will be a joke
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Re: Will be a joke
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Re: Will be a joke
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Theater of security
It seems like the new job of security is to make us *feel* safer, not to actually *be* safer. So, liquids and sharp objects are banned, yet you can get alcohol and perfumes (very flammable liquids and sprayers) and pens (sharp objects) AFTER you go through security. If the real job was to make us safer, then these objects wouldn't be for sale at the airport... but then the merchants would get upset that they were losing business.
Like the above poster said, many security people are too PC. This means they don't "profile" people (meaning they don't search people who may look like terrorists). While this is good for people who fit the profile and are innocent, it also means searching everyone... including your 80 year old grandmother and the 3-year old in the stroller.
Also, since the TSA is so reactive, what will happen when a "terrorist" tries to sneak something through in his underwear? Will we all have to go through security naked? Or will that be the point when people start to have common sense?
The larger picture should be stopping possible terrorists BEFORE they even reach the airport, not as they're going through security to get on a plane.
The British and Pakistani intelligence agencies found the "liquid bombers" before they even thought about getting on a plane... which is what intelligence agencies should do!
Yet, the government can say it's making people *feel* safer if they put highly visible security measures at the airport. By comparison, the average Joe can't easily see how intelligence agencies are fighting terrorism.
I mean, really, if you catch a suicide bomber at a security checkpoint before he gets on the plane, what's he going to do? Yep, blow up the bomb in the airport. Now that's great security!
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Re: Theater of security
If I am destined to get blown up, I'd prefer that I not be standing in the security line with my shoes in my hand.
This last summer, I was "escorting" my 13 year old step-son to the gate (with the appropriate "escort" non-boarding pass), I was dressed for summer in San Diego (shorts, T-shirt, flip flops) and was made to remove my FLIP FLOPS. Like my 5/16th thick open toed sandels could hide any explosives...idiocy!
Tim is also on the mark! Right after 9/11 I was on active duty and travelling frequently to train ships that were preparing to head over to the gulf. Since I was usually flying on a one way ticket (riding the ship out and flying back or vice versa) I was getting pulled into secondary screening EVERY TIME. It took me more that a few trips to final figure out why. I couldn't convince any of the $12 an hour monkies that a guy in uniform with an active duty ID card that passed the "normal" screening shouldn't be subject to a second search just because of the one way ticket. Idiocy!
I guess my biggest beef is that most everyone (especially airline employees) excuse this idiocy by saying "they are just doing their jobs". What a joke.
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Re: Theater of security
The value that the TSA provides is non-existent (not negligable, not minimal, but truly non-existent). Honestly, if there's anyone out there entrusting their lives to some idiots with perceived security training, making $10/hr, who thinks it's a good idea to harass the innocent, then they have much more serious issues than any "terrorist" might give them, and they probably should be let out of their homes alone in public, much less allowed to fly.
I fly well over 100K miles per year, and it's absolutely ridiculous what I go through. TSA LOVES to rifle through my laptop bag. These clowns see me at the airport nearly EVERY week, yet they act surprised every week when my bag goes through the x-ray and they see I'm carrying a bunch of electronic gear. I'm much more afraid of some whack job gunning people down in the security line, or blowing up a fuel truck near the terminal, or launching an off-grounds surface to air missile, or basically any other potential threat than some guys trying to take over my airplane once it's in the air. I think we've all seen what will happen these days if crazies try to do something stupid (reference the Southwest flight where the passengers beat a guy with mental issues to death when he tried to enter the cockpit). Not to mention, it would take Superman to get through a cockpit door, at this point, given the level of reinforcement they all have!
In my opinion TSA = waste of money. It should be disbanded, and privatized, and all the silly shit the government has gone overboard with should be done away with. So much for the terrorists not winning.....
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Re: Re: Theater of security
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Re: Re: Re: Theater of security
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Profiling
Upon Patton's defeat of Rommel in North Africa (WWII), Patton is quoted as saying: "Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!"
The testers read the TSA's book.
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How about...
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The basic reasoning behind the TSA is "terrorists only have to succeed once". Someone tried to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb, now they check shoes.
It's clear liquid you say is water. The test bomb brought aboard was a liquid explosive. Is the TSA going to trust you or are they just going to ban water? TSA employees are underpaid government employees so it's not like TSA is attracting the brightest. They need to successfully screen millions of bags at a high rate of speed using employees who don't even make twice minimum wage.
Yes, TSA overreacts like little girls, but really, "they're from the government and they're there to help you" with all the meanings that quote brings up.
If it was up to me, there'd be no tests at all. You pays your money and you takes your chance.
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Not me, I'll just drive more, lol
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The TSA is a joke...
I mean if Congress, for instance, actually stuck to doing actual work, instead of putting so much effort into appearing to do something useful, they could have 2 day weeks and take 9 months off a year.
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My Opinion is:
You're more likely to be hit by lightning. Statistically speaking. And yes WeinerCat, they ARE going to X-Ray your weiner off. So let's drop the security, or at least bump up the number of lines and the number of people doing the "screening" and their pay so that we can get through quicker. FFS
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Many Problems with the TSA
2. How can using non-professional, former fast food working, under trained TSA workers make you feel secure?
3. Profiling is needed. What's wrong with everyone? Screw it if you feel violated. Better violated than dead.
4. Quit changing the rules every week concerning what will be searched. Somebody trained (like from Israel) should come over here and set the TSA system up.
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Re: Many Problems with the TSA
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Liquid explosives
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TSA =
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Targets
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There is profiling. There's higher paid TSA employees who wander around looking for suspicious looking people. Of course, the gub'mint ain't doing this one right either. They hire up from the screeners instead of looking for people with experience or training say psychology/anthropology background.
And answering Number 4, they do receive training from Israel. Only, it's the gub'mint so by the time it makes it down to the screeners doing the work, very little of Israel's wisdom makes it.
Number 2 is totally correct. "How can using non-professional, former fast food working, under trained TSA workers make you feel secure?" Sometimes fast food is fine, and sometimes they spit in it. Back to you pays your money and you takes your chances.
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@17
See, I'm not sure violated is better than dead. I don't want to be treated like a potential criminal when I haven't done a damn thing.
Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? These days we're all treated with suspicion, and it's made us worse as a society.
I'm willing to accept a higher amout of risk to reduce my aggravation and increase the respect I'm given when travelling.
It's just another case of "punishing" the 99.9% of people who travel on the off-chance of catching that 0.01% of people who actually mean us harm and manage to get to the security checkpoint.
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1) What does a terrorist look like? I know a guy who dresses in camo and combat boots but couldn't make a pipe bomb to save his life and another who walks around in slacks and sweaters and makes napalm for fun. You cannot tell the intentions of a person simply by looking at appearances. The fat businessman with the breathing strips is just as likely to be a terrorist as the stumblebum with greasy hair.
2) The TSA is to PC? Never give up your rights, because once you do, you have to fight the same battles over and over to get them back. We have the right to privacy, which includes not being strip-searched on the way to Florida. We also have the right to bear arms, or at least we are supposed to. That means that if I wish to carry my pocket knife with me, or even a good pig-sticker, I should be able to. And last, but not least, there is no way that searches should be based on ethnicity or race. Terrorism is not confined to a certain sect of peoples.
3) And finally, profiling is a joke. Not only is it inaccurate as all hell, but anybody with two brain cells to rub together knows about it and will act accordingly. You can fake your way through any personality test or criteria in existance. There is no way to stop a person from killing another once they have made up thier mind to sacrifice thier life in the doing of it.
The upshot of all this is that the TSA can look all it wants, and it will find some. Mostly though it will just weed out the stupid and teach the rest how to succesfully attack our citizens. It will not, however, lessen the amount of people willing to do it, nor lessen thier determination. So, people, don't voluntarily give up your rights and freedoms for the illusion of safety. You aren't safe, you never will be. That's the risk you take in living. Deal with it.
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YOUR VOTE HASN'T COUNTED IN OVER A HUNDRED YEARS! Don't believe me, research it yourself...but just be careful not to ask the gov't for the proper history.
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Oh, the irony of it all
It's all a sham.
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TSA Screeners
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