Congress: The TSA Is Wasting Hundreds Of Millions In Taxpayer Dollars
from the oversight-indeed dept
The House Oversight Committee has come out with a report slamming the TSA for tremendous amounts of waste, specifically in the "deployment and storage" of its scanning equipment. Basically, it sounds like the TSA likes to go on giant spending sprees, buying up security equipment and then never, ever using it. A few data points- As of February 15, 2012, the total value of TSA’s equipment in storage was, according to TSA officials, estimated at $184 million. However, when questioned by Committee staff, TSA’s warehouse staff and procurement officials were unable to provide the total value of equipment in storage.
- Committee staff discovered that 85% of the approximately 5,700 major transportation security equipment currently warehoused at the TLC had been stored for longer than six months; 35% of the equipment had been stored for more than one year. One piece of equipment had been in storage more than six years – 60% of its useful life.
- As of February 2012, Committee staff discovered that TSA had 472 Advanced Technology 2 (AT2) carry-on baggage screening machines at the TLC and that more than 99% have remained in storage for more than nine months; 34% of AT2s have been stored for longer than one year.
- TSA knowingly purchased more Explosive Trace Detectors (ETDs) than were necessary in order to receive a bulk discount under an incorrect and baseless assumption that demand would increase. TSA management stated: “[w]e purchased more than we needed in order to get a discount.”
- TSA intentionally delayed Congressional oversight of the Transportation Logistics Center and provided inaccurate, incomplete, and potentially misleading information to Congress in order to conceal the agency’s continued mismanagement of warehouse operations.
- TSA willfully delayed Congressional oversight of the agency’s Transportation Logistics Center twice in a failed attempt to hide the disposal of approximately 1,300 pieces of screening equipment from its warehouses in Dallas, Texas, prior to the arrival of Congressional staff.
- TSA potentially violated 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001, by knowingly providing an inaccurate warehouse inventory report to Congressional staff that accounted for the disposal of equipment that was still in storage at the TLC during a site visit by Congressional staff.
- TSA provided Congressional staff with a list of disposed equipment that falsely identified disposal dates and directly contradicted the inventory of equipment in the Quarterly Warehouse Inventory Report provided to Committee staff on February 13, 2012.
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Filed Under: congress, house oversight committee, michael chertoff, scanners, tsa, waste
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Re: Grate Expectations
What is this shyte!!? They buy a bunch of props & set pieces and can't even be bothered to put them on stage?
Fire somebody over this! I want the price of admission be a fricking gaurantee that I am entertained.
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Re: Re: Grate Expectations
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Re:
Probably taking about a 10(maybe 20)ftL x 4ftW x 8ftH corridor with no roof, painted taupe. I would say yellow but you have to choose the correct shade, else it be blinding or look like pee.
Computer is also going to be able to check more people per second than a standard operator. Not to mention you just walk through it with all your stuff in hand. Make sure each sensor array along the length serves a different purpose. Have the computer flag the person on the way out of the corridor. You can keep the line moving quickly in the event of a violation. The computer could also probably tell you what triggered the system. Since you can patch computer, you can modify the code to deal with new potential threats.
Since there is no real operator, no one is looking at you, you are not being groped. The sound spectrum is safe for people. You would need to use below 20HZ and above 24KHZ
else it would be to much chaos.
Start with pig analogs(live ones) full size and piglets. Debug.
Implement.
Happy travelers.
The above idea should raise almost no objections from the average. You will still get people who refuse but the safety of the operators and the public is minimal.
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Re: Re:
Either you're making a subtle point about security theatre, and how it can be done at basically no cost once all the visible (and audible) cues have been removed and the security is entirely faith-based, OR you've been watching a lot of bad science fiction (including all the "CSI" balderdash) and have a 1970's grasp of what modern computers can and cannot do.
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What I suggested is extremely feasible and builds off sonar, sonograms, and human tests with the way lines are seen and what is and is not intimidating and likely to not elicit an unhelpful response.
A computer could easily handle all the data coming in and process it. Hence the need for live pigs. They are very similar to humans in their structure, they do not move at a standard pace, and you can easily hide "weapons" on them is all the likely places and in any creative way you can think.
The current system has no reward for the software to work correctly. You give a team a bonus for every device you can not pass through during testing. You also give a bonus for any device that runs for months on end with out restarting being needed.
Though I do like the double way that could be interpreted. That was by accident, and I wish I could claim it was purposed. That would have awesome.
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Computers have no gender,age, sexuality, or race bias. Every person is just some data pass through.
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There are more limits than that. There are also real, physical limits of what a computer and the sensors attached to it are capable of.
I spent years as a programmer working with ultrasonic equipment used in medical research. Ultrasonic scanners are not useless for you suggested purpose, but are also no magic bullet. They're also less useful that the millimeter radar scanners.
For one, it'd be pretty easy to defeat. Without physical contact, you won't have anything like a medical ultrasound, and ultrasonic energy isn't very hard to shield against in a way that doesn't look terribly suspicious.
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I will give you there is a limit on the sensors. The computer also, but not enough to limit this. You will need arrays of each to handle all the info. But since each sub-computer is purpose built to deal with its sensors, you no longer have that problem. Some custom hardware and software.
Hence why the limit is always the human.
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Personally, I don't think your solution is quite as workable as you do, but I admit that I could be 100% wrong about this. Serious technological advances often happen with people not accepting convention wisdom about what is feasible and doing it anyway. I'm always happy when I see someone do this, and I'd love it if the next one I see is you. :)
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Re: Re: Re:
Can this be done with off the shelf hardware and software? Not a chance. You would have to program a custom kernel to deal with it. A lot of the hardware would have to modified to work at the ranges required.
Hard? TOTALLY.
Doable? Indeed.
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Re: Re:
1) The TSA hasn't prevented anything... Other than me bringing my Mtn Dew to the gate (most airports are Coke only).
2) The flying public needs to be willing to accept some risk, I suspect they are. I think everyone knows that never again will a plane be taken with a couple box cutters.
3) What happened to probable cause, and the 4th amendment of the constitution (the unreasonable search and seizure)?
No keep in mind I don't like my wife and daughters getting groped or having pictures taken of them like the next guy however, we have already lost the argument if that is our position. The correct argument has nothing to do with profiling, nothing to do with screening... It has everything to do with probable cause. By all means if someone is clutching a backpack with wires sticking out of it sweating like a pig then there is a reasonable assumption that something is going on. Of course there may not be, he could have just run across the terminal trying to catch a flight but a 5 minute chat with that guy is certainly better than a 30 minute delay for everyone in the airport.
At a basic level I don't have a problem with cursory screening. Check for valid ID, hell even require a passport for all air travel, and then a quick x-ray of my bags. There shouldn't be any removing of stuff on my person or from my bag without probable cause. This entire function can be passed back to the airlines themselves to fill with private security (lets be honest they are no worse than the TSA, and they have an incentive to be more cost effective) in addition to private security you have your Port Police force which can be available for situations where probable cause is found.
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They might come out a shootin!
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And the TSA asks Congress
I'm guessing a sternly worded letter may be in order here.
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Re: And the TSA asks Congress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIPSvIz9NDs
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b) about time Congress looked a bit deeper at who else is misleading them. cant think of any famous studios that may spring to mind or ex senators that assist them, can you?
c) why doesn't Congress listen to what it's being told by those other than just 'self-preserving' interests, then act on it, instead of waiting months if not years and making itself look total twats?
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Re:
Members of Congress, a widely-reviled body whose corruption is common knowledge and which has an approval rating in SINGLE DIGITS are well aware that their own re-election rate, as the individuals who make up this well-hated organization, is well over 90%. Great way to express outrage, America.
That they can then get their victims to go ballistic over a court decision that might allow someone to counteract their advantages as incumbents (with money) must be very reassuring to them. When they can take "Incumbent Protection" legislation and fool the voters by calling it "Campaign Reform", why the hell should they care whether you're outraged on any issue??
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Its just money
Its sad how much money has been pilfered since 9/11.
Pallets of money, to the tune of 12 billion, sent over to pay "contractors."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1
Luxury sedans (60k each) in a war zone. (Iraq for sale documentary http://iraqforsale.org/ )
Oh and BTW our Marines were sent into the DESERT with WOODLAND gear. (Former Marine who was among the first troops sent there. A co-worker turned good friend)
Oh and we cant forget the 2 billion spy center being built.
And on and on and on.
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Re: Its just money
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Re: Its just money
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In all honesty....
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Of course...
With a mafia (people calling themselves "government") enforced monopoly, they don't have to respond to market forces as they still receive the stolen money either way.
Just like any other government program, when they don't do a good job they actually get more stolen money ("the TSA is inefficient because it's not receiving enough funding" they'll say) which is the exact opposite of how a free market operates (where if you fail to meet customer needs, you fail & go out of business) and thus setting up an incentive for government programs to be as inefficient as possible.
The core issue here is the people who call themselves "government" having a monopoly on force. Complex social issues cannot be solved by force/violence in the long run, it only makes it worse.
Solution: The non-aggression principle (the initiation of force is immoral / self-defense is valid) & respect for property rights / self-ownership [i.e. Voluntaryism]
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Re: Of course...
unless, of course, you're too big
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decommission all of it
The equipment was a waste of money to begin with. It won't be wasted any less if it's "used"; it'll just generate more waste, especially time.
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Re: decommission all of it
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thing = think
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Is this, coupled with the amazing revelation that the scanners don't work as advertised enough to fend off anyone screaming your soft on terrorism if you dare to question if the TSA is not working as intended?
That just blinding throwing money at an "issue" is going to never work out correctly.
This is a failed program dreamt up during a dark time. It was meant to be big, bold and make a statement. The program has failed at its mission, it is bloated, invasive, and adds no real security while shredding peoples rights and dignity. There is no fixing it, putting anymore money into it is even a bigger waste. Box it all up, sell it off, try again.
Stop expecting a magic machine that will make it all work.
Stop expecting people being able to look at people and know they are bad.
Stop expecting people to keep accepting you wasting money on snake oil.
Stop trying to point to all of the terrorist threats you "stopped", even their own spokesmen pointed out stopping a can of soup on the top 10 list of things.
By this years anniversary of 9-11 can you skip the parades and grandstanding and just give us back our civil rights.
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Re:
YES! If that happened, I'd celebrate heartily. It would be our first (and only, so far) actual victory over terrorism. It would transform 9/11 from a remembrance of the start of our national destruction to a celebration of the start of our national recovery. It would be awesome and good in every way.
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30000 dollar gold toilet
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Can I get a "NO SHIT!"?
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I paraphrase John Cleese in a very old Monty Python sketch
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TSA Bob
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Re:
As someone familiar with government spending, I believe you are being a little conservative on your numbers. Usually it is at least three times the price.
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What can you expect
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It's free off the books money. Also it would not surprise me if the suppliers are providing kickbacks to buy from them.
Double the fun..
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Waste Not, Want Not
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This is the same airport where a security checkpoint was left unattended for over an hour one evening.
All in all I would say a very effective means of thwarting terrorism.
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While border guards are allowed to search without warrant of persons and property entering the United States, they only have authority to do a cursory search of the outer clothing for weapons without reasonable cause and warrant. That is protected by American law and Constitution amendments 5, 6 and 14. It should also be noted that TSA, which has the role of a in-country maintenance of transportation and security, does not have the training as a border guard. The Customs and Border Protection agency Border Guards have a rigorous, 3 month training program with a 2 year probation. The TSA Screener has a 72 hour training program with 120 hours of probation/on job training. I honestly do not get why you let them treat you this way.
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Hmmm
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I could do this all day...
President: The Congress Is Wasting Hundreds Of Millions In Taxpayer Dollars
TSA: The Dept of Interior Is Wasting Hundreds Of Millions In Taxpayer Dollars
EPA: The FDA Is Wasting Hundreds Of Millions In Taxpayer Dollars
Dept of Agriculture: The Tresury Is Wasting Hundreds Of Millions In Taxpayer Dollars
And on and on and on...
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New Business Idea
Horrah! Can be part of a new govt funded healthcare plan for all! What could go wrong?
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TSA Equipment
Isn't it amazing how much of our money they can spend without a budget!
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