Comments on: Expert: TSA Screening Is Security Theater

TSA Head Disputes Claim, Tells 60 Minutes Measures Are Necessary Because "This Is A War"

[arthurggggg]

The TSA is specificly designed to lull the American Public into accepting random, pointless, searches at the whim of the government. Look at them. TSA screeners are being trained to be smiling and polite. WHY? To appear benign and unthreatening as they strip you of your Freedom. Look at their faces, if YOU seriously believed the next passenger might be an armed and murderously suicidal killer, would you be all relaxed and cheery? If you seriously believed that the next suitcase you open may blow you to Kingdom Come, would you be a Perky Pixie? If you do NOT believe that ......... WHY ARE YOU HERE!? Exactly. There - is - NO - terrorist - threat, and ... THEY ... know ... it.
Their facial reading is thwarted by a valium. Their "war" is a war on Freedom. Simply ... this is all an elaborate cover for LOOTING THE PUBLIC TREASURY. The politicians are invested in the companies that provide the equipment.

[pjdarling12]

I''m sorry but whenever I enter the security area of an airport I get flashes from those documentaries on conditions inside our prisons.

99.999% of us are generally peaceful folk who just want an uneventful trip to our destination. Many of us would even help subdue a wrongdoer. Some have.

We are in this together Mr/Ms TSA person. We don''t want the bad guys to cause harm any more than you. Don''t treat us like we do.

[execoly]

Security Theater. Like the title.

The reality: 9/11 occurred because the rules for pilots at that time were: Cooperate with hijackers. Do as they say, fly them where they want to go, and make sure the passengers are not harmed.

Since 9/11 the rules have changed. As noted in the article, the pilots now sit behind bulletproof, locked doors in the cockpit. The instructions to pilots and crew are clear: Do not cooperate. Do not obey the terrorists. Never give up the aircraft. Under ANY circumstances.

Little known factoid: Federal Air Marshals are not on the plane to protect the passengers. They are there to defend the cockpit.

As a consequence, the possibility of a 9/11-style hijacking is very nearly 0%, and has been since 9/12. The measures at check-in security are now predominantly about 1) protecting the aircraft from attack (NOT hijacking) and 2) cosmetics (security theater).

Keep in mind, the PERCEPTION of security is of value, also as noted in the story. Still, $40 Billion might seem a little excessive, but heck, its a jobs program.

[mljohns00]

In the decade in United States, terrorists have destroyed a handful of buildings and a couple of thousand lives. Our reaction to terrorism has destroyed entire industries, destroyed countries, and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

[Excalibur200]

I was in airline quality assurance and safety for 14 years. No one ever got a government job by saying during an interview "I have an idea!". It should be very obvious that the government is an employer of last resort. The type of people they hire are those who will be least threatening to the status quo.

[arthurggggg]

Totally Stupid *** -- TSA
The TSA is blackmailing thousands of Citizens, everyday, into "Voluntarily Abandoning Property" (VAP)
liquid, gel, and aerosol, worth millions of dollars.
The alledged reason is these MIGHT be dangerous, toxic, explosive, poisonous, chemicals.
Do you know what is happening to this treasure?
The TSA geniuses are taking these "dangerous, toxic, explosive, poisonous, chemicals" and,
tossing them into big bins, sorted by THE LABEL, and , UNTESTED or CRITICALLY EXAMINED,
storing them.
Gee. What if I was a "terrorist" (are there any?) and made a bomb that LOOKED like a common flammable item.
Yes, you are right. The TSA morons would acommadatingly take it from me,
put it in their pile of OTHER FLAMMABLES, and store it until MY bomb ignited the items it is stored with.
The TSA would have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA who GAVE them the bomb, because they don''t record such things.
TSA "officers" around the country are drinking "VAP" pop, water, etc.
(and accepting "gifts" of food, drink)
GEE, what if someone injected some hallucinogens? well ..... how would we be able to tell if THAT happened?........
Same as with the stored items.

[arthurggggg]

Tue Oct 14, 2008 6:43PM EDT

The TSA reached a mind-boggling new low in customer service this week when it was revealed that one agent had single-handedly absconded with over $200,000 worth of travelers'' belongings, primarily cameras and laptops, and proceeded to unload his booty on eBay. His latest haul: A near-$50,000 camera that an HBO employee had been traveling with.

The culprit is one Pythias Brown, a New Jersey resident who worked in the TSA department at Newark Liberty Airport. Finally busted, police discovered an inventory of 66 cameras, 31 laptops, assorted jewelry, and more when they searched his home. How''d he finally get caught? Brown snagged a camera belonging to CNN, and they found it for sale on eBay, where Brown had been converting the gear into cash.

[arthurggggg]

December 6, 2008
Regional Director of Homeland Security Arrested for harboring illegal alien

Lorraine Henderson, the Boston regional director of Homeland Security, Customs, and Border Protection, was arrested Friday at her home in Salem, MA. She was charged with harboring an illegal alien and ordered released on $25,000 unsecured bond during an initial appearance in federal court. She was expected to appear in federal court in Boston later Friday on a charge of harboring an illegal alien.

If convicted, Henderson faces up to 10 years in prison. She declined to comment after her court appearance.

[kingkhufu]

I have worked for TSA for 6 years and here is what I thought of your piece on the TSA:

TSA is better then a private, hap-hazard company in performing a necessary component of air travel. However, it must be realized that TSA is not the end-all of aircraft terrorism and never will be. This is what our agency must realize and endeavor to resolve. You can have a customer service focused agency, or a security focused agency, but you can%u2019t have both and expect both to be as effective as either would be by itself.

We have to understand that we have been operating off an illogic fallacy that past six years that security measures have made all that much of an impact. There were no hijackings of planes and flying them into structures before it was done, and just because it has not immediately happened since cannot be attributed solely to new security measures. That is the illogical argument. The logical conclusion the past six years is that another incident has not happened because it simply has not happened, period.

[jrsinxs]

I work at Sky Harbor (PHX) I would like to add that one of the hardest things to do is to "Bullit Proof" an existing structure. I see many loopholes in the TSA security. Some are faults of their own, for example: TSA workers do not have to be screened. They may enter the Secure area without being screened. They also allow TSA workers to bring food into the Secure area with out being screened. I (and many others employed elsewhere at the Airport) am not allowed to forgo the Security Check Point. I ask myself why are they (TSA Employees) above the rules. I think of Timothy McVay, he was disgruntled by the US Govt. for their actions in Waco Tx., and look what he did.
I do believe that "Security Theater" exists. I really don''t think its possible to cover all of the bases so they feel they have to "inconvinience" the passengers to make it look like they are doing something.
Also the point of the 3oz. liquids, it didn''t appear in your story, but "testing agencies" de-bunked this by having several "testers" combine there liquids once through the check point. But yet the TSA choses to limit passengers to 3oz.
I could go on about other loopholes I have seen, but I will end my comment with these points. Thank You for listening.

[mikem10436]

TSA. You only addressed the terrorist issues of the TSA screening. I don''t like the TSA screening, however, it is just part of today''s inconveniences -- deal with it!!! My daughter is a flight attendant for a major airlines. On Thanksgiving 2007, she, her crew and "Todd Beamer" types subdued a mental person who rushed for the cockpit door. They denied the cockpit intrusion. A temporarty diversion occurred to turn him over to the FBI. Now, I for one would rather be a TSA employee having to "work" the screening line rather than view images of people--however, let''s expand the imaging so we can get to our flights and travel safely without in-flight events..

[mikem10436]

TSA. I also do not like the necessities of the TSA intrusions. However, you only addressed the terroist issues. My daughter is a flight attendant for United and she and her crew and "Todd Beamer" types denied a mental case access to the cockpit door on Thanksgiving 2007. We have many mental cases on each trip every day... Back off of the TSA -- it is today''s mandates -- By the way, if they want to do a "scan" of me, God help the ones that have to view such images -- that would be worse than having to face the dissatisied passengers in line. Thanks.. Mike Middleton, Shreveport, LA

[mpat69]

I do not see how Leslie can sit there and try to make it look like TSA is doing something bad. She even lowers herself by bringing in her "Grandmother". I work with TSA and I do not want to see another 9-1-1. With what we are doing at the airports, even though SHE may not agree, we are keeping the traveling public safe. If she does not feel that way, then she needs to know that the "greyhound" is always available for her and her "Grandmother". We have screened Billions of people within the 6 plus years we have been in service. Can she not see that WE cannot afford to be wrong, not even once. Whether they are a 90 year old grandmother or a nine month old child. The terrorists use anyone whenever they can. As for me and my family, we still trust in TSA , what they do and what they believe. And we will still continue to fly.

[kabanzi-2009]

Thank you for the show on TSA but what I am concerned about is what about when the government actually puts our lives in danger of a guerilla attack by herding us together like sheep in a perfect ambush kill zone like they do at DIA (Denver International Airport). There is a balcony above the screening area where bombs could be thrown from and no one could stop attackers in time. (do people remember the paris grenade attacks?)

No amount of complaining over a 3 year period to TSA has had any effect in changing how they do things.

Security is a farse, on the show they said they are much better at finding knives I recently traveled from the US to Africa and back with two knives on my person which were not discovered, I was even body searched at one airport and they still didn''t find anything. Granted the knives where just small swiss army knives but they were not found.

The person who mentioned on the show that each time someone tries something new then we start screening for the new thing is correct we are always a day late, and several millions of dollars short. So why don''t we do something about DIA now before it is too late.

Growing up in Africa in perpetual terrorism based wars I am more alert to danger than my American peers whom have had the luxury of growing up in safety, the man who warned that the next attack on the twin towers would be from aircraft also grew up in Africa and he was not listened to until it was too late.

Lets see what happens now?

[gwbradley]

I became more and more agitated as I watched tis seqment.Because of all the ridiculous games being played by tsa I for one,refuse to fly.This is a sacrifice on my part.I was stopped at the air port because I had a candy bar in my pocket with a metalic wrapper.One has to jump through all the government hoops after payingthrough the nose for the flight .This @#%* is just another proof that the tyerrorists have already won .This is supposed to be a free country,but The government sees fit to limit our freedoms in every way they can.ARE POGROMS NEXT?
G W Bradley

One of the greatest problems with the TSA''s screening program is the lack of consistency. My travels through several airports have revealed significant differences in the screening process. Is this purposely done to throw-off a potential threat? Not bad, if this is the purpose. However, if this is not the purpose, then consistency needs to be instituted. Only TSA knows the real answer to this question.

The other problem is how TSA handles Federal law enforcement officers (LEOs). The reason, according to TSA, is the lack of uniformity in the credentials, especially something (strip, etc.) that would provide verification of the LEO''s credentials. What this does is take away the valuable time of TSA officers to review others who are not in positions of trust and sensitivity.

On another note, I think that there were questions that asked for sensitive information. I wish this could have been avoided. Lesley Stahl is one of the best correspondents that I have ever watched. She has my admiration, respect, and professional interest. Ms. Stahl is so good at her job that it is difficult for her to ask questions and not get responses that should be protected from the public.

As a Nation, we need to keep Kip Hawley on retainer. He has some important information that needs further cultivating. One nation that does a great job is Israel. We need make certain that we are taking notes here.

[privada-2009]

As an American who lives outside the USA it''s somewhat amusing to watch the amount of money being spent at US Airports for security- when I return home several times a year from outside the country-the level of security in no way matches what I experience when I leave the US- because I have an artifical knee am routinely stopped-made to sit in a waiting area barefoot, then wanded over every part of my body- then subjected to body search by hand- which is intrusive and embarrassing. Seems rather ridiculous a terrorist could be flying into the US from any country in the world and not be subjected to the same scutinty since the US cannot control security outside it''s borders.

[remant]

The last ppl you want governing this country are the ppl in Washington. A smart move would be to move the capitol lock, stock and barrel minus the current inhabitants to Des Moines or Cedar Rapids.

[evian_ycnan]

Rely only on intelligence is stupid. Wasnt it the failure of intelligence that got us into the Iraq war?

Posted by fishingdude5 at 03:41 PM : Dec 22, 2008

Absoulutely not. It was the ignoring and the sculpting of the intelligence that did that. Bush ignored, Cheney directed.

As for the rest, ignorance begets a tolerance for ignorance.

Regards,

[mpat69]

Again 60 Minutes and Leslie put a story together and it di no good. The story on TSA showed that they want things to go back to the way it used to be. It will never do that thanks to the terrorists. If Leslie can show me what a terrorist looks like, I will personally screen them myself and check on them. I work with TSa for over 6 years. The changes that are going on with in, is the best thing for TSA and the traveling public. Will it take another 9-1-1 in order for people to realize we are doing a job to ensure their security and safe travel? This change we are doing is to make it easier for everyone as they go through the screening process. To change the way we are looked upon by the media and the public. This change is a long time coming and I have seen many people notice the difference in the way they are processed now. And they really do appreciate it. I think if 60 minutes wants to do a real story on TSA, get it from the people on the floor. See what is really going on and the changes we are all making. They will see that TSA is "Leading The Evolution".