TSA got you down?

[Jim Lapenta]

I'm limiting my optional air travel to the extent I can.

If someone showed me that TSA actually caught terrorists, I might be more sympathetic. I understand that they catch jerks, but I don't know about terrorists.

And, who exactly is it that formulates TSA search policy? Is it someone we elected? Is it someone hired by someone we elected? Is there any oversight by someone we elected? Is there any oversight by someone hired by someone we elected? Or did someone just announce they were in charge of the TSA and then start making rules?

BTW: I'll shut my mouth as soon as members of the Cabinet and Senators submit to the searches.

Oh, and God Bless the District Attorney elect of San Francisco, who purportedly promised to prosecute any TSA agent who touches someone in the "private parts." I wonder if a felony conviction would preclude someone from working for the TSA.

Nope. At least if it was for rape or molestation. According to the US code that some guy cited on Hannity today if the conviction is more than ten years old you can be a TSA agent. Still want your wife or kids to be patted down?

 

[Rhone Man]

My sister is a global traveler as a byproduct of her profession so she sees airport security all over the world and she claims TSA security is the most invasive, rude, slow yet inadequate security she's seen anywhere. Again, I can't verify this personally, but I trust my sister, she's a smart cookie.

I'd agree with that. I fly about 75,000 miles a year on business (so I even get to go through the premium lines - God knows what the poor sods travelling cattle class put up with). Living where I live, I have to go through the US to get to pretty much anywhere, and they are always my least favourite legs. You fly into Hong Kong or Singapore, and they run top notch security whilst remaining unfailingly polite.

I am not sure why America has such a ham handed approach to terrorist threats. It is particularly odd, as Americans are generally known as a pretty friendly race of people. Places like Britain, Spain, Israel and India have been living under terrorist threats much longer, and somehow manage to keep things ticking along without making life miserable for travellers.

Personally I believe that good intelligence (in the military sense of the word) is far more likely to prevent terrorist attacks than sticking a rubber glove up a randomly selected collection of @rseholes. Pat downs and rubber gloves are there to create a perception of security; not catch Mr Bin Laden's admirers.

 

[noreastDIVER84]

@noreastdiver - nope - look for the report of the guy who stripped to his undies as he didn't want to be irradiated or have a 2nd molestation by the TSA in a week - the TSA agent wanted him to put his clothes back on so he could be patted down !
It's all theater and corruption (look who is making the $) - hopefully someone will prosecute someone from the TSA for sexual molestation soon and win - would love to be on that jury.

I am sure that stripping down would be a problem. The last time I was traveling I had my cameras, regs and laptop in my carry on bag, I had no problems in NY, I just had to pull out the regs to show them, but in Florida(Orlando) I had one of their screeners who could barely speak english(I even wonder about their immigration status) questioned my cameras. I told them that I would pull them out to show them, but they wanted nothing to do with it, I told them to get a supervisor over then, I have seen how they handle most things and I was not going to let them handle my $7000 above water camera, and my $3000 underwater camera. They brought a supervisor over and there were no issues.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I figure I'm gonna just have some fun with it and stuff a rubber chicken down there before I walk thru the scanner ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I'd agree with that. I fly about 75,000 miles a year on business (so I even get to go through the premium lines - God knows what the poor sods travelling cattle class put up with). Living where I live, I have to go through the US to get to pretty much anywhere, and they are always my least favourite legs. You fly into Hong Kong or Singapore, and they run top notch security whilst remaining unfailingly polite.

I am not sure why America has such a ham handed approach to terrorist threats. It is particularly odd, as Americans are generally known as a pretty friendly race of people. Places like Britain, Spain, Israel and India have been living under terrorist threats much longer, and somehow manage to keep things ticking along without making life miserable for travellers.

Personally I believe that good intelligence (in the military sense of the word) is far more likely to prevent terrorist attacks than sticking a rubber glove up a randomly selected collection of @rseholes. Pat downs and rubber gloves are there to create a perception of security; not catch Mr Bin Laden's admirers.

Try flying through Frankfurt, they make the US airports look friendly and efficient. I agree with you though, HK and Singapore are well run airports, even when traveling coach I have always been treated with respect and a smile.

 

[vladimir]

I'd prefer not to be groped, particularly by a man, but I think I still look pretty good on the scanner.

The fact that the TSA does not "catch" terrorists is not a persuasive argument against its existence--presumably it deters them.

The favorite solution among the cognoscenti seems to be to adopt Israeli strategies. I wonder how many domestic passengers Israel has each day? How many international passengers? Multiply that by a large number, and I doubt that their technique is scalable to our needs, especially since it seems to rely on skilled screeners.

At some point the United States is going to have to accept the prospect of a small civilian death toll to terrorists without throwing a trillion dollars and numerous military lives at the problem. Our soldiers should not be regarded as expendable. The price of (trying for) perfection is probably many times higher than the price of near-perfection. The simple change of securing cockpits and training passengers and crew not to docilely comply with terrorists has probably done more for our safety than the whole of Homeland Security.

 

[naimis]

I know I shouldn't be feeding the trolls, but nevertheless... I'm more afraid of the TSA than any terrorist simply due to statistics. I'm far more likely to be harassed, detained, abused, molested, or robbed by a TSA agent (actually, I've had stuff disappear already) than I am to become a victim of a terrorist attack. Is that because of the TSA, as you suggest? Well, certainly. If the TSA wasn't around, harassing, detaining, abusing, molesting, or robbing people, I probably wouldn't feel that way. It's certainly not because I think the TSA is competent enough to actually thwart a terrorist attack.

Let's have a look at some of the TSA-related news items over the past few days...
TSA chief apologizes to traveler with ostomy - Travel - News - msnbc.com
Instapundit Blog Archive SEVERAL READERS ASK THE SAME QUESTION: I’d suggest that anyone thinking of opting for the “pat do…
TSA: Unpredictability Is Part Of Security Process : The Two-Way : NPR
Amputees and TSA Scans - TSA Scanner and the Handicapped - Popular Mechanics
Bruce Schneier Interview - Security Theater and the TSA - Popular Mechanics
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Canadian+airport+port+workers+soon+have+take/3866603/story.htmlhttp://www.vancouversun.com/news/Canadian+airport+port+workers+soon+have+take/3866603/story.html (not actually TSA)
TSA workers face verbal abuse from travelers - todaytravel - TODAYshow.com
TSA chief warns against boycott of airport scans - Yahoo! News
Video: TSA chief rules out body cavity searches - CSMonitor.com (sorry to disappoint those of you who think all this is a great idea, maybe he'll change his mind)
Utah man posts video of TSA searching shirtless boy | The Salt Lake Tribune
No Security Pat-Downs for Boehner - NYTimes.com (Boehner? Almost feel sorry for the guy)
Cancer survivor forced to show prosthetic breast to TSA agents at airport | Mail Online
Another TSA Outrage | RedState
Florida airport to opt out of TSA screening - National Libertarian | Examiner.com
If you won't submit to screening, you won't fly, TSA says

and so on and so forth... that's just a selection of articles over the last week (though I admit I didn't screen each article to make sure the story had occurred recently).

 

[vladimir]

No Security Pat-Downs for Boehner - NYTimes.com (Boehner? Almost feel sorry for the guy)

Yeah, it's easy to see why the screeners didn't want to frisk him.

 

[DandyDon]

I figure I'm gonna just have some fun with it and stuff a rubber chicken down there before I walk thru the scanner ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

You'll miss your plane. ilot:

 

[iztok]

I traveled close to quarter of million of miles in past 3 years including several international destinations. (LGW, FRA, MUC, HKT, BKK, PEK, ICN, TLV to name a few)

I would take any of the above to what TSA is doing now.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin