Tag: TSA
Dismantle the TSA?
by Jim on Sep.23, 2011, under Intelligence / National Security, Politics
How many uncomfortable experiences have you had with the TSA? Are we really safer because of the tiresome and invasive screenings? Or is it because passengers are more aware, cockpits are secure, and the way of doing business before Sept 11 is over?
I wish it were different but in the haste to do something quickly, the government created a bureaucratic monster, and then allowed it to be unionized. I think there are some good people in the depths of TSA, but the system gives little opportunity for individuality. I also don’t think that with all the money spent, we are safer.
It doesn’t have to be this way. A while ago I went through security at Ben Gurian airport in Tel Aviv. There I believed I actually was being checked in depth and truly scrutinized rather than just filling a square. If we are really concerned about security, go the Israeli route. Otherwise stop taking expensive, feel good , politically correct approaches that do not make us safer.
The following article raises some interesting questions about the TSA. Perhaps we need to look at a different approach like privatization . There are some outstanding security companies out there with great ideas. I think we should look at those who could do the job more effectively, react quicker, use modern risk management techniques, and save money at the same time. Just food for thought on this weekend. Ten years after 9/11 I really think we can do better. What do you think? Enjoy the weekend, and see you Monday.
TSA Creator Says Dismantle, Privatize the Agency
They’ve been accused of rampant thievery, spending billions of dollars like drunken sailors, groping children and little old ladies, and making everyone take off their shoes.
But the real job of the tens of thousands of screeners at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is to protect Americans from a terrorist attack.
Yet a decade after the TSA was created following the September 11 attacks, the author of the legislation that established the massive agency grades its performance at “D-.”
“The whole program has been hijacked by bureaucrats,” said Rep. John Mica (R. -Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
“It mushroomed into an army,” Mica said. “It’s gone from a couple-billion-dollar enterprise to close to $9 billion.”
As for keeping the American public safe, Mica says, “They’ve failed to actually detect any threat in 10 years.”
“Everything they have done has been reactive. They take shoes off because of [shoe-bomber] Richard Reid, passengers are patted down because of the diaper bomber, and you can’t pack liquids because the British uncovered a plot using liquids,” Mica said.
“It’s an agency that is always one step out of step,” Mica said.
It cost $1 billion just to train workers, which now number more than 62,000, and “they actually trained more workers than they have on the job,” Mica said.
“The whole thing is a complete fiasco,” Mica said.
In a wide-ranging interview with HUMAN EVENTS just days before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Mica said screeners should be privatized and the agency dismantled.
Instead, the agency should number no more than 5,000, and carry out his original intent, which was to monitor terrorist threats and collect intelligence.
The fledgling agency was quickly engulfed in its first scandal in 2002 as it rushed to hire 30,000 screeners, and the $104 million awarded to the company to contract workers quickly escalated to more than $740 million.
Federal investigators tracked those cost overruns to recruiting sessions held at swank hotels and resorts in St. Croix, the Virgin Islands, Florida and the Wyndham Peaks Resort and Golden Door Spa in Telluride, Colo.
Charges in the hundreds of thousands of dollars were made for cash withdrawals, valet parking and beverages, plus a $5.4 million salary for one executive for nine months of work.
Other over-the-top expenditures included nearly $2,000 for 20 gallons of Starbucks Coffee, $8,000 for elevator operators at a Manhattan hotel, and $1,500 to rent more than a dozen extension cords for the Colorado recruiting fair.
The agency inadvertently caused security gaps by failing for years to keep track of lost uniforms and passes that lead to restricted areas of airports.
Screeners have also been accused of committing crimes, from smuggling drugs to stealing valuables from passengers’ luggage. In 2004, several screeners were arrested and charged with stealing jewelry, computers and cameras, cash, credit cards and other valuables. One of their more notable victims was actress Shirley McClain, who was robbed of jewelry and crystals.
One of the screeners confessed that he was trying to steal enough to sell the items and buy a big-screen television.
In 2006, screeners at Los Angeles and Chicago O’Hare airports failed to find more than 60% of fake explosives during checkpoint security tests.
The sometimes rudder-less agency has gone through five administrators in the past decade, and it took longer than a year for President Obama to put his one man in place. Mica’s bill also blocked collective bargaining rights for screeners, but the Obama administration managed to reverse that provision.
Asked whether the agency should be privatized, Mica answered with a qualified yes.
“They need to get out of the screening business and back into security. Most of the screening they do should be abandoned,” Mica said. “I just don’t have a lot of faith at this point,” Mica said.
Allowing airports to privatize screening was a key element of Mica’s legislation and a report released by the committee in June determined that privatizing those efforts would result in a 40% savings for taxpayers.
“We have thousands of workers trying to do their job. My concern is the bureaucracy we built,” Mica said.
“We are one of the only countries still using this model of security,” Mica said, “other than Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and I think, Libya.”
Groin Checks
by Jim on Nov.16, 2010, under Politics, Travel
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I don’t know about you , but I am pretty upset about the intrusive patdowns being implemented at the nations airports. This is the fate for anyone who doesn’t want to risk a backscatter image scan for whatever reason. Wow. I am sure liberal activists will be up in arms about this… or will they? There seems to be a deafening silence from the left on this gross intrusion on our persons.
There are two interesting issues. One, is the backscatter really safe for frequent fliers; and two, how dare people reach into your groins for their searches. There has to be a more sane way. As I was mulling this over today I came across a number of articles on the subject. I have posted below an editorial from today’s Washington Times on the subject. Something has to be done because this new policy will lead to a revolt by the American flying public. How can the administration be so tone deaf?
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The Washington Times
The Transportation Security Administration’s demeaning new “enhanced pat-down” procedures are a direct result of the Obama administration’s willful blindness to the threat from Islamic radicals. While better tools are available to keep air travelers safe, they would involve recognizing the threat for what it is, which is something the White House will never do.
El Al, Israel’s national airline, employs a smarter approach. Any airline representing the state of Israel is a natural – some might say preeminent – target for terrorist attacks. Yet El Al has one of the best security records in the world and doesn’t resort to wide-scale use of methods that would under other circumstances constitute sexual assault. The Israelis have achieved this track record of safety by employing sophisticated intelligence analysis which allows them to predict which travelers constitute a possible threat and which do not. Resources are then focused on the more probable threats with minimal intrusion on those who are likely not to be terrorists.
Here in the United States, these sophisticated techniques have roundly been denounced as discriminatory “profiling.” Allegedly postracial America has been unable to come to grips with the difference between immoral and illegal racial discrimination and the prudent use of the types of techniques that police on the beat use every day, which is similar to practices the customs service applies to assessing which packages being sent into the country are licit and which were sent by smugglers. TSA believes an 80-year-old grandmother deserves the same level of scrutiny at an airport terminal checkpoint as a 19-year-old male exchange student from Yemen. This policy not only is a waste of time and resources, it denies reality.
The new crotch-inspection policy is a direct result of al Qaeda underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s failed attempt to take down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 last Christmas. At the time, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said, in masterful doublespeak, “Once the incident occurred, the system worked.” However, the incident itself was a symptom of systemic failure. Abdulmutallab’s name was on various watch lists. He had traveled to Yemen to network with al Qaeda. Warnings concerning him had been received from Yemen and Britain. His father had even attempted to notify the United States about the coming attack. None of this made an impression.
Despite all the government bureaucracy and TSA’s intrusive inspection practices, Abdulmutallab’s attack was only foiled because of a faulty bomb and the actions of alert passengers. Now all passengers have to pay the price by having their privacy (and their privates) invaded, which is the Obama administration’s alternative to instituting a policy that will target the source of the problem. Indeed, they refuse to admit that a Muslim problem exists.
The Obama administration prides itself on seeking purportedly “intelligent” solutions to complex problems, but it has no such answer to air safety. Its policy for protecting American travelers is to simply and superficially check everyone, and tell those who have concerns about their personal privacy to take it or leave it. So when a TSA worker asks to examine your private parts, don’t blame the terrorists, blame an administration that refuses to admit that America is at war with Islamic radicalism
The Bureaucracy at Work
by Jim on Feb.16, 2010, under Intelligence / National Security, Politics
I saw an item in the paper today and it hit me that we have created an organization that truly has the power to wreak havoc with peoples lives  in the name of security. The organization: the TSA. While I know there are thousands of dedicated and smart people in the TSA, the adherence to rules and bureaucratic procedures without regard to the situation, and to actual threats, make them inefficient and potentially abusive. Yesterday it really hit home.
My sister was on the aircraft’s jetway about to board her flight to visit here, and was called by name to get off. Why? Because someone at the TSA security checkpoint forgot that she was the “random”  person selected for enhanced screening, and they forgot to do it. She was taken off the plane’s jetway, past the boarding area and all the way back to the security area for enhanced screening. It gets better. They questioned her about the two bottles of water she bought prior to boarding the plane and demanded that they be given over for inspection. Obviously they were purchased outside of security because you cant get bottles of water through in the first place! They also told her if they hadn’t gotten to her before she boarded her flight , they  would have had to detain the flight. They did try to be nice: they told her they hoped she wouldn’t miss her flight! While they admitted it was their mistake, she was told that arguing about it would only delay things!!! Â
She was way more calm about this than I would have been. All this because as the random person, she didn’t get the extra screening. Did she fit a profile? No. Did she exhibit unusual behavior? Nothing more than our family normally does. SO pick another person at random! That’s what random is! But no, the almighty bureaucracy grinds to a halt so a square can be checked and real threat groups cant say they were targeted specifically. Absolutely absurd.
Let me just finish by saying I understand the need for TSA and want them to do their jobs. But lets let people use good judgement and be situationally dependent.  We do have people who fit profiles. Lets profile them! Lets not let bureaucratic rules overcome why they are really there.  I want TSA people to be given the right to interpret rules based on the situation. I want them to be given training on recognizing aberrant behaviors. I want people who fit profiles to be given extra screening. I believe in random anti terrorist measures when they make sense. If the random person is an old woman, a child, someone who obviously isn’t a potential terrorist, move on. I want the public to support the men and women of the TSA whose jobs really are difficult. But it is a two way street. Here is the article I read this morning that just adds to the frustration. It makes you not want to fly.
Daniel Rubin: Another case of TSA overkill
By Daniel Rubin
Inquirer Columnist
Just when I thought I was out of the Transportation Security Administration business for a few columns, they pull me back in.
Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn’t allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?
Unfortunately, it’s no joke. This happened to Bob Thomas, a 53-year-old officer in Camden’s emergency crime suppression team, who was flying to Orlando in March with his wife, Leona, and their son, Ryan.
Ryan was taking his first flight, to Walt Disney World, for his fourth birthday.
The boy is developmentally delayed, one of the effects of being born 16 weeks prematurely. His ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. In March he was just starting to walk.
Mid-morning on March 19, his parents wheeled his stroller to the TSA security point, a couple of hours before their Southwest Airlines flight was to depart.
The boy’s father broke down the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt as Leona Thomas walked Ryan through the metal detector.
The alarm went off.
The screener told them to take off the boy’s braces.
The Thomases were dumbfounded. “I told them he can’t walk without them on his own,” Bob Thomas said.
“He said, ‘He’ll need to take them off.’ ”
Ryan’s mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.
No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.
Leona Thomas said she was calm. Bob Thomas said he was starting to burn.
They complied, and Leona went first, followed by Ryan, followed by Bob, so the boy wouldn’t be hurt if he fell. Ryan made it through.
By then, Bob Thomas was furious. He demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor asked what was wrong.
“I told him, ‘This is overkill. He’s 4 years old. I don’t think he’s a terrorist.’ ”
The supervisor replied, “You know why we’re doing this,” Thomas said.
Thomas said he told the supervisor he was going to file a report, and at that point the man turned and walked away.
A Philadelphia police officer approached and asked what the problem was. Thomas said he identified himself and said he was a Camden officer. The Philadelphia officer suggested he calm down and enjoy his vacation.
Back home in Glassboro a week later, Bob Thomas called the airport manager and left her what he calls a terse message.
He was still angry enough last week to call me after I’d written a couple of columns about travelers’ complaints of mistreatment by screeners at the airport.
“This was just stupid,” he told me.
At the very least, it was not standard procedure.
On Friday, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said the boy never should have been told to remove his braces.
TSA policy should have allowed the parents to help the boy to a private screening area where he could have been swabbed for traces of explosive materials.
She said she wished Thomas had reported the matter to TSA immediately. “If screening is not properly done, we need to go back to that officer and offer retraining so it’s corrected.”
Davis also said TSA’s security director at the airport, Bob Ellis, called Thomas last week to apologize. He gave Thomas the name of the agency’s customer service representative, in case he has a problem at the airport in the future.
Afterward, Thomas said he appreciated Ellis’ call. He said he had no interest in pursuing the matter further or in filing a lawsuit.
“I’m just looking for things to be done right,” he said. “And I just want to make sure this isn’t done to anyone else. Just abide by your standard operating procedures.”
Contact Daniel Rubin at 215-854-5917 or drubin@phillynews.com.
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Greetings from 7020 feet and the high frontier of Colorado Springs. This is a web log of topics with a curent flair. The posts include political, military, security and intelligence related topics and links, as well as items on sports, especially big 12 football, entertainment, and book reviews. This blog allows me to view and comment on the world around me, and hopefully elicit reaction and initiate discussions with you , my friends and readers. My goal is to enable all of us to have a vehicle to learn, exchange ideas, grow, and have fun. I welcome your comments and hope you enjoy this journey into the high frontier.
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