TSA: We Don't Have Security; We Have Pointless, Rights-Violating Fake Security That Endangers Us
Think of all the wasted American business hours that are spent in the "security" lines in airports across America, where we wait to be eyeballed, scanned, and groped by repurposed mall food court workers in cop costumes.
Recently, the pretend security measures were made more invasive -- reportedly because the TSA had missed 95 percent of the dangerous items put through in tests.
Well, good news! They're still high scorers to the same degree -- but...and there is a but...only because the test was stopped after they missed 95 percent of the items, not allowing them to go for the full 100 percent.
Best of all, anyone smart enough to make it in this blog comments section without being made to crawl under their desk and sob is smart enough to bypass the TSA and get something on a plane.
Also, the last place I want to be these days -- with so many attacks for Allah in crowded places all over Europe and sometimes in America -- is in a crowded place like a line to wait to be groped by the TSA.
Of course, airport security is not what we have -- but it is what they have in Israel.
Rafi Sela, former head of security at Ben Gurion Airport, lays out why the TSA sucks -- in a really fantastic piece at Cracked:
About 99.9 percent of travelers are just that: travelers. They want to get through security, buy a cup of coffee and some duty-free whiskey, then quietly drink and leech Wi-Fi from the airport McDonald's. These people pose no threat to anyone, and there's no point in even checking them. The very few terrorists that exist are like needles in a haystack. But the TSA's approach is to check every single piece of hay, in case it might actually be a needle.But if you only check luggage and you don't check the person behind the luggage, how do you know he hasn't camouflaged something into the luggage that you can't find? Trust me: Hiding things is so easy to do, it isn't even funny. That's why the only luggage checks we do are to find things like aerosol cans, which might burst on their own. Otherwise, what we care about is intent.
...The TSA treats each traveler the same because of some stupid idea that everything needs to be fair. Security needs to be done due to risk -- and risk means that in Israel we don't check luggage, we check people. And I'm not talking about racial profiling here; that's a product of poor training. Regardless of race or creed, people with bombs strapped to their body behave in similar ways. The TSA claims that finding IEDs at the checkpoint is their number one goal. But it's the people who mean us harm that we should look out for. Instead of checking intent, they check luggage.
And they don't even do it well: I have orthopedic insoles in my shoes made from composite material. On the machines, that composite looks identical to plastic explosives. I put them on the belt every time, and no one -- NO ONE -- ever questions my shoes. Some security experts suspect that the TSA has never once caught a terrorist at a checkpoint. And we know that at least 16 of them have flown into U.S. airports since 2004.
I loved this:
I was at an airport in Newark once when a TSA search of my bags turned up a laser pointer pen I'd been given as a gift at a conference. They told me they had to confiscate it, because apparently laser pointers are just a couple-hundred degrees away from being the new box cutters. Many of you have probably lost trinkets and gadgets in the same way: Would you like to know how to get them back?I tell the handler, "OK, take it. But that pen is company property, so I'm going to need some sort of receipt."
He says, "What?"
"This pen isn't owned by me. My boss is going to need to see some proof that you took it."
So he calls a supervisor and asks, "Where do we keep the receipts?"
His supervisor says, "What the fuck are you talking about, we don't give receipts."
He explains the situation, and his boss asks, "What's the contraband?"
"A little laser pointer."
"Give it the fuck back! What do you care?"
Two seconds go by and he hands it back to me. It's as easy as that.
The whole piece is great -- and illuminating. Worth a read.
Cracked via @mnl_gldstn_trtr
TSA.
Crid at July 14, 2017 11:19 PM
Perfect. And about as effective.
Amy Alkon at July 14, 2017 11:22 PM
According the article at the URL,
17 out of 18 tries by the undercover federal agents saw
explosive materials, fake weapons or drugs pass through TSA
screening undetected.
TSA isn't supposed to be screening for drugs. The urgency of
protecting safety of flight supposedly overrides the fourth
amendment. Bulk drug screening doesn't. Any of the red team
tests that failed to spot drugs were false failures.
Not that this isn't security theatre, but at least test the
actors on what they're supposedly tasked to accomplish.
Ron at July 15, 2017 12:34 PM
Went to a mid-sized airport the other day. The outside security was a cop making sure nobody left a car unattended curbside, or took too long waiting at arrivals.
So, somebody hops out of a car with what looks like a carry on, goes inside, takes out a folding stock AK and hoses down the people at the baggage carousel.
It's the people, not the weapon.
And there cannot not be a perimeter.
Richard Aubrey at July 15, 2017 5:32 PM
Not supposed to be screening for drugs, but they do. And for money too. That is why there is a ban on books. Thick paperbacks look too much like a stack of bills and you get a false positive on the machine.
Ben at July 15, 2017 6:02 PM
Homeland Security will face-scan traveling Americans in defiance of Congress and the President.
I think it's time to dismantle this power-mad bureaucracy.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at July 16, 2017 5:26 PM
"TSA isn't supposed to be screening for drugs. The urgency of protecting safety of flight supposedly overrides the fourth amendment. Bulk drug screening doesn't. "
Neither does screening for sex trafficking, another thing the TSA is charged with (and has false-alarmed on a number of times). Mission creep in law enforcement is an amazing thing, isn't it?
Cousin Dave at July 17, 2017 8:35 AM
But, but, they went to FLETC, so they're real cops, right?
Conan the Grammarian at July 17, 2017 2:57 PM
"Thick paperbacks look too much like a stack of bills and you get a false positive on the machine."
Really? When the vendors actually SELL THOSE in the airport?
Time to print thousands of paper packets which are NOT books.
Radwaste at July 18, 2017 2:14 PM
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