The Omission Of Saudi Arabia And Pakistan From TSA's List Of Countries Triggering Special Screening Says All About Its Pretense Of Security
Former TSA worker Jason Edward Harrington, writes in Politico/The Week:
In private, most TSA officers I talked to told me they felt the agency's day-to-day operations represented an abuse of public trust and funds.Until 2010 (just after the TSA standard operating procedure manual was accidentally leaked to the public), all TSA officers worked with a secret list that many of us taped to the back of our TSA badges for easy reference: the Selectee Passport List. It consisted of 12 nations that automatically triggered enhanced passenger screening. The training department drilled us on the selectee countries so regularly that I had memorized them, like a little poem:
Syria, Algeria, Afghanistan
Iraq, Iran, Yemen
and Cuba,
Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan
People's Republic of North KoreaPeople holding passports from the selectee countries were automatically pulled aside for full-body pat downs and had their luggage examined with a fine-toothed comb. The selectee list was purely political, of course, with diplomacy playing its role as always: There was no Saudi Arabia or Pakistan on a list of states historically known to harbor, aid, and abet terrorists. Besides, my co-workers at the airport didn't know Algeria from a medical condition, we rarely came across Cubanos, and no one's ever seen a North Korean passport that didn't include the words "Kim Jong."
Um, werent most of the 911 guys Saudi? this is idiotic.
NicoleK at January 3, 2015 10:54 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2015/01/the-omission-of.html#comment-5737320">comment from NicoleKAbsolutely, NicoleK. And this just shows how the "security" is about anything but.
Amy Alkon
at January 3, 2015 11:06 PM
TSA is Security Theater (and bad theater. . . ) grafted to a Gooberment Jobs pipe. . .
Keith Glass at January 4, 2015 9:39 AM
"And this just shows how the "security" is about anything but."
Crid often gets on my case for thinking about the past, but I believe we need to be using rails, tar and feathers. Our modern methods accept this treatment.
Dave B at January 4, 2015 3:26 PM
Leave a comment