How The TSA's Pretend Security Endangers Us All
Sean Higgins writes in the WashEx -- as I've said over and over -- that having a whole bunch of passengers all lined up like sitting ducks, waiting to get through the TSA's "security" line, makes them, well, sitting ducks for terrorists.
That's because the unskilled workers hired by the TSA have never been more than a show of security.
I believe the TSA is set up to do a number of things:
- Line the pockets of former government workers like slimy Michael Chertoff, representing businesses that sell to the TSA;
- Be a jobs program for people who are not exactly in high demand elsewhere;
- Provide a gullible, "don't wanna be bothered" American public the sense that security is being provided;
- Train the American public to be docile in the face of having our rights yanked from us.
And we've done remarkably well on that last one -- and all the others.
As Higgins reports -- quoting the respected Bill Jenkins, whom I've heard speak at Rand:
"Airport security is front-loaded as much as possible towards prevention of an event taking place on an airplane," said Bill Jenkins, a terrorism policy expert with the Rand Corporation. But making it impossible for terrorists to get on a plane doesn't prevent them from trying a different attack. They then look for other "mass casualty" targets, such as the airport terminal....Tuesday's attacks by three terrorists in the main terminal of the Brussels airport resulted in 11 deaths. There is no indication that the terrorists had any interest in boarding a plane. They simply made a direct attack on the crowds in the main area. Another 20 people were killed in an attack at nearly the same time on a nearby commuter rail system.
...A 2004 Rand study on security risks at LAX said airports should limit crowds in unsecured areas as much as possible. "Overall airport efficiency, including the operations of [the airport], the airlines and TSA, is not enhanced by having people stand in line," it found.
Robert Poole, director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit free-market think tank, argues that the TSA, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, has been lax in adapting to changes in terrorists' plots.
"TSA is still far too focused on fighting the last war -- i.e., preventing a repeat of the 9/11 attack. That's why the vast majority of TSA's budget is focused on passenger and baggage screening, with basically no attention to the vulnerabilities to airports and their passengers that Rand has higlighted," Poole said.
Poole is exactly right.
And then there's this:
An internal investigation by DHS's Inspector General's Office last year found that undercover investigators were able to board planes at some of the nation's busiest airports while carrying mock weapons or explosives 95 percent of the time. The agency responded with an improvement plan calling for stricter examinations of passengers.
The problem is that we are treating every single person who flies as a reasonable suspect for terrorism. This is idiocy. We should be doing probable cause-based policing, using trained intelligence officers, not often power-mad repurposed mall food court workers who get their rocks off telling CEOs to "assume the position" so they can grope their balls.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lod_Airport_massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Rome_and_Vienna_airport_attacks
Tactics tend to come back around, good thing they don't want a real war, terrorism is a political act intended to drive a frightened populace into political acts that benefit the terrorists, including repression and counterattack designed to add to the funding and recruitment goals of the terrorists. In a real war they could cause real damage.
Warhawke223 at March 25, 2016 11:51 PM
Also, individuals who make their living that way are trash, absolute filth.
Crid at March 26, 2016 12:19 AM
Give everyone a queue number and tell them to go away until 15 minutes before it's their turn.
Fewer smaller crowds, bomber will have fewer targets and be more noticeable (perhaps), and people will have personal freedom to shop etc.
Bob in Texas at March 26, 2016 6:01 AM
Bob in Texas: "Give everyone a queue number . . ."
Except what if there is a line where they get the queue number?
charles at March 26, 2016 8:01 AM
"Except what if there is a line where they get the queue number?"
Leave it up to the TSA and there will be. Anyone else can sensibly put multiple terminals out there to issue numbers and keep lines short.
Ben at March 26, 2016 8:43 AM
However you spread the perimeter, it will have an edge. Since the purpose of the perimeter is to control people, they'll be stacked up there, even if it's a mile from the airport.
Or, harden a hundred targets and the terrs go after the hundred and first.
Split up access points so that there are fewer people at each one and you need more security.
And we use various security schemes designed to catch, stop, or deter those who would prefer to live.
Richard Aubrey at March 26, 2016 6:34 PM
TSA is workfare. Most of these people couldn't get hired to hand out flyers on the street. Why not make it a real security job with veterans getting preference?
KateC at March 26, 2016 7:30 PM
TSA is workfare. Most of these people couldn't get hired to hand out flyers on the street. Why not make it a real security job with veterans getting preference?
KateC at March 26, 2016 7:30 PM
It's a federal job. Veterans DO get preference.
I have been treated much better by the TSA than I ever have been by Customs.
Quite a few humorless assholes there, especially at SeaTAc.
Isab at March 26, 2016 9:30 PM
That is plain wrong.
Between intrusion resistant cockpit doors and completely changed hijacking guidance for pilots, the 9/11 problem is solved; the TSA isn't spending a dime to prevent another occurrence.
The TSA's mission is to keep explosives off planes, period.
A couple or so years ago, the TSA attempted to change screening procedures to ignore knives and similar items, so that it could focus on the primary threat.
The flight attendant unions went nuts, so blame them, for continuing to search for things that don't matter.
Also, the explosions happened at the check-in counter, not the security line.
And one final note. A bomb the size of a beer can killed a couple hundred people on that Russian airplane.
A couple bombs the size of suitcases killed 20 or so at the airport.
I think we should be profiling the shit out of anyone who looks even vaguely like they could be Islamic.
But until there is a sea change in laws and attitudes, that isn't going to happen, and the TSA is stuck doing a job that is much harder than it should be.
Jeff Guinn at March 29, 2016 7:29 AM
I'd love to hear why the Islamists have yet to successfully bomb a western airliner.
It is because they are too stupid to know airport screening is completely ineffective? Is it because they think it would be too mean?
(BTW, airports in Europe and Asia use almost exactly the same screening procedures as in the US (except for taking off shoes). And if you think US security is annoying, then Israeli security would cause you to blow an aneurysm.)
But hey, what do I know. I only have first hand experience to go on.
Jeff Guinn at March 29, 2016 7:35 AM
"The TSA's mission is to keep explosives off planes, period."
Not according to them. I guess you know better?
"I'd love to hear why the Islamists have yet to successfully bomb a western airliner."
Confused as you are by the thorny problem of cause and effect, you still haven't realized what the existing state of affairs actually represents.
1) TSA cannot keep contraband off aircraft.
2) Bombs are contraband.
3) There is an absence of bombs on "western" airliners.
4) TSA is ruled out as an effective counterterrorism agent by their lack of performance in prohibiting contraband.
The combination above means one of two things:
a) another agency is foiling terror attacks
b) there are no attempts.
These last two are supported by the lack of diversion to other targets in the USA, some of which would result in transportation lockdowns - like the passenger terminal line.
Radwaste at April 3, 2016 9:21 AM
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