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TSA Investigates Pilot Who Exposed Security Flaws
stewart_maximus writes "The TSA is investigating a TSA deputized pilot who posted videos to YouTube pointing out security flaws. Flaws exposed include ground crew clearing security with just a card swipe while pilots have to go through metal detectors, and a 'medieval-looking rescue ax' being available on the flight deck. Three days after posting the video, 6 government officials arrived at his door to question him and confiscated his federal firearm (and his concealed weapon permit)."
Granted, I haven't seen all the videos this pilot made, but from what I have seen and read so far it sounds like what this pilot was pointing out was things that were already publicly known. Things like airport ground crews having access to restricted areas without themselves having to go through screening, no TSA agents searching them or anything they carry prior to having access to aircraft, etc. Anybody with an ounce of intelligence could have figured out what this pilot documented by just sitting at an airport and watching for a little while, or by getting chummy with airport employees at a nearby bar and asking a few basic questions.
And I certainly don't think this pilot was the first one to point out these flaws. It just sounds to me like the TSA is trying to make a scapegoat out of him.
but I did not catch the terroriiists.
(c) 2010, the TSA.
The Nazi government of US of A has turned completely bat-shit insane. All it does is taking away personal freedoms from people:
Freedoms to speak (wikileaks), freedoms to think (public schools funded and guided by the dep't of education), freedoms to fair trial (Irwin Schiff, Guantanamo, private Manning...), freedoms to do business without harassment (Patriot Act, IRS, CIA, all the regulations and rules and subsidies and taxes), freedoms to deal in real money (Fed printing, 0% interest setting, destruction of currency).
The entire thing is rotten to the core, whether you agree with me on every point or not, but I am not interested in any consensus. My consensus is simple: gov't is cancer and it's killing the society through killing the economy and taking away people's freedoms.
Some justify the US federal gov't in what it does by bringing up the commerce clause, the general welfare clause etc., but since the gov't can justify anything it wants with those clauses right now it's time to ask yourself a question:
Is there a PURPOSE to the Constitution and what IS the purpose? Isn't the purpose of the Constitution to LIMIT the gov't in what it can do? If the commerce/welfare clauses allow the gov't to do whatever it wants, what is then the real purpose of the Constitution and why not just say: gov't can do whatever the fuck it wants and be done with the pretenses?
You can't handle the truth.
This is more than publishing the flaws.
It's about exposing the farce that is TSA's security theater.
As far as I know, "ax" is acceptable in American English, British English only permits "axe". I noticed TFA's inability to spell "hassled" in the headline far more. On an unrelated note, I wonder whether they would have pressed charges were the employee in question to have disclosed the vulnerabilities only to the TSA. It's been done in the context of comp security, so I wouldn't be surprised at all to see it happen to someone reporting on physical security.
It's a good thing those terrorists are stupid enough to document all of their pre-attack planning on Youtube, otherwise we'd never catch them...
Security through absurdity, America's greatest weapon again terrorism!
This has nothing to do with terrorists winning, and everything to do with people who are friends and associates of those that are in power, taking advantage of a fictitious threat scenario, and cashing in on it. It's greed, plain and simple.
Idiots are getting more and more power granted to them, and making more and more cash in the process, all for dealing with this "threat" that they've manufactured. They will do anything and everything they can to perpetuate it, as long as they retain and grow that power base and make more and more money.
Security Theatre relies on keeping the public ignorant of what the real threats are, and of the proper ways to deal with them.
And the morons in charge are making laws to protect themselves and keep it all going.
The real terrorists are running the show.
$0.02 (CDN)
Yet another example of that old saying:
Question authority and Authority will question you!
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Wow. Airport 'security' is a joke, and almost everyone knows it; a Google search for "security theater" turns up over a half-million results. Yet this guy tells us something that we're all aware of already, and gets put throught the mill because of it. It's bad enough when people get crucified for revealing some hidden truth, but when it happens to someone who is simply stating the obvious, that's just sad.
Just what ARE we paying these clowns for anyway? They should go back to allowing knitting needles on planes; pissed off Grandmas would probably deal with terrorists a whole lot more effectively than these clueless idiots.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Except the pilot is not working for the TSA, he is working for an airline.
And let's put it in another perspective: TSA is not a company (correct me if I am wrong), it is public: which means he is informing the owners of the company (the public)
about a problem with the management (the TSA policy makers).
How much of this security theater can be solved with a bomb-sniffing dog? Instead of checking each new thing for a bomb and still not being able to find them, a dog can just smell the explosive wherever it happens to be hidden. But no, we don't want to do that, that's too obvious, cheap, and easy. We'd much rather have a 1000x more expensive, incomplete and cumbersome solution.
stuff |
Of course "ax" is the correct pronunciation for "ask" in certain quarters too, so perhaps the confusion runs deeper still and it's actually a "rescue ask" that's looking medieval?
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
You don't need to bend over, Jack. Why don't you just secede? It's perfectly legal, and there's plenty of poeple already moving along that road: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secession_in_the_United_States#Recent_efforts_in_the_United_States
As a foreigner, I believe this is the only possible road for redemption of the former "land of the free and home of the brave" - the Russian Soviet Confederation was dismantled, the Chinese Confederation will be broken up too eventually, but the USA is the one most badly in need of an enema.
And just think, you don't even need to take up arms to do it...
You might want to buy better textbooks.
$0.02 (CDN)
I don't know. bin Laden knows what he's doing, and his greatest weapon is fear. Fear drives people to act irrationally. What he wants is for the United States to become so fascist that the people outright rebel against it, causing civil war and the destruction of the USA. Were I in his place, I wouldn't be so optimistic. I doubt that people will engage in outright rebellion until it gets so bad, they can't even watch their television in peace. Also, even *if* the USA (as we know it) is destroyed, something very similar will probably take its place. It's not like we're suddenly going to become a feminist, socialist technocracy or an Islamic republic. We'll probably just rewrite the Constitution slightly and abolish a few of the worst aspects of today's government, then go on doing whatever it is that we were doing previously. Meet the new boss... same as the old boss.
Anyways, even if bin Laden is a bogeyman and our own government was behind 9/11 (or they consciously hijacked the tragedy for their own ends), it doesn't really change anything. The end result is the same. Fear, pseudo-change, and a new boss. Note that I'm not anti-Obama. I like Obama as much as the next guy who's apathetic about politicians and their promises. I just don't think that anyone who runs for political office can/will have much ability/desire to change the status quo, despite promises made. I meant "pseudo-change" in more of a grand sense, like how the French keep rewriting their Constitution and instituting new Republics. It's just the same old crap, under a different name.
Ground crew have privileged access to secure areas of the airport that demands more security, not less. Make them do an iris scan and enter a passcode in addition to swiping their badge.
Unless the ground crew also go through the wonderful new nudey-scan machines (or are otherwise touched up and fondled) EVERY TIME they cross into air-side then there's a glaring hole in the process! Any one of the ground crew could be turned (I've got your daughter and you will carry this item through and hand it to my partner air-side) or simply go postal, or be a long-time plant or sleeper, which means they MUST be subject to searches to prevent them from carrying any of the otherwise disallowed items air-side. Hell, they don't even need to be suicide jockeys they can just plant the stuff for the suicide squad to pick up once they clear the security theatre as regular passengers!
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
I'm going to do the same thing about it that we do about the 40,000 odd traffic fatalities every year: Nearly nothing.
We don't invade privacy and remove freedoms because so many people die in traffic accidents. Why should we because of some vague "terrorist" threat? Honestly, airport security never has and never will stop a determined terrorist. We need to simply have an adult conversation with the American people and perhaps increase the educational investment in mathematics education. Perhaps, if they understood statistics a bit better, then they wouldn't run around like idiots demanding that something be DONE about what amounts to a non-threat.
Yeah, I know....
Just be sure to wear the gold uniform when you beam down -- you know what happens when you wear the red one.
What are you going to DO about this
I'm not go to America. Yeah I'd love to go there for sightseeing or a shopping trip but there is no way I want to be involved in any part of this security theater.
Okay, then. Anal probes for everyone!
The purpose of the theater is to make the public fearful, not protected. Our government needs a fearful public to enable the erosion of public rights. We gave up a bunch of rights with the Patriot Act that we would never have tolerated the loss of without the "it's for your protection" lie. TSA is part of the cover for this lie and others.
If the TSA wasn't aware of this flaw prior to this, we are even in more danger.
rewriting history since 2109
The point is not about the information being public. The point is about the public being aware of it. The TSA exists so that the general public will feel like they are being protected from dangerous terrorists when they travel.
If you are in a big city, take a look around, especially in busy areas. On one side, you see the things the public is supposed to see: storefronts, public transportation, police officers, SWAT teams that just sort of stand around, etc. On the other side, you see service entrances, maintenance corridors, and unlocked doors labeled "DO NOT ENTER." The general public is kept on their toes by constantly having reminders that they need to be protected pushed in their faces, and scary-looking people with guns and dogs do a good job of that (as do enhanced pat-downs, apparently). The fact that a determined terrorist could sneak past all the security is pretty much irrelevant.
Palm trees and 8
What did Bin Laden want? According to any government information I'm aware of, he hates us because of our liberties and our freedom, he wants us to fear and cower and strip us of our western way of liberalism and that "American way of life".
Mission accomplished, I'd say.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If we do get to the point where we rewrite the Constitution, we need to put some teeth in that sucker. For instance, establish a points-based system for unconstitutional laws. If a law is overturned as being unconstitutional, every member of congress (both the House and the Senate) gets one "point". Get to 10 points, and you are automatically barred from reelection or holding any kind of elective office, ever again. Get to 15 points and you're kicked out of office before the expiration of your current term. As it is now, Congress can pass all the fucked up laws they want with no danger of being called to account for it.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
The TSA is clearly a firm believer in security through stupidity.
Fixed.
BM3
The TSA already knows all about this. Harassing this guy is just more proof that the TSA has absolutely nothing to do with keeping people safe.
The law states that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
Yes, but in most cases, the law assumes you are guilty. For example, if you are suspected of a violent crime, they will lock you up until your court date, even though they have not proven you guilty. Meanwhile, you might lose your job, your spouse, get raped and any other number of inconveniences and persecutions, and if they find you not guilty, well, the pat on the shoulder on your way out really helps doesn't it?
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Whoops, actually, I was wrong on that. The local sheriff asked him to relinquish his CCP. California state law may prohibit the possession of firearms(and therefore carry permits) under certain circumstances, this may be one of them. I'm having trouble finding the exact legal codes surrounding surrender of permit in California.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
According to his manifesto, he wants us out of the Middle East. And he wants us to quit resisting Sharia law.
So the government propaganda is partially truthful, but still strongly slanted.
I joined all excited, I'll start in screening like everyone else and move in to one of the more obscure TSA roles (undercover security testing, behavior interpretation, EDO,etc) . After 5 months it was clear the only seniority was considered for advancement, not prior experience or intelligence. Top heavy and poor performance (saw a screener put his hand on a gun in a bag and pass it though without finding it in the training environment) Having to do pat downs at the gate of active military members because they had a one-way ticket. Not doing background checks on screeners for months after they started (8 weeks in I was informed they lost my SF86 and I had to do another one!?!), the list is huge and there is the pages of documents of stuff I signed saying I wouldn't ever mention.
I do not play in the middle of the road
What the hell difference does it make?
These are trivial problems, that anybody charged with security, and even remotely competent at their job would have noticed right off the bat, and fixed.
The fact that they haven't been fixed means one of two things:
1. The TSA isn't at all about improving security.
2. The TSA has no competent employees.
I suppose a third possibility is "both of the above" but that's not the point.
This look to me to be more likely done to inform the public about the total waste of money that is the TSA, and the accompanying security theater.
Basically, they're pissed off that he publicly called them on their bullshit.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
Shouldn't the voters, not the judges, decide what is constitutional?
Why would you need a Constitution at all with such an approach? If the legislature can just vote in anything they like under the grounds that popular mandate gives it "constitutionality", then you have parliamentary supremacy in practice, British-style. This is precisely what the US founding fathers wanted to avoid, hence the whole "checks and balances" thing.
don't you know if you upload anything to youtube to use tor and a fake account. relly the case if your gonna expose are rights killing tsa to the stupid theater they are.
Yes, so everyone, "Assume Crash Positions!" Also, hide under your school desk when a nuclear bomb is coming.
There are a lot of very stupid and very angry people who vote. They will be given the question "why didn't you do anything about this" to ask. And they will keep asking it over and over again even when the correct answer is "nothing can be 100% effective and even trying to do something will cause more harm than good." It's just what happens.
I don't think there has ever been a time in the U.S. where intelligent and thoughtfulness prevailed.