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TSA Investigates... People Who Complain About TSA
Hugh Pickens writes "CNN has obtained a list of roughly 70 'behavioral indicators' that TSA behavior detection officers use to identify potentially 'high risk' passengers at the nation's airports, and report that arrogant complaining about airport security is one indicator TSA officers consider when looking for possible criminals and terrorists. When combined with other behavioral indicators, it could result in a traveler facing additional scrutiny. 'Expressing your contempt about airport procedures — that's a First Amendment-protected right,' says Michael German, a former FBI agent who now works as legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. 'It's circular reasoning where, you know, I'm going to ask someone to surrender their rights; if they refuse, that's evidence that I need to take their rights away from them. And it's simply inappropriate.' Interestingly enough, some experts say terrorists are much more likely to avoid confrontations with authorities, saying an al-Qaeda training manual instructs members to blend in."
...and it's getting boring to have to read things which imply it.
So all I need to do to get felt up by a guy who's clearly as unhappy about it as I am is to bitch about the lines at the airport and how poorly the TSA's uniforms fit? Where do I sign up again?
One could assume from this that the TSA is here to teach us to not talk back to the Authority, rather than to actually catch terrorists.
If you're not guilty then you won't have anything to hide. ( which, ironically, I think we should apply generously to politicians/corporations )
TSA is an agency of the United States Government. If you can't make the connection I will draw you a picture. :o)
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Poke the tiger with a stick, and you get bitten.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
Please Remove Your Shoes In this documentary, it shows the agreement between the FAA and airlines industries to put security at a low priority while getting passengers on planes as quickly as possible was the highest priority. A "red team" agent who audits security put a bomb in a suitcase, threw clothes on it and put a water bottle on top of the clothes. The screener detected the bag, opened it up, confiscated the water bottle and allowed the bag to go through. TSA agents complained because he "thought outside the box" and invalidated the test because it was "unfair" to their procedures on how to audit security. This documentary is from ex/current TSA, FAA, and air marshal agents. Did you know the TSA was more interested in having an air marshal dress code than actually "blending in" on the plane? The guy in a suit and tie sitting on the plane to Hawaii was a dead giveaway when everyone else was dressed appropriately.
ticketswapz.com - Buy, Sell, Trade Sporting Event and Concert Tickets
Interestingly enough, some experts say terrorists are much more likely to avoid confrontations with authorities, saying an al-Qaeda training manual instructs members to blend in.
This seems like the most obvious flaw in reasoning, and probably didn't require expert research to predict. What nefarious character is going to draw attention to themselves when trying to get away with something evil? This didn't stand out as a "duh" to the folks crafting this list? That scares me too... assuming the goal of these criteria was to catch the bad guys, of course.
Obviously the terrorists are not going to waste time complaining about airport security. They are about to blow themselves up, fer chrissakes -- do you think they want to spend their last hours on Earth complaining about getting their toothpaste confiscated?
Besides, if you give increased scrutiny to people who engage in certain behaviors, that means you give less scrutiny to those who don't. The terrorists are smart enough to figure this out. Better to scrutinize everyone equally, so they can't get through by acting in un-terrorist-like ways.
Who are the real terrorists? I'm not sure about you, but I'm almost afraid to fly.
As for "rights" ... you don't have any "rights" when it comes to the TSA.
So if you RTFA, you'll notice that the '20th Hijacker' (Mohammed al-Qahtani) was caught because the TSA agent became suspicious (for whatever reason, probably profiling if I had my guess), asked why he didn't have a return flight ticket, and the hijacker became very angry and confrontational about it.
Ten years later, getting angry about security is now on the list of things to look out for. From a pencil-pusher's standpoint it seems an almost reasonable thing to add to the list, but I still don't like it.
How does it feel to be a liar with pants constantly on fire?
>_>
Well, this is certainly the finest pat-down, X-Ray scan, cavity search and bowl of hot grits down the shorts I've ever experienced at SFO! I feel like flying every week!
Terror Alert Elevated from Plaid to Paisley
nab scuffle throw-down hammer-lock vulcan-death-grip
Ahhh, nooooooo! I was sincere! Really!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Having such an easily game-able criteria (boisterous people get more investigation) yields more success rate for those who don't want to get investigate. The al-Qaeda training manual suggesting blending in is an obvious reaction - while the security spends more time on some class, they have less time to spend on the class the terrorist can put themselves into. (Quiet and blending in.) Thus, this actively (slightly) increases the chance the terrorist can achieve their goals.
X not intended to be a factual statement.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Does this report honestly surprise anybody?
You have idiot politicians supervising idiot bureaucrats who supervise idiot workers carrying out idiot policies upon idiot people who accept it without question. Anybody who does question it is a real threat to the idiots who are only smart enough to protect their own jobs, not the country.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
The TSA is positively Orwellian. They behave as if they are playing out lines from 1984
Wrong quote.
"Facecrime: An indication that a person is guilty of thoughtcrime based on their facial expression."
The article isn't about surveillance, it's about BDOs and SPOT agents on the lookout for facecriminals.
"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself, anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face, was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime"
If the Orwell's getting tired, I'd settle for a quote from the other design document on which TSA is based.
"Happiness is mandatory. Are you happy, Citizen?"
- Paranoia XP, the post-9/11 revision of the classic 80s role-playing game.
I'm not so paranoid that I'm reluctant to post this as an AC, but I am paranoid enough that I didn't want to use the acronym for "role-playing-game."
... ... ... its a lot like that!
Interestingly enough, some experts say terrorists are much more likely to avoid confrontations with authorities, saying an al-Qaeda training manual instructs members to blend in."
No kidding. As someone trying to evade detection in a crowd I could (a) do something that draws attention, or (b) try to be as unremarkable as possible and take steps to make any interaction dull and quickly forgotten. The first is more likely to bring the authorities my way, and the second is less likely. So ... let's see ... I'm going to ... wait, wait, don't tell me ... I'll pick ... um ...
(Warning, this post contains high concentrations of sarcasm. Use with appropriate caution.)
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
To be fair, if you really were a terrorist carrying something (a knife or gun or bomb), I think you'd complain, too. Just like people carrying drugs in their cars might suddenly get angry and combative with police about being pulled over "for no good reason". I suppose the relevant question is: are there too many false positives (caused by ordinary passengers getting legitimately angry over an overzealous TSA) to be of much value. Certainly, if the police were pulling people over all the time to search their car, they'd start getting a lot more false positives (i.e. people complaining about being illegitimately pulled over so the police can rummage through their stuff and make them late).
Everybody I know who flies complains about the TSA.
So the TSA investigates everybody? Now we're back to the same absurdity as "everybody does something embarassing on FaceBook, so don't hire anybody".
Oh nevermind. Keep on with the taxpayer funded elephant repellant...
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
This is the United States of America. Anyone who doesn't complain about even the slightest inconvenience obviously is not from here. So why would they check the people who do complain when that's the American way?
Defective Logic
since the troll won't give a NSFW label.
Defective Logic
cannot have right to complain about their complainers.
in no world country, they grope 9 year olds at the airports. period. only in usa.
Complaining got you send to gulag.
Sure it does 'cause no one believes amateurs right?
All the experts have to do is look at what the amateurs are doing and replicate what works but with their aura of authority.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
According to CNN, the TSA is actually more ineffective than I initially thought:
False Positives-
Members of Congress also expressed concern about the number of "false positives" -- people flagged for additional screening that resulted in nothing being found. For every person correctly identified as a "high risk" traveler by (the behavior detection officers), 86 were misidentified, Willis said. At random screening, for every person correctly identified, 794 were misidentified.
Effectiveness at detecting terrorists-
Experts agree that the fact that there is an extremely small number of terrorists makes it hard to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral observation programs. The Accountability Office said it looked at 23 occasions in which 16 individuals -- people later charged with terrorism-related activities -- passed through high-threat airports. None is known to have been identified. But it is not known if the behavior detection officers were working at the time, the agency said.
So, in the best case scenario, for every person ultimately charged with a crime (not necessarily convicted) 86 are misidentified. And that is using "trained" behavioral analysts. Most TSA searches are random, which results in one charge for every 794 false positives. Note also that nearly 40% of the charges are immigration related. Most of the rest are probably drug related.
The TSA can't point to a single incident where its random searches or behavioral analysis actually has prevented a terrorist attack. Despite their utter failure, the TSA plans to spend another $1.2 billion over the course of five years on behavior analysis techniques.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/15/tsa.screeners.complain/index.html?hpt=C1
Whatever you start looking for in a criminal via profiling will cause criminals to start acting differently....
If you start pulling aside people who complain, then you will get terrorists who don't complain.
You start pulling aside Middle-Eastern men of a certain age group? They find a Jamaican to attack you(this actually happened)
You start looking for recent immigrants? They find people who are native citizens
You start searching luggage? They send bombs via UPS
Notice a pattern?
How about we start more diligently searching for the following characteristics:
1) Explosives
2) Weapons
3) Trying to bring non-allowed items on to a plane
4) Nervous(perhaps because they are trying to do something illegal and murderous)
I think the TSA is the most inefficient, invasive non-federal, federal, organization I have ever encountered this side of the rest of the government. I despise all things TSA. Do not get me wrong. Security is important, but this 'indicator' is BS and only intended to intimidate JOE Air Traveler from complaining about the Invasive Full Body Scan or Pat Down. Amongst The Plethora Of Other Issues One Encounters Whilst Trying To Travel. Any "Terrorist" worth their salt is going to know PRECISELY WHAT TO DO to NOT be detected. This pathetic excuse for Airport Security that is the TSA is not going to thwart any serious terrorist threat/plot. That is all.
Nobody has suggested the TSA are really intelligent anyway. In face the last time I went through the metal detector my wallet set it off (I had 12 quarters in it). Put it through the scanner and the guy smiled saying "Wow dude, you have a lot of change!".
I replied "How much do they pay you guys??"
Seriously, 12 quarters is a lot of change? I guess at $14.95 an hour it must seem like a lot :-)
Has Comcast disconnected your Internet account? Same here. You can read about it at http://comcastissue.blogspot.com
n/t
"saying an al-Qaeda training manual instructs members to blend in."
Why did you have to tell them that? Now they'll consider everyone blending in to be potential al-Qaeda terrorists.
At this point I have completely given up on the idea of ever flying on an airplane ever again.
saying an al-Qaeda training manual instructs members to blend in
Can I haz the ISBN?
The first rule of TSA: Dont talk about TSA.
The second rule of TSA....
Can someone make a fucking goatse blocker firefox plugin please? This is pissing me off now.
Though how many people get annoyed with the TSA screening then go on to cause a fuss later.
This is by far the stupidest indicator they could use. The Real terrorists don't really want to bring attention to themselves, now do they. Exactly how dumb are these people?
Interesting. I know first hand that detective instruction and manuals state that one should focus on those in an investigation that are overly compliant when searching for suspects.
It is common sense anyway? When you cold call a neigborhood, those that have nothing to hide, invariably people are hostile to anything beyond "have you seen anyone suspicious out on the street."
"Where were you on x date?" and things go rapidly downhill. Normal people get upset and start making a fuss.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
1984 was not an instruction manual.
Sincerely,
The rest of the World.
"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake."...Tyler Durden
...who never cause any trouble: until they blow the place uP!
That's how you can tell them from the Americans -- they always bitch.
> Dissident speech instills terror in the minds of authority.
Not for the most part. Mostly they just find it annoying and respond by being authoritarian because they're pissed off. When reporters report on torture in Chechneya by the local strongman, they get killed because they're a pain to him. Not because the guy who tortures people every day is somehow afraid of them. He *should* be afraid of them. But mostly he's pissed at them. And he runs the apparatus of the state. He's not afraid of them--at most he's afraid that his bosses will replace him if anybody cares about new public knowledge that Russia sponsors terrorism.
Similarly (and obviously very differently, since most TSA employees are good people who are not actively torturing lots of innocent civilians, but similarly for the point about whether terror is inspired), TSA employees, like cops, are generally not terrified by dissident speech. They are annoyed by it because someone is making their day harder.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Why don't we let the free market take care of airline security?
If you feel safer on CavitySearchAirlines, then strip down and get in line A.
If you want the ultimate in convenience, get in line B for your flight on JetNoBagSearch.
As long as the U.S. Military is required to shoot down all craft taken over by terrorists (no exceptions), I think everybody can choose the security solution that works best for them.
... is the man telling you to be afraid.
The TSA has ALWAYS been about nothing more than taking away the liberty of law-abiding citizens and teaching them to subjugate themselves to the State. Their methods and actions are unconstitutional, irrational, and morally bankrupt. The only thing more pathetic than the TSA is the fact that so many citizens are willing to submit themselves to their illicit scrutiny and authority.
Frankly, I'd rather take the risk of being killed by a religious extremist (chance extremely remote) than regularly groped, prodded, scanned, documented, or otherwise subjected to the TSA (100% chance for every flight). That makes the TSA a far GREATER EVIL than the terrorists.
He's a TSA agent, airport annoyance specialist style.
A relative by marriage, I hasten to point out.
He's a fat lazy idiot and was incompetent at his other jobs. And he's now a TSA agent.
I'm not saying these two things are related, necessarily.
This space available.
Ah, but I know that you know that I know, so my cell is instructed to not blend in!
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Who gets more /. love?
In my opinion, the TSA is what the Nazi SS would have been had they enlisted pedophiles.
There, scrutinize me more.
So... first of- yes, TSA sucks, no, they are not helping, yes, I agree with most of what people commented.
However, if we are looking at the indicator alone and from the standpoint of somebody who believes they are trying to make TSA searches work this rule might actually make sense. It's aimed at two things: triggering an alert against somebody who attempts to use social engineering to avoid search or hustling TSA agents into being less thorough and at forcing TSA agent that's being hustled to not give in to the feeling of "yeah, I really need this crap; screw it I'll search someone else" and still searching the dude.
Now, I'm not saying this is effective or that it works or that Al Quaeda does not have copies of the same manual. I do think though that the rule itself could be well-intended and targeted at specific indicators that could otherwise indeed be exploited.
BTW, I'm not saying it's actually effective, I'm just not sure it's sole purpose is to punish people complaining.
Let me tell you something, pal. What you're doing is you're teaching slashdot readers to recognise your goatse posts and ignore them. If you overdo it, you'll get what you're asking for: you'll be ignored. Even though you're annoying, we don't want you cutting your wrists or anything. If you want to be a successful troll, you should tone down your aggressiveness a little.
And pretty soon it'll be all trains stations and other forms of public transportation.
You haven't been paying attention, have you? TSA/DHS has also been investigating using the AIT technology on the effing STREET, too (source: epic.org -- look it up). For that matter, I can print whatever I want on the ticket to an event I host, but if I were to try to force people to submit to either an AIT scanner or "enhanced pat downs" you and I both know I'd end up in jail.
Nice try, but go back to your high school civics class, kid.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
its funded by public dollars and just as public as the streets.
by printing something on paper, that alone does not make it correct interpretation of law.
they also post 'no photos allowed' but that is a KNOWN falsehood and of course photos are 'allowed'. they make fear-mongering rules up all the times. does not make them completely legal.
go ahead and add me to the fucking list for complaining. I stopped flying about a decade ago. my dollars are not going to help the airline industry or anything directly related. I vote with my dollars since my elected officials stopped voting for what was right.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Every single one of us that reads Slashdot should make a point of mentioning that "I, for one, welcome our TSA overlords," with a BSEG and a wink. Let's see how that goes over. Maybe they'll cavity search themselves.
I mooned the TSA out of protest. But they just yawned and waved me through.
Table-ized A.I.
That's not their job.
TSA was founded for several purposes:
1. To shift the power over airport security to the federal government (several subpurposes to this -- among them shifting responsibility in the case of another failure, and creating a single point of influence for contractors to target.)
2. To, simply by being created, be a visible act of "doing something", regardless of substantive effectiveness or lack thereof, in the immediate, wake of a major terrorist attack, and
3. To condition the public to accept greater arbitrary intrusions on personal liberty.
#2 was a short term goal and was probably reasonably successful (it was a political measure, and there were lots of others at the same time, so its pretty hard to isolate its effectiveness); #1 was obviously successful in general (and its subpurposes seem to have been achieved effectively). Despite some pushback over some measures, #3 seems to have been successful at least in the context in which TSA operates (though its less clear how successful it has been at conditioning the public to except more intrusion generally.)
How did the TSA send an agent back in time to before the TSA existed, and why would a time travelling TSA agent have been doing work that, even after the TSA existed, wasn't part of the TSA's job?
Instead of the Million-dollar scanner, I choose to get the "pat down." I don't complain, in fact -- just the opposite.
I'm not sure if I get on the security list or not, but my involuntary groans of pleasure, sure seem to BOTHER them a lot.
Try going back through security, and if questioned, say, "I'm not sure if I was searched well enough the first time." Get some friends with torn clothing, and whisper to each other about your "favorite" inspector.
Ask them if they are coming out with a "Hunks of TSA" calendar.
If we don't let terrorists on the plane -- they'll just be blowing us up in the parking lot anyway. /sarcasm
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
Someone I know is a drug runner. We were talking about some random stupid procedure somewhere (it might have been TSA I don't remember) I was telling him how I give them as hard of a time as possible. He told me that I can do that because I have nothing to fear as I am squeaky clean. Meanwhile he doesn't want to be noticed. Even when he isn't running. So he stays as quiet as possible, and tries to fly under the radar. The guy complaining the most is most likely not a criminal, he is just being pissed off because he is being treated like one.
The land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy!
The TSA surely realizes that actual trouble-makers will want to blend in. Therefore they want to alter *everyone's* behavior so that people are as submissive as possible. The obvious strategy is not to alter the behavior of the terrorists directly, but to make regular law-abiding citizens act *all the same, all the time, with total submission to authority.* That way, in order to "blend in" as any true trouble maker would want to do, the trouble-makers will have to be as cowed as everyone else. This is an obvious example of law enforcement wanting everyone to give up legitimate rights and submit unquestioningly to authority in order to force criminals to come in line with that obsequious standard.
You don't talk about the TSA.
The second rule of the TSA is.... you don't talk about the TSA.
Barak-O-Vision, aka Barak Hussian Obama, aka Barry -- the former symbol, has through executive order suspended:
1. The First Ammendment and the rest of the the Bill of Rights of the United States of America Constitution.
2. Habeas Corpus.
3. Miranda Rights.
What a wonderful shithead. Do you love Obama-Nation? Do you want Obama-Nation to fuck you? Do you dream of sucking Obama-Nations dick ... it is for the good of the country?
4. In the near future Obama-Nation will suspend .... Citizenship! All you crackers is milktoast! Obama-Nation gona burn you honkey. Heda cumin. Heda man. You dick suckers aint da man. Obama-Nation da man! Obama-Nation gona kill you honkey.
Obama-Nation is the New Race. The new Master Race. The Killer Race. Obama-Nation, dat da cause. Dat da beauty. Malcom-X gona stick you in da back honkey. We da cumin. We da cumin 4 u.
They have to justify the massive budget for no results in return.. And how does the TSA do that? Piss off the clientele. I don't see this working long term.
But who cares -- Mission Accomplished! *high five*
a link to Never Gonna Give You Up on Amazon MP3 - nice little variation on the Rickroll, there...
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
They are just following up on customer service as any other company would do.
I have had problems with the concept of "probable cause" for several years now since I was in a car with a friend who was stopped for going about 10 Mph over the speed limit. When the police officer asked if my friend would mind if they searched his car he politely stated "You may not search my car without probable cause or a search warrant". The officer then called for "backup" and 3 other police cars then showed up and we were promptly detained there at the side of the road for 4 1/2 hours until they could obtain a search warrant: so much for the 4th amendment. At the end of it all after searching the car they let us go with an $80 fine for speeding. I suppose the cop could have said there was "probable cause" because we were speeding and that we could have been fleeing the scene of a crime but even that would have been tenuous at best. I wonder why police don't use such an argument at all traffic stops whenever they want to search a vehicle? All it would take is a convoluted Latin expression to justify the concept.
It is simply amazing how Americans' civil rights are being thrown right out the window while just about anyone wearing a government issued uniform is deified as a "hero". The parallels of what is going on in the US now and Germany in the late 1930s frightening; e.g. there is a lot of talk now about how illegal aliens [gotta' love that word!] are much to blame for the country's problems and that they could also be terrorists. Sound familiar? I find it ironic that as an American living in Germany I feel as if my rights are more safely guaranteed here than they are in the US. I am not as concerned about my personal right to bear arms (If I want a gun here I could probably go through the trouble to get one but I can't be bothered) as I am about the right to open my mouth and be safe from undue search and seizure which is definitely not the case in the US. Americans seem to be far more obsessed about their 2nd amendment rights but their first and forth amendment rights be dammed unless it has to do with defending the KKK or Black Panthers' freedom of expression.
PLEASE, lets seperate flights. One flight for all the people who think all their luggage should be carry on and who want to store bottles of fuel (called whiskey) in a confined space and who think anything and everything should be carried on board including every piece of electronics ever made broadcasting on god knows what frequencies.
And one flight for me and others who hate flying but simply put up with it as an award but handy form of transport to get to different places around the world fast and prefer to do it with high safety standards and as little fuz as possible.
Mind you, you also need two runways because I think the first groups airplanes will be crashing a LOT.
No I don't think all of the security really works. The problem is that if you do nothing... well then shit does happen, just look at the past. Hijacks happened at the drop of a hat. And it has been proven that carry on alcohol has caused extra deaths in accidents because of it becomes just more fuel to burn when the bottles break. Safety experts have been trying to get that stuff banned for ages but the airports want the sales from duty free.
Just remember, 9/11 did NOT happen on an El-Al flight.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Americans have been having it WAY to easy for local travel. Days used to be you could just walk on the aircraft and just show your boarding pass. Carry on anything you want, even flammable stuff (still can or what do you think (duty-free) Vodka is?) and guns.
In the rest of the world, were air travel is likely to cross borders, checks have always been more strict. And with good reason. Hijacks were once common. Aircraft made good targets. It was tried with both ships and trains but they lack a sense of urgency, are to big, to open. So, something had to be done.
Something has to be done does NOT mean you are going to solve the problem 100%. I travelled very recently and as I left Holland, a dog sniffed me. Probably trying to make sure I don't bring drugs (legal in Holland) into countries that had personal freedom (the US). Do US citizens think I should not have been checked? Oddly enough, it is NOT the US who does this check, it is the dutch custom officers.
That is one part of airport security most people miss. The guy petting you is NOT just working for his own government but for the country you are flying to as well, as well as the airliner. There are three checks. Not breaking local laws, not breaking airliner rules, not breaking destination laws.
With the TSA, the US has caught up with the rest of the world AND went a little further. Because they want to stop another 9/11? Partly but also to stop the most easy flow of drugs and money. Just recently in Europe a child was caught with a small fortune in cash. Money mule? All those who cried about the pat down of a child, well, here is proof. Kids are used to commit crimes (transporting large amounts of cash is illegal).
People break the law, in general most normal people (A lot of slashdot does not apply) want the law to be enforced and so airports are now enforcing the laws.
Does it work? Lots of people claim that ZERO attacks have been stopped. But you can turn that bit right around. ZERO successful attacks SINCE the TSA. Shoe-bomber? Detroit flight? NOT successful. Because the attackers used stupid primitive tech that didn't stand a chance in hell?
Yes... and WHY? Because airport security stopped them from simply carrying on proven bomb technology.
Air port security is like a cheapo fire alarm and a 10 yr old fire estinguisher you don't know how to operate. It is not perfect but it beats having nothing at all AND shows you at least put some thought into it and probably are NOT storing jerrycans of petrol over your oven. That is the point about security that a lot of people don't get either. It is not just the security things you do do. But also the things you DON'T do anymore.
Like allowing guns aboard aircraft. Once normal in the US. Anyone think allowing them back is a good idea? How about smoking? High pressure canisters in the cargo? How about ANY of the security do's and don'ts that have been learned over the years and are now daily practice?
Some airports now no longer rely on the nearby cities fire service but have an engine ALWAYS crewed with engine running beside the runway. Most of these fire engines never ever attended a single crash. Skip them?
Airport security doesn't fix everything but I don't think it would be smart to go back to the early days of commercial flight and just open the whole place up. That was tried. It didn't work.
Security theather? Well, if you believe so strongly your government is so corrupt and out to get you, rise up and overthrow your oppressors. No, the ones who talk like that are almost always the armchair type. Talk loudly about the police state, then call the cops because the neighbours dog dared to fart to loudly.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
COG - Are You Interested (Official Video)
http://znt.nu/Wj7IksIf_JI
Wow, COG sure predicted this predicament.
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That sounds like a way to get badly injured and then locked up for resisting arrest plus assault in not something else. If you really want hospital bills and a criminal record go ahead. Remember that these people are not professional law enforcement but work for an organisation that has almost third world secret police powers and a desire to avoid bad press. If there is any bad reaction you get the blame and the more extreme the reaction the more criminal you have to be made to appear to make the actions look justified.
Just do what they say and pretend you are visiting a military dictatorship where people can just disappear if they upset the guards. While you are not actually in such a place some of the TSA people would like it to be that way and act accordingly.
Anybody that tries to shut them down is committing political suicide because there are now so many people and influential groups on TSA welfare. With each day it's going to get harder. Maybe Obama might try something in his second term but that is going to doom the Democrats for a long time.
I can see all that from the other side of an ocean and don't support either party. Why can't you see it? Are you too busy cheering for your own team?
I certainly have nothing bad to say about Slashdot! Really, I don't!
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
More and more rights will be taken away until the public stops being sheep and says enough is enough.
But we all know that is never going to happen...
IMHO (big MHO), the TSA is simply trying to cover its own ass and justify its existence. Has the TSA caught one single terrorist? Not to my knowledge. The fundamental problem with it is that they're taking the fire-bombing-of-Dresden approach instead of the laser-guided cruise-missile approach. By that I mean that feeling up six-year-old girls isn't going to turn up a single terrorist. Pawing though a 90-year old grandmother's carry-on isn't going to turn up a single terrorist. "They would use a bulldozer to...find...a...china...cup..."
*flame shield on* The fact of the matter is that Muslim extremists particularly those of Middle Eastern origin and those who have adopted that style of appearance are historically the perpetrators. Profiling works. But of course that pisses off groups like the ACLU. The trouble with that is that Al Qaeda knows this and is using our delicate sensibilities against us and they will continue to use every cherished right against us.
"...is one indicator TSA officers consider when looking for possible criminals, assholes and terrorists."
In reality only through civil war will we be able to recover the money.
I've often wondered why the TSA's "Behavioral Detection" crap can't detect thieves like Brown, Burton, Simmons, Defelis, Noukeo, Burley, German, Persad, Webb, Pepper, and Arato, or actual sex offenders like Sean Shanahan and Charles Henry Bennett, or complete suicidal whackjobs like Diego Gonzales who was an actual TSA BDO. Shouldn't his fellow BDOs have noticed... I don't know... something wrong?
Specialization is for insects. - R.A.H.
Not as bad as Doctors to perform services to comply with Slave Labor Healthcare... Just saying.
Can I request that an attractive female, or just a female touches my junk?
I would be much more comfortable with that... some of the TSA dudes look like they are overly-comfortable checking junk out.
Complaining too much? Denying that witches exist? - That was one of the things listed as indicators for being a witch.
The Spanish Inquisition (TSI) used to have some extra questions for them.
Terrorists want to blend in to avoid notice? No shit, Sherlock.
Good job wasting resources TSA.
~Xanthanov
...like that boarding pass thing, and other stuff, and then that story last Wednesday. I wouldn't want to be that guy and flying on a plane. :D
Sounds like something a terrorist might say!
I were to try to force people to submit to either an AIT scanner or "enhanced pat downs" you and I both know I'd end up in jail.
If they bought the ticket knowing the scanning and pat-downs were part of your security, you would be able to justify their acceptance of your terms in court. They could plead ignorance, but in the case of the TSA ignorance is not an excuse.
On the street, where you have no contract, nobody from the government can search you. In a situation where you've entered an agreement, that is no longer true.
And by "street" I mean while walking the public ways. If you're in a car or on a toll-road, you've agreed to waive certain of your rights. Which rights is a bit of a hodgepodge. You can be forced to choose between taking a sobriety test and losing your license, but can't be stopped and forced to open your trunk without the stopper having probable cause; the latter, though, is the main reason cops look for a reason to stop you, since once they have you on a traffic violation the slope slips steeply. Good luck rectifying that before the Sun burns out.
On the street, where you have no contract, nobody from the government can search you.
You mean like this? Glad they can't do that </sarc>
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
I didn't say they couldn't try for lack of legal sense. But that right there is illegal, and the first person to call them on it wins.
Perhaps TSA should read the al-Qaeda handbook, maybe they'll learn something.