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TSA Fails To Find Links To Terrorism of Airport Workers
schwit1 writes: An audit of the TSA has found that the agency failed to uncover the terrorist connections of 73 aviation workers when it did background checks of them. According to a report released Monday, the people were employed by major airlines, airport vendors and other employers, and were not identified because the agency lacked access to terrorism-related information from within the government. The agency's "multi-layered process to vet aviation workers for potential links to terrorism was generally effective. In addition to initially vetting every application for new credentials, TSA recurrently vetted aviation workers with access to secured areas of commercial airports every time the Consolidated Terrorist Watchlist was updated," the report found. "However, our testing showed that TSA did not identify 73 individuals with terrorism-related category codes because TSA is not authorized to receive all terrorism-related information under current interagency watchlisting policy." This report comes on the heels of an internal TSA investigation that found 95% of agents testing airport checkpoints were able to bring weapons through.
... that the Theater Security Agency has failed to discoverer 1 terrorist.
So in other words. giving every passenger a cudgel on the way to their seat and locking the damned cabin door would be a cheaper, more effective means of on-plane security.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Is there anything the TSA does right? Aside from being a federal jobs program for tens of thousands of people?
If conservatives are so in favor of small government and so against welfare, maybe they ought to take a good hard look at the TSA. I'd vote for a presidential candidate who pledged to eliminate this useless boondoggle agency.
It's not like the private companies that they replaced were any better. A buddy of mine is the Operations Manager for our little regional airport; in the pre 9/11 days he watched the private outfit miss firearms as they scrolled past on the x-ray machine. In the post 9/11 days it's still a joke; he can get me into the secured area with a simple, "He's with me." statement to the TSA flunkies. Not even a metal detector. That's the gaping hole in airport security, incidentally, insiders. Just buy one off or blackmail them and you're set to do whatever nefarious deed you have in mind. Once you're through the secured area at one airport you're into all of them.
The bigger problem is that our body politic is incapable of having an adult conversation about risk. We live in a society that won't let kids use playgrounds where they might scrape a knee. Good luck having a conversation about the proper balance between security and liberty in that environment.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
My karma is good, so I think I need to off burn some excess. Mod me as you will.
What the TSA and every other TLA agency can't protect against: a previously law-abiding person who decides that they must act against America. Their first criminal act may be the one that kills. The 9/11 hijackers did nothing illegal until well after the cabin doors of their aircraft closed.
The TSA can't do shit against someone who has a brain and patience. Not. a. fucking. thing.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
It isn't a serious matter. TSA has never been meant to be anything but Kubuki Security Theater.
And that's because we're being kind.
If anything, it's an expensive waste of time and resources that makes terrorism more likely, especially when combined with unnecessary and counter-productive unconstitutional search and seizure and monitoring of American citizens in America, when the only useful actionable intel we have ever had has been due to intel gathering that started in the Middle East.
Period.
Living in Fear is the wrong answer. Americans are made of sterner stuff than that.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Spot on. The TSA is utterly useless. A complete waste of taxpayer money. Worse than that, it gives Americans a false sense of security where none exists. Let's see if any of the Republican candidates have the guts to sack the entire thing. Rand Paul or Ted Cruz are the only two that come to mind.
Yet thinks its perfectly appropriate for people to walk around with loaded firearms.
You're right that the USA's idea of risk is seriously screwed up. I suspect the ensuing justifications from various gun nuts will only highlight the fact that your society is incapable of having an adult conversation about the subject.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Spot on. The TSA is utterly useless. A complete waste of taxpayer money. Worse than that, it gives Americans a false sense of security where none exists.
People keep forgetting that the TSA is NOT about security, never has been. It is all about training citizens to mindlessly obey a pompous asshole with a semi-official-looking uniform or be punished (being back-roomed to miss your flight).
You're right that the USA's idea of risk is seriously screwed up. I suspect the ensuing justifications from various gun nuts will only highlight the fact that your society is incapable of having an adult conversation about the subject.
I'm of the thought that if kids aren't scrapping themselves up(knees and other parts) on occasion, they're not having enough fun.
Gun nuts or not, the issue you're seeing is the friction between different types of people. The 'FREEDOM!' gun carrying types tend NOT to be the ones that go apeshit over a scrapped knee in a playground.
We tend to see the extremes of either on the news.
I don't read AC A human right
I could point out that "walking around with loaded firearms" doesn't hurt anyone, and those who wish to use a loaded firearm to hurt someone will simply ignore any laws that prevent everyone else from walking around with them. I'd also point out that "hurting someone with a loaded firearm" is also a law that people who wish to hurt others with a loaded firearms are ignoring, so you gain nothing by a prohibition on "walking around" with them.
It's already illegal to hurt someone with a loaded firearm, so what do you gain by prohibiting law abiding citizens from carrying them. What is the next law that will solve the problem of bad people doing bad things with guns -- a law against THINKING about loaded firearms?
it is neither useless nor a waste of taxpayer money. It keeps tens of thousands off welfare and more importantly it keeps them from being significantly productive to the point where they might effect the actual labour output of the nation enough that imports of certain commodity items which CAN be produced locally (efficient automobiles, mobile phones and other portable microelectronics, white goods, foodstuffs such as potatoes and sugar) are reduced. It provides security theatre for mass transit and a false sense of security for sardine-tin commuters when what they should REALLY be worried about is disgruntled copilots (yeah whatever). It is called a makework economy, and it's the fast track to fucking up a country without firing a shot.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
I'm so glad you cleared that up for us.
Why is Snark Required?
Cops are more than four times more likely than ordinary citizens to shoot someone who doesn't deserve it in any given armed altercation and kill citizens at 70 times the rate of other first-world nations, but we still let them carry guns. Sadly, most cops don't train nearly enough — many departments literally have a single monthly firearms training day, or less — so the truth is that the average gun-toting citizen is actually better at putting rounds on target than the average cop. The kind of citizens who carry firearms are also the kind of people who take them to the range regularly.
If you don't want bystanders injured by stray gunfire, or for that matter rounds deliberately fired at undeserving targets, then take the guns away from the cops. Taking them away from responsible citizens won't help.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"