TSA retaliates against traveler who refuses drink test

So we're clear on this, the TSA is more about theater and towing the line, no matter how ridiculous it may be.

The new policy now is to smile and demand that passengers let their drinks be tested even after passing security -- in other words, while you're sitting at the gate with the drink you got post-security. Failure to allow the happy, smiling TSA to test -- or even showing annoyance at this new intrusion -- will result in retaliation as seen in this video from the Houston airport. The TSA will not tolerate attitude even if someone raises a valid concern.

So is the TSA now admitting that their security system for both passengers and food vendors behind security is lousy and unable to detect danger? With each month, the TSA pushes to new extremes without complaint from the political class.

While traveling through the US the other day, I watched an elderly grandmother being lifted out of her wheelchair and put into a porno-scanner in Charlotte. Maybe some of the lemmings find that reassuring, but I found it to be scary and pathetic. Read the rest of this post...

Video: TSA now checking drinks at departure gates

Who doesn't feel safer with this level of security theater? Read the rest of this post...

GOP platform promotes national security pork for GOP Rep. Mica

GOP Platform
pork promoter
Cong. John Mica

Smooth one, GOP.

Not only are they promoting pork for their own, but they're building it right into the Republican platform.

Even better, it's at the expense of our national security.

The Republican platform includes a plank promoting the pork of influential GOP Congressman John Mica, who's been trying to privatize the TSA for a while now on behalf of a corporate campaign contributor in his district.

Attacking federal workers is nothing new for the GOP, but they have yet to explain how a privatized TSA workforce will do anything other than shovel money into the campaign coffers of Congressman Mica and his well-to-do corporate constituent.

A lot of Americans are frustrated or fed up with the TSA policies, but none of those policies change if the TSA is privatized. If anything, the problem gets worse because instead of being (somewhat) accountable to the public via our elected representatives, under the Republican plan the TSA will only be accountable to its shareholders and business owners.  And as bad as government can sometimes be, the private sector is usually worse (e.g., you can complain about Medicare problems to your congressman, who do you complain about Blue Cross to?)

Again, how does privatizing help address the problems that annoy Americans about the TSA?  It doesn't.  It simply helps Republican Congressman John Mica get pork for a constituent at the potential expense of our safety.

The platform calls for the privatization of airport security screening, a role now undertaken by the Transportation Security Administration.

The platform characterizes the TSA as a "massive bureaucracy" made up of employees "who seem to be accountable to no one for the way they treat travelers."

The agency, created in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has long drawn the ire of lawmakers, both for mismanagement of agency programs as well as the often inconvenient screening process.

A massive bureaucracy that would only answers to a Congressman Mica is not very comforting.  Cong. Mica apparently agrees with Mitt Romney that corporations are people too.  Too bad Mica and Romney don't have the same respect for actual people.

Treat the Republican party platform as one big pork opportunity is no way to treat something as serious as national security.  Then again, when were the Republicans ever serious about national security?  Only one President actual caught Osama bin Laden - actually tried - and that's the Democratic President Barack Obama. Read the rest of this post...

TSA confronts man over his suspiciously large "member"

As Josh Barro wrote on Twitter, "sounds like the start of a terrible/amazing porn."  From CBS SF:

"New York native Jonah Falcon, 41, said that he was returning from a weekend in San Francisco on July 9 when he was delayed by TSA agents who became curious about the bulge in his pants.

“TSA didn’t know what to make of the massive bulge on my thigh. Even after I went through that body scanner that shows you naked,” Falcon wrote on his Twitter page.

“They asked me if that’s a growth – and i said no, that was my..."

Read the rest of this post...

New freaky laser will scan EVERYONE in airports from 164 feet away

I'm going to bring these to your attention without much comment for now, but will have more to say later. Needless to say, reading this should tell you we've entered a new phase.

First, from Gizmodo (via the excellent Steve Hynd, and The Agonist):

Within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 164 feet (50 meters) away. From traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes to what you had for breakfast to the adrenaline level in your body—agents will be able to get any information they want without even touching you.

And without you knowing it. ...

Their plan is to install this molecular-level scanning in airports and border crossings all across the United States. The official, stated goal of this arrangement is to be able to quickly identify explosives, dangerous chemicals, or bioweapons at a distance.

....it can be used systematically on everyone passing through airport security, not just suspect or randomly sampled people....

Back in 2008, a team at George Washington University developed a similar laser spectrometer using a different process. It could sense drug metabolites in urine in less than a second, trace amounts of explosive residue on a dollar bill, and even certain chemical changes happening in a plant leaf....

In other words, these portable, incredibly precise molecular-level scanning devices will be cascading lasers across your body as you walk from the bathroom to the soda machine at the airport and instantly reporting and storing a detailed breakdown of your person, in search of certain "molecular tags".

Read it all — I dare you.

You could (read: "will") be scanned for drug molecules on your person at the airport from 150 feet away. That's a game-changer in the invasive Spook Wars, I would think.

The small, inconspicuous machine is attached to a computer running a program that will show the information in real time, from trace amounts of cocaine on your dollar bills to gunpowder residue on your shoes. Forget trying to sneak a bottle of water past security—they will be able to tell what you had for breakfast in an instant while you're walking down the hallway.

And guess what? It's likely not even safe (again, the excellent Steve Hynd via Twitter):

How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA

A new model of the way the THz waves interact with DNA explains how the damage is done and why evidence has been so hard to gather

Great things are expected of terahertz waves, the radiation that fills the slot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared. Terahertz waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes, paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and "frisk" people at distance. ...

The evidence that terahertz radiation damages biological systems is mixed. ... Now these guys think they know why.

Alexandrov and co have created a model to investigate how THz fields interact with double-stranded DNA and what they've found is remarkable. They say that although the forces generated are tiny, resonant effects allow THz waves to unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication. That's a jaw dropping conclusion.

It took the Vietnam War to mobilize the 60s generation, to personalize the risk beyond the theoretical, and create a revolution with critical mass.

Do not underestimate how important critical mass for the Counter-Culture that created modern American life. (And never forget, by the way, that every Hippie-hating Republican openly has sex with his girlfriend without public shame. Only the radicals and Beats did that in the 50s. You would think these Young Libertarians would at least say Thanks to the enemies they so eagerly emulate.)

Now the drug-moralizers have the ultimate weapon — long-range molecular scanners and a no-permission-needed fear atmosphere. It only starts at the airport. With this weapon on the streets of America, another generation will be at personal risk of jail on a tired cop's whim.

By my calculation (carry the two) 2013 is just around the corner.

Game-changer, say I — both ways.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius

  Read the rest of this post...

TSA allegedly calls deaf traveler "f**king deafie"

And as you might imagine, the traveler in question is deaf. The TSA is an institution that can't turn the corner and get beyond it's extensive history of problems. Some of their recent lowlights include spilling the cremated remains of a traveler and then laughing, hiring child rapists and murderers, molesting senior citizens, and breaking a life-saving insulin pump. That's just the most recent history.

The Republican response is to outsource the TSA duties to companies that donate heavily to Congressman Mica which is hardly an answer. While it may be SOP in DC for politicians, in this case, he's playing with national security.

The TSA needs a lot more pressure from the political class because they fail to get it. This is not acceptable.

While I was going through the TSA, some of them started laughing in my direction. I thought it might’ve been someone behind me, but I found out otherwise.

They went through my bag (for no reason), and found a couple bags of candy I brought. I was told I wasn’t allowed to fly with that (wtf? I’ve flown with food before — these were even sealed still because I brought them right in the airport). I was then asked if I would like to donate the candy “To the USO”. Since I know the airport there has an Air National Guard base, and I figured it would go to the soldiers, I (annoyed) said sure, why not?

The guards, as I was getting scanned, started eating the candy they just told me was for the soldiers. In front of me, still laughing at me (very clearly now). One of them asked why they were laughing, and one of them came up to me, pointed at my shirt, laughed at me and said, “F**king deafie”. The Louisville TSA called me a “f**king deafie” and laughed at me because I was deaf, and they expected wouldn’t say anything back (or wouldn’t hear them). Make no bones about it — she was facing me and I read her lips. There was no mistake. I would later find out that they had called at least 4 other individuals the same thing.

Read the rest of this post...

TSA to have"random" beverage checks before boarding

Just when you think the TSA could not be any more ridiculous, they turn it up to eleven.

According to the TSA's website, the beverage checks are random, hygenic and happen at airports across the country, including Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field.

The test involves a test strip and dropper containing a non-toxic solution. TSA agents do not place the test strips in your drink. Instead, agents have the passenger remove the cap or lid, and agents then hold the strip over the opening.

The test strip is then removed away from the drink and the solution is dropped on the strip.

Read the rest of this post...

TSA spills cremated remains, laughs at man frantically sweeping up grandpa's bone fragments

There's your TSA at work. Thoughtful, compassionate and following the rules.

"They opened up my bag, and I told them, 'Please, be careful. These are my grandpa's ashes,'" Gross told RTV6's Norman Cox. "She picked up the jar. She opened it up....

She used her finger and was sifting through it. And then she accidentally spilled it."

Gross says about a quarter to a third of the contents spilled on the floor, leaving him frantically trying to gather up as much as he could while anxious passengers waited behind him.

"She didn't apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and knees picking up bone fragments."

Read the rest of this post...

TSA rolling out "Gumby" non-porno-scanners

For reasons which can only make sense at the TSA, the TSA believes the Gumby-scanners will solve all of their problems. Maybe they won't be the same porno-scanners that are now used to send attractive women through multiple times, but they still don't resolve the fundamental problems that have been shown in 2010 and then in 2012.

The Gumby-scanners also don't change the silly policies of humiliating the elderly or ban 18 month kids from flying. And no, Rep. Mica's private TSA hires fail to address any of these issues either. (Though they do add a chunk of change to his campaign coffers.)

This is not progress, but it's probably coming to an airport near you.

It's the enhanced version of a technology that caused quite a stir by allowing screeners to actually see passengers' private parts while screening for other things.

"That software, called Automatic Target Recognition, has gotten rid of the image associated with Advanced Image Technology. When you go through this unit at Roanoke Regional Airport, no one is going to see an image of your body," said Kawika Riley, a TSA spokesperson.

Read the rest of this post...

Video: Groped passenger gropes TSA agent back

It's going to be interesting to see the video of the TSA agent groping the passenger, because the passenger is claiming that the TSA agent went too far. The passenger in question is a former TSA agent herself, so in theory should know. Read the rest of this post...

Report: TSA hired child rapists, murderers & thieves

Just another day at the TSA. Hopefully Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn's report is about reforming (or eliminating) the TSA and not a money grab like GOP Congressman Mica because it raises more serious problems at the agency.

We've all heard about the thefts by TSA agents and recently discovered the Philadelphia airport hired a child molester but the TSA being the TSA, there's always something else that defies logic. How does the TSA continue to be so untrusted and disliked yet have Congress calling for more fees to give the TSA even more budget?

Blackburn's report entitled "Not on My Watch: 50 Failures of TSA's Transportation Security Officers" shows photos and criminal records of the TSA's worst offenders, from statutory rape to murder.

"Many of them have committed the crimes while in their TSA uniforms," said Congresswoman Blackburn.

The crimes date back to 2005 and include several offenders from the tri-state area.

One of the former TSA agents was recently convicted for stealing someone's laptop at the Memphis airport. The theft happened in the baggage claim area while the agent was on break.

Read the rest of this post...

How GOP Cong. Mica made the TSA, and your national security, his own personal pork

GOP Cong. John Mica

To hell with national security.  There's pork in them there hills!

Sure, the Transportation Security Agency is meant to stop terrorists from causing another September 11 in which they kill thousands of US citizens, and this time maybe even destroy the White House or the Congress, like they wanted to do last time.

But national security is nothing compared to pork security.

GOP House committee chair John Mica has been pushing for years for the TSA to be privatized.

As Chris wrote yesterday, with all the problems the TSA has, it's not entirely clear why anything would improve under private management.  If anything, at least now TSA has to worry about the ire of the administration and Congress when they strip search granny, but after they're privatized, kiss any real government oversight goodbye.

Privatizing the TSA just doesn't make any sense, unless you do some research - something The Hill didn't bother doing in yesterday's article about this story.  But privatize it we are going to do, because Congressman Mica got some legislation passed earlier this year making it so.

Now why would he do that?

Maybe because one of the main contractors who would profit from privatizing the TSA is a campaign donor to Congressman Mica and one of his constituents.

From my earlier post on Mica's TSA conflict of interest, in which the Washington Post was burying Mica's conflict as well:

What the Washington Post doesn't tell you, until the end of the story, is that one of the big private contractors is in the House Transportation chairman's own district.

Covenant, based in Mica's home district in northeastern coastal Florida, has airport screening contracts in Sioux Falls, S.D., Tupelo, Miss., and seven small airports in northern and eastern Montana. Its deal at San Francisco International is by far its largest. Covenant employs nearly 1,100 people in the bay area, who make up nearly all of its 1,150 workers. The last four-year contract, from 2006 to 2010, totaled $314 million. A new contract has been put out for competitive bids. Meanwhile, Covenant is operating on a two-month contract ending in February.

Um, kind of a relevant fact that deserves to be highlighted a tad earlier. Rather than a story about airports ditching TSA, you may have a story about an incoming House committee chair trying to base our entire airport counter-terror security on who donates to his campaign - oh yeah, the post didn't tell you that one either, the president of the private contractor is also a donor to incoming Chairman Mica's campaign. Too bad the Washington Post didn't bother checking:

And a recent check of donations shows that Gerald Berry of Covenant Aviation donated to Mica again in 2011.

And what do you know, according to news reports "all signs are pointing to Covenant Aviation Security" getting the TSA privatization contract in Mica's own backyard.

Whodathunkit!

What's especially interesting about Mica's Covenant having the inside track is that Covenant is not without controversy:

[I]n 2006, according to a government report, Covenant was caught cheating on performance tests at San Francisco International Airport.

Hard to believe a company caught cheating on performance tests would have the inside track on new TSA contracts. So how did they manage it?

Now, in most of the world, if a politician were lobbying for something on behalf of someone who gave them money, we'd send that politician to jail - or at the very least they'd recuse themselves from the matter. We certainly wouldn't make them the chair of an entire committee, and we certainly wouldn't accede to their demands when the national security of the country was at stake.

But this is the way Washington works.  Especially in the Republican party.

Members of Congress are guided by (controlled) their constituents and their campaign donors, even when the subject of debate is national security. And when the constituent and donor is a corporation, the sky's the limit!

Whether or not a privatized TSA helps stop the next September 11 is not what is foremost on a (corrupt) congressman's mind, when the opportunity presents itself to turn America's first line of defense against the next Mohammed Atta into their own personal pork dinner.

Pass the gravy, Cong. Mica. Read the rest of this post...

How do privatized TSA agents solve the TSA problem?

I completely understand that Representative Mica likes to hand privatized deals over to campaign contributors or potential contributors but I have yet to hear how or why privatizing addresses the problems of the TSA. They will be following the same mission and rules as the TSA except that instead of some level of accountability via the government, there will now be an extra layer with a private company that is accountable to no one.

The privatized TSA will still be groping or using the porno-scanners that are expensive but easily beatable as we have seen recently as well as a few years ago. They will still be humiliating Americans and preventing babies from flying because of incorrect no-fly lists and declaring cream cheese dangerous.

Why isn't anyone asking Rep. Mica how the privatized TSA will be any different with these problems? The Hill:

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) has long pushed for private screeners at Orlando's Sanford International Airport. He said Monday he hoped the move at the airport in his home state would open "a new era of reform for TSA operations, not only at Orlando Sanford but across the nation.

“It’s critical that TSA get out of the business of running a huge bureaucracy and human resources operation and refocus its attention on security, analyzing intelligence, and setting the highest risk-based security standards," Mica, who is a vocal critic of TSA, said in a statement.

Read the rest of this post...

Why does US require shoes-off at airport, while Europe does not?

TSA:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday she could see a future where air travelers do not have to remove their shoes at security checkpoints. However, the technology to scan shoe-wearing passengers for bombs does not exist yet and may not be available in the near future, Napolitano said.

The thing is, in Europe you don't have to take your shoes off at airport security. Not in Paris. Not in Amsterdam. Not in Stockholm.

Why?

It's not that the Europeans are more slack on security than we are. So what is it?

I'm not one who complains much about airport security.  If there's even a slim chance that taking off my shoes will help me not blow up at 40,000 feet, then I'm game.

What I don't like, however, is being told by US officials that there's no way to ensure our safety without the TSA making us take off our shoes pre-flight, when in Europe they seem to be doing just fine.  It feels like we're not getting the whole truth, and that bothers me.

It also doesn't do much for TSA's already tepid credibility with the public. Read the rest of this post...

GOP Rep. calls for more TSA intrusion

Yes, because more TSA is exactly what everyone wants and needs. Shouldn't they have to prove some actual value before expanding their program to more trains and buses?

The Republican calling for a greater presence of the TSA holds a powerful position, so it's likely only a matter of time before the TSA is discovering new ways to spend money and attack personal privacy without ever showing any real threat or real benefit. The Hill:

Lawmakers normally criticize the TSA for its airport security techniques, but Rep. Mike Rodgers (R-Ala.) said during a hearing Thursday that the controversial agency's surface transportation initiatives were inefficient.

"We know aviation continues to be a major focus for our enemies," Rodgers said. "Having said that, terrorists see surface transportation as a very attractive target. And since we can’t screen everyone and everything that gets on a train, truck or bus, intelligence sharing, deterrence, and detection measures are extremely important."

Rodgers is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee on Transportation Security. The panel held a hearing Thursday to investigate the TSA's management of its surface transportation inspection program, which is designed to provide spot security checks in lieu of the inspections of every passenger that typify air travel.

Read the rest of this post...

TSA once again accused of molesting senior citizen

As predicted, the TSA has managed to embarrass yet another senior citizen. The TSA really doesn't appreciate how poorly run the organization is and how costly their attacks on privacy can be for Americans. Their record shows that the system remains easy to beat and they have yet to identify a single terrorist. Read the rest of this post...

Senate committee approves doubling of TSA taxes on airline passengers

Get ready to pony up even more to fly thanks to Congress. Not only will you have the pleasure of risking cancer with the porno-scanners and handing over your personal privacy to a system that is not known to be effective, but you will now pay more for it.

Only Congress and porno-scanner producers could think this is a good idea.

A Senate committee has approved a plan to double the fees charged to airline flyers to help fund the Transportation Security Administration.

Every flyer pays a $2.50 federal fee each way to help fund the TSA.

The proposal that just passed out of a US Senate committee would make that $5 each way or $10 per round trip.

Read the rest of this post...

Five more things the TSA would rather you not see

As if the list wasn't long enough with the humiliation of a 95 year old retired officer, banning an 18 month old baby, an 84 year old grandmother strip searched, creepy notes left inside luggage, not to mention the easy workarounds for defeating the porno scanners, the Huffington Post has more images and videos that you need to see.

It's the now familiar story of humiliation, mission creep and general ineffectiveness of the current TSA system. For an added bonus we now discover that the Philadelphia airport has a manager who was dismissed by the Camden, NJ archdiocese for allegedly molesting young girls when he was a priest. The hard reality of all of this is that the TSA has yet to find a single terrorist, though they did manage to miss at least one foreign flyer who went from New York to LA on someone else's ticket.

Why are we still funding this failed program? Is the political class really that afraid of taking corrective action? Read more about the latest TSA problems at the Huffington Post. Read the rest of this post...

TSA seeking grope-free scanning device

In the mean time, prepare to be molested and humiliated while the brain trust who thought porno-scanners would solve the problem, despite evidence to the contrary. Yes, the team that banned an 18 month old baby due to the young child being on a no-fly list will be choosing this new technology.

Feeling safer yet?The Department of Homeland Security recently put out a request for technology companies to come up with a hand-held scanning device that can be used instead of pat-down searches on passengers who set off alarms on full-body scanners.

The department oversees the Transportation Security Administration, which operates about 700 full-body scanners at 180 airports across the country. When the scanners detect a hidden object, TSA workers perform a pat-down search.

But critics say TSA screeners rely on the pat-down search too often. Even former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger got a full-body pat-down at LaGuardia Airport in New York recently. Read the rest of this post...

TSA to modify groping procedures for seniors

Surely the TSA is not using some common sense? Maybe humiliating seniors wasn't as successful as they had hoped. I still remain confident that the TSA will still find a way to embarrass their fair share of dangerous grannies. MSNBC.com:

Since March, TSA workers at airports in Chicago, Denver, Orlando and Portland, Ore., have been testing modified screening practices for passengers 75 and over. Elderly travelers at select checkpoints were allowed to keep shoes and light outerwear on during screening and could take a second pass through full-body scanners to clear anomalies. The measures mirror those instituted nationwide last summer for children 12 and under.

TSA on Friday announced an end to the pilot program and said it will roll out the rules at all U.S. airports throughout the summer. A specific implementation timetable was not released.

The changes will reduce, but not eliminate, enhanced pat-downs for the elderly, TSA said in a statement. Travelers will be asked to remove shoes and undergo a pat-down “if anomalies are detected during security screening that cannot be resolved through other means.”

Read the rest of this post...