Passenger pat-downs haven't dug up a single terrorist.
By Becky Akers
from the December 8, 2008 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1208/p09s02-coop.html
New York - Sometime in 2010, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will stop swiping airline passengers' bottled water and cups of coffee at security checkpoints. Instead, the agency will once again permit us to carry liquids and gels aboard planes.
It's not that the TSA has finally realized mouthwash and moisturizer really can't explode, not even at 30,000 feet. Rather, it claims it has a combination of new contraptions to prove that. Advanced Technology X-ray machines, bottle scanners, and spectrometers will confirm that your unopened, factory-sealed Listerine is, well, Listerine.
The ban on liquids and gels has plagued passengers for over two years now, ever since British police insisted they had foiled a plot for bombing jetliners en route from London to the US and Canada. Supposedly, terrorists planned to smuggle the ingredients of an explosive elixir aboard their flights in soft-drink containers, then combine them to blow the planes sky-high.
Horrific, murderous – and virtually impossible. The TSA makes it sound as though anyone with a year of high-school chemistry and some hydrogen peroxide can whip up explosives in an airplane's restroom. But mixing a truly explosive bomb is a delicate operation. It requires exact temperatures, precise measurements and methods, and specialized equipment – all more commonly found in laboratories than lavatories. The procedure takes a while, too. And the fumes are likely to alert the passengers shifting from foot to foot in the aisle as they await their turn in the washroom.
In fact, chemists worldwide doubt that even the most accomplished terrorist can concoct such a combustive cocktail high above the Atlantic. A British jury this summer didn't buy the allegations, either. Due to lack of evidence, only eight of the plot's original 25 suspects finally made it to trial. As it turns out, police should have freed all the defendants: jurors refused to convict anyone of terrorism. They exonerated one man, returned no verdict on four others, and settled on lesser charges for the remaining three.
But none of these facts seem to matter to the TSA. It needs something to justify its existence: Despite six years of patting down passengers, it hasn't reported uncovering a single terrorist. No wonder it latched onto the nonsense about liquid bombs. Ferreting out and confiscating everyday substances not only makes work for 43,000 screeners, it also fools us into thinking this protects us.
The TSA has always been a political, not practical, response to 9/11. It hassles us at checkpoints not because of penetrating insights on security or some brilliant breakthrough, but because politicians handed it power. Specialists in security didn't invent the TSA; the Bush administration imposed it on us. So we might hope the incoming president would abolish this absurd agency.
Unfortunately, Barack Obama wants to improve the TSA rather than send it packing. His suggestions for that improvement? Passengers still aren't screened against a comprehensive terrorist watch list, his website proclaims. Such a list must be developed.
Why? The watch list has already kept Rep. John Lewis (D) of Georgia and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts off planes: Will a comprehensive list bar Republican congressmen, too? That'll protect us about as well as unionizing screeners will – another change the campaigning Obama said he favors.
An administration serious about preserving passengers' lives rather than screeners' jobs would dismantle the TSA. Experts in the field, not the government, should design security. And it's senseless to fear that without the TSA airlines won't protect us. Businesses never willingly risk their inventory or customers; the aviation industry is no exception.
Eliminating the TSA allows airlines to protect their customers and multimillion-dollar jets with real security, tailored to each company's needs. AirTran, for instance, confronts different challenges from Air Jamaica, just as banks in midtown Manhattan deal with different dangers than do those in suburban Sioux City. In a world free of the TSA, an airline might arm its pilots or hire private security firms.
More likely, ideas and options we nonexperts can't imagine would render aviation's security as unobtrusive and effective as it is in other industries. There's no limit to human ingenuity and innovation – until the government stifles them with one-size-fits-all regulation.
Unfortunately, we can expect the airlines to fight as hard as the TSA for its survival: requiring security and establishing a bureaucracy to run it sticks taxpayers, rather than airlines, with the bill.
We've paid aviation's operating costs long enough. It's time to bring down the curtain on the TSA's security theater.
Becky Akers, a freelance writer and historian, is finishing a book about the TSA.
Showing posts with label TSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TSA. Show all posts
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Five tips to ensure the TSA doesn't steal your stuff
Before we delve into the article, let me state my opinion of these federal scabs. TSA is the result of the Bush administration's baggage inspector union-busting during our nation's crisis period post-September '01. These employees are barely trained bullies for the most part, all pumped up with "false authority syndrome". One of these scabs once held me for 40 minutes because I refused to remove my reading glasses so that he could "better identify me". At the point where his superior told him to stand down, I was ready to perpetrate physical violence upon his person, which would have resulted in my missing my flight and possibly being labeled a "suspected terrorist". My stepson Nick was once terrorized by an authority-crazed TSA employee repeatedly asking him in an accusing voice, "You picked up the red bowl, didn't you"? He did this in the presence of his mother and myself while virtually detaining us by letting others pass in the security line. This little Napolean also came close to spending a happy half-hour picking up his teeth while I was transported to the nearest detention center. They provide absolutely no real service (security? please!), and I say fuck 'em. One of my favorite ploys is to wear a badge that says, "Suspected Terrorist".--Pete
Five tips to ensure the TSA doesn't steal your stuff
By CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT
Tribune Media Services
Taking. Something. Always.
That's what TSA means to airline passengers like Edward Fleiss, a sales manager from Huntington, N.Y. When screeners inspected his wife's carry-on bag at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport recently, he claims her designer eyeglasses were swiped.
"Great sleight of hand," he says. "We didn't even know they were gone until we got to Los Angeles."
Letters to the Transportation Security Administration — that's what TSA actually stands for, in case you were wondering — were met with a form response. "Dear traveler, thank you, but no reimbursement on a $500 pair of glasses," he recalls.
Thieving TSA? You might be forgiven for thinking so.
Since it was created in 2001, the agency has fired about 200 employees accused of stealing. Although the TSA has taken steps to discourage these government workers from helping themselves to our personal effects — including background checks on new hires, video cameras in screening areas and rules forbidding backpacks or lunchboxes at checkpoints — more and more passengers like Fleiss are coming forward to say they've been ripped off by the very people who are supposed to protect them.
It doesn't help that hardly a week goes by without another story about alleged TSA pilferage making headlines. Here's one from a Miami TV station, where 1,500 items (www.nbc6.net/news/15617249/detail.html) have been reported stolen at the airport since 2003. Here's someone who had his engagement ring filched (www.gadling.com/2008/01/08/engagement-ring-allegedly-stolen-by-lax-airport-security/) by screeners in Los Angeles. Here's another one involving a 12-year-old's heartbreaking loss (http://cbs13.com/seenon/Call.Kurtis.Consumer.2.464401.html) of $265 in birthday money.
You don't need a travel columnist to tell you this agency has a problem. The evidence speaks for itself.
But here's what you might not know. The stealing isn't as random as the TSA may want you to believe (www.tsa.gov/blog/2008/02/tsa-our-officers-public-and-theft.html). Fleiss visited an optometrist for a replacement pair of glasses, and learned that since the TSA was created seven years ago, he'd seen a "marked increase" in patients requesting receipts for insurance claims relating to security-related thefts. "He said there is a huge market for stolen designer eyewear frames in the New York area," he added. "You put it together."
One aviation insider I spoke with believes stealing is a systemic problem the federal agency is unable to control, particularly at problem airports like New York's LaGuardia Airport and Philadelphia International Airport. Not all of the screening areas in U.S. airports are under surveillance, and the TSA's rules have a big loophole that shifts liability for stolen baggage claims to the airline when luggage is delayed, he told me. In other words, there's little incentive for the stealing to stop. "It's the 800-pound gorilla no one wants to discuss at TSA," he says.
I contacted the TSA to get its side of the story. Sari Koshetz, a TSA spokeswoman, sent me an e-mail to say the agency is concerned about theft. "TSA aggressively investigates all allegations of misconduct," she wrote. "When infractions are discovered, it moves swiftly to end the federal careers of offenders." She added that travelers with questions should visit the TSA's Web site for claim information (www.tsa.gov/travelers/customer/claims/index.shtm).
I've got a better idea. Why not make sure your valuables aren't taken in the first place? Here are five tips:
Don't try to beat the system
If you think you can avoid a TSA theft by steering clear of LaGuardia or Philadelphia, think again. Reader David Cumpston had a $50 bottle of cologne stolen from his bag in San Francisco. They lifted a box of Montecristo cigars out of P.J. Zornosa's bag in Florida. "Hope someone enjoyed them," he grumbles. And Jeanne Rose lost one shoe — a brand-new Merrick clog — in Atlanta. Why just one shoe? Who knows? Point is, you can't predict where a TSA thief might strike next.
TSA-approved locks are useless, so don't even bother
Anyone can access your luggage after you've checked it. Anyone. Don't believe me? Here's how to break into a bag without the benefit of a TSA master key (http://mosh.nokia.com/content/3EB82A6FB8ADF170E040050AEE040FBA). Besides, the TSA likes to confiscate the locks after they're done rummaging through your belongings, according to readers like Paula Craig. "Sometimes, I get the Dear Paula, we have been through your luggage letter — and sometimes not," she says. "It's maddening."
Don't pack anything valuable in your checked in luggage
That's not just a bad idea because a TSA agent or an airline baggage handler might take something; it's also a terrible idea because if an airline loses it, you probably won't be reimbursed for it. Joe Zinno, a retiree from Seattle, slipped his digital camera in his luggage, from which he believes a TSA officer removed it on a recent trip. He contacted the agency to make a claim, and after "a very long time" it responded with a form letter. "They said there would be no compensation," he recalls. Airlines don't cover electronics in checked luggage, either.
Better yet, leave all of your valuables at home
Packing your valuables in carry-on luggage is no guarantee the TSA — or the airline — won't be able to get to it. For example, you might have to gate-check your carry-on if there's no room in the overhead bin on the plane. Or, like Fleiss, an agent could pull a fast one at the passenger screening area. Cheryl Wahlheim, an information systems manager from Boulder, Colo., had jewelry stolen out of her bag by what she suspects was a TSA employee. Making a claim proved impossible. "They sent me a form letter and basically I had to present them with a document containing pictures of all the stolen jewelry, receipts for all the jewelry and the current cost of the jewelry," she says. "Since most of the things were gifts given to me over the years, I had no receipts and no pictures."
If you can't live without it, carry it on your person
Items like wedding rings, cash and other valuables should be carried through the checkpoint, wherever possible. Mauranna Sherman of Lynchburg, Va., wishes her husband had kept a close eye on his medication when he passed through the TSA screening area a few years ago. "When we reached our hotel several hours later, it wasn't in his bag," she says. "We had to call our house sitter, who used her own money to deliver it to our family in Texas the next day. What a hassle."
Bottom line: if you want to see your valuables again, don't let a TSA agent near them.
There's one final myth about TSA thefts that needs to be busted, and it involves the claims process. In speaking with airline passengers who claim the TSA took their property, I hear about the same frustrating conclusion almost every time. In the end, they were denied compensation.
Well, the end isn't really the end. You can appeal your case to my counterpart at the TSA (www.tsa.gov/join/benefits/careers_benefits_ombudsman.shtm). Its ombudsman can be reached at TSA.Ombudsman@dhs.gov.
Send your questions to chris@elliott.org.
Five tips to ensure the TSA doesn't steal your stuff
By CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT
Tribune Media Services
Taking. Something. Always.
That's what TSA means to airline passengers like Edward Fleiss, a sales manager from Huntington, N.Y. When screeners inspected his wife's carry-on bag at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport recently, he claims her designer eyeglasses were swiped.
"Great sleight of hand," he says. "We didn't even know they were gone until we got to Los Angeles."
Letters to the Transportation Security Administration — that's what TSA actually stands for, in case you were wondering — were met with a form response. "Dear traveler, thank you, but no reimbursement on a $500 pair of glasses," he recalls.
Thieving TSA? You might be forgiven for thinking so.
Since it was created in 2001, the agency has fired about 200 employees accused of stealing. Although the TSA has taken steps to discourage these government workers from helping themselves to our personal effects — including background checks on new hires, video cameras in screening areas and rules forbidding backpacks or lunchboxes at checkpoints — more and more passengers like Fleiss are coming forward to say they've been ripped off by the very people who are supposed to protect them.
It doesn't help that hardly a week goes by without another story about alleged TSA pilferage making headlines. Here's one from a Miami TV station, where 1,500 items (www.nbc6.net/news/15617249/detail.html) have been reported stolen at the airport since 2003. Here's someone who had his engagement ring filched (www.gadling.com/2008/01/08/engagement-ring-allegedly-stolen-by-lax-airport-security/) by screeners in Los Angeles. Here's another one involving a 12-year-old's heartbreaking loss (http://cbs13.com/seenon/Call.Kurtis.Consumer.2.464401.html) of $265 in birthday money.
You don't need a travel columnist to tell you this agency has a problem. The evidence speaks for itself.
But here's what you might not know. The stealing isn't as random as the TSA may want you to believe (www.tsa.gov/blog/2008/02/tsa-our-officers-public-and-theft.html). Fleiss visited an optometrist for a replacement pair of glasses, and learned that since the TSA was created seven years ago, he'd seen a "marked increase" in patients requesting receipts for insurance claims relating to security-related thefts. "He said there is a huge market for stolen designer eyewear frames in the New York area," he added. "You put it together."
One aviation insider I spoke with believes stealing is a systemic problem the federal agency is unable to control, particularly at problem airports like New York's LaGuardia Airport and Philadelphia International Airport. Not all of the screening areas in U.S. airports are under surveillance, and the TSA's rules have a big loophole that shifts liability for stolen baggage claims to the airline when luggage is delayed, he told me. In other words, there's little incentive for the stealing to stop. "It's the 800-pound gorilla no one wants to discuss at TSA," he says.
I contacted the TSA to get its side of the story. Sari Koshetz, a TSA spokeswoman, sent me an e-mail to say the agency is concerned about theft. "TSA aggressively investigates all allegations of misconduct," she wrote. "When infractions are discovered, it moves swiftly to end the federal careers of offenders." She added that travelers with questions should visit the TSA's Web site for claim information (www.tsa.gov/travelers/customer/claims/index.shtm).
I've got a better idea. Why not make sure your valuables aren't taken in the first place? Here are five tips:
Don't try to beat the system
If you think you can avoid a TSA theft by steering clear of LaGuardia or Philadelphia, think again. Reader David Cumpston had a $50 bottle of cologne stolen from his bag in San Francisco. They lifted a box of Montecristo cigars out of P.J. Zornosa's bag in Florida. "Hope someone enjoyed them," he grumbles. And Jeanne Rose lost one shoe — a brand-new Merrick clog — in Atlanta. Why just one shoe? Who knows? Point is, you can't predict where a TSA thief might strike next.
TSA-approved locks are useless, so don't even bother
Anyone can access your luggage after you've checked it. Anyone. Don't believe me? Here's how to break into a bag without the benefit of a TSA master key (http://mosh.nokia.com/content/3EB82A6FB8ADF170E040050AEE040FBA). Besides, the TSA likes to confiscate the locks after they're done rummaging through your belongings, according to readers like Paula Craig. "Sometimes, I get the Dear Paula, we have been through your luggage letter — and sometimes not," she says. "It's maddening."
Don't pack anything valuable in your checked in luggage
That's not just a bad idea because a TSA agent or an airline baggage handler might take something; it's also a terrible idea because if an airline loses it, you probably won't be reimbursed for it. Joe Zinno, a retiree from Seattle, slipped his digital camera in his luggage, from which he believes a TSA officer removed it on a recent trip. He contacted the agency to make a claim, and after "a very long time" it responded with a form letter. "They said there would be no compensation," he recalls. Airlines don't cover electronics in checked luggage, either.
Better yet, leave all of your valuables at home
Packing your valuables in carry-on luggage is no guarantee the TSA — or the airline — won't be able to get to it. For example, you might have to gate-check your carry-on if there's no room in the overhead bin on the plane. Or, like Fleiss, an agent could pull a fast one at the passenger screening area. Cheryl Wahlheim, an information systems manager from Boulder, Colo., had jewelry stolen out of her bag by what she suspects was a TSA employee. Making a claim proved impossible. "They sent me a form letter and basically I had to present them with a document containing pictures of all the stolen jewelry, receipts for all the jewelry and the current cost of the jewelry," she says. "Since most of the things were gifts given to me over the years, I had no receipts and no pictures."
If you can't live without it, carry it on your person
Items like wedding rings, cash and other valuables should be carried through the checkpoint, wherever possible. Mauranna Sherman of Lynchburg, Va., wishes her husband had kept a close eye on his medication when he passed through the TSA screening area a few years ago. "When we reached our hotel several hours later, it wasn't in his bag," she says. "We had to call our house sitter, who used her own money to deliver it to our family in Texas the next day. What a hassle."
Bottom line: if you want to see your valuables again, don't let a TSA agent near them.
There's one final myth about TSA thefts that needs to be busted, and it involves the claims process. In speaking with airline passengers who claim the TSA took their property, I hear about the same frustrating conclusion almost every time. In the end, they were denied compensation.
Well, the end isn't really the end. You can appeal your case to my counterpart at the TSA (www.tsa.gov/join/benefits/careers_benefits_ombudsman.shtm). Its ombudsman can be reached at TSA.Ombudsman@dhs.gov.
Send your questions to chris@elliott.org.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)