TSA fiasco

[Dr Mordrid]

Can't see Rome,
Can't see France,
Unless we fondle your underpants



It was bad enough for them to grope adults, but then they groped the 3 year daughter of a passenger who happened to be a reporter - with a video capable cell phone - who busted them. Now they say they'll limit it to over 12's, but if it were my kid they'd still have a problem.

Problem is that neither backscatter scanners nor hand gropes can effectively differentiate between an underwear bomb and a Depends or Kotex, so they're BOTH worthless. Not to mention you can fit enough explosives to bring down a plane in body cavities, so are routine cavity searches next?

What we really need to do is take a few lessons from El Al, Political Correctness be damned.

[cjolley]

Oh for heaven's sake.
The first time my nads were groped by airport security was in 1970 at O'Hare.

[KRSESQ]

Frankly I'd feel safer knowing that there was a high probability that most of the male passengers were carrying a good sharp pocket knife or that granny had some good, sharp knitting needles in her carry-on.

Or if the passengers had to pass a good explosive-detecting canine on their way through security instead of posing in a useless do-it-yourself instant porno machine.

Or even if I knew there were trained and armed air marshals on every flight.

I very rarely fly as it is. If this keeps up I may never set foot in an airport again.

Kevin

[KRSESQ]

I'll just leave this right here.

Kevin

[paulw]

Wonder what TSA would do if there was a travelers revolt and they all refused both the new scan and grope checks, arrest everyone ??

[Brian Ellis]

I've quit flying for last 2½ years because of security hassle. In this time, I would probably have visited the US twice and Switzerland 5 times, each non-visit meaning that the country is losing thousands from their tourism budget. I'm not alone, especially to the USA. At a recent international conference that I used to attend, European attendance has dropped by 75%, compared to the average over last years, despite the considerably lower cost because of €>$ exchange rate. Chatting with colleagues, many of them have said that flying out of the US is so unpleasant that they avoid going there unless 100% essential. I guess the same applies to many pleasure tourists, except those on low-cost packages who don't mind inconvenience if it saves them a few bucks.

You can frighten people away..

[lowlifecat]

IIRC you cannot op-out of both. once you start the security process you have to finish... even if you decide that you don't want to get on the plane anymore.

Wonder what TSA would do if there was a travelers revolt and they all refused both the new scan and grope checks, arrest everyone ??

[Umfriend]

No copy. What is to be learned from EL AL? What problem would you have with inspecting 12, 11 or 3 year olds?

[Kruzin]

Isn't the solution obvious?
Offer free gropings by someone you'd WANT to be groped by

[Dr Mordrid]

How about we spend their early lives teaching them not to let adults, other than doctors, grope them "down there" only to now have 5-6 do it in a single trip? Not to mention mastectomy patients having to remove their prostheses and stuff like this which happened here in Detroit - something that presents just the tip of an iceberg that is becoming a huge issue in the US.

TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine

A retired special education teacher on his way to a wedding in Orlando, Fla., said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers recently at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

“I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn’t even speak,” said Thomas D. “Tom” Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.

Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach. I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes.”

On Nov. 7, Sawyer said he went through the security scanner at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. “Evidently the scanner picked up on my urostomy bag, because I was chosen for a pat-down procedure.”

Due to his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be screened in private. “One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn’t have any place to take me,” said Sawyer. “After I said again that I’d like privacy, they took me to an office.”

Sawyer wears pants two sizes too large in order to accommodate the medical equipment he wears. He’d taken off his belt to go through the scanner and once in the office with security personnel, his pants fell down around his ankles. “I had to ask twice if it was OK to pull up my shorts,” said Sawyer, “And every time I tried to tell them about my medical condition, they said they didn’t need to know about that.”
>

[cjolley]

Let me guess.
What you want to do is let AC know who they can send through untouched.

[Jessterw]

Wear a kilt.

I have a few issues with the way the TSA is handling security:

1. A large number of the agents are disrespectful ****oles (or bitches). Of course, people in security generally are and being a TSA agent isn't the most glorified job out there. That said, we need to invest more time in training these agents for dealing with the gamut of travelers they will have to deal with. Children seem to be a particular problem.
2. The security checkpoints are a dangerous bottleneck. I'm really surprised more terrorists haven't tried an attack at a busy airport here — have there been any? We really need multiple checkpoints, with the first being able to quickly identify any immediate threats.
3. All the security measures being implemented seems to be reactionary instead of forward thinking and preventative. Shoe bomber? Take off your shoes. Weapons hidden in the crotch area? Aggressive pat downs.

[Dr Mordrid]

If we were getting anything out of these intrusions it would be one thing, but we really aren't - and to a big degree can't because of limitations of the technologies and methods.

This all started with the shoe bomber, then the Christmas bomber, the printer cartridge bomb and the rectal bomb in Saudi Arabia. These all share one thing: their explosive, PETN. It has become the preferred choice of AQ because;

a. it has a very low vapor pressure, so sniffers and dogs have a very hard time detecting it - especially if it's packed in plastic.

b. it can be detonated by a spark of 10-60 mJ or a small laser. No blasting cap required.

c. it can be used in thin sheets.

d. it's easy to make, so the aromatics added to the commercial versions to aid detection (see 'a') aren't an issue.

X-rays, even backscatter devices, are near useless. The printer cartridge bomb, the largest device listed above, went through an X-ray system undetected. German agents reviewed the images and couldn't find it either.

As noted sniffers and dogs are near useless for the stated reasons.

Searches are now near useless because of the success of the rectum bomb in Saudi Arabia. Add a timer or remote detonator and swallow the thing. If you're caught at thr terminal checkpoint, do as Jessterw says and blow it up.

No, this is all to make us feel good, not to actually make us secure.

Want real security? PROFILE, PROFILE, PROFILE, until the real solution can be put in place: T-ray spectroscopy. It could be used at checkpoints outside the terminal proper, and it can ID chemicals remotely.

[degrub]

"No, this is all to make us feel good, not to actually make us secure."

Not us. More like the government and officials, so they can't be blamed for not doing "enough".

Thursday could be interesting.....but somehow, i doubt it.


Been through the machines in Heathrow - no big deal. The security lass was all business though