Passenger Trains > TSA: Fail

TSA: Fail
GMancasefile
January 24, 2012

> The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was formed to ensure America’s freedom to travel. Instead, they have made air travel the
> most difficult means of mass transit in the United States, at the same time failing to make air travel any more secure.
>
> TSA has never, (and I invite them to prove me wrong), foiled a terrorist plot or stopped an attack on an airliner. Ever. They crow
> about weapons found and insinuate that this means they stopped terrorism. They claim that they can’t comment due to “national
> security” implications. In fact, if they had foiled a plot, criminal charges would have to be filed. Ever hear of terrorism charges being
> filed because of something found during a TSA screening? No, because it’s never happened. Trust me, if TSA had ever foiled a terrorist
> plot, they would buy full-page ads in every newspaper in the United States to prove their importance and increase their budget.
>
> I have a unique position from which to make these statements. For 25 years, as many of readers know, I was an FBI Special Agent, and for
> many of those years, I was a counter-terrorism specialist. I ran the Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) Al Qaeda squad. I ran
> the JTTF’s Extra-territorial squad, which responded to terrorism against the United States or its interests throughout the world. I
> have investigated Al Qaeda cell operations in the United States, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, just to name a
> few. The FBI and the CIA provides the lion’s share of actionable intelligence on threats to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
> (the mother organization of TSA), so that they can tailor security screening to the actual threat...
>
> ...I have dealt with TSA since its inception and FAA security prior to that. I have witnessed TSA operate since they became a separate
> organization in 2002 and seen their reaction to intelligence provided them. I have now watched them operate for a decade, and I have
> respect for their hard-working employees who are doing a thankless job. But I have come to the conclusion that TSA is one of the
> worst-run, ineffective and most unnecessarily intrusive agencies in the United States government...

Read more (LOTS more)::

http://gmancasefile.blogspot.com/2012/01/tsa-fail.html

Can't find fault with this assessment.

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

AMEN to your statement , all knee jerk reaction .

On a typical security checkpoint, there are usually 3 lines + priority line. There could be 3-4 people checking your ticket and ID, then at least a pair of people at each of the X-ray machines. There's usually at least one person manning the body scanner, then 1-2 more persons at the end of the line, give or take. Add 1-2 more supervisors overseeing the whole operation. Two words, labor intensive.

There's a solution to end the TSA madness, proposed partially tongue-in-cheek: organize these workers. :-)

Well I’m down at the station, it’s a beautiful day,

then I look up the platform, there’s the f##kin’ T.S.A.,

I could run and then cruise, or I could stay and just smooze,

I got a ticket on me so what do I really have to loose?

They say “son, what the heck ya doin’ down here?”

I said “waitin’ for a train ‘cause I hit a d@#&ed deer.”

“Well we have reason to suspect you’re doin’ more than that, mind if we check ‘cause your stuff looks pretty fat.”

“Well my carry-on’s zipped, so’s the bag on my back and I know my rights, you’ll need an order for that!”

I don't think the purpose of TSA screen at the airport is to necessarily "foil plots". The purpose is to keep dangerous objects out of the cabin. Plots are foiled by folks in dimly lit rooms trolling the internet.

Maybe so, but does it REALLY take 100 people to do so? Having flown out of Oakland yesterday morning, there were 10 agents at each line, several more at the bullpen (next to the Alameda County Sheriff's bullpen--after all the sheriff gotta have a bit of the pie too!) and a whole bunch more in the assembly room adjacent to the screening area. Several were walking around with coffee cups in their hands.

I can't help but think that we've got ourselves a government jobs program here, and very little else. Or, maybe these folks were training for the day when they invade the high-speed train stations in CA.

calzephyr48 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I can't help but think that we've got ourselves a government jobs program here, and very little
> else.

======================================================

These days, once government starts doing ANYTHING, what does it wind up being, other than another
government jobs program?

calzephyr48 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maybe so, but does it REALLY take 100 people to do
> so? Having flown out of Oakland yesterday
> morning, there were 10 agents at each line,
> several more at the bullpen (next to the Alameda
> County Sheriff's bullpen--after all the sheriff
> gotta have a bit of the pie too!) and a whole
> bunch more in the assembly room adjacent to the
> screening area. Several were walking around with
> coffee cups in their hands.
>
> I can't help but think that we've got ourselves a
> government jobs program here, and very little
> else. Or, maybe these folks were training for the
> day when they invade the high-speed train stations
> in CA.

The last time we flew out of San Jose we ran through a gantlet of very surly TSA people who mostly all looked like the photos of terrorists you see in the papers!! OTOH, flying home from Philadelphia we found all TSA people to be courteous, polite and even had senses of humor.
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

CarolVoss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> calzephyr48 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Maybe so, but does it REALLY take 100 people to
> do
> > so? Having flown out of Oakland yesterday
> > morning, there were 10 agents at each line,
> > several more at the bullpen (next to the
> Alameda
> > County Sheriff's bullpen--after all the sheriff
> > gotta have a bit of the pie too!) and a whole
> > bunch more in the assembly room adjacent to the
> > screening area. Several were walking around
> with
> > coffee cups in their hands.
> >
> > I can't help but think that we've got ourselves
> a
> > government jobs program here, and very little
> > else. Or, maybe these folks were training for
> the
> > day when they invade the high-speed train
> stations
> > in CA.
>
> The last time we flew out of San Jose we ran
> through a gantlet of very surly TSA people who
> mostly all looked like the photos of terrorists
> you see in the papers!! OTOH, flying home from
> Philadelphia we found all TSA people to be
> courteous, polite and even had senses of humor.
> C.
Those San Jose people transfer from AVIS at SJC?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/12 10:07 by masterphots.

TSA agents were lurking in the Albuquerque station last week, but not doing anything as far as I could tell.

NormSchultze Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't think the purpose of TSA screen at the
> airport is to necessarily "foil plots". The
> purpose is to keep dangerous objects out of the
> cabin. Plots are foiled by folks in dimly lit
> rooms trolling the internet.

Who says those rooms are dimly lit? I suspect most of that security -- both military and civilian -- is done in very well lit rooms with conditions designed to maximize the alertness of the staff, since spending 8+ hours trolling the Internet can become pretty boring.

Who was incharge before TSA took over? NTSB directly?

SBC_1344 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Who was incharge before TSA took over? NTSB
> directly?

From what I understand based on secondhand info (and I could be wrong), each airport hired/contracted to perform security.

cchan006 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SBC_1344 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Who was incharge before TSA took over? NTSB
> > directly?
>
> From what I understand based on secondhand info
> (and I could be wrong), each airport
> hired/contracted to perform security.


I think that's right. I recall an article in the SF Chronicle that told about the security people hired at SFO being heavily weighted with a lot of Phillipinoes who were family related in the SF Bay area. NOt that this is a problem but it was just that they were the people who applied en masse and were selected.
Could explain what I said about the people at SJC coming from another ethnic group.
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

TSA's a waste of money in my opinion!

ProAmtrak Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TSA's a waste of money in my opinion!

Yet pundits and think tanks are NOT vocal about it, even though they spend considerable energy bashing Amtrak. TSA: $8 billion, Amtrak: $2.6 billion. Doesn't excuse Amtrak from any wasteful practices, but easy solution is to not take the anti-Amtrak idealogues seriously, or if you are a wealthy corporation, don't give them any money to fund their so-called studies and analyses.

CarolVoss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cchan006 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > SBC_1344 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Who was incharge before TSA took over? NTSB
> > > directly?
> >
> > From what I understand based on secondhand info
> > (and I could be wrong), each airport
> > hired/contracted to perform security.
>
>
> I think that's right. I recall an article in the
> SF Chronicle that told about the security people
> hired at SFO being heavily weighted with a lot of
> Phillipinoes who were family related in the SF Bay
> area. NOt that this is a problem but it was just
> that they were the people who applied en masse and
> were selected.
> Could explain what I said about the people at SJC
> coming from another ethnic group.
> C.

True. And the security staff at Washington Dulles Airport allowed a batch of terrorists through
security with box cutters in their carry-on bags, which were used to slit the throats of the pilots
on the United Airlines flight that slammed into the Pentagon.