Quote of the Day...

By Oren Hazi:

This is how we lose our rights. Not overnight in one fell swoop, but gradually, after getting worn down again and again, and after hundreds of mini-panic-attacks, and with ever-ratcheting procedural changes that effectively invalidate the assurances and safeguards that we're given. I give up. The terrorists have won.

TSA Leads the Way...

Here's yet another story of TSA's security theater run amok, this one involving a four year old little girl.  The little girl's mother wrote this:

My daughter is very shaken up about this, and has been waking up with nightmares. What should have been a very minor, routine security check was turned into a horrific ordeal. All of this could easily have been prevented if the TSO involved had used a little bit of compassion and a smidgen of common sense. There is no reason for any child to go through this. And while I completely understand the necessity of tight airport security, I fail to see how harassing a small child will provide safety for anyone.

The little girl is having nightmares about her experience. The TSA insists their people acted appropriately:

TSA has recently implemented modified screening procedures of children 12 and under that will further reduce the need for a physical pat-down for children. These new screening procedures include permitting multiple passes through the metal detector and advanced imaging technology to clear any alarms as well as the greater use of explosives trace detection. These changes in protocol will ultimately reduce – though not eliminate – pat downs of children. In this case, however, the child had completed screening but had contact with another member of her family had not completed the screening process.

I'm reminded once again of the Harry Potter books in which Dolores Umbridge exhibits all the bureaucratic bullying behaviors that we see routinely in the TSA.  If there were a real Dolores Umbridge, there's little doubt that she would be applying for work in the TSA. 

As someone who travels fairly often through our airports, that's not a particularly comforting thought...

Top 10...

Oh, this will make you feel all warm and fuzzy about the billions of dollars spent on the TSA, and (if you're a traveller) the inconvenience and indignity you put up with from them.  The TSA has compiled their “Top 10 Good Catches from 2011”.  Guess how many terrorists are on their list?  Zero.  Zip.  Nada.  The list includes gems like this:

Snakes, turtles, and birds were found at Miami (MIA) and Los Angeles (LAX). I’m just happy there weren’t any lions, tigers, and bears…

That's just great.  All those billions and all that irritation, and that's on their top 10 list?  Sheesh...

Tip of the hat to Bruce Schneier, who posted this on his excellent blog...

Another Takedown of the TSA Approach...

From Evan DeFillipis:

There is little evidence to suggest that the newest TSA procedures will be effective at reducing terrorism. Indeed, security expert Bruce Schneier stated unequivocally that nothing that can conceivably be done to stop a well-financed al-Qaeda-like plot from materializing — once terrorist plotters have made it to the airport, it’s already too late to stop them. Against “lone-wolf” amateur forms of terrorism, upper-level intelligence agencies and pre-Sept. 11 technologies has consistently proven effective at neutralizing the threat.

Nevertheless, the TSA continues to advocate a model of security based upon overreaction. Ineffectual peripheral threats relating to liquid explosives, shoe bombs or printer cartridges coincide with rapid changes to the terrorist alert level (as if the risk of terrorism increases after a failed plot!) and reactionary modifications to security protocol, resulting in the loss of millions in governmental revenue, inconvenience for passengers and the abatement of fundamental liberty.

The fundamental problem is that terrorism is innovative while TSA policy is reactive. The TSA modifies its protocol on the basis of terrorist plots that have already happened, while an intelligent terrorist knows not to duplicate the failed efforts of past terrorists.

Security expert, Bruce Schneier, noted that international terrorists have already started smuggling weapons through body cavities, which can’t be detected through either x-rays or pat-downs, instantly rendering both our new procedures useless.

Read the whole thing...

Excellent Article on the TSA's Security Theatre...

From John Wohlstetter at NRO.  His conclusion:

Does anyone really believe that Americans, if given a choice between intimate patdowns and Israel-style interviews, would choose being groped?

The bottom line is that Israel’s methods work. Instead of having ill-trained TSA agents search for bad things, have well-trained agents search for bad people. Profile by behavior and circumstance (cash ticket, one-way trip, etc.), and leave most of us alone. Compile accurate no-fly lists. Heed credible warnings. Ignore political correctness.

Instead, Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano reportedly has two more Bright Ideas: unionizing TSA employees and special reduced screening for Muslims in traditional garb. The former, rejected when the Department of Homeland Security was established, would make it harder to fire incompetent employees. The latter would have the unintended impact of so enraging most Americans that they will insist lawmakers make TSA apply uniform rules.

Israel’s skies have been friendly for 42 years. Not a bad record. We should learn from it.

Go read the whole thing.

If You're Traveling Over Thanksgiving...

Buck Howdy is thinking about you:




Meanwhile, we're thankful to be staying home all four days of this holiday (except for an excursion into our local mountains this morning)...

Inspirational Poster...

Marines, Guns, Nail Clippers, and the TSA...

Stupid TSA story of the day.

While traveling home from Houston on Friday night, I witnessed some of the TSA behavior that so many Americans find objectionable.  As I was waiting in the security line, I watched a female TSA agent “pat down” a sweet little old lady (Caucasian, appearing to be in her 70s, speaking with a pronounced Texas drawl) who was absolutely mortified.  “Pat down” is in quotes because you and I would have called it groping and fondling.  At precisely the same time, a group of four men in their 20s and 30s, dressed in Arab garb, walked through the adjacent metal detector.  They gawked at the little old lady being groped while they walked out of security with no other checks.  I discovered later that the four young men were Yemeni – and if you're paying attention to the news, you know that Yemen is a hot spot of terrorist activity.

On what planet does this behavior make sense?  Only on Planet Progressive, where political correctness trumps security every time...

By the way...  Do you know how many terrorists the TSA has caught in their airport screening, in all they years they've been irritating us?  Zero.  That's right – zero.  Not one.  Nada.  Hundreds of millions of dollars spent, and the only success they've had is in cowing the American public.

Time for them to go.  Let's subcontract our airport security to the Israelis!

Airport Security...

I'm going to climb onto an airplane today to travel to Houston, Texas.  The San Diego airport was recently equipped with the new “nudie” backscatter X-ray machines, so there's a good chance that I'll either be asked to submit to a virtual stripping, or to a groping of my nether regions.  Neither possibility appeals, especialliy when I know that all of this is just “security theater” – it wouldn't even discourage a real terrorist.

This led me to thinking about Israeli airport security, which I've experienced first hand.  They manage to accomplish two things that the TSA fails miserably at: (1) they actually add real security to their airports, and (2) they minimally inconvenience the innocent travelers.  How do they do this?  Well, here's a good summary.  Why don't we do the same thing here?  Damn good question.  Our progressive ninnies would have some problems with the overt profiling, but surely that can't be the entire explanation.  Another such factor must be the general ignorance of the American public with respect to the efficacy of the current security measures (many people believe they actually do something useful).  My instinct is to follow the money.  Where's teh money?  It's in the inspection machines and in the TSA infrastructure.  I'd be willing to bet that there's a money trail between those two things and the politicians who put it all in motion.

A housecleaning is in order, I think.  Probably something drastic is required, like disbanding the TSA entirely, and putting the entire effort back into the airlines' hands, like it used to be...

Security Theater Watch...

Maybe, just maybe, it's beginning to unravel.

I have to fly to Houston next week, and I'm not looking forward to my airport experiences...

Security Theater...

Bruce Schneier coined this lovely term (“security theater”) for the actions taken in the name of making us safer, but which actually provide little or no additional safety. The primary value of such actions is political cover, not actual safety. To cite just one of many such examples, Bruce points out that limiting liquids to 4 oz. is completely useless in thwarting a hijacking attempt – any terrorist with an IQ above 50 or so will simply use some other weapon. He repeatedly points out the many ways in which our Department of Homeland Security engages in security theater, irritating a great many American citizens and foreign visitors while accomplishing little to actually make us safer.

Michael Yon, one of my favorite sources for information about the War on Terror, tells the story of a recent encounter with the DHS by one of his friends, a Thai woman named Aew. Here's his conclusion:

When I discovered that she had missed her flight, after about 24 hours of travel thus far, I called immigration at Minneapolis and asked to speak with Officer Knapp. Knapp got on the phone, but this time it was me questioning him. Knapp told me it was legal to read e-mails. I asked for his first name, but he was afraid to give his first name, which was rather strange for someone working within the confines of an airport where everyone has been searched for weapons. Where I work, in a war zone, soldiers give their first and last names and face Taliban and al Qaeda heads up, man to man. I write about al Qaeda, Taliban and other terrorist groups who kill thousands of people. My name is Michael Yon. My first name is Michael. Mr. Knapp hides behind a badge bullying a woman whose only activities are Yoga, reading, travel, and telling me what is healthy and unhealthy to eat. Knapp is a face of Homeland Security. How many other officers at Homeland Security bully 90-pound women, but are afraid to give their own names?

Knowing that Homeland Security officers are creating animosity and anxiety at our borders does not make me feel safer. How many truly bad guys slip by while U.S. officers stand in small rooms and pick on little women?

I have just returned from Afghanistan and Iraq on a trip with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and I can assure you that we can do better. We do not have to violate human rights and insult our closest allies to maintain our security.

Meanwhile, Aew had missed two flights; standby seats were full on the second flight, and I was considering flying from Florida to Minneapolis to get her myself. I did not want Aew to have to sleep in the airport overnight.

I had intended to show Aew a bit of my country. But it's taking a little while for her to get over her discomfort at being in America. She was treated better in China. So was I.

Ouch.

Security theater may be popular with the politicians, but it's not real popular with people on the ground. When a security hawk like Michael Yon starts decrying the uselessness and unfairness of a policy, you know there's something wrong with it...