TSA

[Soonergriff]

The SLC airport was one of the first in the country to start using the backscatter x-ray machines. I'm not particularly shy about such things, and have never really thought twice about the radiation levels; hello - I sit around electronic equipment all day and plaster a cell phone to the side of my head half the time that I'm out of the office. However, in the last several weeks, I've been increasingly alarmed at both the rapid and frequent changes to the laws regarding security screenings; and the types of people being selected for "enhanced screenings". If you didn't hear about the guy in San Diego this past weekend, you should take a look:

http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-now-put ... pants.html

And don't get me started about the background checks involved in hiring these agents. When the job description includes body-cavity searches and looking at naked scans all day, you will have a self-selecting group of applicants.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/region ... position=2

A Transportation Security Agency worker who pats down members of the flying public was charged with multiple child sex crimes targeting an underage girl yesterday. The bust outraged privacy and passenger advocates who say it justifies their fears about Logan International Airport’s full-body scanner.

“It’s a huge, huge issue,” said Kate Hinni of FlyersrRights.org. “The TSA needs a complete overhaul . . . If you have a pedophile looking at those naked pictures, they’ve got all your information, it’s a gross violation of their authority. . . . They should make sure none of them is corrupted in any deviant sexual manner.” Sean Shanahan, 44, of Winthrop was held on $50,000 bail after he was charged with two counts of statutory rape, two counts of enticing a minor and one count of indecent assault and battery. He was arrested yesterday at Massachusetts General Hospital.

TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said Shanahan had passed two background checks, neither of which picked up any record that would prevent him from getting a job. The 14-year-old victim watched a movie at his house, Okeeffe said. She said during the film, he massaged the victim’s thigh and touched her under a blanket, then during the February school vacation the girl stayed at his house with his daughter. Okeeffe said Shanahan nicknamed the victim “Kitten,” and that she was seen going into his bedroom.

Shanahan fled the state last week, prosecutors said, sending his ex wife a text asking her to get rid of his computer, adding “I (expletive) up bad.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXDLQPfq ... ture=share

Obviously, we're all going to have our own interpretations and opinions of these events, some people don't mind one bit (I'm guessing they've never seen an 8 year old pulled out of line for an enhanced screening). Others mind, just not as much as the thought of blowing up in the sky. I'm somewhere in between (My father & uncle are commercial airline pilots, and my girlfriend a flight attendant).

Whatever your personal stance, I'm just glad that the subject's now being evaluated, deliberated and acted upon by the people the laws are meant to protect. Namely, the public at large.

Thoughts?

[Eagle]

Oh, for fuck's sake. Nobody thought to screen for pedophiles? That speaks volumes for how much thought's gone into all this.

[monkeybutter]

there are ways to provide very high levels of airline security that do not involve a stranger cupping your balls.

if i thought for a second that this was the only reasonable way to ensure flight safety, well, ok then. but it's clearly not. It's security theater, designed to:

(a) make you FEEL like you're safe and
(b) provide what is essentially a money fountain for government contractors

I was working as contractor for the military when 9/11 happened and within 9 months basically all the high-tech defense contractors were salivating over the untapped funds that were being opened up to the newly formed DHS/TSA. It was a gold rush pure and simple.

BTW, the TSA is telling us that the current behavior with the patdowns and backscatter machines is common throughout Europe. This is simply a bald-faced lie and I cannot believe that they're actually stating it as fact.

[monkeybutter]

No one will ever hijack a plane with a knife again because the cockpit is freakin locked now and everyone on the plane will rip the guys heart out with their teeth because they now know the alternative is death.

9/11 was a one-shot deal, it can't happen again as long as people remember what happened. If you're gonna hijack a plane and try to fly it into something these days, you better bring a big goddamn gun and a whole bunch of ammo, because you're gonna have to kill like 100 people.

Frankly, keeping knives off the plane is probably counter-productive at this point.

[Zombie Dave McCaig]

No problem. Just bring on a cane with an enormous brass eagle head/sharp beak.

No kidding. I've seen that or similar more than once, and it made me mad as fuck.

[Bill Farmer]

I don't agree to the new security measures. I think we would be just as safe if the security returned to pre-September 11th standards with the exception of the cockpit door security.

[Zombie Dave McCaig]

I think they should just knock everyone out as they enter the plane.

[Bill Farmer]

I think they should just knock everyone out as they enter the plane.

That made me think of this scene from Time Bandits

[monkeybutter]

the great part is going to be when a terrorist detonates a nail bomb in the security line

[bluelion]

Especially when the airports fold over the TSA checkpoint lines so you have everyone so densely packed. Hell, just set up a 'complmentary for waiting on the TSA' coffee stand... I'm sure someone will take advantage of that.

As far as the TSA hiring the particularly stupid, I'm not surprised. I know of one distant and extremely unsavory acquaintance who worked for the TSA a very long time who makes this putz look like a choirboy. IMO, the TSA might have been a good idea, but it was hastily put together and for the most part is run without any real professionalism. You'd think looking about at how other countries who have been dealing with terrorism for longer than us might be a good idea,but no. It's just a contractor's free money tap, at best.

-BL

[bluelion]

I think they should just knock everyone out as they enter the plane.

That made me think of this scene from Time Bandits

Or Millenium. Ever want to visit the future?

[Brian Frey ~ halfmoth]

(b) provide what is essentially a money fountain for government contractors...

...and, don't forget, money for the former or current heads of Homeland Security, who push for these machines.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php ... y-scanners

[monkeybutter]

(b) provide what is essentially a money fountain for government contractors...

...and, don't forget, money for the former or current heads of Homeland Security, who push for these machines.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php ... y-scanners

nice link but I like how he tries to pin something on OMG BILLIONAIRE LEFTIST George Soros for owning ELEVEN WHOLE THOUSAND SHARES of stock instead of telling us how much Rapiscan was paying Chertoff, who was the goddamn former director of the DHS

[monkeybutter]

Ma'am? If you want t ... uh, Ma'am, if want to get on the plane, I'm going to have to ask you to remove your boob. Please stop screaming, ma'am, I'm just doing my job.

http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13534628

[Eagle]

Oh, come on now. Seriously? "Put your ID on your back. Thank you, ma'am. Now, because your ID was on your back, we're going to have to pat you down."

And then all the rest.

For fuck's sake.

Personally, I'm just going straight for the pat down. Don't care for the radiation.