Tampa, Florida — It was an agency created by Congress just two months after 9-11 that was supposed to keep the flying public safe. However, several Transportation Security Administration inspectors working at Tampa International Airport tell us there are huge problems and holes in airport security.
One inspector told us they are supposed to defend the country against radical terrorists who want to hurt Americans, but they say they are working with handcuffs behind their backs. Another told us there could be multiple tragedies like 9-11 because of the security problems. Another says it is simply terrifying.
The inspectors could not only be fired for talking to us, but they could also go to jail for exposing what is wrong with the system. One supervisor told the inspectors at a public meeting that they know some are talking to the media and they will be charged with treason if they are caught. That’s why we are not revealing their identities.
This is unbelievable! RTFA!
I’m not gonna read it.
We can’t defend against every imaginable attack or even most reasonable scenarios. If anyone ((other than the dumbf*cks Al Quaida has been choosing lately)) is willing to suicide themselves, there ain’t much you can do.
Fear mongering crap like this article (judging from the intro only) is not helpful. What we need to do is institutde a “reasonable” program of security, stop fixating on the horribles, and get on with it.
Computer tracking of known terrorists, their passports and visa’s and what not, is mandatory==easy to do and we aren’t doing it. After 911 we should have required crew to carry weapons and put a lock on the Pilots door==situation solved for 2-3 Thousand per plane==not the millions wasted on airport insecurity, although that is a kind of jobs program who can’t do anything else.
How much money should be spent to protect a One dollar asset? Now plug in the value of World Trade Center and how much has been spent to protect against another attack. Silly.
I pretty much agree with what bobbo said. At some point, we forgot to factor in “reasonable.” This unsubstantiated fearmongering just spurs us to spend more money on ineffective solutions that purport to protect us from unlikely threats.
Another agreement here
The best bit is where the guy says he wont fly, or allow his family to fly. Its probably a safer form of transport than that he uses to get to and from work every day.
We should all be afraid, very afraid! lol
“Shut up slaves!” as Adam would say
The odds are very good you will make it but not certain. If enough smart people with the right connections wants to bring down a commercial plane they can. On the other hand something very close to an idiot might get lucky and take one down.
I’m not having a cow.
Let’s just hire more TSA inspectors who by the way will be members of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). I wonder who put these people up to these people speaking out at the risk of their jobs (?). You know the AFGE would not allow them to get fired. I agree with #1 and we just have to draw the line on the growth of government or we won’t be flying anyway as the government will have all our money.
There needs to be an airline system for the rest of us who are not paranoid!!
i AGREE ON THE FEAR MONGERING..
But I will say something interesting about UPPER LOGIC..
I have been involved with UPPER management saying..LETS DO IT THIS WAY, and ONLY THIS WAY.
and those on the bottom, DOING the job/procedure can SEE the flaws and problems.
Those on TOP try to make things WORK, but dont have the INSIGHT of those doing the job. They will try to fix things with SHORTCUTS. they WONT go down and investigate WHY/HOW/PROBLEMS are happening.
You might as well ask a Computer programmer to go WELD a metal hinge on a truck. you have about a 1% chance that the programmer KNOWS how to weld.
About 4000 bags a day detect positive for explosives? The detector must be over sensitive to be getting that many. Maybe this is an ironic situation where being over paranoid results in less security.
bobbo, I agree completely.
The inspector who says he won’t fly and won let his family fly… Does he just stay inside his house with the doors locked 24/7, because in a car, he might get carjacked? On the street, he might get shot in a drive by, or mugged?
Wow, inside, he might slip in the shower and die!
And those 500 bags a day that set off the detectors and go on the planes anyway? I’d say that they’re getting an awful lot of false positives and, yes, maybe need to adjust the sensitivity.
I was asked to go speak to a TSA supervisor regarding a form I needed and I walked up to the guy explained my situation and the reason I was requesting this specific form. He lloked at me with this slack jaw and vacant stare and said real loud, “what?” I just had to walk away from this stupid motherfucker. What a waste of time.
Wow, I wasn’t gonna bother to post after reading bobbo’s, but it appears we have a consensus. Your probability of dying in an aircraft due to terrorist attack is much, much lower than dying due to mechanical failure or pilot error. Trying to make it look like a leak is an elegant touch though. More than enough to convince the mindless zombies that there’s a real and present danger.
As far as I know, the TSA has not ever foiled a terrorist attack. Either the TSA has failed to detect the threats (underwear and shoe bomber) or the threat has been stopped far before it got to the airport.
Since they have never stopped an attack, and have allowed multiple attackers to go through, the TSA has a 100% failure rate to do it’s job properly.
TSA procedures is theater, nothing but theater. And as always, the great unwashed masses think that thy are being protected, which after all is what counts.
As far s terrorist attacks, if you are afraid to fly you should be terrified to ride in a subway, or to go to a large public gathering such as a movie theater, or to work in an easily poisonable large building, or any number of other soft targets that are utterly open to attack.
I guess we are pretty much in agreement that this “leak” will be refereed to, if not actually shown, at the next Congressional subcommittee hearing touching on funding for TSA.
It won’t be long before the TSA advisories boil down to: “When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.”
From the article: “…as many as 500 bags a day that set off an alarm for a possible explosive device and are supposed to be hand inspected never make it to the second inspector” – Uhm, 500 apparently false alarms per day? I’d say we overpaid for the equipment. Has it ever detected a true positive?
Seems the consensus above is TSA is not worth the money we throw at it. Now how about the Air Marshals? $200 million dollars per arrest? And I don’t recall ANY terrorist arrests by Air Marshals.
Animby–I’m pretty sure that after the passengers subdue the suspect the suspect is ultimately arrested by an air marshal. They are also good at arresting people with mental problems, on drugs, and Whitney Houston.
The biggest security weakness I’ve seen is that some airports, especially small ones, can be really casual.
But once you fly, this gets you the already-screened areas of higher security airports.
What I wonder is why the terrorists havnt Bombed the INSIDE of the airports..
With all these people standing around, it would be a GREAT target. And would shut down the WHOLE airport for DAYS if not weeks..
Sounds like a propaganda push so they can acquire more power.
So. If an employee of the TSA has knowledge of something which puts life or health and safety at risk, and that employee does not communicate his knowledge of that risk – whether in-house rules, or management instruction forbids effective communication. Is that employee not liable in law in some way?
It’s a question. Not a definition. I thought that anyone, or any body, even government bodies could be forced into court for neglecting safety. Didn’t know that the TSA managers were, or are, immune. Are they?
Norman==short answer is yes and no.
Yes–a negligent government employee can be fired for failure to report what he knows.
No–the government itself generally cannot be held liable or forced into court for such negligence. There are exceptions and State Laws often allow for such and lawsuits are brought all the time with great fanfare but then dismissed in silence.
And of course, as a citizen I don’t want my government paying out claims because of sheer incompetency and negligence. With absolute good faith, the government could not operate if it had to make good on the harm it causes by negligence. In reality, any such system would be entirely corrupt with tax dollars going to fund the litigation bar. ie==Bad Idea.
# 16 bobbo, “They are also good at arresting … Whitney Houston.”
Oh! Maybe we should increase their budget, then.
I tend to agree with bobbo on this issue. [Looks out the window for flying pigs] I don’t want to fly, not because I am afraid of terrorists, but because I don’t want to put up with the bull crap from TSA.
All terrorists attacks on planes that were stopped were stopped by passengers tackling the terrorist (shoe bomber, crotch bomber, etc) TSA was worthless. The only thing that TSA does is frisk old ladies and confiscate toiletries. Not going to fly until that is taken care of.
If I was rich, I could make a killing by providing hassle-free travel by making my own air system and landing at private airstrips which I would buy ahead of time.