“I’ll take the third time bomb from the right”
Everyone knows the United States needed better security procedures at airports following the events of 9/11. (Actually, this was known well before 9/11 and the government was warned, but nothing was done about it.) So, most people were not terribly upset when the Transportation Security Administration was established two months following the tragic events of that day.
We weren’t too thrilled, however, with the way TSA agents manhandled us, leered at people they found attractive and occasionally stole our belongings as we passed through security. But we at least hoped they were keeping terrorists off our airplanes.
But recently, 70 tests were carried out by special Department of Homeland Security investigators involving the carrying of fake explosives and banned weapons through airport security checkpoints. The TSA agents failed to detect the explosives and weapons 67 times. In other words, they got it wrong 96 percent of the time.
In one instance, a DHS agent had a fake bomb strapped to his back. It set off a magnetometer, but the screener could not find it on the agent and let him through. Oh, but don’t worry. They were able to confiscate an oversized tube of toothpaste from the next person in line.
I don’t know about you, but the results of this test make me sick and angry. It’s one thing to deal with annoying and dishonest TSA agents. But when they are also incompetent, it’s very upsetting to know that U.S. taxpayers are providing billions of dollars for their salaries and shoddy equipment.
Have you had any interesting encounters with TSA agents during any of your recent travels? Please let me know about them.
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I’m disabled and removing my shoes and especially trying to put them back on was awful for me, and people in line. I got a Fast Pass, where they fingerprint you, FBI runs a background check and if approved you can skip the long lines. I’d used it at LIT and DEN (both international airports) with no problem. It was worth the $100 and long wait to zip through lines and not show up in Denver winters with flip-flops on. Well…I flew out if tiny XNA (NW AR) and my ticket had Fast Pass on it. I started to go through the “Fast Pass line” which wasn’t manned, but I just started to go to that area and wait for a TSA worker to come over. You’d have thought I’d pulled out a gun the way they acted! They said I couldn’t go through it because I had metal in my body. Then they made me stand in the back of a long line, and they searched me like I’ve never been searched before! They scanned me, wanded me, I had to take off my shoes which I wasn’t prepared for and my luggage wasn’t packed to go through that line (no Baggie with liquids and meds) I hat to unpack my suitcase to get to things I shouldn’t have had to! Then they pulled me to a corner for a more intense pat down. I was humiliated and angry. They let others go right through. I had nothing I wasn’t allowed to have but I missed my flight by seconds due to their awful antagonistic treatment of me. After a 9 hour layover in Chicago (my flight was direct, no stops) I got to the airport so late my ride had gone to bed, so I had to pay a $75 shuttle fee, be the very last one dropped of and after midnight. I would have arrived about 1:00pm. Oh, and they lost my luggage. It was in Chicago…they thought. I got it after a couple of days wearing the same thing and buying a new brush, toothbrush, shampoo, well, all the toiletries one uses. Funny thing though, in DEN I was prepared to be searched again, but I was waved through, just like other times in international airports. The dinky airport was understaffed and negligent by not letting someone just step over to the fast pass lane and check my ID. Their poor management caused me hours and days of hardship and humiliation. Disgusting.
I have not flown since 1995 as I use to work for PAA.
To me all the TSA is another bloated government agency. All the airlines use to hire their own security screeners, why not eliminate TSA save the country money, and let them get hired as a contractor to the airlines with no ties to the government only to their employer?
Why aren’t all these procedures(good or bad) done off site instead of IN the terminal? You could park,tag your bags from the parking lot,bus you to the terminal while your bags go through a security check and are then loaded on the aircraft.If you are having someone drop you off,you would still be required to be dropped at the parking area(s)
I’m a total nobody, so I was a bit surprised when I got invited into the scan machine in the Sacramento airport, en route to New Orleans via DFW, with only a small carry-on bag. Did some bored loser in the back room who couldn’t get a date need a bit of entertainment? Comedy tends to come naturally at such times, so I assumed the position, and when asked to “turn around” I could barely resist doing the “time warp” from Rocky Horror Picture Show. However, I suppressed myself and they passed me through. I must admit I would do more flying if it weren’t for the security routine, which seems much more chaotic than necessary.
In December 2015, while going through the TSA check point in Birmingham, AL. I noticed that the TSA agent had taken my wallet and was going through it without my being there. This was on Tuesday. On Thursday of the same week, someone tried to use my credit card…a card that I had not used in 21 days. I realize that someone could have gotten my CC number some other way, but it seems very suspicious.
If you truly object to the TSA you will simply stop flying. I haven’t flown since 9/11. The last time I flew I dropped my stuff in the bowl, went through the metal detector and retrieved my stuff. The security guard handed my knife back to me (a large folding hunter) and bid me have a nice flight. As had always been the case when I flew.
My rights, including my 2A rights, do not stop when I enter an airport.
To those who bring children on a flight, it is evident to me that your convenience is far more important to you than your child not being molested.
So, simply stop flying until TSA is removed from airports. It’s as simple as that. When you stop spending your money on air travel, the airlines themselves will put the pressure on to remove the TSA or they will go bankrupt if enough people refuse to play this stupid and unconstitutional game…
I’m betting that most of you aren’t Patriot enough to do so. You lack the backbone and intestinal fortitude to make a stand. You will be consumed by this new Socialist America that is almost complete.
In short, you are nothing more than cattle, with the same fate coming your way
I fly about once a year and that is to visit my aging sister, the only person left in my family. The last time I had to get a wheel chair, I had Severe Arthritic Gout, and I was wheeled right through and did not have to take off my belt or shoes. I did have to take out what was in my pockets. The time before that I used their wooden can and they scanned mine, I took out of my pockets, shoes and belt off and still it beeped at me. The TSA agent said he would have to give me a pat down. When he was doing it, I told him that I would give him 30 minutes to continue and he stopped immediately and gave me a very nasty look. I thought it was funny. I hope that I do not have to fly again because I think I might be on their hit list.
What do you expect from wage slaves that are paid $9.00 per hour, perfection?
The part I hate nearly the most is having to take my shoes off. So I have started wearing slippers through security and leaving the shoes in my bag until I pass the checkpoint. It helps.
What many people don’t realize is that every trip through that imaging machine is a way for them to record your bone structure and register it with facial recognition programs so they can track the movements of anyone anywhere – not just on airplanes. Big Brother IS watching. The Machine IS watching.
We had a very small pocketknife which cleared one airport only to be stolen by an agent at another in the journey. They were more than willing to mail it to us for $11 postage if we were willing to wait the hour or so it would take….. which would, of course, have caused us to miss our flight.
I have taken multiple items which are not supposed to pass this security screen without detection. I have to get scanned every time because I have metal knees, and they examine my CPAP to make sure I’m not smuggling ?what? in it. I’m nearly 70 and blond – I really don’t fit any terrorist profile, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a power trip and legalized theft for a lot of them. There are a corresponding number of good agents – but it’s a crap shoot which kind you’re going to get.
I have lived in Mexico for 12.5 years and try to avoid the useless USA as much as possible.
I do have US Global Entry and TSA Re-Check.
Those help.
A certain Delta Force training group has as an entry requirement that a candidate must successfully bring a workable AK47 undetected from one US airport to another (if they do get caught, their get-out-of-jail card is at the Pentagon; but they are ousted from the training). You don’t hear of any being caught since TSA has no substance.
To graduate, they must then get an AK47 through the much harder Tel Aviv airport (and there is no get-out-of-jail card there). No one has got caught but then the incentive is much greater to succeed (plus by then, they have learned many more techniques)!
Interesting!
I have less confidence than ever, and will be doing less travel as a result. TSA sucks. We don’t need them, and they day nothing to our security that I can see.
I had an emergency and forgot to take a large pocketknife out of my purse and it was not picked up at TSA. Another time I asked for a pat down and they told e to wait in a certain area. I waited a very long time and when no ne showed up I just picked up my bag and went to my plane. The only terrorists that have ever been caught were by the passengers, not the TXSA,. It is just making us look silly to the whole world and another means of control by the government.
My wife and I traveling to Dallas/Ft Worth from Orange County. My wife will be 60 soon and has scleroderma. Her hands are deformed and in constant pain. TSA agents pull her aside, tear apart her 2 bags apart, do the robotic pat down as she is now crying from the stress they put her under. The female agent seemed to enjoy putting her through the stress while being in serious pain. They have absolutely NO COMMON SENSE. Maybe if she had worn a burka she could have walked right through.