The TSA, a dog and pony show
December 29th, 2009 • chatter
As we Americans know, some crazy Nigerian tried to blow up an airplane with explosives planted in his underwear this past weekend. What many of us also know, from experience, was that the TSA — Transportation Security Administration — put in some bizarre new “regulations” in quick reaction to this latest “threat”. These include the following:
- No potty breaks in the remaining hour of a flight
- Nothing in your lap (including your own child) during the last hour of the flight
- Absolutely nothing in your last during the remaining hour of the flight, including MP3 players, laptops, DVD players, and in some instances, books.
- “More stringent” physical searches of one’s person and baggage
- No in-flight wifi
And the list goes on, literally for pages. And why all the new regulations? Knee-jerk reaction to extremely poorly designed and executed rules in place already. None of these new regulations are going to stop anything and the airlines completely proved that this weekend. By Sunday, airlines such as AirTran, jetBlue, and others had already dropped the regulations because they were greatly displeasing to their customer base. If they have enough sense to opt out of out-of-this-world regulations, I think they could do something about their service as well. But that’s another story altogether.
Now, eight years after its creation, the TSA has fully shown itself to be completely incompetent and useless, all around. It started out as a great idea and, like many things thought of by the government, it was executed very poorly. In 2001 and early 2002, world renown security experts like Bruce Schneier and Jeffrey Goldberg were asked to review the drafted regulations and provide their input. Well, they did and they said one thing: the regulations won’t make a difference. That was eight years ago. And today, on CNN, Bruce Schneier goes on record to, again, say that the TSA really doesn’t do anything preventative or useful. And he’s absolutely right. Limiting our liquid volume and removing shoes obviously didn’t stop some crazy Nigerian — who the British embassy were actually notified of, including flight plans and “recent radicalization” — from stuffing explosives into his underwear and trying to cause a big ruckus in the plane’s cabin. All the regulations do, as Schneier blatantly points out, is that it tells terrorists what not to do and does so publicly. Our government through ignorance has given the keys and blueprints of the castle to the raiders. Good job.
And now that the searches are “more random” than before, passengers can now easily second guess taking a flight anywhere, including overseas. I say “random” because they’re anything but random. Since 2006, I’ve taken perhaps nearly a dozen flights. However, during four of those flights, I was “randomly” selected to be searched. Why? The one thing the TSA devoutly states they cannot and will not do (because it’s illegal): racial profiling. Since they still thought, at the time, that all terrorists had big bushy beards and possibly long hair, I got physically searched at every airport every single time. I even came to expect it. All thanks to my collar bone-length beard and pony-tailed hair. Since last October, I’ve shaved and have taken four flights. How many of those was I searched on? Not one. Before that? Nearly every single one. I even saw an 80 year old grandfather in a wheelchair get searched for explosives. We all know that he must have been wearing aging make-up and was hiding C4 in his cushion. And I saw a woman of no younger than 75 get searched as well. Crazy old Jewish ladies must be hiding guns in their hair wraps. This latest threat this weekend proved without a doubt that these “random” searches don’t do any good.
Why all of the diatribe? Because the nation may finally be realizing what the rest of us in the security sector have known all along: TSA is the high-fiving and back-patting facade for politicians and it needs to stop. Schneier calls it “theater” and I have to agree. Everyone goes through the motions, does the dance, and expects the same result each time. Security through complacency has never worked, fallen empires through the centuries have taught everyone that. Everyone but the US government.
I hope that Bruce’s recent media explosion helps TV goers understand how futile of an effort the TSA and its regulations are. Perhaps more people will start complaining to the politicians and get it reformed, or better yet abolished entirely. It’s a pipe dream, I know, but it’s one I’ve held to for eight years.
The following link at Slashdot is actually of good and informational comments by intelligent readers, some of which can provide some eye opening ideas to the futility of this “security theater”: Slashdot.