The Transportation Security Administration is actively testing its new Israeli-style interrogation program at Boston’s Logan Airport. The new screening method is part of the TSA’s SPOT (Screening of Passengers by Observation Technique) initiative that began in 2001, encompasses the TSA’s BDOs (Behavior Detection Officers), and costs taxpayers $212 million each year. Here is all you […]
Bribed TSA Officer Conspires with Drug Smuggler at LAX…9 Times!
I wish I could say I am surprised, but I am not: a Transportation Security Administration Officer at Los Angeles International Airport was busted on Sunday for aiding and abetting a drug smuggler sneak 15lbs of marijuana past security. Turns out she had helped the guy nine times in the past with a payout of […]
Airport Security Screening of the Future
A little blurb on airport passengers screening in the Washington Post caught my eye today: AMSTERDAM — The airline industry has presented its vision for a security ‘checkpoint of the future,’ which would speed up safety checks by sorting passengers according to the level of risk they pose. Under the system, airlines would make use […]
Obama’s Deficit Plan = Higher Airfare
Part of President Obama’s recently announced deficit reduction plan includes a provision that will double security fees on tickets, increasing the price of a round-trip ticket by up to $20. While I agree that airport security should be styled as a consumption tax, it is important for us to question (again) why this tax increase […]
Ten Years Later: Critically Examining 9/11
I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in — and the West in general — into an unbearable hell and a choking life. -Osama Bin Laden, December 2001 As we reflect on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks today, it is instructive […]
Woman Arrested for Groping TSA Agent
61-year-old Yukari Mihamae apparently wasn’t pleased with the Transporation Security Administration and took it out on a TSO at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Thursday. Entering the security checkpoint, she grabbed the left breast of the female agent, squeezed it, and twisted it. Such behavior must be condemned. Lawless behavior should not be countered […]
Women Jailed for Yelling at TSA
Should a woman have been arrested for yelling and swearing at a government employee? While I have no respect for the organization or those who work in it, I am not one who would ever cuss out a Transportation Security Agency (TSA) clerk and cannot condone such action. I try to treat others the way […]
TSA Forces 95-Year-Old to Remove Diaper
After probing this story further, some of my outrage has dissipated. Yet I am still fuming at all parties involved. A 95 year-old woman in Florida in the terminal stages of leukemia, weighing only 105lbs and bound to a wheelchair, entered the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint at Northwest Florida Regional Airport (VPS) with her […]
New Role for the TSA: High School Prom Guards
Coming soon to a high school near you: the Transportation Security Administration. Two girls at a New Mexico high school recently sued their school district, claiming that they were "groped" on their way into their prom earlier in the month. One of the plaintiffs, Candice Herrera, blasted the school’s rent-a-cop, stating, "She grabbed my breast […]
I Gave Up Three Upgrades to Get Back to Frankfurt Two Hours Early
If my colleagues at Star are reading this: take note! I care about getting to work on time. It has been a draining three days, but my mileage run around the world is near completion: one flight remains. This morning I arrived in Chicago from Sao Paulo at 0605. My next flight was to Newark and did not depart […]
United/Continental Strand Me in Washington, DC!
(and without question, I am partially to blame…) Hardened by years of travel as a quasi-road warrior, I thought I was ready for anything. Yesterday proved to be one of my biggest challenges yet. If you are not focused now, you better come back to this post later–it is going to be dense and long. The day […]
Exclusive: TSA Admits to Storing AIT Images
A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport screener has admitted that the TSA stores images obtained from full body scanners. The 23-year old screener works at Ronald Regan Washington National Airport and posted the following in the course of an online discussion over the recent controversy about the invasive pat-down of a six-year-old girl that was captured […]
College Newspaper Defends TSA…and Fails Miserably
In some ways, I miss college life. I earned my undergraduate degree at UCLA and relished the three years of intellectual stimulation while studying history and political science. As a political junkie, I was an avid reader of the Daily Bruin, a liberal rag when it came to the editorial page but still an exemplary […]
As it Considers a Makeover, TSA Lets Man Slip Onto Plane with Three Box Cutters
Washington, DC is my favorite city in America and other than family and friends, that is the thing (well, place) I miss most as I enter my third month in Germany. DC is a bustling city filled with great restaurants, beautiful architecture, rich history, and all-you-can-eat politics. As a member of the American Bar Association, […]
This is Why We Hate the TSA
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) takes a lot of flak on this blog, and rightfully so. Despite my grave consitutional concerns with full body scanners, enhanced pat-downs, and America’s counterproductive airport security paradigm in general, the poor attitude displayed by so many TSOs (Transportation Security Officers) cements in my mind that the TSA is an […]
Why I Do Not Support the TSA’s New Profiling Proposal
The media and blogosphere has been splattered with stories discussing the TSA’s plan to roll out a three-tiered "Trusted Traveler" program to assess passenger risk. The issue merits discussion because without further research, the thought of not having to take off your shoes, leaving your laptop in the bag, and avoiding full body scanners might […]
TSA Prohibits Expansion of Screening Partnership Program
In a move that some are calling another TSA power grab while others are calling a logical and sound judgment call, Transportation Security Administrator John Pistole has rejected Springfield-Branson Airport’s application to opt-out of TSA-administered airport screening. More importantly, he has made clear that the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program will not be expanded further. As […]
Partisan Politics Behind TSA Public Reaction?
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat argues that public reaction to the Transportation Security Administration is hopelessly rooted in partisan politics. Imagine, for a moment, that George W. Bush had been president when the Transportation Security Administration decided to let Thanksgiving travelers choose between exposing their nether regions to a body scanner or enduring a […]
Incoming Speaker of the House Flies Commercial, but Skips Security
Incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has pledged to continue to fly commercial when assumes his new position in January. Outgoing speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was criticized by many on the right and some environmental groups for using a 12-seat Air Force C-20B (Gulfstream III) and occasionally a Boeing 757 to travel between […]
The Silence of the (Airline) Lambs
In all the talk about full airport security, TSA, full body scanners, and enhanced pat-downs, one element has been absent: the airlines’ role in all this. Today is national opt-out day and as of noon ET, doesn’t appear to be wreaking mass havoc on airport screening on the busiest traveling day of the year. But […]