security theater

Former Newark Airport TSA screener says the job does little to keep fliers safe

"It is perhaps America’s most unsafe airport. Despite being the launching point for one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 — Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania — Newark Airport has had numerous security violations since. The latest: a fake bomb that made it past Transportation Security Administration officers. Here, a Newark TSA screener who recently left the agency tells how silly policies and lazy workers do little to stop real threats." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFormer Newark Airport TSA screener says the job does little to keep fliers safe

Undercover agent sneaks past TSA at Newark Airport with ‘bomb’ in pants

"Despite undergoing a pat-down search, a federal agent was able to sneak past Transportation Security Administration agents at Newark Airport last month with a simulated explosive device in his pant, an unnamed source told The New York Post. 'This episode once again demonstrates how Newark Airport is the Ground Zero of TSA failures,' the source reportedly said. The TSA did not confirm whether the incident took place, telling the Post that it 'regularly conducts covert testing' of security and does not disclose details about those operations." Continue reading →

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We Have Come Not To Bury the Fourth Amendment But To Praise It

"The folks at 'Freedom to Travel USA' have filed an amicus brief in the case Refern, et al. v. Napolitano. This lawsuit challenges the TSA’s groping and carcinogenic porno-scanners on the grounds that the Fourth Amendment prohibits such unreasonable searches. This cause was not only lost but buried under a Progressive avalanche about a century ago. Here’s why: 'the TSA claims ‘administrative search authority ... the administrative search does not require probable cause, but must further an important government need, such as preventing would-be terrorists from bringing an explosive device onto a crowded commuter train.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWe Have Come Not To Bury the Fourth Amendment But To Praise It

“The TSA Blues”

"It seems Eric Clapton is as disgusted with the sexual assault and irradiation at the airports as the rest of us. He announced plans to boycott aviation in an interview with Rolling Stone and specifically blamed the TSA's 'security' sham: '...for me, the struggle is the travel. And the only way you can beat that is by throwing so much money at it that you make a loss. So ... [w]hen I'm 70, I'll stop. I won't stop playing or doing one-offs, but I'll stop touring, I think. ... And security. I never get it right. I forget to take off my belt, or I have change in my pocket. Next thing I know, 'Can you come over here please?' I just don't want to do that anymore.'" Continue reading →

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Homeland Security training TSA workers to save themselves in shooting?

"Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint screeners are [reportedly] receiving training to prepare them for the possibility of a mass shooting at one of the agency’s airport checkpoints, and those TSA personnel are being instructed to 'save themselves' should a shooting occur. It is unclear whether the TSA is conducting the reported mass shooting scenario training at airports around the nation or only at the airport where our source, a veteran of the TSA, is assigned." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHomeland Security training TSA workers to save themselves in shooting?

Always a One-Way Street–Er, Flight

"Kansas is treading ground Texas did in 2011, with 21 members of its legislature introducing a bill that would prohibit the TSA’s sexual assault at airports. And 'experts' once again predict problems arising from such courage, chief among them that 'the U.S. Constitution bars states from regulating the actions of the federal government.' Why do we never hear a peep from these 'experts' about the Fourth Amendment’s ban of unreasonable search and seizure?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAlways a One-Way Street–Er, Flight

U.S. renunciant wins FOIA case over Trusted Traveler Program card denial

"Via Courthouse News, we learn of the story of Robert Darnbrough, a Canadian who renounced U.S. citizenship in 2003, and was later denied a Nexus border crossing card by U.S. Customs & Border Protection. Darnbrough filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the State Department in February 2011, which then released some documents to him in November that year. However, they did not deliver information contained in the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS), claiming that 8 USC 1202(f)(confidential nature of records) allowed them to withhold it under FOIA Exemption #3." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. renunciant wins FOIA case over Trusted Traveler Program card denial

TSA Detains 3 Year Old In Wheelchair Who Suffers from Spina Bifida

"Lucy, who suffers from Spina bifida and is confined to a wheelchair was on her way to Disney World when she was stopped after going through security at her home airport. She, along with her parents and siblings made it through the security checkpoint without a problem until the TSA stopped them on their way to their gate. TSA promptly took away Lucy's favorite toy which led her to weep uncontrollably. TSA demanded that her parents stop recording. Lucy's father, a lawyer, told them that he was legally allowed to record them and her mother said repeatedly 'you're not touching my daughter' without a camera documenting their actions." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTSA Detains 3 Year Old In Wheelchair Who Suffers from Spina Bifida

Kansas Bill Filed To Ban TSA Pat-Downs

"Rep. Brett Hildabrand wants to stop what he sees as over-the-top searches at the airport gate that distress innocent passengers by acting as if even the most unlikely pose a threat to air safety. 'Air travelers are subjected to aggressive, humiliating pat-downs, many of which would land the average stranger off the street in jail,' the Shawnee Republican said. 'But because the federal government has given someone a blue uniform and a badge, we are told that person has authority over our bodies and we must endure.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKansas Bill Filed To Ban TSA Pat-Downs

The Barbaric Thieves and Sexual Assailants

"Shortly after 9/11, [renowned Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman’s Steinway] was confiscated at JFK Airport when he landed in New York to give a recital at Carnegie Hall. Thinking the glue smelled funny, the TSA decided to take no chances and destroyed the instrument.' Yes. A Steinway. Which Mr. Zimerman had modified himself. It has now broken 'a rare Heinrich Knopf bow belonging to [cellist] Alban Gerhardt … In what the cellist called ‘an act of brutal and careless behaviour’, the bow stick … was snapped in two, over the bridge of the cello, by air security staff at O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, as they examined the case’s contents.'" Continue reading →

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