The Christmas pantybomber has sent the Transportation Security Adminstration into hysterics. A overseas lapse in our intelligence gathering operations has resulted in a series of hard-to-explain TSA actions making local and national headlines.
Here area a sample of some TSA jitter-induced blunders (and maybe-not-blunders) and knee-jerk reactions that seem a bit extreme finished off with a case of jets escorting a plane back to Portland.
A goodbye kiss causes Newark Airport fiasco
Latest reports of the Newark 7-hour fiasco have a boy wanting to kiss his girlfriend goodbye causing the stir. From my point of view, this was clearly an overreaction.
TSA got an unconfirmed report of someone sneaking into the departure area from a passenger and ended up shutting down those departure gates for six hours and forcing the re-screening of everyone in the terminal.
Worse, word didn’t go out creating the grand mess until 80 minutes after the supposed intrusion. Plus, TSA’s cameras malfunctioned. And finally, it seems that other security cameras show the male sneaking in to kiss his girl goodbye and leaving by a normal exit.
The video above was shot at Newark as passengers tried to pass time while TSA fiddled and diddled, ironically long after the suspect was long gone.
TSA takes Play-Doh from kid
In a zealous act to protect the public, TSA officers confiscated Play-Doh from a child at New Orleans airport. The reasoning behind the confiscation — Play-Doh and plastic explosives look a lot alike.
Hummm. Talcum powder and cocaine look similar I am told. Play-Doh is not on the list of prohibited items but TSA has clearly stated a policy of confusing the public. This must have been one those times they wanted to confuse little Josh.
TSA clears airport for honey and sends workers to hospital suffering from honey fumes
It is hard to believe this one. TSA shut down Bakersfield Airport for hours and diverted flights because they thought honey was some kind of explosive.
Meadows Field Airport in the central California city of Bakersfield, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, was evacuated and closed to air traffic for hours, and two federal baggage screeners were taken to a local hospital after they encountered the suspect bag.
No one has reported on why the honey tested positive for TNT and why it made TSA officers so ill they had to be evacuated to a hospital.
TSA handcuffs military blogger
In their quest to intimidate, TSA inspectors handcuffed and detained a well-known military blogger because he refused to answer personal non-travel-related questions from the officers. Deemed uncooperative, he was cuffed, but according to TSA not arrested.
TSA officials escorted Yon to a designated screening area where they examined the contents of his bag. “Then they asked me how much money I make,” Yon said. Yon suggested to the TSA officials that the question was inappropriate and unrelated to transportation security. The award-winning blogger noted another TSA officer approached Yon: “he asked who do I work for.” ”I did not answer the question which clearly was upsetting to the TSA officers.”
TSA was clearly overstepping its authority.
Fighter jets escort plane back to Portland
A Hawaiian Airlines from Portland to Hawaii turned back to Portland after a passenger refused to store his carry-on luggage and threatened flight attendants. The flight returning to Portland was escorted by two military fighter jets. Granted, TSA has nothing to do with this one, but it seems to be another case of gross overreaction.
What are they going to do? Shoot down the plane? That might make sense of the aircraft was under control of some kind of hijacker. However, unruly passengers don’t normally rate fighter jet escorts to the tarmac.
The Hawaiian Airlines jet en route to Maui’s Kahului Airport turned back because of “a suspicious passenger who made threatening remarks and refused to store his carry-on bag,” said Suzanne Trevino, a spokeswoman for the US Transportation Security Administration.
The plane, escorted by two F-15 fighters, landed in Portland without further incident, and the man, who was not identified, was detained for questioning, authorities said.
We’ll keep you informed of more overdone shenanigans as they develop.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Chris Elliott has it right. I think at some point the TSA’s leadership recognized that their agency and its “officers” are incapable of doing anything consistently, reliably, or dependably. And they recognized that they have no way of ever correcting that problem. So they hired a PR consultant who told them to spin this incorrigible deficiency into virtue by incorporating it into the security theater production.
The underwear bomber provided the opportunity to highlight this new “enhancement.” The unpredictability and inconsistency you see at different airports and checkpoints is not… I repeat NOT… due to incompetence, stupidity, or any deficiencies in the TSA’s management, policies, or operations. It actually reflects a carefully-designed strategy of continuous dynamic calibration that reflects the continually changing environment at each checkpoint along with the very latest robust intelligence concerning current threats. This highly precise calibration is designed to keep terrorists off balance, which ensures that the TSA always remains one step ahead of a determined and protean enemy.
I have no doubt that the spin will prove effective at bamboozling a significant percentage of the traveling public into not only ignoring the obvious, but accepting the TSA’s reactive approach that equates hassle with security. However, if enough of us shout “Rubbish!” in forums like these, perhaps someone in Congress will finally get the message that the TSA needs to be replaced with something that’s accountable, cost-effective. Some security measures at airports are clearly necessary and appropriate, but dubious reactive hassles for the sake of “doing something” are clearly not appropriate.
I’ve been following the Michael Yon story and there is a second side to the story that we have yet to hear. Part of it is a claim that he might not have been detained by the TSA, but instead Customs and Border Patrol. That said, handcuffing is extreme even for CBP and I look forward to hearing more details on the story.
The Christmas pantybomber has sent the Transportation Security Adminstration into hysterics. A overseas lapse in our intelligence gathering operations has resulted in a series of hard-to-explain TSA actions making local and national headlines.
==================================================
I would rather have them overreact then DO NOTHING. That’s exactly how this incident happened in the first place. Americans are such whiners, they want security but none of the inconveniences that come with it. Terrorists hate us, just like they hate Israel. When’s the last time a BOMB got onto an Israeli jet? Airport Security in Israel is lengthy and THOROUGH.
How did they penetrate the security of the Israeli people? Suicide bombers. Did you think they would NOT try that with AMERICANS?
Frank, did it ever occur to you that ineffective overreaction might be worse than doing nothing? Doing nothing costs nothing. Doing something ineffective just for the sake of “doing something” costs a lot of money, both in taxpayer dollars and in the time all those people waste in delays and waiting. But the result is the same– no actual security benefit.
I know that you and a lot of other travelers fervently want to believe that all the costly, time-consuming hassles of the TSA’s “enhanced screening” provide effective protection against a very serious and very real threat. And indeed, I would unquestioningly and gratefully subject myself to whatever restrictions, inconveniences, and indignities competent officials deemed necessary if I had reason to believe they were effective. Unfortunately, the TSA comes up lacking every time it’s tested for effectiveness. All the TSA has really done is put patches and band-aids on the very same system that failed on 9/11. The result has been an increasingly costly, bothersome, intrusive (and maddeningly inconsistent) burden on travelers, with nothing to suggest that we’re getting anything for what it’s inflicting.
The TSA provides nothing more than the illusion of security, based on the premise that hassle and intrusion are synonymous with effectiveness. Many people (apparently including you) buy into this, possibly because you want our Leaders to “do something” and the TSA is “doing something.” But illusory security is arguably worse than no security at all, since it steals so much of our money, time, privacy, and dignity with the same result as no security at all.
I’m all for effective security, which for aviation means preventing terrorists from getting anywhere near an airport. We should all be outraged that after eight years and billions of dollars spent on an enormous “Homeland Security” bureaucracy, our government still seems no more capable of doing that than they were in 2001. And we should be at least as outraged that the primary reaction is the same as in 2001, to add more costly, burdensome, and useless hassles to ineffective airport screening. We the people deserve better than that.
Hapgood has hit the nail on the head. What this ridiculous security theater does is to waste billions of dollars patting down 90-year-old grandparents, while the resources could be employed actually going after the bad guys. The gross incompetence of the TSA methods does not enhance anyone’s security. And, as noted, the pantybomber was not the TSA’s fault – it was an intelligence breakdown. The point isn’t to stop radicalized Muslims on a watchlist who received terrorist training from Al Qaeda in Yemen and whose father warned security agencies about them from carrying stuff in their panties when they board a plane; the point is that they should not be boarding at all.
What part of the three ounce rule did this passenger carrying honey not understand?
I know I would not want to be the person to let something explosive get through, but, on the other hand, I understand the thrill of finding something that will make headlines, whether it’s really dangerous or not at all dangerous. And ‘reality tv’ has shown all of us that it’s okay to make a fool of yourself if it garners even a tiny bit of headline time on FOX/CBB/MSNBC, whether positive or negative. Life is an eternal paradox/dilemma/conundrum…..