TSA agent confesses

[bingley]

Scan machines don't work. Worker morale is low. Agents screw around. TSA doesn't check countries that have produced the most terrorists. Poor background checks on the agents.

Once, in 2008, I had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming home from Afghanistan. It was celebration champagne intended for one of the men in the group—a young, decorated soldier. He was in a wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be taken away in the name of national security.
….
In private, most TSA officers I talked to told me they felt the agency’s day-to-day operations represented an abuse of public trust and funds.
….
I hinted several times on the blog that a determined terrorist’s best bet for defeating airport security would be to apply for a job with the TSA and simply become part of the security system itself. That assertion stemmed from personal experience. A fellow officer once returned to O’Hare from a trip to TSA headquarters and confessed that he had run into some complications: Someone realized that his background check had never been processed in the four years he had been an employee. He could have been anyone, for all TSA knew—a murderer, terrorist, rapist. The agency had to rush to get his background investigated. Who knows how many similar cases there were, and are, at airports around the nation.

Read more: TSA Agent Confession - POLITICO Magazine


Good luck on your novel, Mr. Harrington.

 

[GunnerDan]

TSA (Trained Sexual Abusers) The New Nazi's and they all should be swinging from a gallows!

 

[88GT]

I shocked.

 

[JetGirl]

That explains how I went through screening with forgotten .223 in my pockets...

 

[No2rdame]

So... They won't check the dude running around yelling "Aloha Snackbar" right before boarding the plane yet they'll frisk a six year old child because she is a threat? Sounds about right for a stereotypical bureaucratic agency.

 

[actaeon277]

I think the boss would have to send me home, before I would confiscate that bottle. Then again, I guess I wouldn't work there.

 

[Trigger Time]

They know they are violating people's rights yet they keep taking their paycheck. Hmm where have I seen this before?

 

[Joe G]

So... They won't check the dude running around yelling "Aloha Snackbar" right before boarding the plane...

 

[rambone]

They know they are violating people's rights yet they keep taking their paycheck. Hmm where have I seen this before?

Its all about the Hamiltons.

 

[femurphy77]

We had a laugh at IND a couple of years ago while heading to vacation. We were with some friends and the 4 of us were talking to another couple next to us in line. We were talking about the TSA and the full body scanners. I bet the husband that they would body scan his wife but none of the rest of us and sure enough they did. He wanted to know how I knew they would and I told him because SHE'S HOT DUDE! We all busted up laughing which P.O.'d the brown shirts who promptly threatened to make us miss our plane if we didn't take them seriously. Get over yourselves guys.

 

[ghostdncr]

TSA agent confesses

Scan machines don't work. Worker morale is low. Agents screw around. TSA doesn't check countries that have produced the most terrorists. Poor background checks on the agents.

Wait...Is Mr. Harrington implying there are people who believe "TSA security theatre" is FOR REAL?!?!

 

[Bennettjh]

So... They won't check the dude running around yelling "Aloha Snackbar"

 

[buckstopshere]

That explains how I went through screening with forgotten .223 in my pockets...

Similar but with 9mm in my backpack. 7 loose rds in an altoids tin I had completely forgotten about.

 

[JettaKnight]

TSA (Trained Sexual Abusers) The New Nazi's and they all should be swinging from a gallows!

Tell us how you really feel.

I dislike the TSA as much as the next guy, but calling for someone's death is a bit much. How about if we just terminate their employment rather than their lives?

 

[ghuns]

So... They won't check the dude running around yelling "Aloha Snackbar" right before boarding the plane yet they'll frisk a six year old child because she is a threat? Sounds about right for a stereotypical bureaucratic agency.

Pepsi all over the dual 24 monitors I cleaned last week, thanks.

 

[Trigger Time]

Tell us how you really feel.

I dislike the TSA as much as the next guy, but calling for someone's death is a bit much. How about if we just terminate their employment rather than their lives?

Or buy them a coke. Instant peace. I saw it on tv

 

[spencer rifle]

Such a joke. My son just "smuggled" a Leatherman aboard an international flight. It was a present from me and he forgot to check it. A little song and dance and "I'm going back to put it in my checked bag" and a little slight of hand and he was in like flint. On a connection he had to recheck his bags and they went through EVERYTHING in great detail, and checked his ukulele for drugs, but never found the Leatherman. Maybe "joke" is too serious a word for this.

 

[bingley]

I dislike the TSA as much as the next guy, but calling for someone's death is a bit much. How about if we just terminate their employment rather than their lives?

I don't know why people are angry at the little workers. If people cared about their rights at the airport as much as they care about their range toys, TSA would have to operate very differently. Maybe it wouldn't exist at all. Did you vote for Bush? Yep, you're partly at fault.

 

[AutomationEngineer]

I actually installed most of the scanners and x-ray machine upgrades in the Midwest that were ordered after 9-11 and the creation of the TSA. Not only could I tell you exactly how to get around all of the scanning devices, but it is true that the TSA is very lax in enforcing the "stringent" requirements placed on the average agent for diligence and skill. These jobs only pay slightly better than McDonalds, and in some of the bigger airports, McDonalds pays more. What does that tell you about the ability of the average TSA agent?

These devices were for show all along! Security has not increased at all. We have only added a step in getting everyone used to a police state. The plan has always been to get these devices and agents into trains stations, and bus stations.

Thank goodness I do not work for any of those contracting companies anymore. When I fly international, and see what a "normal" airport looks like, it reminds me of the old video of the Soviet Union, only instead of trying to get in and out of the USSR, I am trying to get into the United States. If this does not scare you, it should!

 

[Leo]

The last time I was pulled out of a line in Atlanta for further security check I was sent off along with a 80 plus year old white haired woman and a short fat hillbilly girl with greasy hair and her two kids with snot running down their face. Looked like terrorists to me.


That same flight also had a mid twenties middle eastern man with no carry on, and no coat, carrying a political science text book was not given a second look. The TSA really knows how to play the odds. And those are the same quality of workers that will be handling your life threating illnesses with obummer care. yeah team!