9/11 hijackers used boxcutters. TSA was created to stop future 9/11s. They search wheelchair-bound grandmothers, steal from passengers, and light billions of dollars on fire each year – all while admitting in court that they see zero active threats to defend against.
But when passengers actually bring boxcutters to the checkpoint? Yeah, they got through and a Frontier Airlines flight had to divert after one was being used by an unruly passenger.
Frontier flight 1761 took off from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport at around 7:20p.m on Friday and was en route to Tampa when the crew declared an emergency.
The plane was then “diverted to Atlanta after a passenger on board the aircraft was observed in possession of a box cutter,” according to a statement from the airline shared with NBC News.
involving a disruptive passenger, in possession of a box cutter was declared. The cockpit was secure and passengers were deplaned in ATL. FBI and Atlanta Police Department responded to the incident, took the suspect into custody and the flight was canceled. (2/6)
— TSA_SouthWest (@Tsa_SouthWest) November 12, 2022
Following a search of the suspect, a second box cutter was discovered in the passenger’s carry-on.
TSA takes its role in transportation security very seriously. (3/6)
— TSA_SouthWest (@Tsa_SouthWest) November 12, 2022
In multiple government tests over 90% of contraband has gotten through checkpoints. And the TSA, each time, claims that it’s simply the result of ‘a few bad apples who in no way reflect the good work done by its employees, day after day.’
(HT: @KerrPoints)
Steal they do. Don’t leave your Apple or other expensive watch in the bowl or deep in your back pack. My girlfriend had a Samsung smart watch which we figured looks like a Apple watch in the x-ray machine. When the screener paused the machine for a minute and reached into the machine without flinching and resumed it was after getting our back packs that we realized this woman stole her watch at the BWI airport by the Southwest TSA gathe average. We confronted TSA on the spot about it they threatened
us to move on. Government paid theaves.
It is impossible to prove a negative. (If you say you have a twin brother you can bring him in, if you say you don’t how can you prove that he isn’t hidden somewhere?) And in that sense the TSA may have a point that they could have done some good, though hardening flight deck doors and passengers now refusing to sit still when trouble arises are likely the best defenses anyway. That said, this organization is simply growing and growing as part of the national security state, and the fact that governments take whatever power they can.
I used to be proud of this country because, unlike so many others we didn’t have a department devoted to internal policing. Hoover’s FBI was bad enough, but it was pretty limited, and the CIA, at least in theory, did its dirty deeds offshore. All that changed after 9/11 although the idea of having some sort of American security department was in the works before that. But bin Laden correctly saw how the damage he planned would keep reverberating through our country, both economically and socially. Perhaps somewhat as the 20th was Hitler’s century, this will be his.
The problem of course is that Americans don’t see this, and why should they? They accept that the good old USA is now a “Homeland”; Thom has noted the origins of this disgusting term, which is now so widespread. They line up for body scanners thinking they’re not giving up rights that previous generations would have been horrified to lose. My very quick check of corporate interlockings and the history of the approval of these chambers of horror indicate that from Obama down into Congress people were given “campaign contributions” if not outright investment returns for them.
But the point is that if Americans meekly accept such things then there is no limit to what will be done. Political parties don’t matter here–Trump and Biden both did nothing to turn any of this around, and there certainly is no national discussion about just what Americans will give up for security theater. In fact, it’s getting worse. A big mall near where I live is trying out metal detectors, and a theater has live had them for years. (I wrote the millionaire bankrolling stage productions there how ashamed I’d be to do this; the manager was confused that anyone was complaining.) A lot of this of course is due to America’s insane gun laws, but there’s a deeper and utterly corrosive mindset involved: when in doubt, be afraid and treat the public as a threat. Until horrors like the “patriot” act can be repealed or the system collapses under its own unsustainable economic weight, I fear such things will be routine. Goodbye to the America we knew.
Unfortunately, risk avoidance has become a national characteristic. See, e.g., 9/11, covid, armed school guards, etc.
Anyone who thinks that the TSA hasn’t been failing in ways since day one of its existence really should get their head checked.
Perhaps if the the TSA stopped obsessing about passenger ID and other unnecessary junk to identify and interdict restricted weapons, explosives and incendiaries, they would stop more of what they fail to stop.
@drrichard: I agree with most of your comments. But one I oppose strongly – “insane gun laws.” One must remember why our Forefathers put the 2nd amendment in place. To protect us from the government – not fellow citizens. I believe that amendment is required today more than ever. Why do you think the left wing (progressives) want to water down the 2nd so much? Freedom has a price and Americans are clueless, except seniors, to what that means and cost to keep. Thankfully the bar to overturn the 2nd is so high, maybe it will stay in place. IMO that’s the last hope of American being around a few more centuries.
Deterrence is impossible to quantify, so it is solely a matter of opinion whether they are a failure or not. If you view their job as being a deterrent to terrorists from attempting another 9/11, then TSA is a success. But I don’t think it is a convincing argument to say, for example, that police are a failure because studies show 90% of people speeding don’t get a ticket. Maybe 20 million people drove slower and saved thousands of lives in averted accidents.
I respect your opinion Harry, but must disagree. Thom Hartmann, a progressive commentator whom I accidentally mentioned in my long post, made a decent case that the Second Amendment was included because Southerners wanted a legal basis for armed patrols to keep down slaves. Also, the U.S. didn’t have a real standing army and there was endless trouble with the Indians who resisted giving up their lands. Hence “well regulated militia” was the justification, not anyone putting a weapon in their closet.
In any case the authors of this amendment never imagined AK-47s and AR-15s. If people were properly trained and kept the weapons away from kids (and gunshots are the leading cause of childhood death in this country) we might have a justification for them. After all, hunting and sport shooting are common. But 120 firearms per 100 Americans? A ridiculous ratio, and if anyone thinks their private weapons could stop the police, National Guard, and military, they are sadly mistaken.
Pray…
TSA screeners are the most incompetent airport badge holders at the airport. They’re government employees with a uniform but no badge or authority. Sometimes the take my 1” key chain pocket knife, the other 99 times they don’t. And with civil asset forfeiture (legal robbery) laws, they can spot your Vegas winnings, call the airport police and have it confiscated. I believe they get a % of the take.
Use the European model. Hire some competent and polite people and send the current TSA back to Popeyes.
TSA is just another Failure by democrats.
Alan, TSA was created by a Republican administration. But the problem is that nobody wants to get rid of this, and so much else of the security state, as the money is too good. (Citizens United really made a mess of government.) And in an echo of the ’50s, no politician wants to be seen as “soft on terrorists.” There’s no profit in being reasonable, logical or calm. But the years 2017-21 showed how that works out.
Well, before the TSA existed, it was up to the airlines to pay for security screening, which is why 9/11 happened in the first place. They hired the lowest bidding contractor and enforced lax standards. TSA improved things, but perfect they are not. They would do well to hire supervisors that hold their people accountable to higher standards though.
All the comments are interesting but they all miss the point, TSA is a charade to make people feel safe so they will continue to fly. TSA offers absolutely no deterrent to anyone who really wants to do something bad. A determined bad actor will find a way regardless of how much apparent security you put in place. I felt safer flying prior to 9-11 than I do now but I still fly because it allows me to get to places I otherwise would not be able to go to. I wish we could delete TSA and put all that money to use in more constructive ways.
Disband the TSA.
It is interesting to read that TSA is a failure. Of course security is not a subject in which this blog claims to have any expertise. What is the mission that TSA has failed at? To find every box cutter? I doubt it. But I’m not a security expert either.
TSA isn’t just an American phenomenon. If the USA dumped it as the post seems to be suggesting, what would be the impact on passengers travelling from the U.S. and connecting in other countries if we didn’t have TSA or something equivalent?
There are examples of dishonesty in every walk of life but my experience with TSA in that regard has been positive. I left my wallet at a TSA checkpoint once and didn’t realize it until the plane departed. The TSA agents found it and I eventually got it back with all cash, credit cards and other contents preserved. The same thing happened with a cell phone on a separate occasion.
Separately, it is stunning to hear the sincerely held belief that possessing firearms protects citizens from the government. Others have even gone so far as to contend that Japan didn’t invade in WWII for fear of armed U.S. citizens. In reality, possessing firearms doesn’t even protect anyone from the police much less the U.S. military that is armed with tanks, artillery, fighters and bombers and various types of rockets and missiles.
People complain when TSA misses something and say TSA doesn’t do its job, then, as soon as something bad happens, they complain that we need to install a system that prevents people from carrying weapons or bombs onto a plane. Some people just like to gripe. If you think you’ve got a better system, apply for a job there so you can implement it.
@Alan- if you really don’t recall who was president during and after 9-11, use ‘the Google’. It wasn’t Democrats. And yes our ‘insane gun laws’ are relevant to our high rate of gun deaths, including children. (What is the evidence that personal firearms ‘protects’ citizens from the government? As many have noted, they are more likely to be used in suicides or domestic violence than in self defense from strangers or the government).
So, what about the potential terrorists who did not attempt a hijack because they knew the TSA was there and would probably have their weapons found and confiscated. How do you measure these?
Had my state i.d. disappear in the course of travel & needed to board a flight at LaGuardia without it, following Gary’s articles about flying without i.d. To my surprise the TSA was very professional and all was handled expeditiously and without drama.
I still can’t figure out that if TSA thinks that liquid in your carryon is so dangerous that you cant bring it on the plane, then why does TSA allow people to pour all their dangerous liquids into one barrel right at security?
@Harry – As a Venezuelan who saw his country totally disintegrate in the hands of a tyrannic government, who saw the horrors of +200 protesters massacred, most of them between 17-19 years (who weren’t even born when we had a country where I could fly in Concorde), who saw Hugo Chávez disarm us, law abiding citizens, only to have the most dangerous country in the world by far (only criminals fully armed).. I totally agree with your comment. Sadly there’s a bunch of ppl who don’t get your most important point: Freedom isn’t free. And they only realize after the lose it.
Venezuela was damn dangerous and loaded with gun violence even long before Hugo Chavez became president of Venezuela.
My wife and I were returning from Europe. Our flight was delayed and when we landed at Washington DC we were told we would fly the next day. I knew that were several flights to Denver that we could board. We had to take our checked baggage through TSA. TSA confiscated my wife’s bottle of Pumpkin Oil and completely missed two folding knives (7 inch blades). I have never trusted TSA for safety.
@Harry the 2nd amendment was written based on a single shot short range inaccurate musket. Not a AK-47 100 shots per second elementary school killing machine. There is NO need for a Texan to bring his loaded hand gun on to any plane for any purpose. Real men do not need guns to prove their manhood, just men with small middle legs .
The TSA needs to clean up it’s act and keep the guns off.
Tomri… If you could tell me where I could buy this 100 shots per second AK47 I would be much in your debt.
Woke soyboys like you will never see next week when shit goes sideways.
@JetAway risk reduction is the whole point of life: that’s why we have dentists, see doctors, take vitamins (even poisons like invermectin) and wear shoes.
And the US is increasingly a MORE risky country: Americans’ lifespan continues to shorten, with a huge drop in the past two years mostly due to the freedumb movement.
The TSA are a half a step above the dimwit that stands in the grocery store clerk watching you do self checkout
The TSA confiscates an average of 17 firearms a days from idiots who intentionally try to bring them on to planes or from morons that prove why people cannot be trusted with keeping control of their firearms when they “forget” they had one in their carry-on. Some of you may be fine with people running around with guns everyone but I am not interested in being stuck on a plane at 35K feet with someone who is disgruntled or who thinks they are a hero and starts shooting the plane up.
And, @Alan, I have a sneaking suspicion that if the Democrats tried to disband the TSA you’d be one of the first people clutching your pearls and screaming how they’re soft of terrorism.
Just curious . . . what about all of the guns they find in carry-on bags?
“It is interesting to read that TSA is a failure. Of course security is not a subject in which this blog claims to have any expertise. What is the mission that TSA has failed at? To find every box cutter? I doubt it. But I’m not a security expert either.”
For what it’s worth, all real security experts (from Bruce Schneier on down) agree that the TSA is a useless, rights-infringing waste of time and money. It routinely (90%) fails in its mission of keeping dangerous objects off planes and there have been no foiled hijacking attempts in the past 20 years (if there had been the TSA and its defenders would be trumpeting the successes). But, like all government agencies, once installed, never removed.
“For what it’s worth, all real security experts (from Bruce Schneier on down) agree that the TSA is a useless, rights-infringing waste of time and money. It routinely (90%) fails in its mission of keeping dangerous objects off planes and there have been no foiled hijacking attempts in the past 20 years (if there had been the TSA and its defenders would be trumpeting the successes). But, like all government agencies, once installed, never removed.”
Again, I agree with the other posters of the need to define “failure”. Their job is to prevent another 9/11, not prevent a bottle of water getting on a plane (despite the fact that they seem to be very good at that).
Don’t blame the TSA for stupid rules. That’s our politicians. And while I have no time for confiscating nail polish to prevent terrorism, I do not think this is high on the list of things anyone should get too passionate about. After all, did you hand over your fingerprints for TSA Pre? Or your iris’ for CLEAR? And what about a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, as perhaps something that REALLY infringes upon rights, and is a marked failure? Actually, do laws EVER stop law breakers?
We’ll never know.
Honestly, the TSA is not a crisis issue. Refocus on things that actually change lives.
@GUWonder Sure! the clueless usual lefty is gonna tell me, Venezuelan born and lived for 40 years, who lived the pre Hugo Chavez era without any incident, and then had to leave my country after 4 armed robberies at gun point ( maybe 5? can’t remember, 1 in the street, 2 inside my business) and surviving the invasion of my HOME by 2 armed robbers, in a once upscale closed gated community with private security. With total ‘gun control’.
I’m the very last guy you should pick to spew BS.