Skift reported that last week, a TSA screener found the 1500th firearm that a passenger attempted to bring onboard this year. However, once the gun is found, the TSA is no longer involved. They are not the police, and its officers do not have detention authority. But, the question we ask, does this justify the…
Once again, the TSA has investigated itself and found it did nothing wrong. There is little that raises our ire more than the way the TSA handles these issues. The Huffington Post reports that a terminally ill woman was not only subjected to an invasive screening, but her requests for a private screening were dismissed. Michelle…
A woman is safe because Transportation Security Officers interceded and rescued her from her abductors at Miami International Airport. We often find ourselves in the position of criticizing the TSA and their employees. A lot of this stems from the way they handle business. But, in this case, things did work out the way one…
NYCAviation is reporting that United flight 956, Newark to Geneva, was off the coast of Nova Scotia when it turned back toward the United States, due to a suspicious package. Update: 9:26PM – According to @crimeboston, the United flight has arrived at Logan Airport in Boston. Emergency Medical Services are on site. Update: 9:32PM –…
In the end, security is an illusion. Nothing is one hundred percent secure. The idea is to make wise choices that have the best effect while not impacting our standard of life. The most unfortunate part of terrorism is that our response to it as a society is that we have a tendency to sacrifice…
Earlier this week, Melinda Deaton and her family filed a complaint claiming that TSA agents had strip-searched her, mocked her feeding tube, and physically handled, it, putting her at risk for infection as she traveled from Dallas to a Minnesota medical appointment. Nothing to worry about though. The TSA has already completed its thorough investigation…
The Transportation Security Administration exists. The TSA has a blog at blog.tsa.gov. The stated purpose of the blog is to “facilitate an ongoing dialogue on innovations in security, technology and the checkpoint screening process.” The demonstrated purpose of said blog is for the TSA to congratulate itself on its detection of contraband, and belittle or…
On Friday, June 29th, the TSA issued another of their blog posts, entitled Travelling with Crematory Remains. It seemed like an innocuous, yet random blog post. But it was yet another example of the TSA sidestepping controversy and not addressing their critics unless there is an opportunity to belittle those critics. On June 19th, John…
We’ve been contemplating this for a few days now. It is hard to go through TSA stories. Our opinion on the matter has been expressed before. Last week, the Associated Press reported that 88-year old Henry Kissenger, former Secretary of State, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and man who wears a brace and thus cannot remove…
Every week, Bob Burns of the TSA Blog Team posts the TSA’s Week in Review and we cringe. Bob’s method of recounting these stories isn’t the narrative of stopping terrorists. In the majority of these cases, the truth is they haven’t found anyone malicious, they’ve found a foolish person. “A passenger at John Wayne Airport…
We were disturbed by reports today that two British travelers were questioned, detained, and deported by the Department of Homeland Security, allegedly because of two tweets. Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting say they were questioned for hours, detained, placed in a cell with violent criminals who stole their food, and finally sent back to…
After his son, Senator Rand Paul, was detained and denied boarding for refusing an invasive pat-down, Representative Ron Paul issued a sharply-worded statement promising to eliminate the TSA should he be elected President “The police state in this country is growing out of control,” the elder Paul said in a statement released by his presidential…
A short time ago, we reported that the TSA had detained Senator Rand Paul this morning. The Hill is now reportingthat the TSA is denying that Senator Paul was detained, saying rather that he was escorted from the secure area and not allowed to board his flight. “When an irregularity is found during the TSA…
We don’t agree with most of what Senator Rand Paul stands for, but we agree wholeheartedly with his stand for liberty and personal freedom this morning in Nashville. It is being reported that Paul, the son of Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, refused an “enhanced pat-down” by TSA agents after setting off…
It was a shocking experience for 26 year old Edwin Barton at a TSA checkpoint in Sacramento last week. After disembarking his flight from Connecticut and leaving the secure area, Barton realized he had left a bus ticket on the plane. He was given a pass to enter back into the secure area but became…
There’s no health risk from the invasive scanners that the TSA has installed at airports around the country, the TSA has maintained. If you don’t like it, you can be searched in an inappropriately intimate way, or not allowed to fly. Now, the agency plans to begin testing the danger of these ‘safe’ machines, by…
It turns out that Rebecca, the TSA Cupcake Lady is, of all things, a Media Studies Professor. In a letter to The Consumerist, she makes an excellent point that we’ve been trying to make, probably less eloquently. After refuting the TSA claims that the cupcake was a gel or mostly icing, she says Anyway, the…
The TSA, recently best known as the government agency that thinks cupcakes are liquid(the strangest government food classification since the school lunch program declared ketchup a vegetable), has kept a lot more than just one cupcake. Last year, the agency kept $409,085.56 in change left behind at checkpoints by passengers. Under current regulations, the agency…
We’ve often been critical of TSA policies, but feel it’s important as well to recognize when they take positive steps. One such step is the launch last month of TSA Cares. Passengers with disabilities or medical needs may now call TSA Cares, toll free, at 1-855-787-2227 M-F 9am-9pm,excluding Federal Holidays ,with questions about screening procedures. …
Rebecca Hains has shot back at the TSA’s characterization of her cupcake. The TSA finally decided to finally comment on the situation, which they are calling Cupcakegate. Not even addressing the stupidity of calling any mildly scandalous issue blank-gate, Blogger Bob refers to it as a newfangled modern take on a cupcake. Apparently, anything new…
Apparently, the TSA is so embattled and the reputation of its employees in such low regard, that when a TSA agent behaves in a normal, responsible manner, as anyone would be expected to do, it becomes news and he is heaped with lavish praise. We don’t mean to take away from TSA supervisor John Deschamp. …
We usually agree with Bruce Schneier. The man coined the term security theater and he takes an approach to the TSA that mirrors ours. Writing in response to the TSA Blog’s Top Ten Catches of 2011, he pointed out that there is not a single terrorist on the list…or in fact anyone with actual malicious…
About a week ago, the TSA confiscated a cupcake, due to its gel-like frosting. Now, we’re not sure what the reasoning was behind this at the time. Perhaps it was being overzealous, perhaps the Security Officer had low blood sugar…maybe it was the name. We initially didn’t say anything, because it just seemed too silly.…
Trey Scott Atwater of Hope Mills, NC was arrested Saturday morning attempting to bring explosives through security at Midland International Airport in Midland,TX. Specifics of the incident were not released. CNN reports that: Neither the FBI nor the TSA identified the explosives, though a Midland spokeswoman said the items were “wrapped in military grade wrapping”…