Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Making sense of the frustration with the TSA

I understand the public is frustrated with the TSA. I empathize with the frustration
and grasp their exasperation. Unfortunately, it is part of the new world we live in where lunatic Muslim extremists target public transportation.

Of course the new body scanners are a bit much but sadly in this day and age it is the new norm. We want safe travel and publicity hungry groups stir up frivolous law suits if certain groups are subjected to additional scrutiny.

I want to point out the difference between profiling and normal investigative scrutiny. Person A is from country X and there is information that he is under investigation for money laundering. The crime pattern exists and the person has been identified as a suspect. This is different from grabbing person A at random and questioning him for no reason. Even the country of origin and the crime needs to be looked at for context person X is a cigarette smuggler from Mexico and person Y is a smuggler from Lebanon. Y would get additional scrutiny because the pattern of smuggling cigarettes for terrorist groups based in Lebanon exists. This does not infer Y is part of the pattern but must be investigated as the pattern has been identified.

None of us appreciate long lines and this dreadful new assignment has me pondering the impact of lines. The public has zero objection when a disabled person is granted
an expedite. Nor does the public object when military personnel are taken to the front. The officers generally look for the military people before they even are on the floor. A friend actually attempted to call the military case before I walked up the two escalators. There is no objection in liberal NY or VT for moving service men to the front. We are often careful when we say no to these types.

As far as the scanners go we should treat the TSA types as professionals. We do not cringe when medical professionals do their job. Pat downs should be done as a last resort after all other techniques have failed.

13 comments:

Always On Watch said...

The disgusting part of all of this body scanner business is that the scanners will be abused by the users for some kind of porn ring.

And we won't be any safer as Moslems will get some kind of exemption. Watch for that.

Speedy G said...

If we have scanners, what do we need other intelligence gathering measures for? Let's all just agree to fly completely naked and pack our clothes and other luggage in clear plastic containers... think of the billions we could save by eliminating NSA and CIA.

Sounds like TSA has given up on "intelligence gathering" and gone all the way over to "verification/validation". We certainly don't need, nor can we afford, "both".

Ducky's here said...

Beak, I'd like to reply to your accusations here rather than drag out a useless thread on the board where you made them.

1. I have never called you a Lubavicher. You sr are a liar. It is interesting that you bring this up spontaneously.

2. Do you deny supporting Likud and what does that have to do with this nonsense about being a "Jewish patriot"? Do you support Likud and its support for the Kahanists or don't you. Make your position clear. It seems that you are quite willing to support many Kahanist positions.

3. Your constant harping about what you would do to leftists and the "pseudostinians" (as you proudly call them) are indicative of someone who certainly would support ethnic cleansing and political roundups. You are indeed a "good German" and you know just what I mean. Don't hide behind some imagined affront you coward.

Have you ever seen the silent film "The Last Laugh"? No it isn't obscure, it's an acknowledged masterpiece. It lampoons the German love of uniforms and imagined status, just as you strut and inflate yourself with this stuff about being an "officer". Something you repeat so often that you should be embarrassed. You are simply perfect for the role of "the good German".

Ducky's here said...

... oh and I love your statement that you seldom blog about Israel. You can barely go two sentences without bringing up something about the "pseudostinians". You are obsessed by the topic.

And your deep feelings of inferiority lead you to brag that you coined the term "pseudostinians".

At the other site I notice that you dont even attempt substantive replies. You simply launch into rants accusing everyone of war crimes and anti-semitism. In other words you're a damn fool. I don't know whether it's the inferiority or the narcissism. I should have take a course in one of those subject areas that you consider worthless because you failed to obtain any degree.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

I just look at the track record.

Show me the terrorist that the TSA prevented from getting on a plane.

The failed panty bomber over Detroit last Christmas was: on a plane, with a bomb, and on the TSA's "do not fly" watchlist.

The failed Times Square truck bomber was arrested and taken off of a plane - also on a "do not fly" watchlist.

The Ft. Hood massacre terrorist - "monitored" by the FBI...

Any description of counter-terrorism efforts under Obama's watch that does not include the words "epic failure" is just not being serious.

Alligator said...

When asked today if she will insist that Muslim women wearing hijabs must go through full body pat downs before boarding planes, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano did not say yes or no, but told CNSNews.com there will be “adjustments” and “more to come” on the issue.

“On the pat downs, CAIR [the Council on American-Islamic Relations] has recommended that Muslim women wearing hijabs refuse to go through the full body pat downs before boarding planes,” CNSNews.com asked Napolitano at a Monday press conference. “Will you insist that they do go through full body pat downs before boarding planes?”

“Look, we have, like I said before, we are doing what we need to do to protect the traveling public and adjustments will be made where they need to be made,” Napolitano responded. “With respect to that particular issue, I think there will be more to come. But, again, the goal here, you know, we’re not doing this just to do it. We’re doing it because we need to keep powders and gels and liquids off of planes that are unauthorized just as we need to keep metals off of planes.

“This is being done in recognizing that we all have a collective role in our security and we all know and can recognize that there are threats and risks that have been articulated by those who seek to harm the United States, particularly in the aviation environment," said Napolitano. "And, so, you know, what we are doing is designed to really be risk based, to be intelligence based, to be layered like I said, when you get to the airport at that screening center, that’s really--these TSO’s [Transportation Security Officers] are really the last line of protection we have for the aircraft and that’s the way we’re going to evaluate things.”

"risk based?"

"intelligence based?"

So that's why she is considering exemptions for Muslim women in hijabs and the TSAs' are patting down three year old children and elderly Catholic nuns? So this means those two groups are bigger terror threats than Muslims? And then then the folks in Washington wonder why everyone is an uproar over this.

beakerkin said...

AOW

I would expect the same professionalism from the TSA as from
a clinical professionals. Everyone should go but Pilots and business travelers willing to undergo FBI clearance should be exempted.

Speedy

The TSA has intelligence but will the the data is confusing and has many false positives. It is often
more of an art than science.

Beamish

The TSA did prevent the bomber from leaving and deserves credit
as the plane went nowhere. The underwear bomber was part of a system of intel that is all over the place and doesn't work.

The Ft Hood problem has something to do with fear of the far left law suit. The signs that this person was unstable were there and he asked to resign but his superiors were afraid of being called bigots. Sometimes, government officials do miss and the contacts of the killer with Al Queda types could have easily been construed as intel and should have been casually investigated. However, such a conversation with a supervisor could produce a lawsuit...

Ducky

I did coin the term Pseudostinian.
Repeated internet searches show my use of that in FPM started the term
that has appeared elsewhere.

1) You have called me an "inbred Lubavitcher" in the past. AOW and Mr. Beamish who read will likely remember this. Your references to Crown Heights where the Lubavitcher
live are clear enough guilt.

I do not consider being mistaken for a Lubavitcher to be an insult.
In your case calling a secular type this is clearly meant as an antisemitic slur.

2) I do not tell Israelis what party to vote for. The Israelis are capable of self governance. I favor a stronger stance and a more confrontational position with the leftist allies of the Arabs who are guilty of stirring the pot.

3) A Kahanist wants a Torah State.
A secular type is not likely to support such idiocy. Don't take my word for it as Capo Ren's buddy Mad Zionist. I have had plenty of posts mocking theocracy and Kahanists. Kahanists tend to be soft on Commies who are a greater enemy than Muslims. One can find decent Muslims with ease. Commies are subhuman political criminals.

3) You can search for imagined claims about lefties. Lefties who violate laws should be tried jailed and sent to Gitmo. Ren and Che Bob would look nice in Gitmo.

Arabs allready posses an abundance of colonized land. The person who is the real Nazi is you who are advocating additional Judenfrei land. Lefties crying about "apartheid" while advocating ethnically cleansed lands where Jewish history is in every stone
are hypocrites.

Calling a Jew a good German is clearly stating a Jewish American
Patriot is a Nazi. This is classic
cliche antisemitism.

The truth is that Jews who practice the religion view communists in the same manner that Blacks view the KKK. I would like to count up the number of Jews killed in Communist Pogroms and compare it to the total number of people lynched by the KKK.

Troutsky got his clock cleaned and wrote a post trying to save himself. My interpretation of his writting with images lifted from the Blood Libel and the Protocols of the Elder of Zion were correct.

Ducky's here said...

Beak, I believe you are correct and I did at one time call you an inbred Lubavitcher. I apologize.

Not for calling you the name, the way you throw out the insults you should be prepared to take them in return but in this instance for calling you a liar, which in this instance you are not.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

The TSA did prevent the bomber from leaving and deserves credit
as the plane went nowhere.


Irrelevant. Despite being on a TSA "no-fly list" he got on a plane. Had his bomb in Times Square not failed, there would have been days if not weeks of forensic evidence gathering at the blast site until possibly something about the vehicle's remains would have led investigators to.... the TSA having let a terrorist on their "no fly list" board a plane and leave the country shortly after bombing Times Square.

I do not give Obama's counter-terrorism efforts the benefit of the doubt because his administration has claimed without exception that every Muslim terrorist attack we've had on American soil since Obama took office (4 attacks so far) were done by Muslims the government had allegedly been monitoring.

So far, Obama's terrorist watchers have watched a would-be bomber board a plane when he's banned from flying and try to bomb it, another bomber banned from flying board a plane after leaving a bomb in Times Square, another terrorist on the watch list shot up a military recruitment office in Arkansas, and of course, the Ft. Hood psycho who the FBI was monitoring, yet couldn't tell the Army about. The same FBI prosecuting soldiers for "torturing" captured terrorists.

No, the TSA doesn't deserve credit for anything.

How many neutron bombs could we buy with the TSA's budget?

Mecca's hoppin with terrorism suspects right now.

beakerkin said...

Ducky

Forget the matter. I can deal with the slings and arrows.

Mr B

I can not get into the specifics of how the Times Square bomber was caught on the plane. However, the effort really was a local civil servant more than the Obama TSA.

I am in the distinct minority at work in that I like Napalitano who is not user friendly. The job is a minefield and officeholders should beware.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

I can not get into the specifics of how the Times Square bomber was caught on the plane.

You don't have to. It's fairly easy to figure out.

Something in the unexploded truck led right to the bomber's identity, and in the meantime of discovering that, the bomber got on a plane PAST the TSA despite him being on their terrorism watchlist well before he parked a bomb in Times Square.

We're allowing people on terrorism watch lists to board planes.

Is that stark enough?

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

On Napolitano, I can only say:

I'll ask you how you actually feel after she leaves office. ;)

Speedy G said...

The TSA has intelligence but will the the data is confusing and has many false positives. It is often more of an art than science.

Then either fund the ART OR the SCIENCE, not BOTH. Either get rid of the intelligence ops or the Group Gropes, the public isn't going to tolerate, let alone support, BOTH stupidities.