One of my first bosses, God rest his soul, told me once, "If you come in here complaining, you better have a suggestion to make things better, otherwise don't waste your time."I sorta feel the same way about the TSA screening brouhaha. I hear a lot a people whining and complaining about their rights being violated or being critical of the system, but no one has a viable alternative.
They DO have suggestions like...
- Let's do it like the Israelis.
The Israelis have one airport to cover in Israel and somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-50 planes to worry about. Their passenger load is a fraction of ours. Plus they have a citizenry who is willing to pay whatever it takes to keep them safe.
- Let's privatize the screening checkpoints.
Like they were on September 11, 2001? Minimum wage Wackenhut workers. Sure. Brilliant.
- Let's profile.
Yes, let's. So what do we do? Put all Muslims in one line and then let the white folk and some of the Urkel-looking blacks go in the other? Is that how it's done? What about the older Muslims? Or the real shady looking black guys? Not even to mention some of them olive-skinned Cuban Americans who look like they could definitely be from Beirut. If you think all terrorists look the same, you need to do some research.
Or let's imagine that we start profiling and the terrorists decide to invest in some great makeup so that they look like Don Jones, businessman from Peoria. Or Sally Evans from Bakersfield, California. Or they decide to give their 10-year-old son a "money belt" to wear onto the plane or their handicapped mother a little something extra to pack in her wheelchair that will conveniently be stowed in the cargo compartment of the plane.
But it's not just the terrorists that we all should be concerned about. How about the mentally ill guy who feels like he's done with this world and wants to exit in spectacular fashion? Hopefully, he looks like a Muslim, right? Because if he's an ordinary looking white guy, he has an easier time boarding if we listen to some people.
The possibilities are endless. And the terrorists or the bad guys only have to succeed once. While the TSA has to succeed every minute of every day.
Of course this doesn't help the air traveler who is rushing to catch a plane and winds up getting patted down. I've been there. And I hate it.
But then I remember September 11th and how I felt on that day after finding out that three hijacked commercial airliners had extinguished the lives of thousands of mothers, daughters, fathers and sons and I remember the words of my boss.
I don't have any good suggestions to fix things and until I do, I'm not complaining.
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For some additional reading on this subject that I [mostly] agree with, check out Mark Thiessen's blog post over at the National Review Online. Yes, the NRO...I prove my conservative readers to be wrong every day.
In the coming days, millions of Americans will travel to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. May I pose a novel idea? As we go through the airport screening line, let’s stop and say “thanks” to the men and women of the TSA who give up time with their families during the holidays to keep us safe from terror.
In the past few weeks, these patriots have been compared with Big Brother and accused of sexual assault. They’ve suffered the same kinds of public indignities the Left has heaped on the men and women of the CIA — being accused of engaging un-American and unlawful behavior for doing the difficult and unpleasant work of protecting the country. They deserve better.
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17 comments:
The one thing about this whole conversation that really bothers me:
There's a difference between racial profiling and threat profiling. We shouldn't stop someone just because he's Muslim. We should stop someone who is acting suspicious.
Note that I specifically say "acting suspicious," not looking suspicious. It's not about how someone looks or the tone of their skin. It's all about actions, usually subtle, that properly trained security agents should be able to detect.
You're right to say that we should be concerned with people other than what we traditionally consider terrorists and this type of security measure will include that.
So much of what the TSA does is virtually meaningless to any threat with a brain. Some examples:
- Pat downs don't touch the groin or include cavity searches? No problem. They'll just carry the weapon there.
- I'm not allowed to bring more than 3.3oz of liquid onboard? No problem. They'll just split it up amongst passengers.
And the line about "the TSA has to succeed every time," is good propaganda, but it's just ridiculous. We assume risk in everything we do in our lives. There's no way to eliminate it entirely. The only way to have airtight security in our airports is to shut them down. That's not going to happen.
We assume more risk driving every day (in Miami, especially) than we would flying around the world. So just how much is the TSA making us safer?
So again I point out that someone is complaining without offering a solution. Give me a suggestion. Tell me how, given the constraints the American taxpayers place on Congress and our rights, the TSA is to conduct business. Tell me what they can do to make the system better. I'd like to hear it because then maybe I could finally have a legit reason to complain and demand change.
So just how much is the TSA making us safer?
I don't know. I don't know if anyone knows. But I do know there hasn't been a plane hijacked or blown up since 9/11/2001.
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I have a suggestion...that we as Americans, collectively, grow a spine. The way I see it, these "security" measures are theater designed to make people feel safe. In reality, there is nothing stopping a terrorist from bombing the security lines themselves, potentially killing hundreds. What do we do at that point? Do we x-ray whole vehicles diving on the airport access roads?
We need to not be terrorized. The Israeli example that we should follow isn't their airport security but the fact that the day after Israelis have a cafe bombing, they are sipping latte's from the coffee place next door. Screw this cowed, shaking-in-a-corner stance. And screw the administrators for putting resources into overpriced machines built by political cronies instead of beefing up investigation staff.
I live along a flight path and I travel regularly, if not frequently, and am freaking tired of being told to "be afraid". F$%! THAT!
-g
Rick, he just did, and so did I: threat profiling. I feel that my recent post - which you linked - very clearly offers a solution.
A lot of drooling idiots leave off "racial" from the term "racial profiling." But that's the only kind of profiling that's unjust. Profiling based on behavior is effective - and not prejudicial. It looks at everyone, and brings focus onto people acting differently.
But the real fatal flaw in the TSA's approach is this: they are looking for objects instead of terrorists.
The TSA makes a big deal about all the things they've confiscated. Tons of stuff; nail clippers, nail files, bottles of shampoo, tweezers. But guess what they don't brag about? They don't boast about the terrorists they've caught.
Because they haven't caught any.
Instead of finding effective ways to identify actual threatening people, the TSA targets everyone else. They're looking for a needle in a haystack by ignoring the needle and searching every piece of hay.
So here's my solution, Rick: start looking for the needles.
BTW, this whole nonsense about not criticizing without offering a solution is sappy management training nonsense; not every problem has an easy solution. And sometimes the only solution is to throw it out and start from scratch.
The other fatal flaw made by the TSA; they assume that terrorist want to blow up airplanes. This premise is not only false, it's endangering travelers.
Terrorists don't want to blow up airplanes; they want to instill terror. And that doesn't require that they get to the planes. They can do it in the airport just as effectively, and possibly more so.
After all, the TSA has ensured that planeloads of people will be tightly packed into an enclosed space in a place the terrorist CAN get to.
And wouldn't a bomb going off in the line off people waiting to be searched instill fear amongst the voting public?
What CLJ eloquently said: start looking for needles. And what Calderin said: threat profiling, which is reducing the size of the haystack.
Sorry, but the current approach has lost it and lost it big in the court of public opinion, and nowadays where public opinion goes, political pressure follows. Is it blown out of proportion relative to the number of people that have been patted down? As a civil rights absolutist, I don't accept that. That's one of the arguments that was used for waterboarding.
I also agree with CLJ about the "don't complain unless you have solutions" pablum. There are million things we all complain about -traffic, for one- we don't have the solutions for, simply because we aren't experts. But we are users, and if users don't complain, the balance is skewed in favor of the process. I'm a heavy user of travel and I think the TSA is an inefficient bloated result of post 9/11 paranoia and jingoism (for what is worth, several security experts think the same thing.) I don't feel one iota safer, and while I'm not going to berate the front of the line personnel because they don't set policy, they could use more training and sensitivity. (I have my anneccdotes, like everybody else.) Finally, I don't care if some scanner sees a grainy picture of me naked, but my 13 year old daughter being patted down? We don't have to accept that.
I will echo the sentiment of others here as many of them have elaborated on it eloquently enough. Threat profiling as a potential solution to the problem. If all security policy by the TSA is going to be reactionary it is just giving terrorists a blue print of what to do next. Underwear, shoes, nail clippers, shampoo, etc. are currently out as possible methods to bring down or hijack a plane. What's next, anything and everything else because that is all the TSA is looking for.
I'm fine with X-Ray, pat downs if there is an issue with the X-Ray (because it is set off) or if threat profiling causes a trained agent to think an additional check is necessary. However, groping passengers and full body scans are not acceptable. Let's put it this way, if something is done to you anywhere else by a stranger in a public place, would they be arrested for what they are doing? If the answer is yes, then the TSA should not be using it as a means to check if you are carrying an illegal nail clipper.
And in response to your comment that the TSA must be doing something because there have been no hijackings of US planes since 2001, according to the link below (definitely not a complete list): there appears to have been a pretty long gap between hijackings of US planes. Does that mean the previous method was as effective as the TSA? Correlation and causation are not the same.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_notable_aircraft_hijackings
Good point about the coverage that is required for Israeli airport security, but I agree with C.L.J that....... the real fatal flaw in the TSA's approach is this: they are looking for objects instead of terrorists.
I don't feel safer with the present procedures. I feel much less safe because they are expending huge amounts of energy and money in on site screening efforts hoping they will randomly find a threat to aviation safety. Given the information I provide with my ticket purchase, the TSA ought to know my threat profile before i even get to the security gate. Either they know I am a potential threat or that I am not by that point. If they don't know, then I feel less safe because at the gate they are implementing "guessing" and random screening to catch a threat to the public. If they DO know that the 9 year old boy or 13 year old girl or cancer survivor etc are not threats and they humiliate them anyways, I definitely do not feel safer for them having done so.
So which is it ? Do they in general know a person's threat level profile before they get to the security gates ? Or don't they ? A yes, means they are humiliating innocent people unnecessarily, a no answer is just plain scary.
C.L.J....the TSA is already looking at behavior and apparently doing a pretty good job of not letting anyone know they're doing it. And there's the no-fly list and there's probably other things that you and I don't even know about.
This is a good discussion but it still lacks the specificity for solutions from the folks not happy with it. It's like me complaining about traffic on I-95 and telling FDOT that the solution to the problem is to reduce congestion. Super.
BTW, you certainly don't have to offer any specific solutions. But then it's just complaining and you're just one more person in a sea of voices.
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Rick, best sit down. I am going to agree with you.
Complaining without offering better solutions is a waste of time. You are right.
However, there is some justification in saying this particular method is unacceptable, find another.
If TSA thinks they are preventing terrorist attacks, then how long will it be before we have full body scanners and groping pat-downs at football stadiums, concerts and hell, shopping malls?
You cannot defend against terrorist acts. You have to find the terrorists and change their vocation or kill them.
There are better solutions, and as a nation we need to stop bitching and start offering solutions. One by one they can be knocked down, but sooner or later we will find a better solution.
One thing I believe is that we have to stop being afraid. Stop giving up basic freedoms and our constitutional rights just to feel safe. (We are not safer, that I also believe.)
If we continue down that road, then the terrorist have won. They have taken away our freedom and rights.
One solution? America should mind it's own business to a degree, and stop pissing off everyone else in the world. Stop taking sides, and stop trying to shape the world to our ideals.
Has anyone asked the questions: "What do the Muslim terrorist want?" Or, "What must happen for them to end their declared war on the West and America?"
Like most serious problems, the answer is a combination of things. Stop giving them reasons to attack us is one. Search them out and kill them is another.
But cowering in fear and giving up our constitutional rights is not the answer.
I hope and pray that this latest TSA situation will cause some serious soul searching and thinking so that as a nation we can attack this problem with intelligence.
And come up with solutions.
SGB, excellent points, couldn't agree with you more on this one. I think doing away with the crankiness has made you better at communicating. But that's not why I'm commenting, I'm here because I cannot believe that you and Rick have agreed on something and the world has not ended! There is hope for humanity!
Rick and I disagree on many (OK, most) topics, but that doesn't make him a bad person. It just means we have different views. Sooner or later we had to agree on something.
Rick is OK in my book.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day!
I am pretty sure this is a joke:
SBG
The Israelis are developing a device that will alleviate modesty concerns that arise with the use of full-body scanners at airports.
The traveler steps into a booth. There is no x-ray but it will detonate any explosive device you may be concealing.
They see this as a win-win for everyone. No racial profiling and it is fair to all. It also would eliminate the costs of a long and expensive trial. Justice would be swift. Case closed!
You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion.
Shortly thereafter an announcement comes over the PA system.
"Attention standby passengers — we now have a seat available on flight number 123.
Shalom!"
Just put the checkpoint in the bar. Grope away.
Problem solved.
I think Gus proposed the only realistic solution. It's the only one that is squarely in the control of the individual.
OK, so we have "threat profiling," "start looking for needles" [or is it hay?], "grow a spine," and give back access to nail clippers, shampoo and allow people to wear their shoes.
And criticism of my previous bosses' management style.
*sigh*
Readers, I really was hoping for something like like "initiate a Q&A with passengers as they check in," or ""create a system where frequent flyers can undergo a govt. background check and be exempt from intensive screening."
Something more concrete.
But instead we have yet another list of what is not working and what shouldn't be done.
BTW, this "threat profiling" idea that everyone latched onto...according to the TSA website, here are some things that are already being done...no-fly list, behavior observers watching passengers, and a close screening of identification documents before proceeding through the checkpoint.
Again, if there are more things that could be done, let's hear your ideas.
I'm still waiting.
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Rick my friend, just because no one has developed an alternative to your liking does not by default mean the current TSA nonsense is just fine and dandy.
Peace.
I never said it was, SBG. In fact I said I didn't like it.
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Happy Thanksgiving Rick!
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