As head of TSA, you don't get to choose your battles. Last Thanksgiving, Administrator John Pistole was handed the hot potato of intelligence briefings about al Qaeda suicide bombers trying to penetrate the aviation system with non-metallic bombs hidden on the body. That, coupled with the fact that TSA has vulnerabilities against that kind of attack, put him in a briefing room packed with people where he had to decide among unsavory options. Although I disagree with his decision to pick the ultra-intrusive pat-down, I do understand how he was boxed in when making that call. It is extraordinarily difficult to sign off on anything other than the most stringent option when presented with the intersection of clear threat and vulnerability. On that decision and a litany of issues, TSA has been on the defensive month after month. Deserved or not, it is hard to pursue a reform agenda when you are taking body blows.
Yesterday, John Pistole finally got to do something on his agenda. TSA announced a test of a new pilot program to test more sophisticated screening of passengers based on voluntarily provided information already inside DHS, but heretofore not accessible at airport checkpoints. This is a big deal for several reasons.
First, Pistole's idea to integrate risk screening already done by sister DHS agency Customs & Border Protection is right on. CBP has information that they use for determining low-risk passengers on international arrivals, in some cases, including personal interviews. Working that information into the TSA screening process makes sense. Maybe security clearances are next as TSA continues to include more intelligence and risk-based information in its checkpoint process.
Second, it appears that this is a privacy-friendly solution. Rather than a tempting fishing expedition into the murky waters of commercial data with known and hidden privacy perils as well as dubious validity, Pistole appears to be sticking to the solid ground of already privacy-validated programs. The proof is in the details, but the proposal announced yesterday is a promising start.
Third, and perhaps most important, TSA is breaking through the 'rummage for potentially dangerous objects' straightjacket that is the core of the agency's trouble with the public. TSA is like any organization; there are internal splits over policy. Some -- including, I believe, John Pistole and many of the front-line officers -- want more thinking and less rote implementation of a checklist.
So TSA critics, seize this moment and give Pistole a hand. These are tentative steps along the road to smart security and they should be encouraged. Anybody can bludgeon the many shortcomings and foibles at TSA, and there will be plenty more opportunities in the future. But now is the time to give some positive reinforcement to a sensible attempt at innovation.
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TSA to Upgrade Body Scanners, Eliminate Naked Images
TSA installing privacy-protection software in imaging machines
SC man: TSA failed to detect knife in carry-on luggage
Shun and punish ANYONE who works at the TSA..
No matter where you look, from East Germany, to Communist Russia, to Nazi Germany, historically governments who encourage their own citizens to report on each other do so not for any genuine safety concerns or presumed benefits to security, but in order to create an authoritarian police state that coerces the people into policing each other’s behavior and thoughts.
TSA spends billions of dollars a year on exactly one scenario: that someone is going to try to smuggle an explosive device or other weapon -onto- an airplane; and that he or she is going to try to get it -through- the passenger security checkpoint -on- their person, without the help of any accomplice.
The more outrageous the scenario is, the better it sells. "Less than three ounces of liquid." Security by the confiscation of toothpaste. Now, a paranoid infatuation with the thought of someone surgically implanting a bomb into a prosthetic knee! As you spend more and more money on lucrative detection equipment, you become more and more blinded to any scenario ... and, there are thousands ... that your expensive gear cannot detect, i.e. because the true scenario is a different one altogether.
Effective security relies on secrecy and vigilance ... not a show of gadgets or a show of force.
No matter how earnest and well-intentioned you might be, it is never adequate to build an impenetrable steel vault-door in a picket fence.
They're very good at what they do, are they not?
You don't hear a thing about them. You have no need to know, therefore you don't know. (And, I might add: "don't ask ... don't tell.")
We need to increase our focus on "those people," whom we do not see and whom indeed we must not see, and reduce our focus upon high-profile "security measures" that not only do not work, but blind us in our self-satisfaction.
The security of this nation is maintained by a large group of people who ply their trade in utter secrecy and at very considerable personal risk to their own lives. We owe them a great debt of gratitude, even though we must never know who they are in order to thank them personally.
(Hmm... there is a way. I know you're reading this, so: "Thank you. Well done.")
http://travelunderground.org/index.php?threads/mission-creep-at-tsa-accelerates.445/
Boycotting air travel is a GAMBLE. You're effectively betting that the airline industry lobbyists will be able to force the dissolution of TSA before TSA manages to extend its tendrils into other modes of transportation.
Avoid flying if you want, there's nothing wrong with it. Just please don't fool yourself into believing that it will be a permanent means of avoiding the TSA. Better to join in the fight and demand change from your elected officials. Don't take platitudes, don't take excuses, and don't listen to TSA-penned "reasoning" about why TSA is redeemable - it isn't. There is no redemption or justification for TSA. The only resolution is to force the government to destroy it.
Stop making excuses for this kind of barbaric behavior.
That'll make us much safer.
Hey we have improved. Not only do we do cavity searches but we're also going to review all government data on you as well. Don't you think thats great and less intrusive.
Well at least that what the poster seems to say is the improvement.
"Rather than a tempting fishing expedition into the murky waters of commercial data with known and hidden privacy perils as well as dubious validity, Pistole appears to be sticking to the solid ground of already privacy-validated programs. "
I feel so much more private.