Democrats realize they can't blame this on Bush
Democrats may finally be realizing that they will be blamed for TSA's invasive security screenings and not former President Bush. The underwear bomber happened on their watch, and 'enhanced patdowns' is a new piece of bureaucracy speak that has just gained currency in the last couple of months. The Democrats have now asked the TSA to
reconsider the procedures, at least for the Thanksgiving travel season.
In a letter Friday to TSA Administrator John Pistole, Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Shelia Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said the agency should rethink the new screening procedures in light of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, typically the busiest travel time of the year.
“While we agree that security measures should be enhanced in the wake of recent attempted terrorist attacks on the aviation system, we are concerned about new enhanced pat down screening protocols and urge you to reconsider the utilization of these protocols. With Thanksgiving Day marking the beginning of the busiest travel season of the year, this request is timely,” Thompson and Jackson Lee write in their letter.
...
The lawmakers say members “expressed concern” about the pat-down procedures when they were briefed on them in September. They ask Pistole for a number of documents, such as a privacy impact assessment, regarding the new pat-down procedures and say TSA screeners need more training, citing an inspector general report detailing weaknesses in the agency’s training program.
Thompson and Jackson Lee criticize the agency in their letter. They say TSA should have done a better job of informing the public about the new screening procedures while also making sure to better protect their civil rights.
“Before implementing this new more invasive pat down procedure, as a preliminary matter, TSA should have had a conversation with the American public about the need for these changes. Even before that conversation, TSA should have endeavored to ensure that these changes did not run afoul of privacy and civil liberties,” they write.
Read the comments. You have to see how angry people are and how many call for using Israeli procedures. "Profile and leave the rest of us alone" is a theme. I could not agree more.
Labels: enhanced pat downs, Janet Crapolitano, John Pistole, strip or grope, TSA
Cookie cutter airport security
Noah Shachtman has it right on the use of the
full body scanners.
But the larger question is whether the TSA's tech-centric approach to security makes any sense at all. Even the most modest of us would probably agree to a brief flash of quasi-nudity if it would really ensure a safe flight. That's not the deal the TSA is offering. Instead, the agency is asking for Rolando Negrin-style revelations in exchange for incremental, uncertain security improvements against particular kinds of concealed weapons.
It's the same kind of trade-off TSA implicitly provided when it ordered us to take off our sneakers (to stop shoe bombs) and to chuck our water bottles (to prevent liquid explosives). Security guru Bruce Schneier, a plaintiff in the scanner suit, calls this "magical thinking . . . Descend on what the terrorists happened to do last time, and we'll all be safe. As if they won't think of something else." Which, of course, they invariably do. Attackers are already starting to smuggle weapons in body cavities, going where even the most adroit body scanners do not tread. No wonder that the Israelis, known for the world's most stringent airport security, have so far passed on the scanners.
Folks, in case you haven't read my previous posts on this topic, the sort of security provided by a full body scanner that looks at randomly selected people is mindless. The terrorists are thinking. Why aren't we and why aren't the other good guys thinking? If the Israelis ever got these machines (we won't because we understand that the terrorists can beat them, and if they can't, they will find a way to beat them), you can bet that the people being sent into them would
not be randomly selected. But in Israel, they'd just be a redundant layer in an efficient security operation.
Unfortunately, TSA chief John Pistole (someone please tell me that he didn't get this position by being a bundler for Obama) doesn't get it.
There may be an important policy shift in the works. TSA has long hewed to an unthinking, unbending approach to security that brought the agency a level of admiration ordinarily reserved for health insurers. But in his first five months running the agency, TSA chief John Pistole has sent some encouraging signs that he's absorbed the arguments of TSA's critics. "We can't just look for prohibited items on a list. We've got to provide the best security while giving greater scrutiny to those who need greater scrutiny, and not using a cookie cutter approach for everybody," he says.
But Mr. Pistole holds to his view about body scanners' "important role in the future of aviation security," adding that the TSA is looking into new privacy enhancements. Unfortunately for Rolando—and the rest of us—the scanners appear to be here to stay.
The first paragraph is correct, but the second paragraph means he's taking a cookie cutter approach. The full body scanners are an expensive toy that do nothing to enhance airport security.
One more thing: Today I saw yet another survey that said four fifths of Americans approve of the full body scanners. Are you guys out of your minds? Do you go around exposing yourselves in the streets? Do you parade around bus and train stations in the nude? Have you lost all sense of modesty and decency?
Labels: full body scanner, John Pistole
Democrats may finally be realizing that they will be blamed for TSA's invasive security screenings and not former President Bush. The underwear bomber happened on their watch, and 'enhanced patdowns' is a new piece of bureaucracy speak that has just gained currency in the last couple of months. The Democrats have now asked the TSA to reconsider the procedures, at least for the Thanksgiving travel season. 
