Practical Travel Safety Issues - Are TSOs the perfect profile for terrorist recruiters?

The confluence of 2 ideas...

The first happened at SEA this morning at the ungodly hour of 4am. While standing in line to have my boarding pass and ID checked, I overheard a group of about 6 TSOs complaining about how bad their job situation was. There were a number of concerns, but primary one was the lack of daycare. Other than being amused by the fact that most employees of most organizations are not provided with day care, I didn't pay them much mind.

But when I got close to the metal detector one TSO after another got waved to the head of the line, and then through the metal detector. Every one of them, without exception, alarmed (I presume due to their badges.) Yet none of them got a patdown, or even a second glance, from anyone. It was at that point that it first occurred to me that they might be ideal targets for terrorist recruiters.

The second happened this evening when I came upon then "victimized" thread in TSS and the associated news article. So based on so meany things I've read, in TSS and elsewhere, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that TSOs are (or feel they are):
- underpaid
- abused by the public
- abused by their managers
- have a horrible job
- are demoralized
- are resentful of, well, pretty much everyone, AND
- can enter the secure airside of an airport without any security checks, even if one of the automated detectors alarms.

Could a terrorist ask for a better candidate for recruitement?

And that is why the TSA airport security is the joke that it is.
What is the point of going through the WTMD if they don't care if it alarms or not? Maybe their SSI SOP says they must go through WTMD, but doesn't specify that further action is required if it alarms.

Yes, I would say that there are many "inside" jobs being done right now by "trusted" individuals within the TSA. Maybe not up to the level of terrorism, but like you say it is ripe to be exploited.

Wonder what the TSA, press, and all the other sympathizers will say when it comes to pass that the next act of terrorism comes from within?

While i wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to learn of TSO complicity in human and drug trafficking operations, illicit currency transportation and other petty criminal enterprises like fencing goods stolen from travelers, I do wonder about one thing...

What bloody terrorists are we talking about here?

There has only been one act of criminal mischief involving aircraft in the US and that was in 2001. I understand that there are thousands of households consisting of what Americans like to call sleepers, is it?, and I also understand that most brown people flying commercially every day since late 2001 are actually engaged in performing dry runs, but really, why aren't these people doing what they are supposed to be doing and blowing up aeroplanes? Either TSOs are not cooperating with them or they don't exist in the first place. Which one is most likely?

Just wondering.

There has only been one act of criminal mischief involving aircraft in the US and that was in 2001. I understand that there are thousands of households consisting of what Americans like to call sleepers, is it?, and I also understand that most brown people flying commercially every day since late 2001 are actually engaged in performing dry runs, but really, why aren't these people doing what they are supposed to be doing and blowing up aeroplanes? Either TSOs are not cooperating with them or they don't exist in the first place. Which one is most likely?

Just wondering.

My understanding is that 9/11 cost on the order of $500,000 and a couple of years to pull off. That was with the cooperation of a few dozen individuals, at most.

From the outside, it sure looks like the TSA is the best platform from which to launch another attack. High turnover, low hiring standards, porous checkpoint behavior, major shock value when compromised.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find that TSA has been compromised and that they will be implicated in some future attack.

At AUS, they don't even go through the WTMD when they come in to work. And none of their belongings are checked or xrayed. at least not the ones I observed a few weeks ago, and even asked a 3-striper about it, and he confirmed that they do not get checked.

The confluence of 2 ideas...

The first happened at SEA this morning at the ungodly hour of 4am. While standing in line to have my boarding pass and ID checked, I overheard a group of about 6 TSOs complaining about how bad their job situation was. There were a number of concerns, but primary one was the lack of daycare. Other than being amused by the fact that most employees of most organizations are not provided with day care, I didn't pay them much mind.

But when I got close to the metal detector one TSO after another got waved to the head of the line, and then through the metal detector. Every one of them, without exception, alarmed (I presume due to their badges.) Yet none of them got a patdown, or even a second glance, from anyone. It was at that point that it first occurred to me that they might be ideal targets for terrorist recruiters.

The second happened this evening when I came upon then "victimized" thread in TSS and the associated news article. So based on so meany things I've read, in TSS and elsewhere, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that TSOs are (or feel they are):
- underpaid
- abused by the public
- abused by their managers
- have a horrible job
- are demoralized
- are resentful of, well, pretty much everyone, AND
- can enter the secure airside of an airport without any security checks, even if one of the automated detectors alarms.

Could a terrorist ask for a better candidate for recruitement?

Not only that - could you IMAGINE the public fear and horror that would be achieved if the American public learned that one of their very own TSA heroes was involved in a terror plot?! I can hear the Kettles now: "What could have POSSIBLY gone wrong? Aren't these people supposed to be protecting us? I though the President promised us we were safe?!"

If the te***rists wanted to do ONE thing to ensure that American faith in secuirty were undermined, that would be it. You think we're terrified now? Oh man today would be a picnic compared to what would happen if someone in the TSA were ever linked to a te**or plot.

I just can't even begin to imagine how our leaders would handle such a situation.

My understanding is that 9/11 cost on the order of $500,000 and a couple of years to pull off. That was with the cooperation of a few dozen individuals, at most.

From the outside, it sure looks like the TSA is the best platform from which to launch another attack. High turnover, low hiring standards, porous checkpoint behavior, major shock value when compromised.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find that TSA has been compromised and that they will be implicated in some future attack.

Well, in that case we clearly need a super TSA to oversee the TSA.
Requiring TSO's to have to negotiate super checkpoints manned by super TSO's in order to report to work. So, all the scrutiny we as pax get, but obviously kicked up a degree or five. Nude o scope with real x-rays, none of this millimeter nonsense, plutonium powered proctometers for opt outs, the element of
unpredictability, etc, etc.

The solution is very simple, require everyone and I mean everyone who goes into the secure areas of an airport go through the same screening process that the paying passengers are subjected. No exceptions.

The solution is very simple, require everyone and I mean everyone who goes into the secure areas of an airport go through the same screening process that the paying passengers are subjected. No exceptions.

Exactly, but you know it will never happen.

The solution is very simple, require everyone and I mean everyone who goes into the secure areas of an airport go through the same screening process that the paying passengers are subjected. No exceptions.

it happens over here - but then we have sensible security, not that theatre production you have there...

While i wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to learn of TSO complicity in human and drug trafficking operations, illicit currency transportation and other petty criminal enterprises like fencing goods stolen from travelers, I do wonder about one thing...

What bloody terrorists are we talking about here?

There has only been one act of criminal mischief involving aircraft in the US and that was in 2001. I understand that there are thousands of households consisting of what Americans like to call sleepers, is it?, and I also understand that most brown people flying commercially every day since late 2001 are actually engaged in performing dry runs, but really, why aren't these people doing what they are supposed to be doing and blowing up aeroplanes? Either TSOs are not cooperating with them or they don't exist in the first place. Which one is most likely?

Just wondering.

Unlike organized crime and foreign intelligence service recruiting, which is based on personal greed of the target being pitched, terrorist recruitment is almost entirely based on ideology.

Having said that, I agree that the screener workforce is an ideal target group for druggies, human traffickers, and other organized crime elements. The workforce possesses classic vulnerabilities ripe for exploitation including: low wages, bad working conditions, incompetent or abusive leadership, lifestyle habits which are blackmailable, etc. The recruit doesn't care about the morality or legality of what they are doing. They are in it for the money and for the sense of adventure and accomplishment. There have been multiple hundreds of screeners arrested for theft. Not one has even come close to having been recruited by a terrorist organization.

When all is said and done, screeners want additional and a sense of adventure and accomplishment. A terrorist recruiter can offer none of these, but they do appeal to a different audience who believe they have been dealt a bad hand in life. I would be willing to believe that most screeners are loyal Americans and wouldn't think about helping a terrorist. But, they have demonstrated that hundreds of them are more than willing to supplement their income.

The two elements would merge if a terrorist organization would ever bribe a screener to allow some bad guys and bad stuff to pass through a checkpoint or back entrance of an airport undetected. The recruit could be convinced that they aren't really supporting terrorism, just helping out a friend. This pitch would have to be done very carefully over a lengthy period of time so a combination of trust and a sense of reciprocation can be set up. The terrorist organization recruiter would offer to pay some of the screener's bills, buy them or their spouse an expensive gift, provide them sex, etc. Then, at the right time, the terrorist would ask for a "favor" in return. An important element of the Chechnian women suicide bomber operation was that they simply bribed the security screeners to let them through.

Anyone who has ever been in the "business" or has worked in any type of national security job knows that this is classic textbook stuff. A KGB or Stasi-type organization or the drug cartels would have half the TSA on its payroll by now. I'm not so sure about Al Qaeda.

Unlike organized crime and foreign intelligence service recruiting, which is based on personal greed of the target being pitched, terrorist recruitment is almost entirely based on ideology.
...
A KGB or Stasi-type organization or the drug cartels would have half the TSA on its payroll by now. I'm not so sure about Al Qaeda.
Aside from the ideology point, with which I agree, I don't think that Al Qaeda has the kinds of capability to do this sort of recruiting. This is also part of the reason why I disagree with those who want to focus more on cargo: using cargo also requires the sort of infiltration that I don't think Al Qaeda is capable of.

Aside from the ideology point, with which I agree, I don't think that Al Qaeda has the kinds of capability to do this sort of recruiting. This is also part of the reason why I disagree with those who want to focus more on cargo: using cargo also requires the sort of infiltration that I don't think Al Qaeda is capable of.

Never underestimate your opponent, as true in real life, as it is in chess or on the football field.

49 CFR 1541 specifically allows TSOs to enter the sterile and SIDA areas of an aiport without being accountable to any other airport personnel, as long as they have security identification. (Actually, "allows" is really the wrong word to use here, the law states that the airport security plan must allow them access to those areas without any escort or other access obstacles).

My understanding is that 9/11 cost on the order of $500,000 and a couple of years to pull off.
7/7 & Madrid cost a few thousand dollars, the toner bomb cost a few hundred - the cost to the various economies is in the billions

Aside from the ideology point, with which I agree, I don't think that Al Qaeda has the kinds of capability to do this sort of recruiting. This is also part of the reason why I disagree with those who want to focus more on cargo: using cargo also requires the sort of infiltration that I don't think Al Qaeda is capable of.

I agree completely. Their style is to pull people out of normal society rather than to operate from within. If their goal was to blow up an airplane with a bomb in cargo, they would have to bribe a lot more people than simply the guy who operates the back gate to the flight line. And, all of the people on the AQ payroll would all have to be working the same shift on the same day and be in the right place at the right time. That's a pretty difficult operation to pull off. They prefer the simple direct frontal attack. Even 9/11 was pretty simple when you get right down to it.

While i wouldn't be in the least bit surprised to learn of TSO complicity in human and drug trafficking operations, illicit currency transportation and other petty criminal enterprises like fencing goods stolen from travelers, I do wonder about one thing...

What bloody terrorists are we talking about here?

There has only been one act of criminal mischief involving aircraft in the US and that was in 2001. I understand that there are thousands of households consisting of what Americans like to call sleepers, is it?, and I also understand that most brown people flying commercially every day since late 2001 are actually engaged in performing dry runs, but really, why aren't these people doing what they are supposed to be doing and blowing up aeroplanes? Either TSOs are not cooperating with them or they don't exist in the first place. Which one is most likely?

Just wondering.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:


At least of those "brown people" happens to be a World Trade Center survivor.
And an attorney.

Whom you just insulted in a breathlessly arrogant and ignorant fashion.

As long as the terrorists and Patriot Act enacters can depend on uneducated, unsubtle minds like yours, you are part of the problem.

Thank you, at least, for showing yourself publicly to be what you are, and that you don't understand nearly as much as you think.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:


At least of those "brown people" happens to be a World Trade Center survivor.
And an attorney.

Whom you just insulted in a breathlessly arrogant and ignorant fashion.

As long as the terrorists and Patriot Act enacters can depend on uneducated, unsubtle minds like yours, you are part of the problem.

Thank you, at least, for showing yourself publicly to be what you are, and that you don't understand nearly as much as you think.

Three definitions of sarcasm here for you to review:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:sarcasm&sa=X&psj=1&ei=FIIFTb20K8GqlAfl_9HICQ&ved=0CBMQkAE
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:sarcasm&sa=X&psj=1&ei=FIIFTb20K8GqlAfl_9HICQ&ved=0CBMQkAE
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:sarcasm&sa=X&psj=1&ei=FIIFTb20K8GqlAfl_9HICQ&ved=0CBMQkAE

Sorry you didn't quite get what I was saying.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:


At least of those "brown people" happens to be a World Trade Center survivor.
And an attorney.

Whom you just insulted in a breathlessly arrogant and ignorant fashion.

As long as the terrorists and Patriot Act enacters can depend on uneducated, unsubtle minds like yours, you are part of the problem.

Thank you, at least, for showing yourself publicly to be what you are, and that you don't understand nearly as much as you think.

Rooo, Phlying's comment and tone just went right over your head. But thanks for playing. Hopefully, most of the rest of us "got it" the first time without needing to resort to his linked definitions.