Newsstand - Air marshal PDAs are field flop

msnbc.com Article (http://www.msnbc.com/news/937704.asp?0sl=-22)

"The Transportation Security Administration spent $6.9 million to outfit the federal air marshal corps with voice-capable wireless handheld computers for in-flight use and then subsequently banned any voice usage because of potential interference with cockpit functions, according to interviews with several air marshals."

Way to go, Admiral Loy. There's another $7 million your disgrace of an agency has squandered.

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"Give me Liberty or give me Death." - Patrick Henry

[This message has been edited by Spiff (edited 07-21-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> “We call these [PDAs] the ‘Thousand Dollar Game Boy,’” said one air marshal, equating the device to the hand-held Nintendo video game player. “Some air marshals have up to 70 games on their PDAs that they’ve downloaded from the Internet,” the air marshal said.
Another air marshal said that “because my PDA is always crashing, I don’t use it anymore.” After his device crashed twice, wiping out an extensive series of notes painstakingly input into the PDA, “I don’t use it except to play Asteroids,” the air marshal said.
The devices are so rarely used for communication that text messages sent out by field office supervisors go to the air marshals’ cellular phones instead of to their PDAs, several air marshals said.
Several air marshals related separate incidents in which the devices were supposed to be used during a surveillance training exercise but failed. </font>

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"A spokesman for the TSA declined to discuss the use of the PDAs by air marshals or issues of cockpit interference. “We do not get into discussion of tactics or potential tactics by the [air marshals],” said Brian Doyle, a TSA spokesman. “We cannot address this question for security reasons,” he said."
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This one takes the cake IMHO.

Yeah -- They sure have hired a first-class spin machine, from mousse-haired Yuppie Robert Johnson (seen him on the news??? Charlie Sheen look-alike) to that woman who said that long lines at the checkpoints were good, because that meant people were flying again...

Wow! Somebody still plays Asteroids. Cool.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by FliesWay2Much:
...that woman who said that long lines at the checkpoints were good, because that meant people were flying again...</font>

Yeah, she said that at SEA during a gigantic TSA meltdown a few weekends ago that choked the terminal with enraged passengers suffering in two-to-three-hour lines... she actually said it was "great!" ... what a stupid, insensitive, brain-dead, incompetent, tone-deaf organization. You can hate terrorists and the TSA too. I know which has had the bigger negative impact on me.