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Congress Wants TSA to Secure Amtrak & Buses

Congress Wants TSA to Secure Amtrak & Buses

Old Oct 31, 2016, 10:15 am
  #46  
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It will be interesting to watch the details of what's allowed on the train/bus.

A couple years ago, an older friend was traveling by Greyhound. At the first extended stop, the drive announced that anyone who got off would be frisked before getting back on, so if you had a pocket knife, you had to leave it on the bus or not get off yourself.

Nothing had been said about having pocket knives on one's person when my friend originally boarded the bus and the bus driver obviously knew that there might be people already on board who had pocket knives (or other prohibited items). Absolutely made no sense, but then, it didn't make sense for TSA to force arriving Amtrak pax to detour away from the direct exit and through the sterile area so they could be screened.

Will pocket knives be prohibited unless checked? What about liquids? Aren't explosives deemed a threat on Amtrak?

Will there be the same ID requirements?

I'm not talking about the occasional exercises we've seen; I'm talking about what it will be like if Congress and TSA seize the growth opportunities - hire more TSOs, buy lots of over-priced security scanners, bla-bla.
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Old Oct 31, 2016, 12:25 pm
  #47  
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The routine presence of TSA at train or bus stations would surely have a negative impact on those modes of public transportation.
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Old Oct 31, 2016, 12:41 pm
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Originally Posted by chollie
It will be interesting to watch the details of what's allowed on the train/bus.

A couple years ago, an older friend was traveling by Greyhound. At the first extended stop, the drive announced that anyone who got off would be frisked before getting back on, so if you had a pocket knife, you had to leave it on the bus or not get off yourself.

Nothing had been said about having pocket knives on one's person when my friend originally boarded the bus and the bus driver obviously knew that there might be people already on board who had pocket knives (or other prohibited items). Absolutely made no sense, but then, it didn't make sense for TSA to force arriving Amtrak pax to detour away from the direct exit and through the sterile area so they could be screened.

Will pocket knives be prohibited unless checked? What about liquids? Aren't explosives deemed a threat on Amtrak?

Will there be the same ID requirements?

I'm not talking about the occasional exercises we've seen; I'm talking about what it will be like if Congress and TSA seize the growth opportunities - hire more TSOs, buy lots of over-priced security scanners, bla-bla.
Who was going to do the frisking - the driver or the TSA or police?
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Old Oct 31, 2016, 2:05 pm
  #49  
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I don't know. He chose not to leave the bus and was on the opposite side of the bus from the door.

None of it made any sense. The origin and the intermediate stop were in two different states, so perhaps that had something to do with it. There's no reason for the bus driver to make a story like that up, particularly to a busload of pax he's just driven for hours with no problems.

I've always assumed it was some kind of VIPR exercise, something like the train station exit episode.

Both episodes are just a reminder of how far TSA can extend its reach if it wants to.
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 9:37 am
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"None of it made any sense."
Precisely. It's all part of the ingenious layering system implemented by TSA.
Imagine the fate of feckless wannabe terr'ists when they face sheer illogic.
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 10:22 am
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More instances like this could be fallout from TSA getting into train and bus stations:

http://www.toddstarnes.com/column/ts...-pastors-bible

I thought it was so strange, Dr. Lingerfelt told me. He fanned through the entire Bible and very nicely explained to us that we got stopped because of the Bible.
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 11:54 am
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Silly story and much ado about nothing. The TSO wasn't searching because he knew it was a bible, they routinely search books because of their appearance on X-Ray.
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 12:07 pm
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Originally Posted by rolling_stone
Silly story and much ado about nothing. The TSO wasn't searching because he knew it was a bible, they routinely search books because of their appearance on X-Ray.
I realize that books look solid on x-ray, but once it is known it is a book, then there is no need to "fan" through it. A block of cheese looks like a bomb, too, but TSA doesn't cut it into small pieces looking for whatever.
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 12:20 pm
  #54  
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Originally Posted by rolling_stone
Silly story and much ado about nothing. The TSO wasn't searching because he knew it was a bible, they routinely search books because of their appearance on X-Ray.
What could a TSA screener imagine they would find between the leaves of any book that would be WEI?
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 12:28 pm
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Originally Posted by Boggie Dog
What could a TSA screener imagine they would find between the leaves of any book that would be WEI?
Plastic explosives in sheet form, silly.
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 1:15 pm
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Originally Posted by Boggie Dog
What could a TSA screener imagine they would find between the leaves of any book that would be WEI?
A knife.

https://www.instagram.com/p/3PdwwWF9xa/
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 2:12 pm
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Originally Posted by jkhuggins
A knife which would have been seen on x-ray.
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 3:07 pm
  #58  
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Imagine if it had been a Hebrew Old Testament or, worse yet, a Koran....
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 7:54 pm
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Originally Posted by petaluma1
A knife which would have been seen on x-ray.
Um, the whole point of this is that the screener in question found something questionable on the x-ray which required them to search through the pages of a book. But thanks for proving my point.
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Old Nov 1, 2016, 9:14 pm
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Originally Posted by jkhuggins
Um, the whole point of this is that the screener in question found something questionable on the x-ray which required them to search through the pages of a book. But thanks for proving my point.
I would think a complete book vs one with the center cut out would look different on x-ray. Regardless, only a quick look should be needed to determine that no weapons are secreted in any book.
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