Another Take on TSA BDO Program
#1
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: DFW
Posts: 28,114
Another Take on TSA BDO Program
I found the linked Op-Ed interesting and it fits my thinking of TSA pretty closely.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blo...an-facts-is-my
Refreshing to see that others have little regard for the least American agency since the creation of the country.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blo...an-facts-is-my
TSA justifies pat downs with op-eds — is my paper trail to blame?
BY JAMES BOVARD, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 07/29/17 01:35 PM EDT
TSA recently reduced the number of terrorist warning signs from 94 to 36, but there are still some howlers in the mostly-secret list — including “sweating heavily” (for which TSA offered 63 invalid studies). GAO also scoffed at the notion that TSA agents could detect terrorists by “assessing the way an individual swallows or evaluating the degree to which an individual’s eyes are open.”
#2
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: on the path to perdition
Programs: Delta, United
Posts: 4,786
TSA was undaunted by GAO’s drubbing. The agency vindicated itself by trumpeting how BDOs watch out for “unusual exposed wires or electrical switches on a person” seeking to board a plane. But do we need a special TSA program to recognize would-be terrorists who received all their “training” from Road Runner cartoons featuring Wile E. Coyote assembling an Acme Bomb Kit?
Let guess next, all passengers wearing Acme Apparel will now be subject to additional screening ...
Let guess next, all passengers wearing Acme Apparel will now be subject to additional screening ...
#3
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 3,526
From the comments to the article:
I'm thoroughly familiar with the TSA and the hiring process for it, and no, it doesn't reward smarts or virtue. It rewards having a pulse and being able to put up with the bureaucracy of going through a hiring process that often takes 3, 6, 8 months to complete. Most people can't wait that long, and can't be unemployed that long. This is ONE reason TSA gets many of the characters it does. Rewards people in no hurry or who don't need/want a job. And the hiring process is so long convoluted and expensive, they do everything they can to not fire bad people who should be fired because it costs so much to train news ones. I could go on and on and on. Just another govt. bureaucracy....
#4
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: where the chile is hot
Programs: AA,RR,NW,Delta ,UA,CO
Posts: 41,700
TSA was undaunted by GAO’s drubbing. The agency vindicated itself by trumpeting how BDOs watch out for “unusual exposed wires or electrical switches on a person” seeking to board a plane. But do we need a special TSA program to recognize would-be terrorists who received all their “training” from Road Runner cartoons featuring Wile E. Coyote assembling an Acme Bomb Kit?
Let guess next, all passengers wearing Acme Apparel will now be subject to additional screening ...
Let guess next, all passengers wearing Acme Apparel will now be subject to additional screening ...
Wow.
I wonder if they can also detect rogue tires about to go flat or engines about to fail? Because you know there are badly behaving machines everywhere. Think of the threats!