Originally Posted by
GUWonder
Hitherto, the only one here having asserted an issue about "black helicopters" is to be found in your posts. Any objective viewpoint would be capable of recognizing that my posts on this topic are informed based upon operational facts.
Your previous experience and attempted characterization of me is irrelevant -- all it does is do is: "completely avoids the issue at hand".
TSA-wanted-and-approved "security" theater covers DXB and IST too.
That's a lot of false statements in such a short post. If you had taken the time to read my posts, you would have seen a clear description of how security in these two specific airports is structured, with a separate area for US-bound flights, and standard security elsewhere. I know this, because I've been there, and I'm describing what I've seen. Have you?
I asked some specific questions - most importantly this: (I'll phrase it nice and simply) - what proof ("facts") do you have that "TSA-wanted-and-approved 'security' theater" exists at the non-US-specific security checkpoints at these two airports?
You are dramatically over-asserting the authority that the US wields over sovereign states, and more importantly the level of interest that such states have in co-operating with them. To be clear - the approach adopted by the vast majority of countries, including these two, is basically that they don't give a cr*p about what the US does or thinks with regards to security, but will perform the bare minimum needed for US-bound flights to depart from their airports. Everyone else, thankfully, gets spared.
Now - and this is an important point - plenty of countries do have their own version of security theatre, and there have been some crazy things dreamt up (thankfully most pale in comparison with the TSA), but giving the US credit for this is just ridiculous.
Originally Posted by
Sebastian_R
I can't speak for the person you ask. But I did indeed leave the US and saw what goes on in other countries.
I can confidently assess the TSA a higher level of professionalism than the security forces in Sierra Leone. (not going into the details here but these poor guys didn't even have a WTMD etc.)
I can confidently assess that the security screeners in Japan, Thailand, Scandinavia (Norway and Denmark) and the Germans are both MUCH friendlier to their customers and seemed to be very accurate and detailed.
I experienced very detailed security (for instance in Middle East) and extremely friendly one (e.g. in Ghana). I have yet to find a country where security at the level of my US experience in terms of unfriendlyness and inefficiency.
I would like to get the TSA to work and I rely on a working TSA as a frequent flyer. But the TSA is ineffective, wasteful and unfriendly. If the TSA was efficient and friendly I would certainly not complain.
These days, if you want to be yelled at, you just go to an airport in the US.
I agree 100% with this, and my experiences are very similar to yours, in a similar set of countries also.