Originally Posted by
cottonmather0
No, the TDC cannot check your name against the list. But there are other places in the process where your name is checked against the list which could easily be thwarted by simply using a boarding pass with a name other than the passenger's own. So, in addition to revenue protection for the airlines, the TDC checking your boarding pass and ID is intended to prevent someone on the list from gaining access to the secure area using a boarding pass that wasn't originally issued in his own name.
So, like I said, I don't agree with the underlying policy - at all - but there is a logical reason why they match boarding passes to ID's.
It has always been about revenue protection. If a "bad person" gets as far as the security line at an airport without being detected, a LOT in the "system" has failed up until that point. Is the expense of all of those gadgets and ID security theater commensurate with the threat at that point? No, absolutely not.
There simply is no benefit for a citizen answering ANY question on any subject from a TSA clerk. The ID checker is taught that they are the last line of defense in the War on Terror/Drugs/Deadbeat Dads/Cash/etc, and that the survival of the United States is at stake. Therefore, everyone approaching them is evil until they are satisfied otherwise. Remember how it got started. Kippie once said, "ID matters."