Pistole on Trusted-Traveller program
 

Pistole's interview in Denver: http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-N...raveler-pilot/

I get the feeling the only benefit the trusted traveler program will provide is not taking off shoes.

It sounds like they are still going run trusted travelers through the whole body X-Ray Chambers and its associated cancer risks.

I'll go further and speculate that opt-out won't be allowed in the Trusted traveler line either.

I think the greatest insight is the head of TSA saying we don't have to answer BDO questions:

"Thousands of people have done this, and literally a very small number said they did not want to answer the questions, and that's fine."

Now, whether he's referring to it being "fine" in terms of their testing of the program or "fine" in terms of "we'll just let it go, nothing we can do about it" is a different matter...

So, I guess he counts someone telling a SPOTNik to shove their question up sideways as "answering the question."

Interesting that he totally misses the point that there might have been no shoe bombs even if they didn't do the 100% shoe carnival. Or that it was almost 5 years after the shoe bomber that they went to 100% shoes off, and there were no shoe bombs during that period.

This guy is an idiot. I also wonder if the air-traveler count misstep was a transcription error or if Pistole actually said it. If he actually believes there have been only 5.5 million air travelers since Dec 2001, it would explain a lot.


:td:

Of course, pretty much the rest of the world doesn't require you to remove your shoes (or in many cases even prohibit liquids) and they haven't had any shoe bombs (or liquid bombs) either.

Clearly not taking off your shoes is much more effective at preventing shoe bombs than taking them off is.

"We have had over 5.5 million people travel since Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, and there have been no shoe bombs because we have people take their shoes off."

The fact that we have not had any more shoe bombers is not due to the fact we have to take off our shoes, its due to the fact that nobody has attempted to blow up a plane. His inability to think logically or rationally should preclude him from being in this position.

"Last year a travel association did a survey of travel complaints, and the number one complaint was the high cost of tickets — fortunately, it wasn't a security issue. The second was the hassle of taking your shoes off. It wasn't body scans. It wasn't pat-downs. It was taking your shoes off and the hassle of it."

Again, more faulty logic and manipulating facts to serve his needs. When was the survey taken, pre or post MASS PUBLICITY about the molestations?

"There is a recent study that was done that validated the [ethics] of behavior detection"

By whom was the study conducted? What questions were asked? When was the study conducted?

I would love a chance to interview John Pistole. I'm sick of all these softball questions. This man and his cronies in the Senate have NEVER been made to account for their actions.

There is no 100% shoes off still today. Every day, thousands of people fly over the US without taking off their shoes. Many countries allow you to board to the US without doing so. Also, flights from Canada to Latin America don't require shoe removal, but fly in US airspace.

Almost every time I do travel I have encounted enoyed TSO workers.
Why?

Cause I have only tiny shoes on and no socks?!

I have been told over and over "is that the only thing you have on your feet".

And then they look really pissed off.

Like they want me to have more things on so they can hassle me.

I guess I'll print out of a copy of his interview to shove into their face, if they try to ask me any questions. TSAs job is to make sure I am not carrying WEI, not find out who I was meeting with, etc..

He says pax don't have to answer questions. No problem.

However, if he were not trying to mislead the public, he would have added that not answering questions will have consequences - the rigorous secondary, which, IIRC, starts with...BDOs asking questions.

Went through BOS yesterday and noticed that if you "volunteer" to go through the cancer boxes, you don't have to remove your shoes.

Of course, I "chose" the WTMD line and had to take off my shoes. Nobody played 20 questions with me or tried to send me to the NOS.

Terminal C - JetBlue.

Is this something new?

:eek:

Sounds like they're trying to entice people to use the cancer box. This also shows us that we could all keep our shoes on, rather than some on and others off..

It may be related to this page:

http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/expedited_screening.shtm

http://www.tsa.gov/graphics/images/whatwedo/rbs_map.jpg

Oh, noes! A roadmap for the tewwowists! :eek: Haven't we been lectured to by security professionals that bad guys use children as mules? :rolleyes: Nobody should have to take their shoes off.

This would be nothing new.

Bet we could have some fun with this map. Other items to add to the legend:

Children Under 12 Groped.

Grandmothers Strip Searched

Express Passenger Genital Inspections.

Weapons Missed at Checkpoint.

Thefts from Carry On Bags

OMG! do you know of anyone who could do this? I would LOVE to make that image as my facebook profile photo.

Seriously. Anyone on here have that kind of ability? Maybe we can get it circulating.

Easy for me to do on the computer. I'll see what I can do :)

Here is my first brainstorm.

A map of the USA with the following:

1. A star for New Orleans (Children Under 12 Groped)
2. A star for Dallas (Weapons Missed at Chekpoint)
3. A star for "?" (Cancer Patient Doused With Urine by TSA)
4. A star for Newark (Thefts From Carry-on Bags)
5. A star for Denver (Grandmother Strip Searched)
6. A star for Albuquerque (Man Falsely Arrested For No Reason)

Any more? Then at the bottom it can say "Welcome to the USA where we don't discriminate - ALL citizens are treated like criminals!" (or something snarky like that) lol

Does This Mean.....?
 

==================================================
This would seem to be good news for those annoyed at the "Say Your Name"
garbage. :( IF they have been saying Do you want to fly today?:mad:
Any comments regarding this?;)

How's this?

http://friendlyskies.smugmug.com/pho...zzr9st6-XL.jpg

You could add "Smackdown in the employee parking lot after jokes about penis size on the Nude-O-Scope screen" etc. etc., but with all the Isolated Incidents™ you wouldn't be able to see the map anymore. :D

Don't forget Rolando Negrin in MIA.
The TSA screener who went ballistic over the size of his wiener as seen on AIT.
"Pictures suitable for Readers Digest"

http://friendlyskies.smugmug.com/pho...vGTbV8s-XL.jpg

:D^

Wow -- Is this in a pdf or JPEG I can download somewhere? I'll PM you with details.

@FriendlySkies, That is great!
Wonder if someone could do an interactive overlay(layers?) via Google and RSS?
Something like
Layer 1 - TSA propaganda
Layer 2 - TSA Catches (I know it would be empty... so toss in the guns and defense pens)
Layer 3 - TSA Mission Creep (Drug Busts, money seizures, etc) Include the Amtrak incident and Ga interstate road side carnival
Layer 4 - TSA Abuse (Assaults on children, infirm and elderly)
Layer 5 - TSA Theft

You're probably getting that "feeling" because that's almost exactly what the head of the whole TSA said. (He also said you can leave your laptop in your bag. Whoop-de-doo.)

Again, that's pretty much what he said. His idea of "expedited" is you can keep your shoes on and laptop in bag. He's rigorously avoiding any mention of skipping the NoS.

There are two potential interpretations of this. First, the one we all fear, the NOS remains a reality, with even fewer SDOO chances. Under that scenario, he wants to avoid people declining the program for this reason. Second, and the one I hope for, he specifically doesn't mention it because these travelers will be subjected to it less frequently and he does not want to create an uproar or concern among the general public. Otherwise, he would have stated that it is still a necessary element of security.

While I would like to be able to leave my shoes on, I happen to know that my travel shoes have enough metal parts that they alarm the WTMD. So, I could not leave them on when using the WTMD. And for me, it is a MUCH bigger deal to avoid the NoS than to take off my shoes.

So, the shoe issue is a dead one for me.

Now, avoiding laptop removal WOULD be nice.

I totally want that. Fly informed.

But he has stated that the NoS is a "necessary element of security" frequently. :(

I appreciate your optimism, really, I do. :) But look at the track record:

• TSA says "NoS will never be mandatory" and people claim they said "NoS will never be primary."
• TSA says "NoS viewer in backroom for privacy; patdowns by same-sex screener" and people think they heard "NoS viewer is the same gender as the passenger."
• TSA says "we blur the face to protect your privacy" and people (including Congresspersons) believe they said "we blur your face and private areas."
• TSA says "modified patdowns for children under 12" and people think they said "no patdowns for children under 12."

In every case, TSA has chosen words very carefully to give an impression of something they're not saying. Read the fine print. Read it very carefully.

Q & A BS
 

Q: Will there be a fee for those to participate?

A: There will not be for those in the frequent-flyer programs. There is obviously a fee for those in Global Entry, Nexus and Sentri, and of course you do an interview and a background check, and that is what the fee pays for: to make sure you don't have a criminal history and you are doing biometrics and all that. For the frequent-flyer portion, there is no fee associated with it. Now, the airlines are incurring a cost to reengineer their IT systems so we have interoperability with them. It's not without cost, but not to the passenger.

No Cost to the Passenger? Is Pistole not familiar with Capitalism?

The airlines will pass the IT "re-engineering" costs onto the consumer though higher airfares and/or fees. It is likely a lot more than just programming and database changes.

I am a business owner and recent laws have required I make changes to stay compliance of laws and regulations created by the US govt. These changes take time, cost money, and involve consultation with outside counsel to ensure compliance. These costs are passed onto consumers.

Unlike the TSA, air carriers are in the business to make a profit. Air carriers are not charities or an arm of the govt where everything can be put on the federal govt credit card. Air carriers must pass such costs on.

Air Carriers exist to make profits & they ultimately answer to their shareholders (unless you are one of the few private companies - I believe Spirit is one). Airlines may not always be the best investments, but it wouldn't surprise me if they made up a small portion of mutual funds that many people hold in their IRA's.

SDF

Keep in mind the TSA has at least 30, likely more, spokesmen/women on staff in order to spin just about everything.

It's all in the fine print, but they do such a good job that most of the public is snowballed.

I don't have a link, but was recently watching a program about politicians and spin that was done in response to Christine O'Donnell ending an interview with Piers Morgan (on CNN) instead of doing a dodge and spin for a response. She didn't have to end the interview, all she had to do was recognize the question, go into transition to dodge, spin the subject, and provide an answer to something else.

Apparently studies carried out indicate that most/many viewers never recognize a dodge and/or spin when a political provides a smooth, polished response to a question about something else.

Other politicians, Reagan comes to mind as a guru here, are good at taking the question they don't want to answer, cracking a joke using portions of the ?, and then going into the dodge/spin while the audience is laughing.

The TSA spokesmen/spokeswomen and John Pistole are good at doing these dodges. It's good to see you .. and many TS/S'ers recognize it. ^

Now ... only if the general public would see through the sheet being put in front of their eyes.

There's also the supervisor drug-runner in BUF and the convicted felon with a SIDA badge in RIC.

More time and money, this time by airport operators.

What Pistole fails to say is how much this is going to cost taxpayers.

Here's another goodie:

How can a study supporting the ETHICS of "behavior detection" be CLASSIFIED? (or is it just SSI)

Is there something to hide in the study? Afraid of the study being reviewed by independent professionals who are not in on the take from the TSA?

Other scientists have not only questioned the ethics, but they have questioned the science as a whole. It is junk science as far as I'm concerned; we have a history of using & creating junk science to support political agendas.

The more Pistole says (or doesn't say) about this trusted traveler program, the more I'm disgusted and convinced it is merely a data collection scheme by an agency with questionable safeguards when it comes to privacy and private data.

Most American citizens should be "trusted" without having to supply a plethora of personal information to the TSA. The CBP, unlike the TSA, has a need for personal data at Ports of Entry into the United States.

SDF

The federal government has gotten increasingly creative to get what it wants about US persons' personal information even when federal law doesn't allow the federal government to do what the federal government wants done.

The following is an example of how that is done:

http://news.yahoo.com/cia-help-nypd-...090019915.html

This TSA thing will be yet another example of that -- actually it already is.

While the above is a long read, it provides some windows into information that may not have been know by those who haven't been in on the loop about what various government OLCs in the DC Metropolitan area have been doing and not doing. The government is on an out of control fishing expedition, with very questionable financial practices that are inadequately scrutinized. Pistole is acting as if he is intent upon playing his part in enabling such even more than is already the case.

From the article GUWonder linked:

This is frightening, and is exactly where stuff like Trusted Traveler can lead. If we suspect you might do something, then we're going to get LE involved and haul you off to jail.

This is not how America is supposed to work. What is happening to this country?

I'll add it to the list.

+1

:eek: :(

So much for "Land of the Free"...

Great map. ^

You should change "CITIZEN" to "TRAVELER".

Excellent Map!

I would also add:

a second star to DTW since Tom Sawyer was harassed twice.
Screeners caught stealing from pax luggage also happened at LAX and JFK
Strip search of cancer patient happened at VPS
Pedophile screeners arrested at PHL and BOS
Kidnapper/rapist at ATL
Kidnapper at ABQ
False arrest of Yukari Miyame at PHX
Arrest of Andrea Abbott at BNA for attempting to protect her daughter
Luggage went unscreened for MONTHS at HNL

Seriously, this map could get to the point where it is nothing but TSA "stars" :rolleyes:.