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Active-duty military may be "trusted travelers"

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Old Nov 29, 2011, 1:47 pm
  #1  
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Active-duty military may be "trusted travelers"

Under a bill currently in the House of Representatives:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011...-Security.html
Originally Posted by excerpt
November 29, 2011
House Voting to Ease Airport Screening for Troops
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Military travelers on official duty would get a special preference to move through airport security checks faster under a bill before the House.

Lawmakers plan to vote Tuesday on the bill, which would give the Homeland Security Department six months to devise a new system. Passage would send the bill to the Senate.

If the legislation becomes law, the earliest beneficiaries would likely be troops returning from Afghanistan next year and their family members — who also would receive preferential treatment....
This good article makes the valid point that exempting military from excessive screening would make the lines faster for everybody else.

Bruce
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 2:33 pm
  #2  
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There are some significant flaws in this approach, but I'm not going to go down this road at the moment. Maybe later.
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 2:34 pm
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More divide and conquer if this bill is signed into law. As a NEXUS card holder, I have not had the chance to use the Pre Check program for trusted travelers yet.
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 3:13 pm
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This will do not good except maybe a few less complaints from Generals and higher ups in the military, to the detriment of the rest of us. This is one less faction complaining and we need all the complaining possible to get the Congressional weenies off their a$$es.

I agree that servicemen deserve this, but SO DO THE REST OF US!

Besides, they represent an extremely small fraction of travelers, so it will have no impact whatsoever on lines at the airports.
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 4:13 pm
  #5  
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Everyone should go through the same screening to enter the sterile area. Walk through / hand held metal detector, x-ray of belongings and Explosive Trace Portal / Explosive Trace Detection.

Nothing more, nothing less.
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 5:07 pm
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Originally Posted by N965VJ
Everyone should go through the same screening to enter the sterile area. Walk through / hand held metal detector, x-ray of belongings and Explosive Trace Portal / Explosive Trace Detection.
Which will work really well for members of the active-duty military, who often deal with Really Dangerous Explosive Stuff on a regular basis ...
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 5:40 pm
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Originally Posted by N965VJ
Everyone should go through the same screening to enter the sterile area. Walk through / hand held metal detector, x-ray of belongings and Explosive Trace Portal / Explosive Trace Detection.

Nothing more, nothing less.
Agreed. Coupled with targeted screening by intelligence for RARE threats that are ACTUAL threats, such as a Nigerian radical muslim whose own father has huge concerns enough to contact the American embassy.

Originally Posted by jkhuggins
Which will work really well for members of the active-duty military, who often deal with Really Dangerous Explosive Stuff on a regular basis ...
??? Has this been a current problem? If so, why would you raise this as a counterpoint?


From the article:
If the bill becomes law, the earliest beneficiaries likely would be troops returning from Afghanistan next year and their family members, who also would receive preferential treatment.
No way, dude. This is simply feel-good legislation "anything for the troops" just like "anything for security." Family members of active duty? Even those who have lost a son / daughter and have access to guns and explosives? The whole thing is ridiculous. Why put a big non-intelligence driven hole in security? (Answer: this has nothing to do with security.)

Has congress forgotten the Fort Hood incident?
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 5:53 pm
  #8  
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Originally Posted by jkhuggins
Which will work really well for members of the active-duty military, who often deal with Really Dangerous Explosive Stuff on a regular basis ...
Assuming they don't have any RDES with them, and only a trace is alarming, wouldn't it be resolved in same same manner as somthing like glycerin-based skin care products?
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 6:00 pm
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Originally Posted by N965VJ
Assuming they don't have any RDES with them, and only a trace is alarming, wouldn't it be resolved in same same manner as somthing like glycerin-based skin care products?
In which case, there's little need to actually test their hands for explosives, is there?

If I can explain away the explosive residue on my hands as just the glycerin in my hand lotion, to the satisfaction of TSA, then there's really no way to distinguish between me with my hand lotion, a gunnery sergeant who just came off the firing range, and an Evil Terrorist who just finished mixing up a pipe bomb artfully concealed in his luggage. At that point, there's really no point in performing the hand test in the first place.
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 6:14 pm
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It would seem to me a positive ETD would also trigger a secondary of belongings as well.
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 6:33 pm
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Would the TSA even be able to recognize members of the military?

My boyfriend flew out of GPT Halloween weekend. There were only two other people in the security line, one of whom was a soldier in full fatigues. There was a name plate on his uniform as well as on his camo bag he put through the x-ray. Unfortunately, the soldier forgot to remove his laptop which caused an "alarm". A TSO grabbed the bag, held it up and asked, "Whose is this?"
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 6:44 pm
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Originally Posted by slh14
My boyfriend flew out of GPT Halloween weekend. There were only two other people in the security line, one of whom was a soldier in full fatigues. There was a name plate on his uniform as well as on his camo bag he put through the x-ray. Unfortunately, the soldier forgot to remove his laptop which caused an "alarm". A TSO grabbed the bag, held it up and asked, "Whose is this?"
I'd cut the TSO a break for that. Civilians can carry camo bags; soldiers can carry ordinary luggage.
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Old Nov 29, 2011, 6:47 pm
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Originally Posted by N965VJ
It would seem to me a positive ETD would also trigger a secondary of belongings as well.
+1. This is logical, and a reasonable approach IMHO.

Originally Posted by jkhuggins
I'd cut the TSO a break for that. Civilians can carry camo bags; soldiers can carry ordinary luggage.
Agreed. Let's not focus on little things that screeners do -- it is pretty well established that they are the lowest of low in terms of job seekers, as there is basically zero qualifications needed to be a screener (I posted the usajobs link awhile ago.)

I would be more annoyed actually if he just assumed that the nice leather bag goes with the executive looking guy, camo with the soldier, etc. Much better to just ask.
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Old Nov 30, 2011, 5:22 am
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Originally Posted by slh14
Would the TSA even be able to recognize members of the military?
Only if they present a valid, active duty Common Access Card.

Even though all of my jobs during my entire working career have been in support of the DoD and I thank all those who wear the uniform, there are those in the military that can become quite disenfranchised with their government and may be well trained to do something about it.....with negative consequences.

Equal, appropriate (and non-theatrical) screening for all...
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Old Nov 30, 2011, 5:51 am
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If I'd be Al Kaida, I know what I had to do now.. after all, US Army isn't like very much able to pick who may join them, they'll sign anyone they get a hold off.

So send some of your wanna-be-terrorists to the us army, have them go through security on their first flight "out", and there you got all the stuff needed for a serious plane-hijack (I assume you can just switch it to another wanna-be-terrorist who travelled till the airport toilet as regular traveller, so you can even re-use your army "terrorist".)

No need to put some explosives into shoes or other BS, just have them travel through security with a "trusted traveller". Nice one.. but given the current Republican presidential candidates, I won't be surprised by anything coming from the US of A.
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