And when did that become the government's concern?

Bruce

Why don't you ask people in South Carolina, for example, who have been jailed for non-payment of child support and have had their right to travel abrogated by the state through disallowing the issuance or renewal of passports.

http://www.state.sc.us/dss/csed/enforce.htm



Those COC statements are there purely for the airline's bottom line and have NOTHING to do with preventing terrorism.

Every step of the way on my last trip, the airline representatives checked my passport and boarding pass before my getting on a plane. I understand that. That's the price I pay for flying those particular airlines, as I'm traveling under their rules.

What does any of this have to do with the TSA?

What's that got to do with someone traveling under a fake name with matching ID and BP?

And if you don't ask for ID or other proof from an under-18 child, you have no idea if he/she is the individual named on the BP. That's a double risk: they may be traveling under a 'transferred' ticket and they aren't subject to the more stringent screening protocols adults are.

FWIW, I want to reiterate that no one is more cringing and obedient and obsequious than I am at a checkpoint. All "yessir, yes ma'am", avoid eye contact, quiet voice, immediate compliance, when a TDC said "you don't look very cheerful today" I immediately drummed up a smile to avoid trouble, even when I was catching a flight to a hospital death bed', when one snatched my BP/ID back and said 'what do you say now?', I dutifully answered 'thank you, sir'. If they demand that I sing my name three times, clap my hands and touch my toes, I do it.

My understanding is that the TSA is funded by airlines, thus it's also serving as an inspection point for the airlines.

Your understanding is incorrect. TSA is funded through passenger extortion receipts + taxes taken at gunpoint from the populace. Tony Soprano (RIP) would be proud.

The twin scenario may not happen much now, but Chang and Eng Bunker used to do it all the time.

Your understanding is wrong.

Further, why should TSA function as an inspection point for the airlines? Why should I, a private citizen, subsidize the airlines' revenue enforcement policies with my tax dollars?

So you should readily be able to show us the C.F.R. that grants the TSA this authority. At the screening checkpoint, I have only found the authority for the TSA to search for WEI.

In addition to the (numerous, excellent) points made by jkhuggins and WillCAD in post #172 and #173, the name game also gives TSA employees an (additional :rolleyes:) opportunity to harrass non-English speakers. :td:

Airport security in other countries does not require passengers to say their name (or even, in many countries, to show an ID) and so the demand at a US airport comes unexpectedly for a foreign visitor. The passenger may reply with "What?" or "Excuse me?" or "I don't understand" in their own language, rather than saying their name. And then there's going to be a time-wasting argument.
And this would be compounded if Mr Koskinen and Mrs Djurhuus had a limited grasp of English or was hard of hearing.

Many Gaelic, Scottish or English names are also counterintuitive. I can easily imagine the TDC thinking they've made the "big catch" because the ID says "Niamh Featherstonhaugh" and the person says "neeve fan-shaw".

To TSA, the foreign visitors or people with difficult names are only a minority (and suspicious anyway) and so the inconvenience to them can be ignored. But Niamh and St John Dalziel, and Siobhan Cholmondeley have to put up with this idiotic process every time they fly.

Refused to say my name, got through anyway
 

When I travel in Australia I don't have to show my ID, say my name, NOR show my boarding pass to get through security. How many terror attacks have occurred in an Aussie airport? Or Aussie soil for that matter?

For domestic travel within Australia, I print my BP online or from a kiosk, drop my checked bag at an automated station, go through security without showing any papers, wordlessly hand my BP to an airline agent who scans the barcode, and board the plane, where the FA glances at the BP long enough to tell me where my seat is. In other words, from the moment I arrive at airport A to the moment I leave airport B, NO ONE checks my ID and NO ONE asks me any official questions.

The most intense human interaction in the entire airport process is the Qantas Club attendant checking my membership card. :D

And I can do it with my shoes on, and with 7 kilograms of water, wine, shampoo, snow globes or cupcakes in my carry-on. ^^

There are some small airports in Australia which have no security checks. Passengers arriving from such ports at, say, SYD, go through security on arrival before entering the terminal.

(But I am disappointed that Australian int'l airports have been infested with the NoS, which appears to be a gesture to the Americans.)

I am pretty sure the bouncers apply the technique selectively, too. You know, based on things like actual data and risk assessment.

Your understanding of so many things is so wrong! You write like an adult -- that's a compliment -- but I'm going to repeat another poster's question: "How old are you?" Your naivete about how the world works is child-like.

Bruce

I'm in my late 20's and not uneducated at all, I'm an MBA student and I've lived in nine cites.