txrus

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...3137.story?sdf

OldGoat

One of many who stick their hands down our pants, for our own protection, of course.

Spiff

Didn't he pass a background check when he was hired? How could this have happened?

Ari

Looks like this officer was a real catch!

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...,6755945.story

"TSA agent accused in 9/11 threat had 'shamed' teen girl at LAX"

mikeef

[sarcasm]Why bother with the background check? He had a really funny name. No way he should have been allowed near the airport. Extra scrutiny, anyway.[/sarcasm]

Mike

callum9999

I'd imagine their crystal ball was broken the day they did his background check.

TheBOSman

Does Chertoff Group represent any crystal ball manufacturers? If not, TSA probably doesn't even have one.

ILuvParis

Is this any different than disgruntled former employees of other employers doing crazy things?

RatherBeOnATrain

Yes.

Transportation Security Officer Nna Alpha Onuoha had unfettered access to the "sterile" parts of LAX.... yet was so unstable that a 15 year-old passenger could figure out something was seriously wrong with him, per this article from June:

Los Angeles Times:
TSA investigates claim LAX agent 'shamed' teenage girl over attire
June 18, 2013

Be sure to check out Transportation Security Officer Nna Alpha Onuoha's website, as documented in this article:

KTLA-Television:
Evacuations Ordered in Inglewood at Home of Arrested TSA Worker
September 11, 2013

SeriouslyLost

If only the HR staff recruiters had BDO training! Quick, expand the programme!

Spiff

What other employers tout a background check as reason for letting employees skip the harassment and sexual assaults that non-employees receive when entering a so-called "sterile" area? Or leaving someplace where others' valuables are stored? Or when entering/leaving someplace where contraband could be introduced without the knowledge of the owner of the container?

RatherBeOnATrain

Some very interesting details in this article:

LA Times:
TSA agent accused in 9/11 threat; website warned of 'end of the world
September 11, 2013 - UPDATE 10:50 a.m


A short quote:

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said Onuaha had been a screener at LAX since 2006, but recently was suspended from his job.

On Wednesday morning, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force was searching the Harvest Christian Fellowship Church in Riverside and a van in its parking lot as part of its investigation.

The search is out of an “abundance of caution” after federal agents arrested Onuoha in his van there Tuesday night, Eimiller said.

After his suspension Tuesday, Onuoha left a resignation letter and a package at the TSA's LAX office which contained unspecified threats against the airport, a law enforcement source said.

If I am reading this correctly, he was suspended from his TSA job yesterday (on Tuesday, 9/10/2013). He responded to that suspension by resigning and making threats.

When did he last screen passengers and what caused TSA to suspend him?

I wonder if someone, outside of TSA, discovered his website...maybe the boingboing editor finally found out the name of the TSO who had harrassed his daughter and did his own background checking?

HawaiiTrvlr

An update as he gets ready to stand trial (or was supposed to).

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...05-19-18-03-36

You would think that the TSA background check would have caught any kind of mental issues but apparently not.

WillCAD

Background checks are slanted heavily toward looking for past criminal convictions and affiliation with any known terrorist groups. They don't delve as deeply into one's past as a security clearance does, and they certainly don't include any mandatory mental health evaluation. As such, it is not only possible but highly likely that the background check would completely miss any mental instability if it had never led to an arrest.

I don't know whether a federal background check even looks for past commitments to mental institutions, since such a commitment is considered health-relation information. It might be protected under ADA. It might also be simply considered irrelevant to those paranoids among us who are tasked with looking for terrorists and foreign spies; those who might become terrorists or foreign spies; those who have associated with terrorists or foreign spies; or those who once caught a whiff of a terrorist's or foreign spy's cologne from across a crowded room and are thus considered "under the influence" of said terrorist or foreign spy.

N830MH

You have no absolutely idea. Why it has happening at airport today?

How could be happen? Why TSA accused the teen girl? This is sickening! Leave the teen girls alone! DO NOT TOUCH HER! She had it right to kept her privacy.