Sometimes, TSA is not as evil it seems to us.
#31
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Colorado
Programs: TSA
Posts: 2,745
Many of us have been posting about removing TSA since its unfortunate inception. There was no valid reason to replace the security screening companies that had been working on 9/11 with the disgusting, un-American piece of crap agency known as TSA.
Look around this forum. There's 13+ years' worth of real alternatives to the TSA mistake.
Screening practices should be completely up to the airlines and the government should have zero say in the matter. The airlines have a vested interest in their planes not blowing up and will take appropriate measures.
Look around this forum. There's 13+ years' worth of real alternatives to the TSA mistake.
Screening practices should be completely up to the airlines and the government should have zero say in the matter. The airlines have a vested interest in their planes not blowing up and will take appropriate measures.
#33
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Between AUS, EWR, and YTO In a little twisty maze of airline seats, all alike.. but I wanna go home with the armadillo
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#34
Moderator: Coupon Connection & S.P.A.M
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Louisville, KY
Programs: Destination Unknown, TSA Disparager Diamond (LTDD)
Posts: 57,953
#35
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 3,657
And having an aircraft hijacked due to poor screening is also bad for one's profit margin --- so much so that airlines will have strong incentive to have adequate security.
#36
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: San Jose, California, USA
Programs: AS 100K, UA MM, AA MM, IC Plat Amb, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Explorist
Posts: 3,146
Cue "See, it's working already!" joke from Cracker Jack box, ca. 1977
Bill: Flapping my arms to keep the alligators away.
Tom: But there are no alligators around here.
Bill: See, it's working already!
#37
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 3,657
#38
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Baltimore, MD USA
Programs: Southwest Rapid Rewards. Tha... that's about it.
Posts: 4,332
Your agency has not prevented a single terrorist incident. It has not caught a single terrorist. It has not even assisted in achieving one of those goals.
Your agency has a 0% success rate. It has not done the thing it was designed to to do and is given $8 billion a year to do, even once, even partially, even a tiny little bit, ever.
Obviously, a metal detector can't detect IEDs unless they have metalic components. But it's not the metal detector's job to detect IEDs, never has been and never will be.
The metal detector's purpose, from the first day it was deployed back in the 70s, is to detect metalic weapons, which could be used to hijack a plane or create a mass casualty among the passengers. Hijacking is almost extinct, thanks to 9/11, because 9/11 caused flight deck doors to be reinforced and has frightened pax and pilots into never again cooperating with hijackers for fear of a kamikaze run. However, mass casualty incidents - mass shootings or slashings - are still a possibility among the passengers, and while these incidents don't post a threat to the aircraft itself, I am in favor of continuing to use the WTMD and HHMD to screen for firearms and large edged weapons.
Detecting IEDs can only be done with techniques or technology that detects the one indispensible part of such a device, the explosives themselves. Either sniffer dogs or chemical detectors work, up to a point. Of course the carry-on x-ray can also be of assistance since, it will show some explosives like C4 as a solid mass that must be investigated further.
But, hey, nice straw man you threw up there. Kudos!
#39
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 57,597
Just because you repeat a lie over and over again doesn't make it true.
#40
Join Date: Jul 2007
Programs: QFF
Posts: 5,304
Airport security on September 11 2001 did not allow the event to occur. As TSA is less effective then screening methods prior to 9/11, the chances of another 9/11 style event happening is higher now then it was before.
#41
Join Date: Jul 2007
Programs: QFF
Posts: 5,304
However, mass casualty incidents - mass shootings or slashings - are still a possibility among the passengers, and while these incidents don't post a threat to the aircraft itself, I am in favor of continuing to use the WTMD and HHMD to screen for firearms and large edged weapons
#42
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Baltimore, MD USA
Programs: Southwest Rapid Rewards. Tha... that's about it.
Posts: 4,332
And The Bad Guys know it, which is why they moved on to the next threat vector, passenger-detonated explosives. And that failed miserably - twice - so they moved on to the next threat vector, explosives in cargo. Which failed, but barely, so it may happen again before they move on to the next threat vector.
I think that's a wild exaggeration. If TSA had radically increased the chances of a mass shooting aboard an aircraft, why hasn't there been even one attempt at it during TSA's entire 12 years of existence?
#43
Moderator: Coupon Connection & S.P.A.M
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Louisville, KY
Programs: Destination Unknown, TSA Disparager Diamond (LTDD)
Posts: 57,953
Longer lines are a perfect soft target for a bomber or shooter.
So are the crowds that come into being when TSA performs one of their stupid, unnecessary terminal dumps.
So are the crowds that come into being when TSA performs one of their stupid, unnecessary terminal dumps.
Last edited by essxjay; Feb 12, 2014 at 12:03 pm Reason: reference to deleted post
#45
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Between AUS, EWR, and YTO In a little twisty maze of airline seats, all alike.. but I wanna go home with the armadillo
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Every time I read the name of this thread I think, "Sometimes, TSA is not as evil it seems to us. Sometimes it's wrse."