TSA "continues to operate in disarray" with unvetted workers and lost credentials
 

Full story here...

http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...nal-histories/

I think it would just be easier to assume that the TSA is in a continuous state of disarray and post something when it gets fixed.

Of course, then we'd have a very empty forum.

Mike

I've learned to live with the disarray that the government seems to have just noticed.

I don't care about disarray. I just want to be able to transit a US checkpoint the same way I transit checkpoints everywhere else in the world: no barking, no hands inside my pants, no fingers in my butt crack, no groin chops, no rifling my bag when it is out of my sight, no BS 'screener discretion' used to steal my nitro pills.

What next? TSA requires you to squat and cough before your scan or grope?

http://www.bodyorificescanner.com/us...b-o-s-s-press/

Boss III chair!

Next Layer?
 

WOW, just, WOW! Is this the next "layer" of security for airline passengers? :confused::eek:

While the chair is real I doubt that TSA would be allowed to use such a device. Customs on the other hand might find it very useful.

For those interested in the testimony mention on the freebeacon article, see House Oversight committee "Securing Our Skies: Oversight of Aviation Credentials"

Testimony of DHS Inspector General John Roth:

“TSA does not recurrently vet airport workers’ criminal histories after they are initially cleared to work, but rely on individuals to self-report disqualifying crimes.”

From the Feb 3, 2016, testimony of TSA Deputy Assistant Administrator Darby LaJoye:

TSA recognizes the value of conducting more frequent, or recurrent, criminal checks on workers to identify cases where there has been subsequent criminal activity since the original application. To date, TSA ... does not have access to recurrent criminal checks as are available to law enforcement agencies.

Feb 4, 2016 statement of TSA Administrator Peter to foxnews:


“Right now we have 900,000 or so people that are badged in some level of access to airports across the nation,” Neffenger told Fox. “They are recurrently vetted – I mean, on a daily basis – against terrorist databases for any information that may indicate that they are people that we need to be concerned about.”

Somebody's not telling the truth. Can we guess which one?

Just more evidence of the disarray that TSA operates in. Even the TSA leadership (I cringe when I write that) can't get their stories straight.

Some additional national attention to the TSA's inability to do its job:
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/mi...security-abyss

Misleading
 

The article blurs the line between TSA and all employees. The issue is with all other employees. There is a lot of buck passing on this issue. TSA runs their employees every 24 hours.

What do you mean by "TSA runs their employees every 24 hours"?

I assume TSA does the 5 year background check cycle common to some other agencies.

Sure they do. :rolleyes: I guess you believe it because Neffenger said it.

If I take a huge leap of faith and define "Runs their employees" as the equivalent of a cop "running" a warrant check during a traffic stop, the TSA would be essentially doing ~60,000 traffic stops every day. This assumes that all of the TSA data bases upon which people are "run" are updated at least daily in order to be accurate. Doing this 60,000 times per day just isn't happening and 900,000 per day is somewhere between lying and delusional.

I didn't speculate on exactly what eyecue meant by that statement so I asked.

Unfortunately eyecue has a habit of dropping in but not hanging around to discuss her statements.

I suspect a successful daily vetting means the badge reader didn't reject your badge, nothing more.

Even that would be highly suspect, given the hundreds of unaccounted-for credentials.

Even simpler, there are no warrants out for them.

...and doesn't take piggybacking into account...

I'll second this question: What the heck do you mean by that?

I have serious doubts that TSA checks the identities of all 60,000 TSA employees against the no-fly list, terrorist watch lists, NCIC, or anything else, on a daily basis.

I doubt that the union even runs the entire 60,000 employee roster to check for unpaid dues more than twice a week.

Dude, that's totally against the rules! It's like, a fireable offense!

I wonder how many tens of thousands of TSOs do it on a daily basis?

OK, what am I missing here?

If I book a plane ticket, supposedly my name is checked against a variety of databases to make sure I'm not listed somewhere.

But TSA can't check their own employees against these databases because they claim they don't have all the access they need?

No animus, but this is seriously the worst-run organization I have ever had the misfortune to encounter - and I am not even talking about the checkpoint experience.

HQ spokespeople who consistently post misleading or flat-out wrong information - I won't use a harsher and more accurate term, but Blogdad Bob clearly does not understand the meaning of truth. But you also had Ross, who sounded honest, who said the 'name game' was gone at airports - and it wasn't.

You've got HQ funding sign-up stations and advertising for Pre even as more and more airports are watering it down or refusing altogether to offer it (PHX, notably, but there are others).

You had John Pistole publicly apologizing to Mr. Sawyer and assuring him that no TSO would ever again manhandle and rupture a pax ostomy bag - yet a few months later, the same thing happened to Sawyer again at the SAME airport (fortunately the bag didn't burst the second time).

They are waaaaay worse than the IRS ever dreamed of being. The IRS has its faults, but there is a sense that it is a coherent organization with a sense of mission.

TSA - even at HQ, 'consistent inconsistency' abounds.

Part of what you are missing is that this isn't only about TSA employees. Part of what is being reported is that TSA doesn't have in place policies mandating that airport workers have ongoing security checks completed and there are questions about the initial checks and workers status to even have the authority to enter the sterile area.

Read the report carefully and you will realize that TSA is putting us all at risk.

TSA employees are run through the watch list databases every 24 hours. The NCIC checks and local checks are conducted yearly and randomly also. Then there is the 10 year reinvestigation that includes EVERYTHING including financial status. My last 10 year review took 90 minutes with 2 examiners!

Now the story changes.

The issue with all other employees and buck passing is every SIDA employee at an airport has to have a background check done. TSA runs them and there WAS an issue with TSA checks not being allowed access to other agencies response codes to the query . So some of the employees that are not TSA could have been on a database for another agency and that agency did not have integration into TSA's system so the results were not valid. The issue has since been corrected.

How so?

IT does not take long to run a database checks on known members. If you use a database signature file and the file has not changed, then the result is null.

First it was runs every employee every 24 hours. Now it's down to runs every employees through the watch list every 24 hours - as if that is going to find anything - and running the more important NCIC and local lists once yearly.

You say TSA does background checks? Isn't that actually contracted out to government contractors who a few years back were found to be pencil whipping the checks? And in the reported story original and follow up checks are not being completed properly.

Now I agree TSA is responsible for oversight of background checks but like most other things TSA is responsible for TSA has failed in this endeavor also.

And this is standard for all TSA employees regardless of whether they screen passengers or luggage? Like, the janitors at TSA HQ? Or did you mis-type, and mean to say that these checks are conducted on TSOs and screening personnel?

By the way, I'm going to guess that the information you just posted is most likely SSI, and by posting it on the internet you may have violated your employment agreement and could be subject to termination.