Is it really true that not one person the TSA has ever prevented from boarding a plane has ever been convicted (or even prosecuted) for being a threat to the flight they were prevented from boarding?

I do believe it is. Kind of makes you wonder what's REALLY going on. If they weren't enough of a threat to be prosecuted, why were they prevented from flying, right?

The TSA's job is not to catch terrorists but to dissuade them from trying to get on planes in the first place. This works as well as my sprinkling of magic fairy dust to keep polar bears away (hey I don't see no polar bears round my way)

Of course the fact that this implies there are people already in the US who want to commit terrorist acts on their day off hasn't occurred to them - as does the fact that in order to commit a terrorist act they would either have to obtain terrorist materials whilst in the US or smuggle them in from outside.

But hassling people on the off-chance that US immigration processes might fail seems to be the better option

TSAs real job is to make commercial air travel as unpleasant as humanly possible. Notice that each time passengers get used to what they do, they make the procedure even more invasive.

TSA is really good at finding people carrying drugs for personal use.

Not to debate the merits of drugs and drug use, but they haven't even caught any drug kingpins, just people with a the equivalent of a couple joints of marijuana.

The new invasive patdown already found 1 such person and the BDOs have been great at detecting them as well.

TSA's job is to interdict WEI as it moves from the land side of airports to airside.

That's the whole deal in a nut shell.

All of the rest of the TSA BS is just that, BS.

I think that it is true. I'm sure they'll catch a really big terrorist any day now though.

I wonder how many terrorists they have created.

400 pounds, at least.

While that is probably true, they have stopped (as did whatever system was in place before) people with guns, knives, etc from getting on the plane. Terrorists? Probably not, but nobody knows their intent with whatever they were carrying.

They are ever watchful though of people carrying checks for deposit.

Large denomination paper cuts are a serious threat.

Plus political contributions and campaign literature.

Originally Posted by cordelli
While that is probably true, they have stopped (as did whatever system was in place before) people with guns, knives, etc from getting on the plane. Terrorists? Probably not, but nobody knows their intent with whatever they were carrying.

TSA can't seem to win with some people. All I can say on this matter is that although there are some things that I have to do for my job that I don't agree with I do it because it's my job. I'm sure there are many people out there that have been asked to do something on the job that they don't necessarily agree with. However in TSA's defense, for those who say TSA has never caught a terrorist, you may win that debate. But there has been many incidents that go on which is not public knowledge for fear or creating mass hysteria. There has been incidents of surveillance which has been caught, incidents of test runs, which have been caught, IED components, which have been caught....all by TSA in conjunction other government entities. This will not be publicized because it will cause hysteria amongst the general public.

Welcome to Flyer Talk,

You are so correct about one item, "TSA can't seem to win with some people", and I count myself among those^

As to the rest of your post

Hysteria, I really doubt it.

So you admit that you do things for TSA that you don't agree with.

Is part of that the groping children and little old ladies? Or is it just looking at the naked images?

Of course TSA hasn't caught any terrorists in the act. They're so effective, they've dissuaded all terrorists from actually trying anything on US soil. [/sarcasm]