Rep. Mica: TSA 'Out of Control'
Apr 16, 2011 | 7:33 pm
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Rep. Mica: TSA 'Out of Control'
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/J...4/16/id/393095
Sorry to "derail" any conversations by mentioning "politics," but since politicians caused our current Travel Safety/Security problem, they may be our best hope for a resolution.
Frankly, this is good news:
Sorry to "derail" any conversations by mentioning "politics," but since politicians caused our current Travel Safety/Security problem, they may be our best hope for a resolution.
Frankly, this is good news:
The TSA is an agency that has spun out of control, Mica declares.
It should be focused on a very narrow number of people who pose a threat. And then I think the agency has to start being a thinking agency, actually get out of the screening business and get into the security and intelligence business where they can be the most effective.
Were shaking down little old ladies. Were shaking down military, patting down children who dont pose a risk, for goodness sakes. We should pick people out there who can make a better determination of who to go after, and we should have the information. It should be embedded in the ticket.
These systems have been around. Ive seen them tested and actually operating in other countries. Instead they create a huge 63,000-person army with 3,700 administrators in Washington, D.C., making on average of $105,000 apiece. The system absolutely cries out for reform.
Mica said in December he tested the new technology for naked body scanners and in January tested new pat-down procedures and I can tell you the results were dismal. Neither of these are effective.
They should be looking for a limited number or people who pose a threat. They should be subject to thorough examination. Also the behavior detection program is a complete failure. We need to be training people to be looking for bad guys, and we should have intelligence that helps us get those folks even before they get to the gate.
I was an advocate of using behavior [to screen passengers], not profiling by race or other ethnic measures.
TSA has hired 3,300 additional people at a quarter of a billion dollars cost. The results that have been disclosed show that has been a failure too.
Mica has stated that airports should be able to opt out of TSA screening and hire private screeners instead.
I wrote a law to allow private screening under federal supervision and had five demonstration airports, he tells Newsmax.
Then we tested the all-federal [screeners] against the private screening with federal supervision. The model with private screening under federal supervision performed, the GAO said, significantly better. So why would you pay more to get less performance?
The only countries in the West that are left with all-government models of screening like the United States has are Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland.
But it is hard to change the TSA, he adds, because it is a huge bureaucracy that is not very open to change. Theyre protecting their turf. We have a system that cries out for reform.
It should be focused on a very narrow number of people who pose a threat. And then I think the agency has to start being a thinking agency, actually get out of the screening business and get into the security and intelligence business where they can be the most effective.
Were shaking down little old ladies. Were shaking down military, patting down children who dont pose a risk, for goodness sakes. We should pick people out there who can make a better determination of who to go after, and we should have the information. It should be embedded in the ticket.
These systems have been around. Ive seen them tested and actually operating in other countries. Instead they create a huge 63,000-person army with 3,700 administrators in Washington, D.C., making on average of $105,000 apiece. The system absolutely cries out for reform.
Mica said in December he tested the new technology for naked body scanners and in January tested new pat-down procedures and I can tell you the results were dismal. Neither of these are effective.
They should be looking for a limited number or people who pose a threat. They should be subject to thorough examination. Also the behavior detection program is a complete failure. We need to be training people to be looking for bad guys, and we should have intelligence that helps us get those folks even before they get to the gate.
I was an advocate of using behavior [to screen passengers], not profiling by race or other ethnic measures.
TSA has hired 3,300 additional people at a quarter of a billion dollars cost. The results that have been disclosed show that has been a failure too.
Mica has stated that airports should be able to opt out of TSA screening and hire private screeners instead.
I wrote a law to allow private screening under federal supervision and had five demonstration airports, he tells Newsmax.
Then we tested the all-federal [screeners] against the private screening with federal supervision. The model with private screening under federal supervision performed, the GAO said, significantly better. So why would you pay more to get less performance?
The only countries in the West that are left with all-government models of screening like the United States has are Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland.
But it is hard to change the TSA, he adds, because it is a huge bureaucracy that is not very open to change. Theyre protecting their turf. We have a system that cries out for reform.
Apr 16, 2011 | 7:53 pm
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Originally Posted by An American on another forum
A congressman whose subcommittee oversees national security issues said he was "personally outraged and disgusted" over the security pat-down.
"This conduct is in clear violation of TSA's explicit policy not to conduct thorough pat-downs on children under the age of 13," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, said in a statement Wednesday.
"This conduct is in clear violation of TSA's explicit policy not to conduct thorough pat-downs on children under the age of 13," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, said in a statement Wednesday.
If Congress would do its job and bring about a legislative solution to the issue, the courts wouldn’t need to be involved.
Your legislature created this mess, they need to clean it up.
Apr 16, 2011 | 8:12 pm
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According to a handful of twits, we're supposed to pretend our legislature didn't create an opening for citizens' Constitutional rights to be trampled, and our fascist executive branch didn't thoroughly exploit the legislature's error. We're supposed to pretend politics have nothing to do with the TSA's malfeasance.
We can't pretend our Constitutional crisis away. We have to demand action. Our Executive branch should not have exploited our vulnerability, and our legislature should have fixed the problem.
Pretending away the politicians' role in the TSA debacle won't solve anything.
Apr 16, 2011 | 9:16 pm
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Apr 17, 2011 | 6:49 am
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The problem is the public who are apathetic, ignorant or paranoid such that they grant cover for the "security" forces to do whatever they do and thus get cover from the bulk of the elected, appointed and hired whose paycheck is issued by the government.
Responsibility for the TSA being "out of control" rests with the American electorate, and we've gotten the TSA we deserve.
The likes of Mica being able to hold the TSA in check is constrained as long as the American electorate fosters the apathy, ignorance and paranoia that has granted cover for the "security" forces to do whatever they do and given us the TSA we deserve.
Responsibility for the TSA being "out of control" rests with the American electorate, and we've gotten the TSA we deserve.
The likes of Mica being able to hold the TSA in check is constrained as long as the American electorate fosters the apathy, ignorance and paranoia that has granted cover for the "security" forces to do whatever they do and given us the TSA we deserve.
Apr 17, 2011 | 9:23 am
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The problem is the public who are apathetic, ignorant or paranoid such that they grant cover for the "security" forces to do whatever they do and thus get cover from the bulk of the elected, appointed and hired whose paycheck is issued by the government.
Responsibility for the TSA being "out of control" rests with the American electorate, and we've gotten the TSA we deserve.
The likes of Mica being able to hold the TSA in check is constrained as long as the American electorate fosters the apathy, ignorance and paranoia that has granted cover for the "security" forces to do whatever they do and given us the TSA we deserve.
Responsibility for the TSA being "out of control" rests with the American electorate, and we've gotten the TSA we deserve.
The likes of Mica being able to hold the TSA in check is constrained as long as the American electorate fosters the apathy, ignorance and paranoia that has granted cover for the "security" forces to do whatever they do and given us the TSA we deserve.
Apr 17, 2011 | 9:26 am
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Again, this is not an ideological issue. It's a human one.
Apr 17, 2011 | 9:27 am
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Even if just that disposition toward commercial enterprises changed, nothing would change in terms of the TSA merely because of that. The TSA is wrong about a lot of things but it seems to have been correct in operating as if substantially more than 50% of the electorate are so apathetic, ignorant and/or paranoid that the TSA would have the cover it needs to stay substantively on the same course we've already seen it follow.