I actually stand by the TSA on this one. ^ The royals in US soil failed to follow US protocol. :p They should have been thankful that the TSA allowed exceptions to screening in the first place if protocol was followed.

- Pat

IMHO, this points to the absurdity of the entire screening system as it exists today. Wanding feet and groping Princes seems more like an acid crazed surrealist farce movie from the sixties than a government security force. :confused:

The metal detector should have beeen looking for metal.
The State Department should have escorted the Prince of Spain.
Screeners should be seen and not heard.

Nice bait, but the fish aren't biting. Put your flame hook on some other thread.

90% of TSA agents should be IN Afghanistan looking under rocks.

Because they are high profile targets, and if the Prince of Freakin' Spain were attacked on US soil, it would be more than annoying.

:eek:

Yes. It's called 'inteligence'. The State department is supposed to have it. If they don't, we ALL should be asking why. It doesn't take six hours to arrange an escort and a limo. They should have been there. Period.

So what? He's still the Prince of Freakin' Spain.

They are all part of the TSA's fantasy(wet dream) of security.

It probably was some other TSA'hole.

Nice bait, but...

No Bait Higherflyer.

The fact is, you've gone out of your way to say that Me, TSADude, TSAMGR, and Cactuspete are off topic. Cactuspete doesn't seem to work for TSA so I can't form the opinion that you don't like us simply because we're working for the TSA or were. Then when presented with evidence, that you went off topic you call it bait, fine.

Anyway, how is it respectful for us to track honor'ed guest everywhere they go? Whats the point to asking them for 72 hours notice when they come to a airport in this country, if we already know their going to be here?


As you haven't met 90% of the TSA agents, that statement is a back handed slap to everyone of us But that seems to be your intent to insult with every post you make, so be it.

Ok why is 72 hours notice requested, if by your words, 6 hours is enough to setup a escort and limo?

Ok, I'll play along too. Where did I say that the TSA should be responsible for ANYTHING other than looking under rocks?
I said the State Department should have been there. I said they had enough time to get him an escort *and* bake him a cake.
the Prince of Freakin' Spain never should have had to even see the wanna be rent a cops.
You are right to say it was the State Department who were at fault, and that they don't care about security, but don't be so quick to shift the blame. It makes you seem petty.

Please stop trying to bait me off topic.

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Disneyland has it figured out, why not the State Department?

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There is no point.

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I was refering to the fact that IMHO, 90% of what the TSA does is useless. Therefore, the interests of security would be better served if 90% of TSA agents were looking under rocks in Afghanistan.

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It's fine to ask for 72 hours, and I'm sure it would have been nice to have 72 hours. But, six hours should have been enough.

Let me give this for you then:

The 72 hours is something of a courtesy that the United States ask been shown. The Prince and his guest didn't show this courtesy. The United States proably did know they were on the way, like you state they should know.

But in the United States, being taking around security and not being subjected to it is also a courtesy. Maybe the State Dept. didn't see fit to be courteous to the Prince because he didn't seem to respect the US enough to show them the simple courteous of 72 hours notice.

Petty, Sure. Fact of life, Yes. Happens everyday.

Why do you state that? Personal Experience working with the government?

Maybe there is a point. Maybe it's a specific team that does it for that area because they know the people of that airport. Maybe this team has other duties and the request of 72 hours is asked so they can set it up, so it's easy for them and easy for the Prince.

Sorry if you just fly a group in from Washington, with no experience of the airport or the people in it, or maybe even the Prince, and ask them to screen him and his group and have him at his flight by this time, you might be asking for trouble.

If a team seems rushed or doesn't know what their doing, don't you think it's just a big a slap to the face for the Prince?

What does it matter if he is the Prince of Spain or the Queen of Corona? I have never understood why the Result of A Royal Climax deserves any more consideration than anyone else.

:rolleyes: AGAIN, (Read my lips) It's not about courtesy, it's about protecting our @$$es in case someone tries to molest our guests.

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Yes it happens every day. To thousands of harmless innocent citizens. And yes, it is petty. But I was refering to the pettyness of saying 'it's not us, it's the State Department's fault'.
It's similar to the pettyness of attacking spiff instead of answering the hard questions he asks.

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Are we supposed to depend on Maybe, Maybe, Sorry, to defend against terrorism? :rolleyes:

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The TSA ALWAYS seems rushed and NEVER seems to know what it's doing. I doubt the State Department could have been worse than what happened.

Now just because you can't stand the idea of Felipe Borbon, Lizzie Windsor, Beatrix Orange-Nassau et al basing their power on stange women lying in ponds, distributing swords, does not excuse the MIA FSD from dealing with the situation in this amateurish way.

:rolleyes: AGAIN, a lot of stuff is about courtesy. They very well could have known he was coming weeks ago. They may have even had the airport secure to protect against any possible threats.

But since he didn't give the courtesy of notice, the State Department decided to send him through screening just like everyone else.


Two different things. One is a team that deals directly with a honor'd guest and you want to make him happy I guess.

The other deals with a threat.

And look what happened, A Prince of Freaking Egypt is pissed.

And I would guess that the State Department is better because they've been doing this for many many years and yet here is one of the first reports I've heard.


Anyway, neither of us seem to work for the State Department, so we can't know exaclty how they work and why they ask for the 72 hours notice.

Admittedly, I find the idea of royalty in the 21st century to be ridiculous but if Spain, the UK, Holland, or any other country wants to support a royal family that is their business. America, as a republic, does not need to prostrate itself before the spawn of any monarch. If the US does decide to honor their status it does so on its own terms. If those terms include 72 hours notice, than it is up to the royals either to give that notice or to be treated as anyone else would be.

It is important to remember that the only function of monarchs in the Western world is a symbolic one. Some, like Elizabeth Windsor, handle it with quite a bit of class. Others, and apparently the Clown Prince is among them, do not.

As a representative of a country which has just suffered a major terrorist attack, and which itself screens air passengers, he had the opportunity to symbolically demonstrate his support of anti-terrorism efforts by going through the screening with a smile. Instead, he chose only to demonstrate his support for his own imagined dignity by throwing a childish temper tantrum.

I agree with you on some of the above points save one. Heads of state and their dependents are normally granted certain courtesies befitting their status in their home country. This is sort of like France telling Pres. Bush's daughters to go ***** themselves since the Secret Service is not going to be allowed to go through customs, airport security, etc. with arms -- all because they did not give 72-hour notice. If the Bush Administration can get Bin Laden's relations and several Saudis with dubious connections out of the country in less than 72 hours, then perhaps they should be able to arrange for a near-guaranteed future head of state to enter in less time.

Flexibility and common sense count for something. Bureaucratic rigidity combined with foolishness count for less. ;)

I do disagree with your assertion that the terrorist attacks in Spain should have "sensitivized" him to the threat of terrorism; I also disagree that he is insensitive to the suffering of his fellow citizen-subjects. If Spaniards want to scrap the monarchy, then all the more power to them. However, until that time, there is little need for us to make or break local, popular powers (be they elected, selected or set). With the principal of reciprocity in mind, we should extend similar courtesies as those extended to us, and that includes not being bogged down by some kind of 72-hour rigidity.

Man is not machine and that is our species' core competency. ;)

And this attitude is exactly why many of our former friends in europe now see the U.S. as a rogue state. :(