Does the upper management of the DHS & TSA lurk on FT?
 

We all know the TSA regulars that post here on a regular basis. My question is whether anyone of real authority from the upper management of the TSA or the DHS lurks on this board? We know that we have lurkers on many of the airline & hotel boards that do this on a regular basis. Has anyone been contacted as a result of their posts made here?

I hope that the "upper management" (relatives of pols and @$$kissing brown-nosing sycophants) do lurk here. Maybe they would get some positive ideas.

As to whether any posting individuals have been contacted, let's think through this statement and its implications. Contact could be by private messaging. Not likely, and I imagine that the regular posters here would have written about such contacts. Because most of the posters, at least in this forum, use screen names, they are anonymous. How then would government types learn their identities in order to contact them? I know that IP addresses can be used to identify the computer and/or connection used to send a post or access a web site. However, would an ISP divulge an IP address without a subpoena or warrant? If not, then we have a privacy issue. If so, then some enterprising journalist could break a huge story and possibly snag a Pulitzer Prize. Either way, trying to obtain IP addresses raises First Amendment concerns. If TSA/DHS critters are trying to learn the identities of FlyerTalk posters, this is yet another sign that our national government is sliding towards an authoritarian bent that is 180 degrees from what the Founding Fathers envisioned.

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I seriously doubt any of those sorry-assed little punks have time for anything other than watching videos of shoe checks and passenger molestation.

They're sick little perverts, not security specialists.

I take your point and the spirit in which you intended it, but the Pulitzer committees have agendas that are all about perpetuating their own mythos and very little to do with exposing wrongdoing and corruption unless it serves a paper's particular interest somehow. Mere do-gooding isn't enough anymore. (This, coming from a former journalist at multi-Pulitzer Prize-winning fishwrapper.)

I don't think it's likely because Flyertalk isn't wedged up someone's ***.

Or the padding in a woman's bra

Back in a previous life in the pre-internet days, there were several authors who wrote about all of the classified stuff I worked on. Our security people were very interested in what these guys were saying and writing, but we didn't want to risk direct contact. So, we simply hired a contractor consultant to do this for us. I doubt anyone from DHS or TSA management directly participates, but I've got to believe they have considered, or are already doing, lurking around FT via proxy/third party. I don't know what benefit they would get out of it except perhaps for satisfying their paranoid curiosity.

I don't know if they do or they don't but it would be a painful experience for them.
It's a rare thread where the upper management aren't called idiots, Nazi's or worse.
But if upper management in DHS/TSA is truly concerned about the public reaction and perception of their policies and actions, reading the comments on the world's largest travel IBB (FT) would be a great place to start IMO.

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"...And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight!..."

Patrick Henry, Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, 1773

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I wouldn't be surprised if someone form The G came by here to see what's going on. But I doubt it would be in some official, or policy-changing capacity.

FWIW, there is someone from Starwood who monitors the Starwood board here on FT, which I think is a nice touch. He corrects things and takes credit for it on that board. And that has made me think twice about my elite status with Hilton and Marriott and lean more towards my mop water status with Starwood of late.

I know that many UA folks monitor Untied.com (note spelling), but I unfortunately don't think the people with expense accounts monitor it.

Air Canada, whose FF program is Aeroplan, definitely monitored errorplan.com -- enough to have it shut down.

If the honchos at the TSA were smart, they would use this board as a springboard to look for ideas on things to action. I agree with Bart that the name-calling thing will get almost anyone's thoughts on a post dismissed. That's why when I file complaints, I keep the wording basic, minimal and non-judgemental. I NEVER say "well, here's the SOP he/she should have followed..." That, to me, is a way for the fast track to the circular file. I also send several copies to several different people, coupled with a letter with the people the complaint are addressed to. Further, I don't think four people are likely to summarily throw something away. You're also "daring" all the people addressed not to throw it away.

^ ^ ^

Just imagine how some of the patriots before and during the Revolutionary War would be treated today, given some of their statements.

I should think that the concerns voiced on this board are thoroughly reviewed by the TSA, and at leat on occassion, decisive action is taken. Consider, for instance, the Port-au-Prince announcement, which seems to have disappeared from (at least my favorite) airports:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=512185