As I was boarding my PHX to PIT flight yesterday afternoon, I noticed the TSA was waiting to perform a secondary search at my gate. Now, there were other flights departing but only this flight had 3 TSA agents doing the secondary searches.

Ofcourse I got pulled aside for the secondary. I had my laptop briefcase and a shopping bag with a purchase of a gift for my niece. Nothing else. I was directed to one of the TSA agents who looked into the shopping bag and only opened 1 of the several zippered pockets on my laptop briefcase only after he gave it a squeeze like it was a roll of Charmin toilet paper. He didn't look into all of the zippered pockets.

So here's my question.............WHY are they doing secondary screenings? I've noticed that it's not on ALL flights but randomly. And if you're going to search, don't you think you should look through everything not just give it an erotic squeeze?


I loved the last sentence of the GA's announcement about the TSA secondary search.......They're here for your safety.

TOTAL BULL!!

Who am I safe from? Another passenger they pulled aside was an 80 year old woman. Oooooo!! I'm afraid she's going to bring a plane down with her Aquanet hairspray!!

Remember this phrase: Kabuki security. After this effort by TSA screeners, don't you feel safer?

The whole system is ridiculous because the US is applying Political Correctness to the process.

IMO, all Muslims and people who look like Muslims should have secondary searches. I hate it for them. While all Muslims are not terrorists, all terrorists are Muslim. If they can't purge the Imans preaching violence from their religion, then they should all be treated as potential threats.

The terrorists have to be laughing the arses off at the West.

Rant over.

Just like those guys Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols..

of course, maybe you'd like to tell us what a Muslim "looks like"..

Be very careful in considering your answer.. the answer might suprise you....

_m

While we are at it we should start doing the same for Christians and Jews, I mean have you seen some of the things spouted by The club 700 or Kahane Chai.

Oh BTW, how does someone LOOK Muslim?
Islam is a race now?

delete

Ah yes, "planned randomness" to keep the terrorists guessing. This variance in security actually allows TSA to do whatever it wants without regard to its own SOP.

I am so sick of people using these guys as examples of the current state of terrorism. They were extremists. Plain and simple. They were freaks and an aberration in these times.

Middle aged white males are not the current crop of extremists who want to blow up the globe. Go after the root cause of the problem, not Granny's Polident.

I forgot - did McVeigh and Nichols target aviation?

The Transportation Security Administration, the largest federal jobs program wince the WPA, which wasted $11 billion dollars in the 1940s when $11 billion dollars was real money, is there for public reations and to make you FEEL safer while actually having little if any impact on real security issues.

Spending over $5 billion dollars this year alone, they confiscate form passengers intert substances like water, body search elderly nuns and forcibly inspect your shoes for explosives by uing x-ray machine that by their own admission cannot detect explosives.

While many employees simply stand around grriping about their schedules and how long it is until their next break, a very short handful of TSA employees with intelligence and real security accumen perform their duties while knowing full well their efforts are largely window dressing.

Stung by revelations of spendng a lot of money on lavish "awards ceremonies" and "retreats" at posh resort locations, the TSA's public relations--oh, let's call it what it is, "marketing--department trots out soccer mome who travel once every two years on camera saying"ANYTHING for safety" as a wya to justify what amounts to taxpayer funded harrassment of taxpayers.

Keepers of top secret no-fly and top-secret watch lists that American citizens find themselves on with no way to get off or even to find out what got them on the list in the first place, the TSA circumnavigates the basic American legal concepts of "due process" and "presumed innocence" while depriving these citizens of the basic American freedoms of movement and the right to confront their accusers and clear their good names in the absence of actual evdance against them.

Arguing with a TSA employee will get your travel for that day cancelled, further argument gets you arrested. Their employees, I estimate 70% of whom could not pass a police civil service written exam or physical agility test and some of whom managed to slip through basic criminal background checks, operate above the law in the name of "National Security".

The TSA is further evidence that this great country has given up essential libery for a little temporary security, despite Benjamin Franklin's stern adminotions against doing exactly this. They operate in an atmosphere of absolute political correctness so as not to infuriate the far to the left or the special interest lobbying groups that support the rights of islamofascis groups and refuse to denounce their terrorist activities while at the same time screechiugn like wounded birds about how they are so offended by anyone daring to draw any kind of connection parallel between islam and islamofascist terrorism.

The TSA will continue to spend your money to harrass you and keep the deadly chemical known as "Dihydrogen monoxide" out of aircraft cabins, but only if it's been brought on board by you. It will take a sea change in Washington, D.C. and a plurality of citizens bent on the absurd pursuit of their basic rights to change this buearucracy in any real way.

--PP

Well white males have done more than thier share of airline hijackings over the years. I would have to say far more than middle eastern muslims have on US aircraft.

So where should we really be spending our money??

I am not too worried about guys that blew up a building over 10 years ago just like I am not worried about what the KKK did 100 years ago. I am worried about the present threat. Not only are all current terror attacks committed by Muslims but of the 130 armed conflicts currently in the world, all but three involve Muslims.

As to what a Muslim terrorist looks like.....well, they tend to be dark skinned, male, black hair, heavy beards with obvious Persian or Arabic facial features. Yes, all Muslims don't fit this profile but, if you are dark skinned and carry a passport from an Islamic country, then you will get extra screening.

Of course there are plenty of Muslims who do not have dark skin or look Arabic. However, EVERY SINGLE ONE of the terrorists of 9/11, 7/2005, and 8/2006 had distinctive Muslim appearances. EVERYONE of them would have gotten secondary screenings based on profiling.

We are at war. There will be collateral damage. Victory will not come at any less cost. The US and its allies would never have won WWII if it had been approached like the "war" on terror. (We're so PC can't even name the war correctly. How do you declare war on a tactic like terrorism? It is a War against Islamic Fundamentalists)

Was everyone in the US asleep in history class when rise of Facism and what happened with a policy of appeasement were discussed? Or, is this not taught anymore in the Government Schools of the US?

Good question here. IMHO TSA really hasn't stopped any significant attack. If they had, the Cherthoff/Hawley PR machine would surely be screaming it from the rooftops - especially now its budget/election time. No what's stopped attacks is intel and police work OUTSIDE of the airports. Now that we've secured the cockpit doors, that's where we should be spending the money.

Of course - intel work by its very nature isn't visible. Politicians need visibility. So we have to put up with the nonsense (Security Theatre) just so everybody can feel good.

From the top of my head a few current ongoing examples of arnmed conflicts,Nepal maoist rebels, Mongolian civil war, National Liberation Army in Columbia, indiginous rebels in Congo, in ruanda whoops thats 5 already.
I can list many more if you care.
Even the wars that are going on that you mention are not exactly those peoples choices.
The civilians in Iraq didnt ask to be invaded, nor did the civilians in Lebanon or the ocupied teritories pick a fight they cant millitarily win.

You say you dont care about what some people did a decade ago, well I have news for you, its what happened decades ago that determined what the world is like right now.
Donald Rumsfeld who you are apeing in this thread(with his retarded fascism comments) a few decades ago visited Saddam hussein when the entire world was aware that saddam was a piece of .... that tortured and killed his own people, shook saddam's hand and called him a great friend and ally of the United States.
When Saddam gassed an entire Kurdish village(Hallabja) and irani soldiers the US had to protect their ALLY in the middle east and the CIA was isseud a statement blaming Iran for that atrocity(yeah like Iran will use Mustard gas on their own soldiers).

Knowing that, isnt it safe to say that yes we do need to be aware AND care about what happened a day ago, a year ago or decades ago?
Disregarding even that, the hipocrasy in your reasoning and argumentation defies belief.
You say you dont care what a group did 10 years ago or a 100 years ago and then you bring on an event from over 60 years ago to build on your argument(or lack thereof).

To me it seems like the current administration achieved their goals with you, frighten people into submission so they do not question their actions.
I pity you and your and your inability of independant thought.

PS feel free to check up on the historic events I mentioned here, they are all publicly known yet rarely mentioned by the so called liberal media.

Ok, I'll bite. I'll even take the security hit for my "brothers" in the ROP.

One line in security for everyone *not* a US citizen. Tertiary screening for each of them. Get to the airport early.

One line in security for men between 17 and 40. Secondary screening for each of them. (I'll make sure I actually get to the airport early for a change!)

One line for everyone else. Random secondary and tertiary screening.

The system doesn't have to be perfect, just better that what we have.