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TSA adding black lights to screen passengers' ID cards

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Old Oct 19, 2007, 6:29 am
  #16  
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If these guys can't find BOMBS they have no business wasting their time checking for fake ID.
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 6:46 am
  #17  
 
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I've still not seen anyone explain how ID = Security.

Seeing holograms with a black light is all well and good, but something tells me it's not really adding any security.

A quick Google search turns up this fake id site.

On our Plastic ID's we offer the option of having a hologram lasered onto ID. This added option makes our already superior ID's the best without a doubt.
I guess I'd rather the TSA concern itself with finding bombs, which is something they seem to be having trouble with.
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 6:55 am
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by Bart
Just curious where your security expertise comes from.
Common sense...

Mr Bad Guy gives Joe Schmoe $1,000,000 USD cash to sneak something through security. Joe Schmoe has a valid ID, and gets his contraband through.

I am all for PRACTICAL security. Checking ID is not security.

Last edited by LV702; Oct 19, 2007 at 6:57 am Reason: typo
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 7:07 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by LV702
ID does not equal security!
A number (at least 8) of 9/11 perps had REAL, genuine Florida(I'm sad to say) drivers licenses, with their REAL names and photos on them, obtained by showing their real passports with their real names and photos. Real papers, all in order. As real and legitimate as any papers get.

This says it all:
http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov/notable...on/MM01017.pdf
and
http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov/notable...n/PA00110.html

Had TSA been blacklighting IDs, checking them against computer databases, plus whatever mission creep they could add starting 9/10/01, nothing would have been different, unless the line had been so long the perps missed their planes. (We're not discussing allowing boxcutters or not, we're discussing stand alone ID checking as a security enhancement.)
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 8:06 am
  #20  
 
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Originally Posted by Bart
Where I do agree with you is that regardless of whether or not someone is traveling with false documentation, if that individual is screened and found to possess no prohibited items, dangerous weapons and hazardous materials, then what's the point in fussing over the ID?
My thoughts exactly. Who cares who I am, as long as I am not carrying water onto the plane?

LMAO I think I might get one of those black light pens, though.... and write KHIA on my DL.
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 8:28 am
  #21  
 
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I was planning to make a comment about how checking ID does not fit in with the TSA's scope of responsibility, but then I wasn't really sure what that scope is supposed to be. So I was perusing the TSA website and found this:

We screen every passenger and every bag [ed: BS] boarding a commercial aircraft today, including international travelers arriving in the United States before they meet a connecting flight.
Our team highly of trained Security Officers operates at over 700 security checkpoints and nearly 7,000 baggage screening areas each day.
ok, i admit it. the syntax error just made me chuckle.

We use the latest technology and equipment combined with continually improving screening techniques and our other layers of security to prevent any terrorist or criminal activity.
two things. first, BS on the "latest technology and equipment" statement. it has been proven that there are many newer technologies the TSA is unwilling to utilize, for whatever reason.

second, criminal activity? that's vague and certainly lends itself to scope creep. the site even says the agency was formed in the wake of 9/11. it's a bit of a leap to associate your average run-of-the-mill criminal activity with terrorist activity. i guess they have a loose definition of terrorism and can add in a vague qualifier like "potential."

anyway, assuming this sort of ambiguous open-ended language is also in official charter documentation (or whatever it was that actually established this agency), then it makes sense that they'd want to start checking id's and blah blah blah in order to justify their existence. hawley is building himself a nice little empire.
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 8:39 am
  #22  
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Originally Posted by stockmanjr
What's the problem with them checking if the ID's are real? I mean if your going to go thru all this Hassle about requiring ID's you might as well make sure they are real! This has no impact on your right to fly without ID.
Cheers
Howie

People should be able to fly without ID's. One is no more or less a threat to security when one presents a real DL bearing ones legal name as one is presenting an unofficially prepared ID bearing an alias.
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 8:41 am
  #23  
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Originally Posted by BillScann
...when one owns a black light pen.
Hmm, they are only $6 in the market, but I bet the "Government version" is closer to $50.
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 9:13 am
  #24  
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Originally Posted by LV702
Common sense...

Mr Bad Guy gives Joe Schmoe $1,000,000 USD cash to sneak something through security. Joe Schmoe has a valid ID, and gets his contraband through.

I am all for PRACTICAL security. Checking ID is not security.
Heck, I bet it takes a lot less than $1M, and you don't even have to go through the normal pax checkpoint, either. There have been incidents of airline and airport employees bringing through drugs & firearms to smuggle... can't imagine it would be too hard to bribe someone there.
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 9:19 am
  #25  
 
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Damn - if not for the vague wording of 18 USC 1543, I am so fracking tempted to get a blacklight pen and write "ID != SECURITY" on my passport pages.
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 9:35 am
  #26  
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Originally Posted by xyzzy
If these guys can't find BOMBS they have no business wasting their time checking for fake ID.
As of yesterday they were still armed with a set of highlighters (yellow, orange and green). This gives me a juvenile but fun idea... I think I'll show up at the checkpoint with an on-line BP pre-highlighted in all the right areas and see how far that moves their cheese.
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 9:40 am
  #27  
 
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Originally Posted by PhlyingRPh
As of yesterday they were still armed with a set of highlighters (yellow, orange and green). This gives me a juvenile but fun idea... I think I'll show up at the checkpoint with an on-line BP pre-highlighted in all the right areas and see how far that moves their cheese.
Expected result:
TSA: What do you think you are doing here?
Flyer: I wanted to make sure that I knew my name, my flight number and gate assignment.
TSA: Not acceptable, get out of line, back to the airline and get a new B/P - and don't write ANYTHING on it, got it? [soto voce to other TSA ID Checker] if that one comes back, automatic SSSS, no matter what, got it?
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 6:24 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by PhlyingRPh
This gives me a juvenile but fun idea... I think I'll show up at the checkpoint with an on-line BP pre-highlighted in all the right areas and see how far that moves their cheese.
::chuckleriffic::
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 6:42 pm
  #29  
 
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How does this make anything secure? Apparently bouncers at a bar have been ahead of the TSA for some time now. Actually, I bet a bouncer would be more adept at spotting a fake than a TSA agent even with the blacklight.

P.S.

Originally Posted by Bart
What a bunch of fickle little girls in here!

First y'all complain that TSA is no better than anyone else at detecting false IDs.

Now that TSA is taking steps to verify IDs, y'er still complaining.

Get some Midol.
Thank you for that bit of misogyny.
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Old Oct 19, 2007, 7:11 pm
  #30  
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Originally Posted by Bart
But the critical piece to this occurs when we do discover a false or tampered ID and the actions taken by the airport LEO. And this is where the Boys in the Bureau have a lackadaisical if not somewhat condescending attitude towards airport security. And therein lies the broken link because if the FBI isn't going to get excited, then neither are the airport LEOs.
Why do the "Boys in the Bureau" have a condescending attitude towards airport security?

The asking of many questions is the beginning of wisdom. ^



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