Hello Zip and everyone

Zip: that's true for several federal organizations many folks love to 'hate.'

However, FliesWay2Much mentioned in previous posts how he has flashed his USG passport in lieu of his regular passport, when there was much discussion concerning what constitutes proper government-issued id for TSA acceptance.

My reference was that the young 'kid' probably has never seen an American government passport and probably would have frozen speechless as what to say.


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1946 - May 2 study "Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship" by the AAF research and engineering division of Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica (that soon became RAND Corp.), proposed a spy satellite in space.

FAMs fly with USG passports ( happen to see one today in my store) so I would think he was pretty use to them if does much ID checking?

no worries, there's still a tootsie-pop in it for you

^ ^ ^

That one gave me a good laugh.

Flies Way Too Much,

I am pretty sure you had an interaction with "The Crow" as discussed here.

He hangs out just past the ID checkers in the premium queue. He looks like he's just another ID checker, but he isn't. The Crow is spotting YOU.

I am privy to all US "troop" listings in Belgium and you have no reason relating it the OPnot sure why we are bolding things now as no Belgiam RTF ops are linked to Austria at this time. Still curious as to why you are linking Belgium to the OPs response about Vienna (non embassy RTF teams not-withstanding).
That part is not SCI. Most is FOUO at best which at NATO means zilch.
But your response is your business, I am not casting aspersions, don't misunderstand or think the remark is off colour or too critical.
What years were you an Officer there? I was an officer at NATO through last year and things have changed a bit (much actually) in just the last 5 years. I still work for NATO in a diplomatic role as a part time advisor and can tell you Austria is not even playing in regional planning conferences like in the past. The Neutral swiss play more. But yes we digress.

I use a USG passport all the time withthe TSA. There are no rules prohibiting using it as ID or displaying it in such situations. I encourage more people to use them just for jollies. I like to flip them around from my Italian passport to the USG, and other things. It keeps the TSA guessing, which is fun.

Fliesway2much the currencies of the NATO exhchanges now is the EURO.
The Canadian's still "run" them though. The one at Geilenkirchen is a good example. I have spent my fair share of money there and the US has a small exchange at Schinnen in the The Netherlands so all bases are covered (no pun) with shopping reciprocity.

If the spotnik confused Austria and Germany he is a feckless hack.
The spotniks never find me it is sad. I want to play too
But CNN has video online of a new colour coded boarding system that Kip is introducing for various levels of travel experiance-that should be fun.

Ciao,
FH

I'm betting his dad worked at the Pentagon and they lived in Vienna, VA.

Uhh... actually he resides in Vienna, JawJa...http://www.cityofvienna.org/

...by the way, pronounced...VY Ee NA... you know, like them little sausages in a can.

Would it be wrong if I yelled "I NEED AN ADULT! I NEED AN ADULT!" if a SPOTter starts talking to me?

Washington, Paris, The Hague, Brussels, Vienna, Prague, Moscow, and Geneva, have long been historically linked in the political-miltary context,
LUH ?


93/95 C3A attached. As for Austria, I was referencing separate agency SIGINT OPS and has no "official" connection to embassy nor to NATO per se. At the time both Bush Sr and Clinton were very concerned with Eastern Europe, particularly BiH. Enuf said, methinks.

Last week February-first week March should prove interesting to FT'ers as we await a "the sky (193) is falling scenario," which might disrupt air travel by grounding everything... thoughts?

Back to topic:

Maybe you need to fly out from IAD more with some of our other good friends and let "The Crow" peck his way to you.

Dumb leading the dumber. TSAs can't read let alone distinguish from one color to another.

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1995 - NSA used its Echelon eavesdrop system to defend against foreign economic espionage, helping prevent foreign countries from spying on U.S. corporations. A tariff on Japanese luxury cars was to go into effect June 28, but Geneva conference sought to avoid the tariff. NSA team went to Geneva to help U.S. negotiator Mickey Kantor, provided intercepts of hotel telephone conversations by Toyota and Nissan executives.

"Where are you staying?"
"Someplace you can't afford, that's for sure. So why do you care?"

Or,

"That's privileged information. I am only to discuss that with my attorney's permission, who happens to me."

Bulldog I think you will see now the "assignments" in Europe have been swapped and moved east a bit that was why I asked about your timings.
But you never know maybe the "kids" father was overseas...hell could have been the Salvation army for all the TSA knows.
With the new US bases in Poland and Romania coming soon and a new NATO FOL coming to an "Eastern" location things are really moving East.

I fly out of DCA often as I am a lobbyist and I have never had the pleasure of the crow. I have read about him on here but never had the pleasure.

I am not sure if I should be happy about that or sad LOL part of me is happy I usually have "normal" experiances but part of me wants the fun of picking on the hacks. DCA is actually one of the few locations where the checkers are chatty and not in a spotnik way. I tend to fly at off hour times so it is normally not crowded. They normally are talking sports or weather.

If the TSA was serious about SPOT they should get the old USAF survival school "p.o.w." trainers. We learned all sorts of techniques to avoid such questions. My first response would be" I'm Hungry, I want water"

Ciao,
FH

I don't see how we're supposed to be able to discern an innocent question. The TSA has admitted that its screeners will strike up conversations under false pretenses.

Yes, indeed. Some of us were reassigned to Vienna and Prague 98/99 as the Czech area really heated up albeit you may have been a 'young pup' then. Nevertheless, I'm confident you're familiar with Operation Allied Force Kosovo...




Yes--timing is everything, to the east we may well go again, sooner than NATO and JCS planned . . .but the breaking news about the latest Kosovo happenings is not unexpected ....however, I fear we'll have plenty of civil unrest and plenty of troubles of our own to deal with in the streets of the average American city after the elections are over.


"Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, a former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army whose ethnic Albanian guerrillas clashed with Serb troops in a 1998-99 conflict that claimed 10,000 lives, was expected to convene an extraordinary session of parliament Sunday afternoon to proclaim the Republic of Kosovo."

Underscoring Serb anger, about 1,000 people staged a noisy protest in Belgrade on Saturday, waving Serbian flags and chanting "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia."

Kosovo has formally remained a part of Serbia even though it has been administered by the U.N. and NATO since the war ended in 1999. The province is still protected by 16,000 NATO-led peacekeepers, and the alliance boosted its patrols over the weekend in hopes of discouraging violence. International police, meanwhile, deployed to back up local forces in the tense north.

"It would be best for the Americans to take the Albanians to America and give them a part of their territory, so that they could have a small republic there," Ljubinko Stefanovic, a resident of the ethnically divided northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica, said in disgust. [/B]

Nice thing to awake to, at 0400, LUH ? --



I like DCA better than IAD myself.


TSA needs Salvation something to save it from itself...


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"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."

Oh, wink wink, NOW I understand. Just south of Wien are some great hot springs and spas. Hot springs = water. So THAT'S where those secret "water boarding prisons" are located. "Desert dweller prisoner, you will soak in the hot tub till your skin wrinkles. Then you will drink coffee and eat Sachertorte until you can't take any more and are ready to talk."