mbstone

<i>Hawley said this new training will help screeners catch potential terrorists who may be conducting dry runs through airports.</i>

It is Conventional Wisdom among government security types that all terists precede their acts with "dry runs." How would you know if you caught a terist on a "dry run"? What crime would you charge him with?

IslandBased

Maybe this is leading up to:

Healthy Traveling, The TSA Diet Book?

Required reading on every flight....

bzbdewd

That is what I found funny about it. That they would have to screen for unusual threats like blocks of cheese.

law dawg

No, but it could be simulating something that would be in order to test whether or not it makes it through security.

If you want to test whether an item will make it through security or not you don't use the actual item - you use something that simulates it and then probe the system. That's what I would do, anyway.

Disagree. If something is beyond the pale you give it an extra look. That's doesn't mean haul people to jail, etc. but it means look a little closer. That's how Terry Stops came around - reasonable suspicion a crime is afoot. You can't have reasonable suspicion unless you have established a baseline of reasonable activity.

Once the baseline is set anything beyond that gets an extra look. Most of those things looked at will be harmless. Some may not be. But you look. You give it extra scrutiny.

txrus

It wasn't. It was, however, part of a PR plot, which fell flat, on the part of the TSA last summer to claim 'they' (the tewwowists) were probing the system looking for weakness' (you have to remember, it was summer & the Kettle's were out in force on their annual vacations so time to ratchet up the fear factor!). Kip & Kompany looked like even bigger fools than normal (hard as that may be to believe) when one of these 'incidents' was actually outted publicly by one of the screening managers in SAN (I think that's where it was-the granny w/the blue ice packs).

I'm pretty sure this is what Polar Man is referring to, so hopefully he'll find the links (it's too early for me to go searching for it; sorry).

Wally Bird

But not completely improbable given the likelihood of screeners pawing through the bag, and certainly not an "attack" either. To wit:It's not clear that it's a direct quote of Hawley, but it seems unlikely the reporter would have appended it. So either the TSA is continuing its fearmongering by equating cheese (however wrapped) to an attack, or else Hawley actually believes they are one and the same. It's a stupid example either way, which leads me to think it was a Hawley-ism.

goalie

you are obviously not a fan of the trinity. no, not that one but rather howard, fine and howard.

moe, larry the cheese
moe, larry the cheese


ok, i need more coffee before i go to the penalty box but sometimes, just sometimes i truly wonder who actually runs the tsa...

moe: skeletor
larry: kippy
curly: ??????

law dawg

It don't posit it was an attack. It obviously wasn't. Was it a prelude to an attack? A test of the system? Don't know, but I would like to, and I hope my security personnel would dig a little into it to determine what's what. Obviously this is beyond the TSA's mandate (and should be). But they find something like this, they should send it up the pipe and let those who do that type of investigating look into it.

Mats

I'm starting to think that the TSA needs to take a lower profile. They're so good at making fools of themselves, and calling attention to their activities doesn't help.

News stories about Taser bracelets might have interested the public five or six years ago, now they are met with skepticism and ridicule.

Fear-mongering about "unconventional" attacks sticks out; it doesn't jive with current political sentiment. Americans are looking for change, about moving forward, and the TSA is a reflection on past events.

The new uniforms are equally disturbing. It is counterproductive to try to make a "relaxed" checkpoint with more badges. There are enough issues with inflated, unearned authority within the organization. Why exacerbate it further?

Lastly, the new millimeter-wave scanners are probably not going to "win back" passengers, as the TSA would like. Privacy violations, such as phone tapping and eavesdropping, have been one of the larger problems in the current Presidential administration. Some of the more vocal TSA advocates tend to be conservatives, yet conservatives tend to disapprove of privacy invasions.

In the end, perhaps their recent media blitz will be good. Maybe the more press the TSA receives, the more likely they are to face criticism. They have opened the door for negative opionions, and perhaps the public, the media, and legislators will seize the opportunity.

The TSA, along with the IRS, is one of the few instances in which the general public interacts with the Federal Government. It seems that it would be wise for them to make a very good impression.

essxjay

That's the rub with so-called "thought crimes:" Where does "something here smells fishy" end, and "conspiracy to commit wrongdoing" begin?

Wally Bird

I don't disagree with any of that. Hawley apparently brought it up again as an example of an attack, which is at best a stretch and at worst laughable.

The whole cheese incident should never have even been an 'item' - check it and the individual out and charge him or move on. Why are we even still discussing it ? Because it was a praiseworthy TSA 'catch' ? GMAFB.

Polar Man

you can see the CNN clip here. I can't find a direct link from cnn.
The video is more about the "clay ice packs" but it mentions 3 other incidents. The other incidents are some what incorrectly listed on this blog

U//FOUO) San Diego, July 7. A U.S. person -- either a citizen or a foreigner legally here -- checked baggage containing two ice packs covered in duct tape. The ice packs had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.

(U//FOUO) Milwaukee, June 4. A U.S. person's carryon baggage contained wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese. The bulletin said block cheese has a consistency similar to some explosives.


(U//FOUO) Houston, Nov. 8, 2006. A U.S. person's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a 9-volt battery, wires, a block of brown clay-like minerals and pipes.


(U//FOUO) Baltimore, Sept. 16, 2006. A couple's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellular phone charger.

there is also a story on a San Diego newspaper about the same "incidents"

Report of terrorist 'dry run' at Lindbergh a false alarm
"We get these all the time,” he said. “Almost all the time they prove false
The TSA memo also reported curious seizures at the Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore airports in recent weeks.........
I think it's really crucial to focus on the fact that there is no specific credible threat related to this information"

Error 601

Around here we cut cheese with piano wire,

IslandBased

I would think that the wire would need to be tensioned. If the flyer planned on using the wire to cut the cheese, a small open frame similar to a coping saw frame would work. Otherwise something less threatening than metal wire, such as un-waxed dental floss, would do the trick.

ND Sol

I can't believe that Kip has the gall to bring up the cheese incident, which (along with the three others in the TSA Memo) was discredited a long time ago. Here is a synopsis.