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The Tax & Frisk Bowl. [Scroll down] In another development, the Department of Homeland Security has taken upon its broad and capable shoulders full responsibility for making sure the game is terrorism-free. This would be the same outfit that recently conducted surprise searches of passengers at a train station in Savannah, Georgia. The passenger were getting off the train so, if the pattern holds, people leaving the stadium on Sunday should not be surprised if they are pulled out of line and patted down. Can't be too careful. Neither liberty nor safety. Consider the list of Obama's assaults on liberty. Any one of these done by a Republican President would bring down the wrath of the Left. Done by Obama, the action is noted in the Obama reelect media for a single news cycle and then dropped. Obama's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is more arrogantly intrusive than ever. The Fourth Amendment protection against "unreasonable" searches and seizures has been repealed at your local airport. Rep. John Mica, who authored the TSA legislation, observes that the unionized TSA now strip-searching grannies and detaining Senators bears little resemblance to his original idea. The TSA: Ruining Lives Over Forgetfulness. You probably don't consider these folks terrorists or anything close. No rational person would. For that we need the TSA. ... Our Rulers incarcerate the innocent solely because they can. TSA wastes $1.2 billion a year and causes 1,200 unnecessary deaths annually. The TSA is rapidly becoming the #2 most hated government agency in the world, behind the IRS. ... They randomly call travelers out of line and insist they go through the full-body scanners. It is clear that TSA is pushing the X-ray machines to test the American willingness to comply. The TSA is gradually shifting to the full-body scanners (X-ray machines), where travelers symbolically raise his hands in compliance, as if they are saying, "I surrender to the TSA." I'm always amazed how the vast majority of Americans simply comply. The TSA's Voodoo Security: A century ago, most people would have dismissed [Paul] Ekman as a crank. He's spent much of his life pursuing what believers dignify as "parapsychology." His pastime would have remained a harmless hobby if the U.S. Government hadn't robbed us to bankroll him. Thanks to that financing, the nationalized, so-called educational system takes him seriously enough that the University of California at San Francisco "appointed" him a professor in 1972. That provides cover for the corporate media to take him seriously, too. TSA's intrusions undermine security. My office is being inundated with their stories of assault and harassment by TSA agents. This agency's disregard for our civil liberties is something we are expected to understand and accept. But we are tired of being insulted and we are tired of having our dignity compromised. TSA was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but was it necessary? Has it overstepped its bounds? Is it respecting the rights of citizens? It is time for us to question the effectiveness of TSA. America can prosper, preserve personal liberty and repel national security threats without intruding into the personal lives of its citizens. As you might expect... White House sides with TSA in Rand Paul standoff. The White House is standing by the Transportation Security Administration in its standoff with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and his father, Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). The elder Paul called the TSA a "police state" Monday [1/23/2012] after Rand Paul was reportedly detained by TSA after he refused to take a pat-down from TSA officials at the Nashville International Airport. Steal $40K, Get 6 Months in Jail — If You're a TSA Worker. Steal $40,000 from a bank, and you'll spend a decade or two in prison. Steal $40,000 from an airplane passenger's luggage and you'll get six months — if you're a Transportation Security Administration employee, that is. Passengers left $410G in change at airport security checkpoints in 2010. In the rush to catch their flights, airline passengers are leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars behind at security checkpoints. According to the Transportation Security Administration, passengers left behind nearly $410,000 in loose change at checkpoints in 2010. That's actually down from $433,000 the year prior. TSA collected $400,000 in spare change left by passengers in airports in 2011. TSA found $409,085.56 in spare change last year that was unclaimed by passengers, according to figures released by the agency. Historically, if no one comes back to get the leftover money, it stays with the TSA. A Florida lawmaker is trying to change that, however: Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) filed a bill in April of 2009 that would require TSA to transfer money that is not claimed by passengers when they leave airport security checkpoints to United Service Organizations. It's bully government, not nanny. President Obama may be the Nanny King, but he took the crown from the Man Who Gave Us TSA. George Walker Bush was the president who green-lighted making people walk through those body scanners — or else! TSA is not about protecting us. If it were, TSA would be stealth about it. TSA would target terrorist suspects, follow them and nail them to the wall when the terrorist acted. That is good police work. But the purpose of TSA is to dissuade the middle class from flying. The TSA exists now to limit freedom of movement. The price of an airline ticket now includes standing in line for an hour to be humiliated. Everything is now for security reasons. For 2012, TSA expands to train stations, ferry docks, subways. The Transportation Security Administration had quite a year of free publicity in 2011, including headline-grabbing news of agents groping grandmas, fondling supermodels, joking about passengers' "junk" while virtually disrobing them and pilfering possessions from luggage. In 2012, the agency is planning to expand its operations at train stations, subway stations, ferry docks and other transportation hubs. Frightening frosting? TSA confiscates cupcake. An airport security officer confiscated a frosted cupcake amid fears its icing could be a security risk, according to reports. Rebecca Hains said the Transportation Security Administration agent at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas took her cupcake Wednesday [12/21/2011]. According to Hains, he told her its frosting was enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives. Update: TSA defends confiscating a passenger's cupcake. The Transportation Security Administration defended the decision of one of its workers to confiscate a passenger's cupcake Monday [1/9/2012], saying the pastry that was taken was not a normal piece of dessert. ... On Monday, the agency said the cupcake in question was in a jar, which gave the screeners pause because of a 2006 plot involving liquid bombs. Smacking down TSA. Frequent travelers know better than anyone that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) needs serious reform. The agency spends $7.7 billion in taxpayer money every year, and it hasn't nabbed a single terrorist. With no track record of success, TSA Administrator John S. Pistole and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano assure us that groping grandma and photographing young children in the nude is somehow going to discourage terrorism. Many experts have raised concerns regarding the wisdom of funneling millions of innocent passengers through unregulated and untested X-ray devices, but no TSA technology can be questioned without Mr. Pistole and Big Sis falling back on the "it's classified" dodge. Their message is, "Trust us, we know what we're doing." House Republicans look to 'strip' TSA screeners of their 'officer' title. More than two dozen House Republicans introduced legislation on Thursday that would prevent the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) from calling airport screeners "officer" unless they have gone through federal law enforcement training or are otherwise eligible for federal law enforcement benefits. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the lead sponsor of the Stop TSA's Reach in Policy (STRIP) Act, said that TSA has essentially allowed its airport screeners to play dress-up by giving them metal badges and police-like uniforms in recent years. But she said many airport screeners have no "officer" qualifications, and should have this title removed. Why we do not need TSA. I see where the parent company of American Airlines filed for protection from creditors in bankruptcy court. Union pensions are a budget buster. The real problem with airlines is the suppression of air travel via TSA — I think it stands for Terrorist Support Alliance — and its hassling of passengers. Unnecessarily delaying travel suppresses travel, which looks more and more likely to be the whole purpose of TSA. TSA Warns Travelers Not To Smuggle Carry-On Items In Christmas Gift Wrap. Security screeners at LAX will apparently have zero tolerance for holiday cheer this Christmas. KNX 1070's Bob Brill reports authorities on Friday are on the lookout for people who try to smuggle illegal items disguised as holiday gifts onto airplanes. TSA's power grope. As part of a "statewide safety operation," TSA employees fondled travelers at bus terminals in Nashville and Knoxville, hunting for "security threats." Truckers were harassed at four Volunteer State highway locations between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. — prime time for terrorism, apparently. Brian Gamble, a Florida firefighter, caught one of these intrusive VIPR operations on video after he got off a train in Savannah, Ga., earlier this year. "They had the scanners and everything there," Mr. Gamble told The Washington Times. "They had them pull up their shirts, patted them down, wanded them. There were a couple ladies in our group getting searched. ... It's kinda ridiculous when you're coming off a train — it doesn't make any sense." Final Implementation Phase of Obama Formal Dictatorship has Begun. After extensive testing to see how far employees of Obama's perverse TSA (Transportation Security Administration) would go with their sexual groping of even small children, Obama has now seen that they will do virtually anything they are tasked to do and "The One" has judged them worthy of the questionable honor of checking for US citizens' papers on US highways, buses, trains and wherever else the now official dictator-in-chief decides he wants to exhibit his power and control over the American people. TSA begins VIPR highway inspections in Tennessee. You're probably use to seeing TSA's signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR). The Secret The TSA Doesn't Want You To Know: While many Americans think they can skip being sexually molested at the hands of the TSA by avoiding airports, Big Sis has been quietly preparing the groundwork for the total takeover of all public transport and highways by federal government goon squads. VIPR Searches and the American Citizen: 'Dominate. Intimidate. Control.'. The transition to a police state will not come about with a dramatic coup d'etat, with battering rams and marauding militia. As we have experienced first-hand in recent years, it will creep in softly, one violation at a time, until suddenly you find yourself being subjected to random patdowns and security sweeps during your morning commute to work or quick trip to the shopping mall. Surprise! TSA Is Searching Your Car, Subway, Ferry, Bus, AND Plane. Think you could avoid the TSA's body scanners and pat-downs by taking Amtrak? Think again. Even your daily commute isn't safe from TSA screenings. And because the TSA is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, you may have your immigration status examined along with your "junk". As part of the TSA's request for FY 2012 funding, TSA Administrator John Pistole told Congress last week that the TSA conducts 8,000 unannounced security screenings every year. Air Marshals Expand Beyond Planes. Federal air marshals are expanding their work beyond airplanes, launching counterterror surveillance at train stations and other mass transit facilities in a three-day test program. TSA on the lookout for big hair and snow globes. The sign at the airport was so ridiculous, I thought it was a joke. "Please be advised, snow globes are not allowed through the security checkpoint," it read. That was followed by an image of a snow globe with a Christmas tree on the inside and one of those big red "not allowed" lines going through the middle. Did the U.S. Sanction Murder? In the Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers said one of the reasons for their rebellion against King George is that he had "erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance." Those brave gentlemen wouldn't believe how many Swarms of Officers harass us today, or how much of our Substance they consume. Have you flown anywhere lately? How many Transportation Security Administration employees did you see — many of whom were guarding hallways no one was using. 43 Percent of Americans Have a Negative View of the TSA. A recent Reason-Rupe survey asked respondents to use their own words to describe their perception of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Responses ranged from very negative to very positive. TSA Creator Says Dismantle, Privatize the Agency. They've been accused of rampant thievery, spending billions of dollars like drunken sailors, groping children and little old ladies, and making everyone take off their shoes. But the real job of the tens of thousands of screeners at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is to protect Americans from a terrorist attack. Yet a decade after the TSA was created following the September 11 attacks, the author of the legislation that established the massive agency grades its performance at "D-." The TSA, For Your Inconvenience. Who says the TSA molests everybody who falls into their clutches? From Fox 8 News in Cleveland comes this heartwarming tale of an "unruly" Arab who boarded a plane in Chicago, headed for Germany, and of course was waved right through security. Ten TSA Outrages. Since its creation in 2001, the Transport Security Administration has repeatedly walked a fine line between vital vigilance and gratuitous intrusion. Security expert Bruce Schneier famously referred to the current system as bordering on "security theater," in which the measures taken are more officious than efficient. This tendency toward such blunt theatrics has only been magnified by the "enhanced screening procedures" introduced in November 2010. Ron Paul, ever the champion of the individual, described the new system as "appalling" and "abusive." There is no doubt that many of those who have fallen afoul of its excesses would agree. Ron Paul calls for end of TSA. Texas Rep. Ron Paul added the Transportation Security Administration to the long list of federal agencies he would like to abolish yesterday. TSA: Totally Screwed-Up Administration. What kind of politically correct security allows a Nigerian man without a valid boarding pass to get on an airplane and fly cross-country while we search the adult diaper of a 95-year-old cancer patient? Oh, yeah. This will help. TSA Airport Screeners Vote to Join Union. The American Federation of Government Employees said Thursday [6/23/2011] it has won the right to represent more than 40,000 airport-security screeners employed by the federal government, months after the Obama administration cleared the way for the workers to organize. The screeners, who work for the Transportation Security Administration, chose the AFGE in a runoff vote against the National Treasury Employees Union by a margin of 8,903 to 8,447 votes. Two House members call for investigation of TSA. Two Republican House members are calling for an investigation of the Transportation Security Administration after serious lapses in security led to the firing of dozens TSA employees at Honolulu International Airport. TSA Now Storming Public Places 8,000 Times a Year. Americans must to decide if, in the name of homeland security, they are willing to allow TSA operatives to storm public places in their communities with no warning, pat them down, and search their bags. And they better decide quickly. Bus travelers were shocked when jackbooted TSA officers in black SWAT-style uniforms descended unannounced upon the Tampa Greyhound bus station in April with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and federal bureaucrats in tow. Newark TSA Supervisor Sentenced for Bribery. A former supervisor with the Transportation Security Administration has been sentenced to more than two years in prison after pleading guilty to taking bribes from a TSA officer who was stealing from passengers. Ex-Newark Airport security supervisor jailed in kickback scheme. A former security supervisor at Newark Liberty International Airport was sentenced to 30 months in prison Wednesday for accepting bribes and kickbacks from a co-worker who regularly stole money from passengers during security screenings, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said. Government workers can be fired! TSA suspends 12 Honolulu workers, plans to fire 36. The Transportation Security Administration said Friday it plans to fire 36 workers, including two high-ranking officials, and has suspended 12 others after an investigation found they did not properly screen baggage at Honolulu International Airport. House Cuts $270 Million From TSA Budget. A $42.3 billion defense budget bill passed by the House will cut $270 million from the TSA and eliminate collective bargaining privileges for TSA workers. Union leaders are not happy. A Federal No-Fly Zone Over Texas? Proving that the extortionist tendencies of the Obama administration aren't limited to the NLRB's suit against Boeing, the Department of Justice threatened the state of Texas with a complete suspension of air travel in and out of that state if its Senate approved HB 1937, a bill which would have banned "intrusive touching of persons seeking access to public buildings and transportation." The penalty for doing so would have been a $4,000 fine and one year in jail. A People's Approach to National Security. Two recent incidents, a tweeted photo of TSA agents examining a baby and a man shouting pounding on a cockpit door while shouting "Allah Akbar" being subdued by passengers, remind us of the absurd fictions of airline security. The biggest fiction of airline security is that it is secure. The second biggest fiction is that it is even meant to be secure. The TSA and its naked scanners don't exist to provide security, but to provide plausible deniability when an attack does happen. Sex, Lies & the TSA. [Scroll down] In our opinion, the TSA has been openly running a criminal organization since its existence. The fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects American citizens from unreasonable searches. Unfortunately, this law is apparently not followed anymore, and our rights under the fourth amendment are not being protected. The TSA's response is quite simplistic. According to TSA Head, John Pistole, if passengers refuse screening by scanners or pat downs, they do not have the right to fly. The problem with this, however, is that the TSA is now expanding its searches to other venues, including roadside checkpoints where backscatter scanners are being used to inspect passenger and cargo vehicles. Terrorists Slip By TSA Behavior Detection Officers. Years after implementing a costly passenger screening program, the Homeland Security agency responsible for protecting the nation's transportation system failed to detect terrorists at U.S. airports on nearly two dozen occasions. As a result the terrorists slipped right through "security" checkpoints and boarded commercial airplanes, according to a government report that's difficult to swallow nearly a decade after the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history. After Security Lapses at Newark Airport, TSA Official in Charge Promoted to HQ Post. The Transportation Security Administration appointed as a senior adviser at its D.C. headquarters an official who requested reassignment after quitting as federal security director of Newark Liberty International Airport, following a string of security lapses. Ready for Unionized Airport Security? As payback for union support, the Obama administration greases the wheels for the largest federal organizing effort in history. Just what this country needs: More thought crimes. TSA security looks at people who complain about ... TSA security. Don't like the way airport screeners are doing their job? You might not want to complain too much while standing in line. Arrogant complaining about airport security is one indicator Transportation Security Administration officers consider when looking for possible criminals and terrorists, CNN has learned exclusively. And, when combined with other behavioral indicators, it could result in a traveler facing additional scrutiny. Tom Ridge warns of consequences to TSA unionization. A unionized Transportation Security Administration threatens to undermine the flexibility required by the federal agency, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned yesterday [3/16/2011]. "I was part of the [Bush] administration when we built the TSA, and the department concluded for a variety of reasons, including the flexibility of the workforce, that we shouldn't unionize," Ridge said at an event about aviation security. Ridge said former TSA administrators opposed unionization for good reason... Barack Obama: Union Organizer. Even as greedy public employee unions turn state capitols into battleground, in a desperate attempt to keep taxpayers from rescinding the spoils of collective bargaining, President Barack Obama is overseeing the largest public union organizing attempt in history. If you were thinking that the last thing air travelers, and the American taxpayer, need on their hands is unionized airport security screeners, you should know that your President is working very hard to bring them to you. No, We're Not Safer Than Before 9/11. Recently a passenger brought box cutters through a passenger screening point and on to an airliner. In response to this, the Transportation Security Administration announced that the screeners responsible would get "remedial training." There's been a lot of coverage of this event, including legitimate outrage that the sloppy TSA employees weren't fired. What most people don't realize is that tolerating failure and outright sloppy work has been a hallmark of U.S. aviation security from the beginning. The truth is nobody has ever been held accountable for aviation security failures — nobody. From top to bottom, the TSA arrogantly claims it does nothing wrong. U.S. Fails To Secure Flight Schools. Nearly a decade after terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon how could the U.S. government permit an illegal immigrant to obtain a pilot's license and run a school that trains dozens of foreigners to fly small aircraft? The question is directed at the Homeland Security agency responsible for scrutinizing all foreign flight students before they can take lessons or get a pilot's license in the U.S. Here's a hint; the agency was created after 9/11 specifically to prevent another terrorist attack by protecting the nation's transportation system, especially aviation. It's the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Will TSA Unionization Jeopardize Air Safety? I don't know about you, but when I see a slow, rude Transportation Security Administration agent going through granny's purse at airport security, I think to myself: "What the TSA needs is more bureaucracy — if only they were unionized!" Well, we might get our wish. TSA fires screener after airport garage fracas. The TSA fired an airport screener following his arrest for battery after allegedly attacking a gift shop employee in the parking garage at Indianapolis International Airport. Senate Votes to Make Misuse of TSA Scanner Images a Felony. When you walk through one of those new hi-tech full body scanners at TSA checkpoints at the airport, screeners can still see your private parts, but the Senate wants to make sure no one else does. The Editor says... At first, the TSA said there was no way the images could leave the scanning machine and be used for any unofficial purpose. The Senate obviously does not believe that, since they are making provisions for felony charges when — not if — that happens. Laboring through airports. There are many ways to improve air travel. Unionizing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) isn't one of them. Until recently, the TSA was operating under a very sensible policy: no collective bargaining. Why introduce the possibility of strikes and protracted negotiations to an agency in charge of ensuring the safety of millions of air passengers? Unionizing the TSA. After a mere nine years in existence, the Transportation Security Administration rivals the DMV and the Postal Service as a played-out comedy cliché. And now the TSA is adding union bureaucracy to the mix. Second-rate standup performers are licking their chops; the rest of us should be much less delighted. The agency's head, John Pistole, recently gave its 40,000-plus employees the right to argain collectively on "non-security employment issues." Two unions, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), will compete in an election tentatively set to begin March 9. TSA Chief "Willing" To Fire Employees En Masse If Need Be. Trying to quell concerns over his decision to let security officers vote on whether they want unions to represent them, Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole told lawmakers Thursday [2/10/2011] he would be "willing" to fire TSA employees en masse should they go on strike or cause a slowdown in operations. The Editor says... Yeah, right. That's what he says. But Obama is no Reagan, and once the TSA goons are unionized and have the support of all the other unions, there's no way they will ever be teminated in large numbers. Austin, Texas, Forming Solid Resistance to TSA. Austin, Texas — known for Longhorns, live music, and legislative lollapaloozas — is poised to be the subject of a different kind of notoriety. The nationwide undertone of opposition to the TSA is surfacing in the state's capitol [sic] city. Austin is developing a downright defiance of the agency's shocking treatment of American air travelers into a cohesive defense of liberty. The TSA Two-Step. The tale of two Friday afternoon announcements as part of a plan to unionize TSA screeners and keep the process quiet until it's complete. Labor unions seen as winners in TSA move. The Transportation Security Administration is blocking airports that want to use private screeners instead of federal employees in a move the agency's critics say is a sop to labor unions. Several dozen airports around the country are considering opting out of TSA screening and hiring private-sector firms to search passengers and luggage under federal supervision. At least six airports already have applied for permission to hire private screeners, as they are allowed to do under the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001. Will Dems put unions ahead of air safety? Air travelers and taxpayers alike are the biggest losers in Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief John Pistole's decision to allow airport screeners to collectively bargain. That may be why the decision was made public late Friday when it was bound to attract minimal media coverage. Conversely, Democrats in Congress are the biggest winners. More about Friday night document dumps. More about Unionized government workers. Unions Head for Showdown With Senate Over TSA Representation. Unions that want to represent thousands of airport screeners are heading for a showdown with the Senate as early as Monday, with some lawmakers looking to revoke the collective-bargaining rights the Transportation Security Administration just granted them. TSA shuts door on private airport screening program. A program that allows airports to replace government screeners with private screeners is being brought to a standstill, just a month after the Transportation Security Administration said it was "neutral" on the program. Government Unions Build Ranks, Court TSA for Membership. Thousands of airport security screeners could choose a union to represent them as early as March, marking the latest expansion of union influence in the public sector, which now has more labor union members than the private sector. TSA on the hot seat. It was only a matter of time before the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) campaign of groping and intimately photographing frequent flyers would come back and bite the agency. That time has come. House leaders have put a frequent traveler in charge of the Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations. TSA: Living on Borrowed Time? The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year. At TSA headquarters alone, there are 3,526 staff whose average salary tops $106,000. And while the TSA has gotten very good at groping airline passengers and undressing them with full body scans, the organization has yet to prevent a single terrorist attack. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation released last spring revealed that at least 17 known terrorists have been able to pass through TSA security totally unhindered. Rutherford Institute Sues DHS and TSA over Scanners, Virtual Strip Searches. Insisting that Americans do not shed their privacy rights when entering an airport or boarding a plane, The Rutherford Institute has filed a Fourth Amendment lawsuit in federal court against Janet Napolitano, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and John Pistole, administrator of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), on behalf of three airline passengers who were subjected to invasive body searches by TSA agents under the agency's enhanced screening and pat-down procedures. Should airports ditch the TSA? More and more major airports are thinking of replacing TSA screeners with private security contractors. Would that make fliers safer or happier? TSA Christmas memo defies facts. A memorandum dated 24 December 2010 signed by TSA Director John Pistole and Deputy Administrator Gale Rossides was sent to all Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, praising the advances made by the TSA this year. Not all federal agents who received this memo were in agreement with the reported strides made by the TSA as Pistole alleges, with some calling the memo "pure propaganda" and "boldly inaccurate." ... The TSA, an agency that never stopped an attack on any airline in its nine year history, nonetheless boasted to its employees that they kept air travel safe in 2010. Feel Safe Yet? Just imagine the possibility ... that jihadis would want to infiltrate the TSA, so as to place operatives in strategic positions who could then ensure that airport security became lax at the precisely opportune moment. TSA, Youth Corps Now Officially part of Obama Gestapo. As we have seen recently, Obama & Co is now openly, without trying to hide its intent, using the misnamed "Transportation Security Administration" to intimidate and force non-Muslim/non-minority US citizen-travelers into getting used to being completely oppressed via sexual groping techniques; techniques that are also being regularly used on young children to prepare them, while they're still young, for a lifetime of being submissive to all government totalitarian demands. TSA Failure Rate May Approach 70%. It seems like terrorists don't even need to think of crazy new shoe, underwear, or pancake bombs to get around the TSA, since airport security seems to have forgotten what normal weapons look like. Though they still won't let me bring four ounces of conditioner onto the plane. Terrorizing Our Own. TSA security measures have not stopped a single terrorist. Their only purpose is to show that the government is "taking terrorism seriously". ... The TSA measures aren't meant to keep us safe, but to protect them from blame when the inevitable happens. To keep the public cowed and in their place, to avoid any violence during the coming "transition" from freedom to Islam. Bob Barr Investigates TSA Stand Down On National Opt Out Day. A civil liberties watchdog group has filed a Freedom of Information Act request in an attempt to shed more light on the TSA's efforts to disrupt a day of protest aimed at full body scanners and invasive pat-downs by largely curtailing their use for one day only last week. The FOIA request also seeks to determine whether the TSA regards the leaders of the protest movement as "domestic extremists", following the leak of a TSA memo indicating that to be the case. TSA, under the direction of Napolitano, consent of Obama, collecting names, personal information, labeling them as potential "domestic extremists." Taking names, Napolitano style. [Scroll down] As I stated in my original report, the new DHS procedures have everything to do with control and conditioning and nothing to do with actual security. The TSA enhancements and the DHS databases are noticeably on the uptick, taking aim at law abiding American citizens who threaten the globalist agenda or the allegedly non-existent, once conspiratorial "New World Order" under global governance doctrine. Sacramento-area pilot punished for YouTube video. An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security. The 50-year-old pilot, who lives outside Sacramento, asked that neither he nor his airline be identified. He has worked for the airline for more than a decade and was deputized by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit. Exactly the way Russia would handle it... Pilot punished for showing TSA the truth. His original video posted on YouTube was fuzzy and jumpy, which you might expect from a cell phone, but it was enough for TSA to show up at the home of the person capturing those images with four Sky Marshals and two sheriff's deputies, and confiscate the man's handgun which they had issued to him because he was authorized to carry weapons as part of the government's armed pilots program. They also ordered him to remove the video from YouTube. TSA punishes pilot for criticizing its security flaws. Behaving more like a thuggish third world dictatorship than the guardians of a democratic society, TSA agents have swooped down on a pilot who had the temerity to publicly point out flaws in the security system at San Francisco International Airport. Quite clearly, the agency is far more concerned to appear to be doing a good job than in actually carrying out its mission. Whistleblower Pilot Wants to 'Come Out of Shadows'. The airline pilot who spoke out anonymously after he was reprimanded by the TSA for posting videos showing security flaws at a major airport said today he may reveal his identity this week. The 50-year-old California man told ABC affiliate KXTV in Sacramento that he hopes he will be able to "safely come out of the shadows." Congressman to TSA: Stop harassing pilot, fix the problem. A Sacramento-area airline pilot has made national headlines after posting YouTube videos showing security flaws at San Francisco International Airport. The 50-year-old man shared those videos with News10 to highlight what he and his attorney call serious security flaws. The pilot now has his own web site: TSA Whistleblowing Patriot Pilot. The Patriot Pilot is an average man, like many of us, who simply wanted to make sure that the American public was truly safe when flying the 'friendly skies'. TSA Silences Pilot For Telling The Truth. A pilot who posted a YouTube video documenting flaws in TSA's airport security has his home raided and federally issued firearm confiscated. Body scanners and junk-touching are just the beginning. No Illegal Alien Pilot Left Behind. While Islamic terrorists groom suicide bombers starting in kindergarten, the grownups in charge of protecting America can't seem to reach an elementary level of competence. The "good" news: Hindsight-driven bureaucrats at DHS moved to ban high-risk cargo from Yemen and Somalia this week after a global air scare involving makeshift printer/toner cartridge-bombs. The bad news: More than nine years after the 9/11 jihadist attacks, untold numbers of high-risk flyers have been able to board, ride and pilot American planes — some with Transportation Security Administration approval to boot. Another Victory for Islamic Jihad Courtesy of the TSA. The arguments presented for the continued existence of the TSA and in defense of its "enhanced" but invasive pat-down security procedures and full-body scans have the substance of single-hole Swiss cheese. The TSA has never stopped, foiled, or even detected an attempted airline bombing. It is a purely reactionary organization, as pitifully inept as a "Had I But Known" detective novel. It claims, with a tongue-in-cheek it hopes nobody will notice, that it "knew all along" about incidents after they have happened. If this were true, the incidents would never have occurred, and the American public would never hear the end of it from the TSA's publicists. It did not foil the Christmas Day bomber of 2009, and it was British security that uncovered the printer-cartridge plot. The Oregon Christmas Tree lighting bomb plot was foiled by the F.B.I. Can the TSA claim an equivalent action? No. The TSA cannot boast of one foiled incidence of terrorism. TSA New Enemies List. Novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand noted, many years ago: "We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." The Department of Homeland Security and the TSA are not satisfied with treating Americans like pieces of meat, or like printer cartridges, or prison inmates. It is compiling a database of everyone who opposes the new procedures, that is, anyone who has written anything whatsoever critical of the DHS and TSA, and whose words may cause others to oppose or "disrupt" the assembly line. The Editor says... I must be on that list by now! TSA: a profile in cowardice. At the TSA political correctness trumps security, meaning that it's okay to intrusively inconvenience 100% of travelers, so long as that small percentage of potentially aggrieved followers of a death cult aren't singled out. As result more and more people are giving up flying, which very likely is one of the outcomes that Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki are looking for. It's clear that we have lost the will to prevail, given our responses to being attacked by an alien philosophy. Sugar-coated tyranny is still tyranny. The TSA singers. In case you've missed the last couple of months, the TSA has been ramping up its regime of full-body, naked scans of air travelers, complemented by intense pat-downs that amount to government-sanctioned sexual assault. Reports of abuse have been rampant, including the grotesque targeting of female travelers by male TSA officers, and questions about privacy, power, and how these procedures can possibly jibe with Americans' Constitutional rights. It was rightly to be hoped that as we moved into the Christmas travel season, and as opposition to their vulgar policies grew, the TSA would remedy — or at least acknowledge — these glaring flaws. Instead, we find they are singing Christmas carols. Yes, the TSA has returned to the headlines as a choir of its officers sings to travelers at Los Angeles International Airport. Holiday Travel Fun With The TSA. Please consider the following twenty-five fun activities to partake of at security checkpoints when you travel. Eight Air-Security Myths. [Myth #1] The fact that there have been no attacks since 9/11 vindicates TSA. The logical fallacy here is known as post hoc, ergo propter hoc. There is zero reason to credit TSA's new tactics with anything save annoying unlucky travelers. We can see this by looking at incidents in which governments actually foiled terror plots. None of them involved TSA-style measures. TSA's John Pistole. As Americans continue to watch in utter amazement as the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration demonstrates its continued inability to identify and target likely hostile travelers and, therefore, subjects 100% of travelers to intrusive screening, we all are wondering Why? The answer is actually straightforward: TSA Director John Pistole. TSA Worker Accused Of Assault Had Prior Record. [WSB-TV] has learned a TSA security worker accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a woman had previously been convicted of misdemeanor harassment and stalking. The naked truth about the TSA. The terrorists have not won. They are, however, enjoying a laugh at the expense of us zany infidels. Government-sponsored idiocies unleashed at American airports over the last few weeks have Americans battling one another rather than the common Islamic militant foe. Understandable, but misguided, passenger protests threaten to gum up an air travel system that's already ridiculously invasive and expensive without being any safer. The Unions Have Won! It was a year ago that Obama nominated Erroll Southers for the top position at TSA. Union sycophant Southers had to drop out of the nominating process, but Obama never did give up the idea of unionizing the TSA. TSA has met the enemy — and they are us. How did an agency created to protect the public become the target of so much public scorn? TSA needs false flag security incident to convince Americans to accept obscene pat-downs. So far, the TSA is molesting children, teens and grannies without being able to demonstrate that this gross violation of Americans' Fourth Amendment rights is having any effect whatsoever on improving air travel safety. But if there's anything to be learned from 9/11, it's that the sheeple are always willing to give up their rights if they can be scared into doing so. Beck: Obama Will Blame Terror Attack On TSA Resistance. In little noticed comments made during an appearance on Judge Andrew Napolitano's show on Fox News, Glenn Beck warned that the Obama administration wouldn't hesitate to exploit a terror attack targeting airliners to blame the event on people protesting naked body scanners and TSA groping in airports. Schneier: TSA Scans "Won't Catch Anybody". Since 9/11, cryptology expert and security consultant Bruce Schneier has been one of the most pointed critics of the government's anti-terrorism security programs. In his 2003 book "Beyond Fear," he coined the phrase "security theater" to refer to measures which are undertaken not because they will be effective at thwarting attacks, but because the agencies carrying them out need to appear to be doing something useful. Just Don't Fly: Where Might the TSA Take Us Next? "Don't fly." That's Janet Napolitano's answer to those who oppose the regime of poke and grope that is today's Transportation Safety Agency. America is, after all, a land of choices. When you arrive at the airport, you can allow some complete stranger to irradiate you with a device that allows the operator to see you naked. Or you can allow some friendly security agent to put hands in places where they have no business. Or you can drive. Before you jump out of line and into your car, however, be warned that you can be fined up to $11,000 for changing your mind at the airport. Replace the TSA with the Louisville Option. TSA has elegantly proven that a well-funded government bureaucracy can spend 19 million dollars a day while trashing our Constitution and simultaneously molesting three-year-old children. Current TSA policies nicely mirror Obama's own ongoing national trifecta of debt, corruption and socialist-inspired ideological assaults on American values. Yes, one more bloody notch carved into the American psyche by this Administration. Disband the TSA. In nearly a decade there is not a single report of a terrorist having been caught during the TSA screening process. No bombs have been discovered. No hijackings have been thwarted. For the TSA to claim it has made the nation's skies safer is as absurd as the rooster taking credit for the sun rising each morning. Observant passengers have caught more terrorist-wannabes than the 67,000 TSA employees. Why Air Security is the Issue. There is a certain "stench" of a government bureaucracy. It's what one senses inside any DMV office or IRS office or Social Security office. It's a freedom-draining system of shackles put in place by elites and carried out by factotums. And nothing captures it quite like the TSA. The TSA restricts. It dehumanizes. It depresses. It invades. It costs. It fails in its stated mission as it creates jobs for the unemployable. It is government on display for all to see. It is what our health care will become if we keep silent. It's un-American. And it's not America. Not yet. TSA Head John Pistole: If Passengers Don't Undergo Screening, 'They Don't Have a Right' to Fly. Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole today [11/22/2010] defended controversial new security procedures and argued that if passengers want to get on a plane, they have to undergo new screening procedures. Sitting Duck Syndrome. Based on everything I've read, it would appear that the TSA has NEVER thwarted any attempt by any passenger trying to get through their security with a device or intent to do harm on an airplane. Therefore, I can assume that they have not had any successes in regards to stopping an actual event. Their perceived success lies simply in the fact that many folks seem to "feel better and safer" witnessing all of the precautionary acts taking place prior to a flight. The path to safer air travel. The national "opt out" day next Wednesday [11/24/2010] was created to protest body scanners and enhanced TSA pat downs at airports. While it illustrates passenger dissatisfaction about the intrusive and humiliating security procedures and constitutional issues, it does nothing to fix the gaping security holes we have at our airports. Amid the outcries and protests, it is rarely pointed out that there has never been a instance where the Transportation Security Administration has ever stopped or thwarted a potential terror attack against our airlines. Not one. What's Wrong With The TSA? The Transportation Safety Administration has three main areas of failure, of which employees fondling women and children is just the most obvious sign. The worst part, or at least equally as bad as violating the personal privacy of innocent, law-abiding travelers, is that what they're doing has no effect on the actual security of the airways, let alone the country. They're tormenting us just for show — and to soak up tax dollars. No union for Transportation Security workers. If you've flown lately, the odds are good that you had a rubber-gloved Transportation Security Administration agent touch you in places that would otherwise result in the issuance of an arrest warrant for unwanted groping. Even so, despite years of imposing increasingly invasive new security procedures, the TSA has yet to catch one terrorist. By contrast, the Washington Post reported in May that "at least 23" TSA agents have been fired since 2007 for stealing from passengers. There were also "at least eight unrelated incidents involving practical jokes played on air passengers, drug use, leaving a security post and falling asleep on the job." Southeast Airports Debate Dropping TSA Scanners. Airports in Florida and Georgia are debating whether to replace Transportation Security Administration employees who run security checkpoints with private contractors. Rep. John Mica of Florida sent a letter to the nation's 100 busiest airports this month urging them to consider using contractors. He's a longtime critic of the TSA. Sanford Airport to opt out of TSA screening. The backlash continues over those new TSA screening measures, and now one Central Florida airport has decided to go with a private security screening firm. Orlando Sanford International Airport has decided to opt out from TSA screening. Firing the TSA. Janet Napolitano is getting a lesson: treat customers unreasonably and they will leave. Airport operators do not have to use TSA to screen passengers, and an airport has already announced it will use one of the five private screening firms already approved to offer security screening for air travelers. Big Brother Is Scanning You. There seems to be a growing revolt among the traveling populace against the new TSA full-body scanners -- which examine the naked figure for contraband -- and the invasive "pat-downs" administered to those bold, or foolhardy, enough to decline the scanner. I am in full sympathy with people who are horrified by either prospect, and am intrigued by the extent to which discontent and civil disobedience is spreading across the landscape. Napolitano: The Ball's In My Court Now. After the 9/11 attacks, when 19 Muslim terrorists -- 15 from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates and one each from Egypt and Lebanon, 14 with "al" in their names -- took over commercial aircraft with box-cutters, the government banned sharp objects from planes. ... After another Muslim terrorist, Richard Reid, AKA Tariq Raja, AKA Abdel Rahim, AKA Abdul Raheem, AKA Abu Ibrahim, AKA Sammy Cohen (which was only his eHarmony alias), tried to blow up a commercial aircraft with explosive-laden sneakers, the government prohibited more than 3 ounces of liquid from being carried on airplanes. T&A at the TSA. There is no bigger threat to America's aviation industry than the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). In less than a decade, the bureaucratic agency has heightened the hassle involved in taking to the skies. One can only imagine how much longer it will be before the majority of Americans decide they'd be better off hitting the highways. Full Frontal Nudity Doesn't Make Us Safer: Abolish the TSA. In the spirit of bipartisanship and sanity, I propose that the first thing on the chopping block should be an ineffective organization that wastes money, violates our rights, and encourages us to make decisions that imperil our safety. I'm talking about the Transportation Security Administration. Bipartisan support should be immediate. For fiscal conservatives, it's hard to come up with a more wasteful agency than the TSA. For privacy advocates, eliminating an organization that requires you to choose between a nude body scan or genital groping in order to board a plane should be a no-brainer. TSA employees can vote on union representation, labor board rules. In a significant victory for federal employee unions, the Federal Labor Relations Authority decided Friday [11/12/2010] that Transportation Security Administration staffers will be allowed to vote on union representation. The decision clears the way for a campaign by the government's two largest labor organizations, the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union, to represent some 50,000 transportation security officers. The Editor says... Oh, good! They'll be much more efficient workers when they can't be fired. The TSA will get better when they unionize, right? Lost in all the hoopla about TSA's turn-your-head-and-cough security checks and so-called new "porno-scanners" is the news that TSA is about to unionize. TSA ejects Oceanside man from airport for refusing security check. John Tyner won't be pheasant hunting in South Dakota with his father-in-law any time soon. Tyner was simultaneously thrown out of San Diego International Airport on Saturday morning [11/13/2010] for refusing to submit to a security check and threatened with a civil suit and $10,000 fine if he left. Body Scanners: Irradiating JFK. [Scroll down] So the pass Americans have granted the TSA may be expiring. Which is as catastrophic for the agency as it is indispensable for liberty. Even the most totalitarian regime rules only with its citizens' indulgence: once enough people determine to overthrow tyranny, not even the most indomitable dictator can withstand them. Let us fervently pray that the TSA is about to learn that lesson. I'm fed up with the TSA. I arrived at the Los Angeles Airport more than an hour early. I had made good time on the highway. I wasn't checking any bags, so with my boarding pass in hand I proceeded to the gate. I was greeted with a security line that was almost an hour long. The line snaked around the terminal, out the door, and stretched down the sidewalk. At the front of the line sat a lone Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer studiously checking identification with a jeweler's loupe, the small magnifying glass jewelers use to look for flaws in gemstones. It is little wonder that polls consistently find that the TSA is the most hated U.S. government agency, even more despised than the Internal Revenue Service. TSA to Block "Controversial Opinion" on the Web. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency's computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a "controversial opinion," according to an internal email obtained by CBS News. ... The email does not specify how the TSA will determine if a website expresses a "controversial opinion." Three days later... TSA withdraws 'controversial opinion' restriction on web use. A new policy blocking access of Transportation Security Administration employees from websites with "controversial opinion" content has been withdrawn, a spokesman tells The [Washington] Examiner. TSA union to distribute leaflets at airport. Informational pickets from the union representing security screeners at Indianapolis International Airport are expected today [6/17/2010] to begin passing out leaflets outside the passenger terminal. The union that has limited rights to represent the 40,000 employees nationwide of the Transportation Security Administration is trying to win full recognition for collective bargaining. U.S. report shows 16 people linked to terror plots passed undetected through airport security. At least 16 people later linked to terror plots passed through U.S. airports undetected by federal officials who were on duty to spot suspicious behavior, according to a government report. TSA Officers Lack Training to Spot Terrorists. A new government report released Thursday reveals that federal officers with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) who are tasked with the job of spotting terrorists at airports have little training. Get the Government Out of Airport Screening. In a hasty overreaction to [9/11], Congress gave the job of screening passengers and baggage to a new federal agency: the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). As a result, taxpayers pay for more than 48,000 airport security screeners and TSA has requested nearly $8.2 billion in funding for 2011. Creating the massive bureaucracy was a mistake. More brilliant Security moves from Obama... now with TSA staff. Our President has made the bold announcement that 10,000 TSA staff will get "secret Intelligence." Is this how we are going to save America's airlines and airports from terrorists? Let's make sure that 10,000 mystery people working at TSA now get secret Intelligence. I feel so much safer now. Woman Accused Of Hitting TSA Agent Over Applesauce. A judge Tuesday [4/20/2010] threw out a case against Nadine Hays, who is accused of hitting a TSA agent who allegedly tried to take away her elderly mother's applesauce — if she stays out of trouble for six months. TSA worker plants white powder baggie on traveller as a joke. These days, joking about anything illegal while in an airport security line will likely land you in a holding cell, and might even result in criminal charges. But this column from the Philadelphia Inquirer has some wondering whether that rule applies to TSA employees themselves. It was no joke at security gate. In the tense new world of air travel, we're stripped of shoes, told not to take too much shampoo on board, frowned on if we crack a smile. The last thing we expect is a joke from a Transportation Security Administration screener — particularly one this stupid. Stupid TSA prank should remind everyone: good thing they're not unionized. You may have read about the Philadelphia TSA worker who scared ... an unsuspecting 22-year-old passenger by planting a bag of white powder in her carry-on bag. Luckily, he's already been fired. But if TSA was unionized... Another TSA complaint close to home. Last month's column on the TSA worker who jokingly planted a bag of white powder on a passenger at Philadelphia International Airport generated a half-million page views and scores of tips of other alleged abuses by those who work to keep us safe. Until last week, none of those complaints involved Philadelphia. Then I heard about Nadine Pellegrino, who learned just how powerful the government's word can be. 99-year-old Granny isn't the problem. I handed over my driver's licence and, as he had done with all the previous passengers, the Transportation Security Administration agent examined it. And examined it. And examined it some more. He had a loupe, one of those magnifying glasses jewellers use to examine diamonds for any surface blemishes or internal flaws. In this case, he was deploying it to examine how the ink lies on the paper. And when he'd finished doing that he got out his UV light to study the watermark on my licence. And, looking down at his bald patch as he went about his work with loving care, I was overcome by a sudden urge to point out that nobody had ever blown up a U.S. airliner with a fake driver's licence. DeMint: TSA nominee isn't qualified, shouldn't be confirmed. Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who has been the target of much Democratic criticism for his efforts to slow down Senate confirmation of Erroll Southers, the Obama White House's nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration, now says Southers should not be confirmed. DeMint has been critical of Southers for refusing to answer questions about whether Southers would work toward unionizing the TSA. Another Republican opposes TSA nominee Erroll Southers. The top Republican on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is urging Republican Sen. Jim DeMint to stand firm in opposing the nomination of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Administration. Security Theater Now Playing at Your Airport. [Scroll down] Worse yet, consider the panicky Mickey-Mouse, and embarrassing steps the U.S. Transportation Security Administration implemented hours after the Detroit bombing attempt: no crew announcements "concerning flight path or position over cities or landmarks," and disabling all passenger communications services. During a flight's final hour, passengers may not stand up, access carry-on baggage, nor "have any blankets, pillows, or personal belongings on the lap." ... The TSA engages in "security theater" — bumbling pretend-steps that treat all passengers equally rather than risk offending anyone by focusing, say, on religion. Military Blogger Michael Yon Detained, Handcuffed by TSA in Seattle Airport. [Scroll down slowly] Yon described the TSA officials as noticeably frustrated by his refusal to answer their questions: "I always assume everything is being recorded. I was trying to be professional." Yon continued, "They said I wasn't under arrest, but I'm handcuffed. In any other country, that qualifies as an arrest." ... "TSA people are out of control," he said. "They are not doing their jobs, they are harassing people, creating animosity. They ask you 'what time is your connective flight?' and they bully you until you miss the flight." DeMint: Unions are already hurting Border Patrol — TSA next? [Scroll down] DeMint has placed a hold on President Obama's nomination of Erroll Southers to head the TSA because Southers refused to say whether he would support TSA unionization. As we have noted, Southers has deeper problems that should disqualify him from such a position of authority. The mere fact that as an FBI agent he once used a government database to spy on his wife's boyfriend should be enough to prevent the promotion of Southers. That he also lied about the decades-old incident recently before Congress only adds to the problems with his nomination. Transportation Security Administration on trial. The editorial pages of practically every major newspaper in the country have warned that the Transportation Security Administration is failing. Left, right, center, it doesn't matter. The incompetence is obvious to anyone who looks. Just last week this page dubbed TSA the "Terrorism Service Administration" for broadcasting detailed security information that could be used to slip through our defenses. Transportation Security Administration on trial. The U.S. government knew purported bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab might be dangerous, but only placed him on a watch list that failed to bring him to the attention of anyone who could do anything before he got on the plane. That he was banned from entering Britain alone was surely enough to subject him to great scrutiny at airport checkpoints. He purchased a ticket with cash and had no checked luggage, all behaviors that are supposed to flag passengers. They were two of the very red flags we missed on Sept. 11, 2001. TSA nominee misled Congress about accessing confidential records. The White House nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration gave Congress misleading information about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws, documents obtained by The Washington Post show. Massive TSA Security Breach As Agency Gives Away Its Secrets. In a massive security breach, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted online its airport screening procedures manual, including some of the most closely guarded secrets regarding special rules for diplomats and CIA and law enforcement officers. TSA Hands Al-Qaeda Its Playbook. In a blunder of astonishingly poor judgment, the TSA allowed one of its most sensitive documents, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) manual, to be posted online. And then, instead of admitting the seriousness of its security breach, the TSA tried to take the position that the information wasn't that important. Only after Congress got involved did TSA take any action. Bureaucrats With Badges. Shortly after the Transportation Security Administration assumed control of airport security and [Conrad] Burns was still serving in Congress he was at Washington's National Airport for a flight home. National is the airport used almost exclusively by members of Congress to fly in and out of the nation's capital. Burns showed his U.S. Senate identification to a TSA agent who refused to accept it, telling him she was not familiar with the government-issued photo ID. He had to produce another form of picture ID she demanded. In an attempt to be funny, Burns offered his Sam's Club shopping card. The agent accepted it and sent Burns on his way. TSA Tells Airport Screeners to Stick to Weapons and Explosives. The American Civil Liberties Union has dropped its lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration after the TSA revised its policy on searching travelers, telling screeners they can only investigate transportation-related issues, barring them from seeking evidence of crimes unrelated to air safety. Airport rules changed after Ron Paul aide detained. An angry aide to Rep. Ron Paul, an iPhone and $4,700 in cash have forced the Transportation Security Administration to quietly issue two new rules telling its airport screeners they can only conduct searches related to airplane safety. Terrorist watch list hits 1 million. The government's terrorist watch list has hit 1 million entries, up 32% since 2007. Federal data show the rise comes despite the removal of 33,000 entries last year by the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center in an effort to purge the list of outdated information and remove people cleared in investigations. 1,600 are suggested daily for FBI's list. Newly released FBI data offer evidence of the broad scope and complexity of the nation's terrorist watch list, documenting a daily flood of names nominated for inclusion to the controversial list. During a 12-month period ended in March this year, for example, the U.S. intelligence community suggested on a daily basis that 1,600 people qualified for the list because they presented a "reasonable suspicion," according to data provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee by the FBI in September and made public last week. Laptop Search Hit Rate: Only 1.4%. Under Customs' laptop search policy — first revealed on July 16, 2008 — computers, other digital media, and documents can be searched at the border with no individualized suspicion at all, and can be seized as evidence only when a Customs agent determines that there is probable cause. The policy permits agents to conduct the search without having either evidence of wrongdoing or even approval of a supervisor. It authorizes Customs agents to copy the contents of a laptop or other digital medium and send it to a distant location where persons unseen and unknown to the traveler decrypt and translate data in the laptop, and it permits Customs to "detain" the computer for weeks or for months while this occurs. Computers, Customs, and You. Without a warrant, probable cause or even the faintest suspicion, US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) may decide to search your computer and all its files, your cell phone, and iPod when you return home from abroad. It offers the usual excuse for eviscerating the Fourth Amendment: "Our ability to inspect what is coming into the United States is central to keeping dangerous people and things from entering the country and harming the American people." Actually, its ability to inspect is harming the American people since Customs' warrantless rummaging sends some victims to prison. Are TSA's Tracking Cookies Legal? The Transportation Security Agency's website is not only hosting a site that looks like a phishing attack designed to steal personal information from citizens, it's also using cookies on its website — a practice that the government frowns on. The main TSA site sets two cookies — both of which expire in 2017. One of the cookies is set to tsa.gov, while the other is served from a web analytics company called WebTrends. ACLU Assails 100-Mile Border Zone as 'Constitution-Free'. The government has long been able to search people entering and exiting the country without need to say why, which is known as the border search exception of the Fourth Amendment. After 9/11, Congress gave the Department of Homeland Security the right to use some of its powers deeper within the country, and now DHS has set up at least 33 internal checkpoints where they stop people, question them and ask them to prove citizenship, according to the ACLU. The Things He Carried: Airport security in America is a sham — "security theater" designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items — as our correspondent did with ease. Internal DHS Documents Detail Expansion of Power. Recently obtained documents show that last year the Department of Homeland Security quietly reversed a two-decades-old policy that restricted customs agents from reading and copying the personal papers carried by travelers, including U.S. citizens. ID-less Travelers Added to Terrorism Threat Database. Previously, a little-known Transportation Security Administration rule allowed airline passengers to fly without showing identification so long as they went through extra screening. But starting June 21 this year, passengers now have to act nicely and provide enough biographical information so that the government could 'identify' them using private databases. Then they still get the extra screening. If the agent can't "identify" the person, the agent can block the person from flying. But either way, according to a USA Today story, their names get added to a database of people believed to be possible threats to aviation. The names are kept for 15 years and can be shared with law enforcement. TSA is as unpopular with Americans as the IRS. As long as the TSA refuses to tell the truth about what's really going on in airports and on airplanes, the flying public will refuse to trust the TSA. And that's going to continue to be revealed in the public's opinion. Commuter Flights Grounded Thanks To Bumbling TSA Inspector. Total Air Temperature (TAT) probes on nine American Eagle regional jets were damaged because "an overzealous TSA employee attempted to gain access to the parked aircraft" by using the TAT probes has would-be handholds. TSA is both incompetent and vindictive. Homeland Security Meets The Sopranos. Last spring, shortly after airing a news report that embarrassed the TSA and the Federal Air Marshal Service, CNN's investigative reporter Drew Griffin was suddenly placed on the TSA's terrorist watch list. Last week, CNN ran a follow-up piece. Anderson Cooper interviewed Griffin — a reporter who had suddenly moved from telling an important story to being part of it. ... The TSA does target people who critique or criticize the TSA. Gun Nuts at 30,000 Feet? [Scroll down] Some would-be marshals were hired even after they repeatedly shot flight attendants in mock hijack-response training exercises. One marshal groused that the training for new marshals was "like security-guard training for the mall." ... The air marshal who brandished his weapon had twice applied to be a cop in Philadelphia but failed the police department's psychological tests; the marshal was also rejected in his attempt to get a job as a prison guard. The marshal had received only two weeks of training at the time he threatened scores of coach passengers. America's Cure For Everything: Punish The Innocent. I don't want to wait for hours while the Transportation Safety folks subject little old ladies in wheelchairs to intrusive searches. I'd much rather see these bureaucrats check Muslims who want to board the plane. Not every Muslim or Arab is a terrorist. But, so far, in the War on Islamic Fascism, every terrorist has been Muslim. … If profiling isn't acceptable because it's not Politically Correct, here is another idea: Put the Muslims on one plane and put the rest of us on a different one. The Airport Security Follies: Consider for a moment the hypocrisy of T.S.A.'s confiscation policy. At every concourse checkpoint you'll see a bin or barrel brimming with contraband containers taken from passengers for having exceeded the [3 ounce] volume limit. Now, the assumption has to be that the materials in those containers are potentially hazardous. If not, why were they seized in the first place? But if so, why are they dumped unceremoniously into the trash? They are not quarantined or handed over to the bomb squad; they are simply thrown away. The agency seems to be saying that it knows these things are harmless. But it's going to steal them anyway, and either you accept it or you don't fly. IG Issues Scathing Report on TSA. The Office of the Inspector General (IG) issued a report Tuesday [6/24/2008] regarding ongoing employee problems at the TSA. The results are not surprising. Low morale among screeners is compromising national security. TSA's new uniforms make them sick. Or at least that's what the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) claims. It "estimate[s]" that 200 or 300 "workers" [sic for "stand-ins at the security theater"] have complained of such symptoms. The TSA unveiled screeners' blue shirts and gold metal badges with great foofaraw this summer. Among their many other sins, no one at this absurd agency seems to have read Thoreau's warning against enterprises that require new clothes. Too bad: their ignorance and new costumes cost us $12 million. The Transportation Security Administration Reorganization Act of 2005: Most independent observers I am sure agree with Congressman Lungren after seeing the repeated reports of failure by the TSA to accomplish its goal of securing our airports and airliners from the known threats of terrorism. After more than four years on the job, explosives still cannot be readily identified by existing technology and security continues to be regularly breached on TSA's watch, with no hope for improvement in sight. TSA can't find real bombs either. The excuse we hear from the Transportation Security Administration when yet another report comes out finding that its screeners miss the majority of simulated bomb components that testers attempt to bring through airport checkpoints is that the tests are designed to be difficult and nobody would be able to get away with it if they were real bomb components. Yet investigators with no insider knowledge were able to smuggle real bomb components, sufficient to assemble powerful improvised explosive devices based on liquid explosives, past the TSA at 19 separate airports, according to a report released November 15 [2007]. TSA Censoring Posts on CNN Air Marshal Story. When a firearm goes on in a cockpit of a plane while it is on approach for landing, and TSA comes out publicly and claims, "The aircraft and the passengers were never in any danger," does TSA really believe the public is that stupid to believe such propaganda? Does TSA really believe that they will have any credibility left after such comments? Rare Marshals. Air Marshals are leaving the agency in droves. Less that 1% of flights are now covered by armed marshals, a CNN investigation reveals. … TSA, which is in charge of the Air Marshal Service, denies the allegations. Why Have 67,000 TSA Employees Left Their Jobs? Over the course of its six-year life, the Transportation Security Administration has hired 110,000 employees, and 67,000 of them have quit or been fired. Frightening odds for the first-line of defense against terrorists. ABC: 8,000 Foreigners Received Illegal Pilot Licenses. In one of the most damaging reports ever filed about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), ABC news headlined yesterday with "9/11 Redoux: 'Thousands of Aliens' in U.S. Flight Schools Illegally." The article paints a pathetic portrait of the TSA in a free-fall, unable to handle the most basic of its Constitutionally-mandated jobs. The Editor says... I must have missed the aviation section in the Constitution. What part of the Constitution mandates the TSA? Congress Investigates TSA in Conflict of Interest Case. Congress has released a report detailing flaws in a TSA website so riddled with security flaws that Congressman Henry Waxman calls it "mindboggeling." The site was set up to help passengers remove their names from faulty watch lists but was so riddled with security holes, it could easily have been hacked into. Time to Profile Airline Passengers? In 2003, the TSA, charged with protecting U.S. airplanes, launched a passenger profiling system known as Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, now operating in twelve U.S. airports. … While methods that target the whole population have general value — SPOT did discover passengers with forged visas, fake IDs, stolen airline tickets, and various forms of contraband — its utility for counterterrorism is dubious. Airport Security: Winging It. Sadly, in today's federal bureaucracy the motto seems to be, "punishment for failure is not an option." Consider everybody's favorite, the Transportation Security Administration. TSA was born out of failure. After the federal government dropped the ball on 9/11, the answer was clear: Federalize airport security! Airports got an influx of new federal employees and air travelers found themselves subject to a series of rules they couldn't understand. TSA can't believe MacBook Air is a real laptop; owner misses flight. The TSA has been known to take issue with products designed in Cupertino before, but for one particular traveler, it was Apple's thinnest laptop ever that caused the latest holdup. Upon tossing his ultra-sleek slab of aluminum underneath the scanner, security managed to find enough peculiarities to remove it from the flow, pull it aside and wrangle up the owner for some questions. Senate defeats bid to strike TSA union rights provision. With heavy backing from organized labor, Senate Democrats prevailed Tuesday in keeping a provision in a massive homeland security bill that gives federal airport screeners collective bargaining rights, moving them one step closer to a veto showdown with the White House. TSA taking closer look at travelers' mannerisms. Looking for signs of "stress, fear and deception" among the hundreds of passengers shuffling past him at Orlando (Fla.) International Airport one day last month, security screener Edgar Medina focused on four casually dressed men trying to catch a flight to Minneapolis. Bush May Veto 9/11 Security Plan Over Airport Screener Unions. President George W. Bush may veto legislation to adopt many of the remaining recommendations of the Sept. 11 Commission unless Senate Democrats drop a plan to allow airport screeners to join unions, a Bush administration official said. A provision in the security legislation now before the Senate would give government-employed airport security screeners the right to bargain collectively for union contracts and whistle-blower protections. TSA Disaster. A new Government Accountability report shows that private airport screeners do a better job at detecting dangerous object than the bureaucrats at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). This report is the last in a long series, all of which demonstrate the poor performances of the 45,000-employee bureaucracy. So isn't it time for Congress to acknowledge its mistake and abolish TSA? TSA Kept an Illegal Secret Database Of Air Passengers. Documents show a federal agency has done exactly what Congress told it not to do — and what it said it wouldn't do. Singing CAIR's Tune, On Your Dime. On a weekend when the Bush administration achieved a new CAIR-friendly low, a prominent Democrat, following the lead of other prominent Democrats, distanced herself very publicly from the unsavory Council on American-Islamic Relations. The Transportation Security Administration is the executive agency created after 9/11 to protect American travelers. Yet, Americans viewing its website this weekend could not have felt very protected. The Pretense of Airport Security: The Transportation Security Administration is a joke, and not a funny one, either. As you pass through the TSA's airport checkpoints, you can expect to overhear mutters about the "gestapo," the "morons," and similar commentary from outraged but powerless travelers who have chosen to swallow their self-respect and submit to pointless, degrading invasions of their persons and property in order to avoid offending the thugs who, whenever they choose, can prevent passengers from proceeding with their travel. Something is horribly wrong with a population willing to tolerate such routine degradation and thuggery, especially when the alleged benefits of the humiliation are entirely bogus. Keep Your Eye on the TSA. Created in haste in an effort to restore the confidence of the traveling public in the security of commercial aviation after 9/11, the TSA stands as a testament to the hubris of government in believing that decades of neglect of commercial aviation security could be fixed simply by willing it so. Now that it appears that the departure of Admiral Stone as the TSA's head will bring with it a reduction in the TSA's role in aviation security, we must ask what future mischief is in store for commercial aviation. TSA budget proposal rewards incompetence. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Congress ordered all but five commercial airports to switch from privately employed screeners to a government workforce. Three years after the federal takeover, TSA is inundated with complaints. The GAO reported several times on the agency's ineffectiveness at providing quality airport screening, while the Department of Homeland Security's own inspector general showed that passenger screening by the TSA needed to be improved to keep explosives and weapons off commercial aircraft. Taking an ice pick to airline security: Truth is stranger than fiction. … The Transportation Security Administration is looking at new rules that would again allow passengers to carry on … ice picks, razor blades, martial arts throwing stars, bows and arrows, and knives under five inches long … which would appear to include box cutters. The same TSA that seems to delight in taking away our tiny nail clippers — to save us from doom at 30,000 feet — now suggests it might be A-OK to bring an ice pick on board. Editor's Note: Is the TSA completely incompetent from top to bottom? In my opinion, this latest move of theirs is a red herring. By proposing this ridiculous over-relaxation of their own rules, the TSA is apparently trying to generate backlash and create a massive public outcry for tighter security. TSA supports unionizing airport screeners — well, some of them. While most of the Bush administration has been fighting against increased unionization of security-related positions since 9/11, the Transportation Security Administration is headed the other way in a small case with national implications. TSA isn't only going against the overall Bush Administration position; it's reversing its own stated policy. Welcome to the war on image. In a recent meeting with Daniel Sutherland, head of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties division of the Department of Homeland Security, American University's Akbar Ahmed had some suggestions, beginning, according to an online report in the Pakistani Daily Times, with pretty much eliminating Muslim profiling at airports. … "You simply cannot humiliate Muslims like this," Akbar said, describing a "peak level of anger" in "the young generation on the edge." Just one more pat-down and they'll blow. Keep Your Eye on the TSA. Created in haste in an effort to restore the confidence of the traveling public in the security of commercial aviation after 9/11, the TSA stands as a testament to the hubris of government in believing that decades of neglect of commercial aviation security could be fixed simply by willing it so. The Transportation Security Administration Reorganization Act of 2005. For many of the reasons set forth in the proposed law's mission statement, and other reasons not stated, the bill concludes that neither "the needs of the traveling public" nor those of security have been met. Background information: Complete List of Prohibited Items. Things you can't take to prohibited in-airport sterile areas and in the cabins of aircraft under the TSA regulations. Jive about airport security: It seems as though the Federal Aviation Administration's and Department of Transportation's operative assumption is that there's an equal chance that any person, including pilots and crewmembers, who boards a plane is a potential hijacker. That's why FAA and DOT security regulations require that everyone, including pilots and crew, be searched and "hijacking weapons" — like fingernail files, wine corkscrews and knitting needles — be confiscated. Airport insecurity: I don't think I can stand another news story on "beefed up" airport security. Playing in airports around the country since Sept. 11 are fabulous stage productions — part mystery, part thriller, part action — but mostly comedy. The airlines (who, unbeknownst to many are the ones responsible for airport security) know it's necessary to create the illusion of greater safety. So they put on fabulous shows consisting of a wide variety of scenes — from invasive but ineffective and unnecessary body searches to the dramatic discarding of deadly nail files. PC shield for terrorists: Most air travelers regard "airport security" as a bad joke. It is worse. It is an insult. The refusal to focus on the group to which Muslim terrorists are known to belong treats native-born citizens as the enemy and ensures the lack of security. Pointless searches of grandmothers, young children, U.S. representatives, presidential appointees, pilots and Marine generals divert resources from security and send the message that the government has no idea whatsoever who terrorists might be. Does the Punishment Fit the Crime? As the majority of the items banned from commercial aviation by the TSA are generally considered incapable of causing the serious harm we are trying to prevent aboard airliners, we need to re-think the justification for imposing burdensome fines on passengers who almost certainly took their scissors or miniature Swiss Army knife to the screening station without any intention of violating the law. Mineta Strikes Again: Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has made another controversial decision that seems to place politics and political correctness above national security. Mineta, President Bush's only Democrat in the Cabinet and a holdover from the Clinton administration, has steadfastly opposed ethnic profiling as a tool in airport security screening. He has described it as "surrendering to actions of hate and discrimination." So grandmothers and nuns get frisked, while young Arab males sail through security. EPIC Questions Secrecy of TSA Privacy Advisory Group. In a letter to the Transportation Security Administration's privacy officer, EPIC has asked why the Secure Flight Privacy/IT Working Group is not being operated in accordance with federal law intended to ensure transparency of government advisory committees. Another Blow to the TSA's Stewardship: With another example of poor timing, and even worse judgment, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that, effective this month [April 2005], its partial ban on cigarette lighters, which allowed passengers to carry lighters using absorbed fuel inside airline cabins, will now be extended to include all cigarette lighters. Be warned: Dad's Zippo, which survived World War II, will be confiscated if you attempt to carry it on your person or in your checked bags — and you may be fined if you protest the loss of this heirloom too loudly at a screening station. Rhetorical question: In such a case, when an old Zippo lighter is confiscated from an airline passenger, who utlimately takes possession of it? TSA Finds Data On Air Passengers Lacked Protection. A new government report says officials in the Department of Homeland Security didn't do enough to keep airline-passenger data secure when using it to test a traveler-screening program. DHS's Inspector General says the Transportation Security Administration gathered 12 million passenger records from February 2002 to June 2003 and used most of them to test the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS 2, which was designed to check passenger names against government watch lists. Passengers weren't told their information was being used for testing. TSA officials shelved CAPPS 2 last year amid complaints it was an invasion of passenger privacy. TSA Lied About Protecting Passenger Data. This is major stuff. It shows that the TSA lied to the public about its use of personal data again and again and again. Suspicious airline incidents will head straight to TSA. To ensure it has a bird's eye view of every potential problem, the Transportation Security Administration is now requiring all airlines and airports to report immediately any potential security threats. The move is controversial: It is praised by security experts as a key step in ensuring another 9/11 does not happen, while airlines see a bureaucratic nuisance in the requirement to rapidly report incidents that may be insignificant. This is an analysis of security risks at airports, written in November, 2000. Security Up in the Air. Airport personnel are not well supervised. The poor control of ramp employees in particular creates an enormous breach in security. While it is required that passengers and flight crews walk through metal detectors before accessing gates and other restricted areas of the airport, the same cannot be said of other airline employees. At some airports, employees working the ramp side of the facility access their time clocks and locker areas through back gates or entrances under the terminal, and if there is a security station at these entrances, the employee's identification card is all that is needed for entry. In some instances, doors are locked and entry is granted by punching in a code number provided to employees. Such a system allows multiple exits and entries throughout the day and also allows employees to bring in uninspected parcels. TSA widens test of biometric IDs. The U.S. government is spending $25 million this fiscal year to road test a universal secure identity card loaded with biometric and personal data and tied to government "watch lists." Though the program is aimed at simplifying the security checks that airport personnel and other transportation workers must go through, privacy experts are warning of unintended consequences. Imperial Transportation Bureaucrat Says Yes to Lavish Offices, No to Armed Pilots. Undersecretary John Magaw, the chief of the new Transportation Security Administration, has been very busy lately. He just spent $410,000 of your tax dollars installing lavish fixtures in his new office suite at the Transportation department headquarters. Of course this is nothing new in Washington. Self-indulgent bureaucrats routinely get away with wasteful extravagance. It's rare, however, when they are caught red handed, and it's important to expose such behavior whenever possible. Taxpayers deserve better and should demand his resignation. TSA Orders Air Passenger Data for Test. Even though the move was expected, civil libertarians are protesting a directive by the government ordering airlines to turn over personal information on their customers that can include credit card numbers and addresses and even indicate a traveler's religion. Trusted Traveler Program: If you fly out of Logan Airport and don't want to take off your shoes for the security screeners and get your bags opened up, pay attention. The U.S. government is testing its "Trusted Traveler" program, and Logan is the fourth test airport. Currently only American Airlines frequent fliers are eligible, but if all goes well the program will be opened up to more people and more airports. Airline baggage limbo: Two years after the TSA took charge of safety in the skies — including luggage inspections — critics point to increased thefts and misplaced belongings and a backlog of tens of thousands of claims against the agency. At least 15,000 claims remain in limbo pending a dispute between the federal agency and the airlines as to who should pay for the missing goods, TSA officials say. Airline industry officials say the number is closer to 27,000 claims, of which only "a couple of hundred" have been settled. Don't Pay for an Airline Ticket with Cash. Willie Jones paid cash for a ticket to Houston, where he planned to purchase plants and shrubbery for his business. But by paying in cash, Jones immediately aroused suspicions that he was a drug dealer. Carrying large amounts of cash and being an African-American apparently fits the DEA's profile of such a criminal. Privacy group sues TSA, Justice over airline passenger data. A public interest organization has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Transportation Security Administration and the Justice Department, seeking the immediate release of information about government efforts to collect airline passenger data since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Thank you for choosing United, Mr. bin Laden. Last week, I Fit the Profile: The label my friendly hometown airline had affixed to my bags had unexpectedly made me a marked man, someone selected for some unknown special treatment. The routine was broken; the power had shifted; the violation had begun. I suddenly felt as if in the grip of a giant vise, a terrible feeling I had last experienced as a teen-ager before fleeing Communist Hungary. Flying on Someone Else's Airplane Ticket: The photo-ID requirement on airplanes was established in 1996 by a still-secret FAA order. It was a reaction to TWA Flight 800, which exploded shortly after takeoff, killing all 230 on board. This was [officially] an accident — after 18 months the FBI concluded that there was no evidence of a bomb or missile — but the ID requirement was established anyway. The idea is that checking IDs increases security by making sure that the person flying is the person who bought the ticket. TSA-Approved Locks: Since 9/11, airport security has started opening checked luggage more. If they find a locked suitcase, they break the lock. But some travelers lock their suitcases, as they don't want the bags either accidentally opening up in transit or being opened up by some baggage handler looking for something to filch. In an attempt to satisfy both of these requirements, there's now a key escrow lock. You lock and unlock your suitcase normally, but there's a special TSA key that allows airport security to unlock it, too. Clearing the Way for Real Airport Security: The Transportation Safety Administration has erected a giant smokescreen designed to give the illusion of security — while deliberately obstructing the measures really required to stop terrorists. TSA Takeover Complete, But Is Flying Safer? In spite of the fact that there are more than 44,000 new passenger screeners and 158 federal security directors serving the country's 429 commercial airports, not all security experts agree that the federal presence means flying is safer. Same story: TSA Takeover Complete, But Flying Not Necessarily Safer: Kelly McCann, who trains bodyguards, government agents and military special forces, said screeners must know how to ask specific questions designed to root out passengers with unwelcome intentions. "They've been well-trained on the machines. They've been trained to be courteous. They've been trained to more properly handle the traveling public," McCann noted. "But, I've been traveling recently and I haven't seen any situation where they ask you anything different than they used to." "What we're doing is nothing more than a show. By embarking on the fantasy that we can solve this problem strictly by screening, we're doing nothing but wasting the taxpayers' money. It sure isn't making the traveling public any safer." TSA May Order Airlines to Share Data. Delta Airlines had originally agreed to participate in the program but withdrew following a firestorm of criticism over passenger privacy violations. Passenger Profiling Violates Rights, Doesn't Improve Safety. Because even some of the most critical government and commercial databases contain faulty data, authorities who rely on systems like CAPPS II run the risk of misidentifying individuals and "tagging" them as security risks, even forbidding passengers to board planes. Once available, travel authorities or others may use this sensitive data for purposes other than identifying potential threats to passengers aboard airplanes. EPIC's web page about Passenger Profiling. CAPPS-II originally shared many of the same elements of the Defense Department's "Total Information Awareness" program, which aimed at profiling innocent people. While there is an important threshold question if any of these profiling programs will actually be effective, there is also a vital need to engage in a public debate over the appropriateness and the privacy and security risks of such systems. A crucial first step for the debate is greater transparency from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). TSA: Taxpayer-soaking agency. The Transportation Security Administration is a fiscal black hole, and fiscal conservatives ought to be enraged. Fiscal Fiasco at TSA: Amidst concerns that the Transportation Security Administration has pulled budgets out of thin air and wasted millions of dollars, prominent lawmakers on Capitol Hill are now beginning to scrutinize the billions of tax dollars that have been spent to make our nation's airports more secure. TSA proposes database to track all airline passengers: Flight information from all airline passengers, including financial data, can be collected and analyzed under a little-seen regulation proposed by the Transportation Security Administration to track potential terrorists. The federal government wants to keep information for 50 years on passengers it believes pose threats to national security, while information on other passengers would be stored in a database for the duration of their travel and eliminated after their return. Feds Testing Air Passengers Check System: The government is getting ready to test a new risk-detection system that would check background information and assign a threat level to everyone who buys a ticket for a commercial flight. The No-Fly List When I started collecting information about the No-Fly List, the number of people on the list was believed to be less than 20,000. In the most recent articles, the number is estimated at over 80,000. Nobody [who will talk about it] knows for sure how people get on the list, just as nobody knows why certain people are frequently audited by the IRS; however, in the case of the IRS, there is abundant evidence that many IRS audits are politically motivated. Maybe that is the case here as well. The latest: Sen. Schumer: Create 'Do Not Ride' list for railways. Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for a "Do Not Ride" list for Amtrak following reports that terrorist Osama bin Laden was plotting attacks on U.S. railways before his death. The list would be similar to the "Do Not Fly" registry that is checked before passengers board flights at airports. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that it's a lot easier for would-be terrorists to get on trains that it has been for them to board airplanes. The Editor says... I'm sure Osama bin Laden wanted to do all kinds of things. But we should not constrict our society to protect ourselves from suicide bombers on trains, because if they're not on the train, they could be on a bus, or in a supermarket or taxi. Immigration Officer Puts Wife on the No-Fly List. According to the Daily Mail Online, an immigration officer who worked for the UK Border Agency managed to get his wife out of his hair for three years by putting her name on the no-fly list while she was visiting the in-laws overseas. Officials confirmed on January 30 that the man had confessed to adding his wife's name to the list after she left for Pakistan, with the result that she was not allowed to get on a plane to come home. Airline and immigration authorities refused to explain to her why she was not being allowed to travel, although I imagine she put two and two together after her immigration-officer husband stopped answering his phone. A Radical Proposal for Airline Security. Americans have a constitutionally protected right, recognized by the Supreme Court, to travel freely. They also have the right not to be subject to unreasonable searches and other government intrusions. But in the blind pursuit of safety, we have swallowed restrictions on travel and infringements on privacy we would never tolerate elsewhere. The no-fly list is a punishment in search of a crime. As Richard Sobel, a director of the Cyber Privacy Project and a scholar at Northwestern University, points out, it inflicts a penalty without a trial or any other form of due process. The TSA doesn't say what it takes to get on the list, and it doesn't make it crystal clear how to get off. Too Scary to Fly, Not Scary Enough to Arrest. Ten U.S citizens and residents, three of whom are veterans, are stuck abroad or cannot fly within or out of the United States because they are wrongly on a no-fly list, according to a federal lawsuit lodged Wednesday [6/30/2010]. The Oregon federal court case claims the plaintiffs, many with Middle Eastern names who have committed no legal wrongdoing, have asked the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration for an explanation, to no avail. U.S. Allowed Terrorists on No-Fly List to Buy Guns. The only thing stupider than allowing a known foreign terrorist into the United States may be allowing that terrorist to buy guns. Current U.S. law allows this [to] happen. It also allows known terrorists on the no-fly list to buy guns. Perhaps worse still, the U.S. government has approved background checks for watch-listed terrorists to possess explosives in the United States. Eric Holder takes fire over no-fly list. Senators from both parties praised the quick arrest of the Times Square car-bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad, but Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday also heard a lot of grumbling that Shahzad should never have been able to board a plane bound for Dubai. The Go-Fly List for Terrorists. While grandmas and grade-schoolers and war heroes patiently pass through a gauntlet of wands, checkpoints and screening obstacles, the nation's safety watchdogs are asleep at the wheel. They've mentally checked out at the check-in counter. And they're in over their heads at federal counterterrorism centers, where "watch list" means putting the names of dangerous operatives into massive databases — then idly watching potential bombers waltz through our airports and onto our tarmacs. The Watch List is Short, But Is It Useful? There are 250 Americans on the No-Fly list. That's the good news. The bad news? There's 250 people in America who the federal government believes are too dangerous to let onto a plane, but who aren't dangerous enough to arrest. TSA Changes No-Fly List Policy After Close Call With Times Square Suspect. The Transportation Security Administration has implemented a new rule requiring airlines to check the no-fly list within two hours after being notified of a special update, after the suspect in the Times Square bombing attempt made it through security at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport Monday night [5/3/2010]. Sources: Man Added To No-Fly List In Air. A man from West Africa who boarded a New York-bound flight in Senegal was added to the no-fly list while the plane was already heading over the Atlantic Ocean, according to a passenger on the flight and two sources with knowledge of the situation. U.S. Government to Take Over Airline Passenger Vetting. The Department of Homeland Security will take over responsibility for checking airline passenger names against government watch lists beginning in January, and will require travelers for the first time to provide their full name, birth date and gender as a condition for boarding commercial flights, U.S. officials said Wednesday [10/22/2008]. ... To bolster their case for the new program, U.S. officials for their first time disclosed that the no-fly list includes fewer than 2,500 individuals and the selectee list fewer than 16,000. 'No fly' foul as girl, 6, put on list. Meet America's tiniest terrorist: 6-year-old Allison Mosher, who's landed on the nation's No Fly List alongside mad bombers and other villainous thugs in a mind-boggling snafu that could scuttle her family's Grand Canyon vacation, her outraged dad says. We'll Have to Check, Sir. Pity the innocent air traveler whose name repeatedly registers as a match on the government's mammoth terrorist watch list. One major airline registers 9,000 false hits every day, according to Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security. These travelers and thousands more must routinely step aside and provide firmer proof of identity. … The terrorist watch list keeps growing, exceeding 900,000 and adding up to 20,000 a month, by some estimates. The TSA's useless photo ID rules: The no-fly list -- a list of people so dangerous they are not allowed to fly yet so innocent we can't arrest them -- and the less dangerous "watch list" contain a combined 1 million names representing the identities and aliases of an estimated 400,000 people. There aren't that many terrorists out there; if there were, we would be feeling their effects. Almost all of the people stopped by the no-fly list are false positives. Air marshals' names tagged on 'no-fly' list. Some federal air marshals have been denied entry to flights they are assigned to protect when their names matched those on the terrorist no-fly list, and the agency says it's now taking steps to make sure their agents are allowed to board in the future. Mandela still on U.S. terrorist lists. Nelson Mandela, South Africa's Nobel Prize-winning symbol of hope for leading the fight against apartheid, is reported still on U.S. terrorist watch lists. His inclusion means Mandela must have special permission to enter the United States, USA Today said Thursday [5/1/2008]. Update: U.S. Congress removes Mandela from terrorist list. Former South African President Nelson Mandela received a gift for his 90th birthday as U.S. Congress finally approved the removal of his name from the country's terrorist list, local media reported on Friday [6/27/2008]. Unlikely Terrorists On No Fly List. Anyone who has passed through an airport in the last five years and has been pulled aside for extra screening knows that the government and the airlines keep a list of people they consider to be security threats. Every time you check in at the ticket counter your name is run through a computer to make sure you are not on something called the "No Fly List." The No-Fly List. For months, the TSA, a federal agency established a year ago to protect the nation's transportation system from terrorism, denied it had a blacklist of people to be singled out by security staff for special inspection and questioning. But in mid-November, in an interview with this reporter, spokesman David Steigman acknowledged that the government has "a list of about 1,000 people" who are deemed "threats to aviation" and not allowed on airplanes under any circumstances. I Got Trapped in the Secret 'No Fly List'. On August 19th [2004], at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Edward Kennedy brought to public attention, the existence of this notorious 'no-fly list.' It has been reported in the news media that more than 350 Americans have suffered harassment by the execution of this 'no-fly list.' "No Fly" List Revelations: The FOIA lawsuit, brought by two San Francisco peace activists and the ACLU of Northern California, is now history. But an interesting history it is. It's a tale of the federal government's response to the events of September 11th — its often unorganized efforts to coordinate the screening of airline passengers using what became known as the "no fly" list. After they were stopped at the San Francisco airport and told that their names were on the government's "no fly" list, Plaintiffs Janet Adams and Rebecca Gordon sued to obtain access to documents maintained by the FBI and the TSA about themselves — and about the "no fly" list in general. Even in the face of this lawsuit, the TSA and FBI was willing to release few documents to the public. Conversation with Kip Hawley, TSA Administrator, Part 3. Let's talk about ID checks. I've called the no-fly list a list of people so dangerous they cannot be allowed to fly under any circumstance, yet so innocent we can't arrest them even under the Patriot Act. Except that's not even true; anyone, no matter how dangerous they are, can fly without an ID ?or by using someone else's boarding pass. And the list itself is filled with people who shouldn't be on it — dead people, people in jail, and so on — and primarily catches innocents with similar names. Why are you bothering? Faulty 'No-Fly' System Detailed. The federal government's "no-fly" list had 16 names on it on Sept. 11, 2001. Today, it has more than 20,000. The list, which identifies suspected terrorists seeking to board commercial airplanes, expanded rapidly even though the government knew that travelers were being mistakenly flagged, according to federal records. The records detail how government officials expressed little interest in tracking or resolving cases in which passenger names were confused with the growing number of names on the list. Papers Show Confusion as Government Watch List Grew Quickly. More than 300 pages of internal documents, turned over by the Justice Department on Friday as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, provide a rare glimpse inside the workings of the government's so-called no-fly list. Federal officials have maintained tight secrecy over the list, saying little publicly about how it is developed, how many people are on it or how it is put into practice, even as prominent people like Senator Edward M. Kennedy have been mistakenly blocked from boarding planes. U.S. Watch Lists Sow Frustration and Fear. For years, Elizabeth Kushigian never had a problem flying back-and-forth to Costa Rica, where she runs a local micro-lending nonprofit. But in 2004, she suddenly found it impossible to re-enter the United States without being ordered into a special isolation room at Miami International Airport. There, she'd wait for extra scrutiny. "I was in the line where you come in and stamp your passport, and each time they would scan the passport and look at (the) screen and stiffen," Kushigian says. Blacklist Grounds American Passengers. Replying to questions from Salon magazine, David Steigman, a spokesman for the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said, "We have a list of about 1,000 people." The agency was created a year ago by the U.S. Congress to handle transportation safety during the war on terror. "This list is composed of names that are provided to us by various government organizations like the FBI, CIA and INS — We don't ask how they decide who to list. Each agency decides on its own who is a 'threat to aviation.'" Transfer of terrorist no-fly list 'earmarked'? To secure congressional funding for a pet project, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., made a surprising claim: The little-known National Drug Intelligence Center was about to take charge of the "vitally important" terrorist no-fly list. Murtha's news, in a letter he sent to the House Intelligence Committee last month, came as a surprise to the nation's intelligence community. No-Fly List Checked for Accuracy, Cut. The Bush administration is checking the accuracy of a watch list of suspected terrorists banned from traveling on airliners in the U.S. and will probably cut the list in half, the head of the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday [1/17/2007]. … Cutting the list in half is "nice but not all that meaningful," said Barry Steinhardt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. He noted that various estimates of the list's size, which is classified, have ranged from 50,000 to 350,000 names. Pushing National IDs: As [Justin] Rood points out, this extensive list contains numerous mistakes. "U.S. lawmakers and their spouses have been detained because their names were on the watch list," Rood observed. "Reporters who have reviewed versions of the list found it included the names of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, at the time he was alive but in custody in Iraq; imprisoned al Qaeda plotter Zacarias Moussaoui; and 14 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers, all of whom perished in the attacks." Trimming the "No-Fly" List: How many people have been a "false positive" on the TSA's no fly list and then inconvenienced? The purpose of the government's "no-fly" list is to identify people considered too dangerous to be allowed on commercial flights. Apparently, thousands of people have been mistakenly linked to names on terror watch lists when they crossed the border, boarded commercial airliners or were stopped for traffic violations, a government report said Friday. Why the System, Though More Efficient, Still Does Not Accord Travelers Sufficient Due Process: For those who have been wrongfully detained or delayed at the airport, or when traveling to Canada or Mexico, relief may be in sight. Beginning February 20, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will launch the new DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP). Associations Offer Qualified Support For DHS Watch-List Redress Plan. The Department of Homeland Security on Feb. 20 plans to launch the Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, offering travelers faster means to correct watch-list misidentification or point of entry issues, or rectify situations where passengers "have been unfairly or incorrectly delayed, denied boarding or identified for additional screening at our nation's transportation hubs," DHS said. 80,000+ red-flagged on "No Fly" Lists. The latest figures that I have seen are that at least 80,000 Americans are now on FBI and Homeland Security's red-flagged "no fly" lists with another 325,000 on yellow-flagged "watch lists" (the latter being subject to body and luggage searches). Hundreds more names are added every week. The criteria for being put in these lists is secret, and there is no official procedure for getting off a list. Men named David Nelson are being searched at airports across U.S.. Throughout Southern California and across the country, men named David Nelson report they have been harassed, questioned by FBI agents, pulled off airplanes, searched and then searched again when attempting air travel. 20,000 Put on government "no-fly" lists. The reason [Senator Edward] Kennedy was put on the list was that a suspected terrorist had allegedly used his name as an alias. You would think that airport security would be able to tell the difference between a fake and real Edward Kennedy, given that Senator Kennedy has one of the best known faces in America. He has also been taking the same flight between Boston and Washington, D.C. for the past 42 years. But no, the computer said not to allow anyone with his name to board. There's no getting off that no-fly list. Sarah Zapolsky was checking in for a flight to Italy when she discovered that her 9-month-old son's name was on the United States' "no fly" list of suspected terrorists. "We pointed down to the stroller, and he sat there and gurgled," Zapolsky said, recalling the July [2005] incident at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. "The desk agent started laughing … She couldn't print us out a boarding pass because he's on the no-fly list." Editor's Note: In order to make that decision, the airline ticket agent would have to believe that the nine month old baby was a terrorist and a potential threat. This could easily be used as proof of the ticket agent's insanity. People who stubbornly follow instructions, no matter how absurd, are dangerous individuals. They're the people who make wartime atrocities possible. Tens of thousands mistakenly matched to terrorist watch lists. About 30,000 airline passengers have discovered since last November that their names were mistakenly matched with those appearing on federal watch lists, a transportation security official said Tuesday [12/6/2005]. You are now on the No-Fly List. The National Press Photographers Association has gotten numerous reports from members who say they've been hassled by police since the Sept. 11, 2001. In early June, about 100 photographers crowded onto Manhattan subway trains and snapped pictures of each other in protest of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's proposed ban on photos on public transit. Congresswoman Has No-Fly List Troubles. A California congresswoman said she was briefly denied access to a United Airlines flight last week because her name appeared on a "no fly list" set up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat who has been a critic of the no-fly list, said her staff had booked her a one-way ticket from Boise, Idaho, to Cincinnati through Denver. But they were prevented from printing her boarding pass online and at an airport kiosk. Grounded along with other fellow terrorists. When my wife's favorite aunt died last November we immediately made plans to head for St. Louis for the funeral. We drove the 700 miles to St. Louis. I am not allowed to fly on an airplane within the United States because the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration consider me a threat to the security of the United States. Yep. I'm on the official "no-fly" list, along with some 80,000 other Americans. More on the No-Fly List. Edward Allen's reaction to being on the government's "no-fly" list should have been the tip-off that he is no terrorist. "I don't want to be on the list. I want to fly and see my grandma," the 4-year-old boy said, according to his mother. Sijollie Allen and her son had trouble boarding planes last month because someone with the same name as Edward is on a government terrorist watch list. 4-year-old shows up on government 'no-fly' list. Sijollie Allen isn't the first mother to have travel plans delayed because of a 4-year-old son. … "Is this a joke?" she recalled telling Continental Airlines agents Dec. 21 at Bush Intercontinental Airport. "You can tell he's not a terrorist." Travelers gripe about no-fly errors. What if you were denied a boarding pass right up front because a government database thinks you're a threat to America? That's the most common gripe from nearly 100 passengers who filed complaints with the Transportation Security Administration between November 2003 and May 2004, according to documents obtained recently by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Tens of thousands mistakenly put on terrorist watch lists. Nearly 30,000 airline passengers discovered in the past year that they were mistakenly placed on federal "terrorist" watch lists, a transportation security official said Tuesday [12/6/2005]. Expanding the No-Fly List: The no-fly list created by U.S. authorities, which singles out passengers who are potential terrorist threats, is the target of frequent criticism that it's incomplete and unreliable. But that hasn't stopped it from expanding dramatically. Aviation sources say the list has grown to more than 31,000, up from 19,000 last September. The No-Fly List: Imagine a list of suspected terrorists so dangerous that we can't ever let them fly, yet so innocent that we can't arrest them — even under the draconian provisions of the Patriot Act. This is the federal government's "No Fly" list. First circulated in the weeks after 9/11 as a counterterrorist tool, its details are shrouded in secrecy. But because the list is filled with inaccuracies and ambiguities, thousands of innocent, law-abiding Americans have been subjected to lengthy interrogations and invasive searches every time they fly, and sometimes forbidden to board airplanes. It also has been a complete failure, and has not been responsible for a single terrorist arrest anywhere. "Please step to the side, sir". Several documents produced by the Transportation Security Administration late in March [2003] indicate that the TSA actually keeps two main watch lists — one "no-fly" list of people "to be denied transport," and one "selectee list" of people who need "additional screening prior to boarding," according to an internal memo released by the agency. These lists have "expanded almost daily" since November 2001, the memo says. No-fly lists easily circumvented, passengers say. The whole notion that keeping a list of names contributes to safety is kind of questionable, especially when terrorists use aliases all the time. Look Who Made the "No Fly" List: Senator Ted Kennedy — one of the most recognizable figures in American politics — told a Senate committee hearing on Thursday [8/19/2004] he had been blocked several times from boarding commercial airline flights because his name was on a "no-fly" list intended to exclude potential terrorists. Judge Rebukes Government Over No-Fly List. A federal judge ruled Tuesday [6/15/2004] that the government is stonewalling attempts by the ACLU to acquire information about the government's secret ACLU to sue government over "no-fly" list. American Civil Liberties Union's officials declined to comment in advance of their planned announcement Tuesday [4/6/2004] that they would file a class-action lawsuit challenging the list of travelers that the government has barred from flying because they're considered a threat. Mr. bin Laden, you're clear to fly. Apparently bin Laden is not on the FBI's secret "no-fly list". According to airline-security documents obtained by Insight magazine, the name Osama bin Laden was punched into the computer by an airline official and, remarkably, that name was cleared at the security checkpoint all passengers must pass through before being issued a boarding pass. ACLU Seeks Government Data on Secret "No-Fly" List: The ACLU is asking a federal judge to demand that the TSA, FBI or the Justice Department disclose who is on the list, how they got on it and how they can get off it. Proof of a No-Fly List: Man Claims to Have Bomb, Is Barred from Flying. A man was barred from flying for 24 hours after he made a comment about an explosive device in his hand-held computer as his plane was about to take off from Salt Lake City on Friday [01/30/2004], officials said. U.S. terror watch list keeps eye on all groups: The U.S. master terror watch list, used to stop suspected terrorists from entering the country, includes not only suspected al Qaeda members but other suspects from a wide spectrum of organizations around the world, a top federal law enforcement official says. [Questions arose] about the master list and other watch lists including the TSA's "no-fly list" that were raised last week when it was reported that FBI agents had briefly detained a harmless federal employee who has an Irish last name. Amtrak Antics: With the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) No-Fly list kicking an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 terrorists off American aviation, those folks have to get where they're going somehow. They could drive, of course, but there's a limit to how much carnage one can wreak with a car, even an SUV. And wreaking carnage is what terrorists are dying to do, right? So they're probably opting for trains and busses. Figure half are enduring Greyhound, while the other 40,000 to 50,000 are hopping Amtrak. Infants Among Those Caught Up in "No-Fly" Confusion. Infants have been stopped from boarding planes at airports throughout the United States because their names are the same as, or similar to, those of possible terrorists on the government's "no-fly list." Because of these screenings, parents have missed flights while scrambling to have babies' passports and other documents faxed to allow them to board. Same story: Even Babies Aren't Exempt From "No-Fly" List. Infants have been stopped from boarding planes at airports throughout the United States because their names are the same as or similar to those of possible terrorists on the government's "no-fly" list. It sounds like a joke, but it's not funny to parents who miss flights while scrambling to have babies' passports and other documents faxed. Editor's Note: According to this story, ... So why didn't the screeners know this?The Transportation Security Administration, which administers the list, instructs airlines not to deny boarding to children under 12 -- or select them for extra security checks -- even if their names match those on a list. 8-Year-Old Boy Held From Plane for Appearing on No-Fly List. Bryan Moore was set to catch his first plane trip when he arrived at an airport in Cortez, Colorado to fly home after visiting his sister, said the report. "They almost got me scheduled in and then the lady just bowed her head and said, 'We can't get you on this plane, you're a terrorist,'" Moore said. Dozens added to no-fly list. Dozens of names have been added to the government's no-fly list after an ongoing review of the terrorist watch-list system in the wake of a 23-year-old Nigerian man's attempt to blow up a passenger jet on Christmas Day, White House spokesman Bill Burton said Monday [1/4/2010]. The latest example: On US no-fly list: An 8-yr-old called Mikey. "Meet Mikey Hicks," said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. "It's not a myth." Michael Winston Hicks's mother initially sensed trouble when he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to Florida at an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name "was on the list," she recalled. ACLU Calls Out U.S. Over "ABSURD" Bloated Terrorist Watch List. More that 900,000 people are currently listed as suspected terrorists on the US government's "do not fly" list, and that number will grow to beyond 1 million by summer, says the American Civil Liberties Union. ... [The list includes] 9/11 Hijackers. While certainly these were individuals we all wish had been watched out for, they are, in fact, dead. Yet, the names of 14 of the 19 hijackers from 9/11 were on a copy of the list obtained by 60 Minutes. More evidence that the list is poorly maintained... Boy Under 10 on Terror Watch List While Abdulmutallab Was Waved Through. Eight-year-old Mikey Hicks was first patted down at the airport at the age of two because he shares the name of someone who is "among 13,500 on the "selectee" list, which sets off a high level of security screening." And when he was just a baby, his mother couldn't get a seat for him on a plane because his name appeared on the list. Back to the Airline Insanity Page. Back to the Home page 
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