7 Reasons the TSA Sucks (A Security Expert's Perspective)

[JEDI]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-reasons-tsa-sucks-a-security-experts-perspective/

The TSA couldn't protect you from a 6-year-old with a water balloon. What are my qualifications for saying that? My name is Rafi Sela, and I was the head of security for the world's safest airport (Isreal). Here's what your country does wrong.

#7. The TSA Is Supposed to Regulate Itself
I told him (Homeland Se4curity chairman) the biggest issue was that the TSA is a regulatory agency and a security agency. They essentially make their own rules. No one else does... not the FBI, not the CIA


it's gets more sarcastic as the list goes on

 

[RPD]

I wonder how true the "I'll need a receipt for that" is.

 

[waggy]

great article. brings up some good points

 

[Triumph]

sent it to my buddy who works for the TSA. of course he's just a cog in the machine, but i like to make fun of him for working for such an awful government entity.

 

[Pardus]

The kids are singled out because the pedophiles that work for the TSA get to hide behind their badges while satisfying their sick, perverted desires.

Truth is, the TSA is so stupid they wouldn't know a terrorist if one walked up and introduced himself.

America needs a 100% airline boycott..... empty terminals from sea to shining sea until the TSA goons are gone and sanity has returned.

 

[sixone]

The kids are singled out because the pedophiles that work for the TSA get to hide behind their badges while satisfying their sick, perverted desires.

Truth is, the TSA is so stupid they wouldn't know a terrorist if one walked up and introduced himself.

America needs a 100% airline boycott..... empty terminals from sea to shining sea until the TSA goons are gone and sanity has returned.

+1

 

[MrSquished]

some great points in there, although not sure about not scanning luggage. the tsa is certainly not good, but neither was the previous system either. both private and public systems have failed us in regards to airport security.

 

[Exterous]

The TSA is nothing but a giant money pit. They've proven to be nothing but reactive and I highly doubt they are actually capable of preventing a serious attack. I don't think I have heard of a single thwarted attack yet we line up like cattle to be poked prodded and fondled.

Besides, he points out something I've thought for a very long time:

But thanks to the layout of modern American airports, he doesn't even have to get through security. The TSA conveniently packs hundreds of travelers together in cramped security lines. Terrorists love crowds because they can inflict the most harm that way. Anyone who watches the news knows that. So what does American airport security do? It gathers folks together in long lines BEFORE they've been scanned at all.

Try and go through LAX, JFK etc at peak times and you'd be guaranteed a huge body count by attacking the screening line itself. They we'd have to setup another agency to have a screening area before the screening area to get on the plane

 

[Fenixgoon]

The TSA is nothing but a giant money pit. They've proven to be nothing but reactive and I highly doubt they are actually capable of preventing a serious attack. I don't think I have heard of a single thwarted attack yet we line up like cattle to be poked prodded and fondled.

Besides, he points out something I've thought for a very long time:


Try and go through LAX, JFK etc at peak times and you'd be guaranteed a huge body count by attacking the screening line itself. They we'd have to setup another agency to have a screening area before the screening area to get on the plane

this.

since the LAX shooting, they have cops posted outside and they randomly(?) pull people over and question them. not sure if the cops inspect the vehicle or not.

the hilarious part is that they pull over some insignificant fraction of people. if they were to catch someone intent on doing harm, it'd be through pure luck. anyone could ride up to LAX and commit the same shooting again. it really isn't hard at all.

i should write the mayor a letter and let him know he's wasting his taxpayers' money.

of course, people "feel safer" with those officers around, even if they are completely ineffective.

edited to fix spelling

 

[waggy]

The TSA is nothing but a giant money pit. They've proven to be nothing but reactive and I highly doubt they are actually capable of preventing a serious attack. I don't think I have heard of a single thwarted attack yet we line up like cattle to be poked prodded and fondled.

Besides, he points out something I've thought for a very long time:


Try and go through LAX, JFK etc at peak times and you'd be guaranteed a huge body count by attacking the screening line itself. They we'd have to setup another agency to have a screening area before the screening area to get on the plane

exactly. last time i flew i was in a group of about 50-75 people ina very small space. We all had our bags etc.

only thing i could think of if i had bomb i would get them all..


seemed like the most idiotic way of doing security.

 

[destrekor]

some great points in there, although not sure about not scanning luggage. the tsa is certainly not good, but neither was the previous system either. both private and public systems have failed us in regards to airport security.

The idea is to more thoroughly interact with the customers one on one, expediently, not placing them in slow cattle corrals aiming to a bottleneck-style checkpoint security system.

The previous system was just entirely lackluster. The TSA at least added something, but they went too far and it's utterly, miserably, lacking in quality.

 

[John Connor]

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/12/100530-whew-tsa-agents-just-saved-us-mayhem/

 

[mmntech]

Even though it's a Cracked article, I saw the exact same points brought up in a "real" publication a couple years back. I think most Americans are now aware that the TSA is really nothing but a nuisance and security theatre at best, and a threat to civil liberties at worst. Something that seems to embody a great deal of programs started under W. Bush and continued under Obama. The problem is, nobody seems willing to do anything about it.

 

[unokitty]

“Checking luggage is very nice, it looks great, taking away the breast milk of the mother of a one month old baby, that looks great,” said Rafi Sela, the president of A.R. Challenges, a transportation consulting firm based in Israel. “It does nothing for security. It’s just a show.”

TSA doesn't provide security. Rather, it provides security theater.


Full disclosure: I have provided physical security for, both chemical and nuclear, weapons of mass destruction.

Anyone that thinks that the TSA provides security, doesn't know what security is...

Uno

 

[SSSnail]

That security expert sucks, because from where I'm sitting - on my bed - I can clearly see more than 7 things that are wrong with the TSA.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Security = big business

That's all you need to know. Everything else is just bunch of BS.

 

[foghorn67]

I had two TSA screeners at a checkpoint taunt, insult and belittled an elderly Chinese-Canadian couple. They paused for two seconds after being told to take off their shoes.
There was nothing to balance themselves with or a place to sit down, other than the ground.
The "agents" kept saying the couple hated America.
I couldn't take it, so I told the "agents", to pound sand and go back to the Oakland ghetto or wherever TSA found them.

 

[KB]

The TSA is all about money for congressmen. If terrorism was really a threat here we would have checkpoints for busses, trains, TSA lines etc. In order to stop terrorism all we have to do is wait for the Russians to tell the FBI about our local terrorist groups and then arrest them... oh wait...

 

[Gardener]

At Grand Rapids Airport they directed my 80yo dad to fold down the waistband of his trousers.

The trick with older folks is to get them in wheelchairs and have a steward run them through security...they don't even run them through the detectors in Seattle.

Of course the pita of security is nothing compared to the discomfort of flying coach on any of the major US carriers. What a fucking cattle car.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I had a conversation once with a couple of 70 year olds that got stripped searched because the woman made a joke about being patted down. Now, I realize they have to keep up appearances of not profiling, but there should at least be some common sense with it. Then again, I suppose maybe they've watched too much Total Recall and Jackass.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I think of it as a facade that is designed to give everyday Americans the sense of security while not actually being of any secure benefit. I, myself, don't feel safe or secure with them present. In fact, they seem more off-putting than anything else.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

The TSA is nothing but a giant money pit. They've proven to be nothing but reactive and I highly doubt they are actually capable of preventing a serious attack. I don't think I have heard of a single thwarted attack yet we line up like cattle to be poked prodded and fondled.

Besides, he points out something I've thought for a very long time:


Try and go through LAX, JFK etc at peak times and you'd be guaranteed a huge body count by attacking the screening line itself. They we'd have to setup another agency to have a screening area before the screening area to get on the plane

Another great one ...

I did an experiment once. I asked MI5, "Let's say a known terrorist is boarding a plane in Heathrow, going to JFK. How do you alert the Americans?" They responded, "By fax." To Langley. Which is fine -- fax is old but instant. So then I asked how long it takes Langley to alert JFK.

48 hours.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

exactly. last time i flew i was in a group of about 50-75 people ina very small space. We all had our bags etc.

only thing i could think of if i had bomb i would get them all..


seemed like the most idiotic way of doing security.

Great so all you need is a co-ordinated attack on the security lines of the 500 odd commercial airports, and even if some get foiled by dumb luck it will make 9/11 look small scale...

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Great so all you need is a co-ordinated attack on the security lines of the 500 odd commercial airports, and even if some get foiled by dumb luck it will make 9/11 look small scale...

I was at JFK around 10am and it was more like 500 people.

 

[SSSnail]

Actually, as a joke as it may be, it's a job program that everyone knows and seems to be oblivious to its purpose.