Free Republic

TSA is becoming more and more like a totalitarian police force every day, above the law and beyond the reach of accountability for their acts. A Colorado woman, Jamelyn Steenhoek, was recently subjected to what she felt was the equivalent of a gynecological exam by TSA and filed a criminal complaint, only to have the Denver District Attorney’s  Office refuse to prosecute. Cherry-picking DA’s don’t want to fight the feds. Now comes word of an incident this past Wednesday in which an award-winning Jewish author, Phyllis Chesler was singled out for special attention by TSA agents in JFK Airport. Chesler’s flight to Florida...

A day after the United States government warned of toothpaste bombs on flights to Russia, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has banned toothpaste--and all other liquids, gels, or aerosols--on flights between the United States and Russia. "As always our security posture, which at all times includes a number of measures both seen and unseen, will continue to respond and appropriately adapt to protect the American people from an ever evolving threat picture," a DHS official who confirmed the new liquid ban told ABC News on Thursday.

Jeno Mouton, of Houston, allegedly told a TSA supervisor that “he would rather vent than to come back and shoot up the place,” according to an arrest affidavit.   Investigators said Mouton, who is a long-time employee, allegedly made the comment while he was on-duty and working in the capacity of a TSA officer. His supervisor told police she spoke with Mouton several minutes after he made the initial statement and said Mouton refused to recant it, then went on to repeat it several more times during their conversation. The supervisor reported Mouton to the human resources office manager and...

A Transportation Security Administration agent has been accused of threatening to shoot coworkers at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, according to multiple media reports. Jeno Vernelli Mouton, 35, has been arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony, the Houston Chronicle reported. According to the Associated Press, documents say Mouton told an airport supervisor on Jan. 25 that he wanted to vent instead of “come back and shoot up the place.” KPRC-TV reported that Mouton, who has worked at the airport for five years, was disgruntled with management and made the remark with coworkers and passengers nearby.

My pained relationship with government security had started three years earlier. I had just returned to Chicago to finish my bachelor’s degree after a two-year stint in Florida. I needed a job to help pay my way through school, and the TSA’s call-back was the first one I received. It was just a temporary thing, I told myself—side income for a year or two as I worked toward a degree in creative writing. It wasn’t like a recession would come along and lock me into the job or anything. It was May 2007. I was living with a bohemian set...

The author of the TSA blog "Taking Sense Away" is feeling the pull of capitalism. He's posted scoop on the TSA during and after his employment in the cadre of paid gropers. News media have picked his material on scanners and behavior of employees. Capitalism is calling, and there's a need to promote an upcoming novel based upon the inner workings of the TSA. Jason Edward Harrington is out of the closet. Best of luck to him.

A former TSA officer has confirmed many of the worst suspicions about airport security screeners: they stop passengers for having an attitude, they confiscate snow globes from children and nail clippers from pilots, they profile passengers based on their nationality. And yes, they do see travelers naked in the X-ray photos. ... ‘I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying,’ he...

<p>I hated it from the beginning. It was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show. I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying.</p>

Even airport TSA agents don't really believe they're making much of a difference. Or so suggests Jason Harrington, a former Transportation Security Administration employee who's written a revealing piece for Politico on what it's like to work for the agency on the ground floor. Harrington writes that many of his coworkers found their orders questionable, from selecting people for enhanced screenings based on their nationality to the broad use of full-body scanners. Harrington also writes that he hated that the job made him pat down children and the elderly and confiscate everything from nail clippers to homemade jellies under the...

(snip) The story unfolds: Traveling by commercial airlines from Albuquerque, NM to LasVegas,NV, (Police Chief) Harger was asked by TSA to show his credentials. Minutes later a man flashed a badge claiming to be a federal agent (agency unknown) also demanding to see Harger’s credentials. (snip) The following morning, Harger was informed by Sheriff Douglas C. Wood of Sandoval County, New Mexico, that Harger was to dismantle the Jamez Springs Police Department. (be sure to click through and read the whole thing)

Americans have always treasured the freedom to pick up and go anywhere they please. Our forebears had to travel to get here, often had to travel more after they arrived and sometimes moved on to uncharted territories out West only to return East. No one stopped them, whatever direction they were going. They had the good fortune to live and migrate before the creation of the all-encompassing national security state. After the 9/11 attacks, Americans woke up to find that their freedom to travel was not a fundamental right but a vaporous privilege, bestowed by the government and revocable at...

The head of the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday his agency has officially rejected arming officers in response to a November attack at Los Angeles International Airport. John Pistole made the comments after a news conference to announce the opening of a “pre-check” application site for expedited screening at LAX. TSA union officials have called for creating armed officers from the agency to ensure safety at screening checkpoints. But Pistole said virtually every issue is on the table except for arming officers. Introducing more guns is not the solution, he said. The agency is conducting a review of the shooting...

Every day, Transportation Security Officers interact with nearly two million travelers across the United States with a single goal in mind – ensuring the safety of the traveling public. TSA had a busy year in 2013, screening 638,705,790 passengers in 2013 (over 1,700,000 per day), which is  1,123,668 more passengers than last year.  Sadly, this year marked the first incident where a TSA officer, Gerardo I. Hernandez, was killed in the line of duty at Los Angeles International Airport.   In many ways, Transportation Security Officers are the public face of our nation’s security. It is difficult work, requiring patience, stamina,...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Under Obama, the TSA harasses children, the elderly, and the disabled, but gives members of the Muslim Brotherhood a pass The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization.It was recently reported that in April 2012, the Obama administration allowed members of the Muslim Brotherhood to skip TSA screening.Meanwhile, the Obama administration gave a very invasive patdown to a three-year-old boy in a wheelchair, which caused the boy to tremble in fear.The Obama administration gave an aggressive patdown to a seven-year-old girl with cerebral palsy.The Obama administration said that a four-year-old girl was a “high security threat.”The Obama...

HILL AIR FORCE BASE -- If you're an active duty or reservist airman at Hill Air Force and you're planning to travel by plane, you can now step to the front of the line. Pentagon and Transportation Security Administration officials recently announced that all U.S. Department of Defense service members will be eligible for expedited pre-flight screening at airports -- which means they'll be able to get into an express line where they don't need to remove their shoes and belts or take laptops, iPads or liquids out of their baggage. The new policy is effective immediately, but troops must...

Pot-smoking travelers at one Colorado airport who need to ditch their stash before boarding can deposit their marijuana in an "amnesty box." The boxes began cropping up at Colorado Springs Airport on Wednesday to give passengers unaware it is illegal to carry pot on a plane the opportunity to dump their weed, The Gazette newspaper reported. While Colorado legalized recreational marijuana use on Jan. 1, major airports in the state have banned it on their facilities to comply with federal agencies, which still consider it illegal. ~snip~ Greg Phillips, aviation director of the Eagle County Airport near Vail, said the...

TSA pre-screening program The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has implemented an expedited security screening program at participating airports, allowing certain travelers to move through security with greater efficiency and ease when traveling on an itinerary within the United States or on select international itineraries.

Will TSA agents be replaced by machines? One of the main reasons that Americans hate to fly is the Transporation Security Administration (TSA). Not only is it annoying to have to strip down at security checkpoints, submit to the occasional patdown and stand in long lines to verify our identities, but the entire system is inefficient. So what happens if we take humans off of those jobs and use machines instead? Several European airports are looking to answer that question by installing eye and face scanners, along with fingerprint readers, at security checkpoints. Many airports’ immigration checks have used these...

The TSA is well-known for being too aggressive in its body searches, so it shouldn’t be surprising in the Obama years that the TSA has a web page titled “Transgender Travelers: Special Considerations.” “TSA recognizes the concerns members of the transgender community may have with undergoing the security screening process at our Nation’s airports and is committed to conducting screening in a dignified and respectful manner,” they promise. First, they reasonably suggest that your birth date, name, and gender on your reservation match your government ID (“Cisgender oppressors!”) Making Reservations: Secure Flight requires airlines to collect a traveler’s full name,...

In a blistering takedown of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s approach to airport security, the former chief of security for Israeli airports described an agency riddled with incompetence and wastefulness and that, despite large infusions of government money, may never have actually stopped a single terror attack. The TSA may even be inviting a deadly attack on airline passengers due to poor planning, he charged. Though his analysis was posted on the humor website Cracked, airline security expert Rafi Sela detailed serious flaws in American airport protection, ones he contrasted starkly with his own experience in Israel. For one thing, Sela...