Posted on 07/22/2007 7:09:20 PM PDT by RDTF
It's what you have to do when you fly - use X-ray machines, metal detectors, and deal with liquid restrictions in your carry-on luggage. You know the drill.
Security checkpoints are just part of travel these days. They're supposed to keep us safe, so we use them - but not all of us and not all the time.
We've discovered a 4.5 hour time frame each night when virtually anything can be brought into the secure side of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. There's no metal detector, no X-ray machine, and it's apparently not a problem.
Afraid to show her face, one long time Sky Harbor employee talks about the security most people don't see.
Lisa Fletcher: "You're telling me Sky Harbor's not safe?"
Employee: "I'm telling you Sky Harbor's not safe and hasn't been for a long time."
It's what we discovered in the middle of the night - TSA agents going away, and security guards taking over. It's 4.5 hours - every night - when an employee badge becomes an all-access pass.
Night after night, our hidden cameras captured what security experts tell us is a disaster waiting to happen.
The X-ray machines were off, the metal detectors were closed, and bags with unknown contents were carried to the secure side of the airport where the planes are.
We watched as a security guard let people with purses, coolers and suitcases walk right through - bags unchecked.
article is an excerpt
It is articles like this that will get people killed. Instead of making it public, the TV station needed to notify Homeland Security. IMHO
The media can be trusted to embargo the secrets of the final Harry Potter novel but they go “headlines” with issues of national security.
What you say should make sense, Lokibob, but what do you think Homeland Security would do? How do you think they would handle it? I, personally, do not have much faith in Mr. Chertoff or his staff, at this point.
“It is articles like this that will get people killed. Instead of making it public, the TV station needed to notify Homeland Security. IMHO.”
In all seriousness, I think taking something like this to the media might be the only thing that forces Homeland Security to act. I’m sorry to say that my confidence in Mr. Chertoff and the Department is not great.
“It is articles like this that will get people killed. Instead of making it public, the TV station needed to notify Homeland Security. IMHO”
Maybe I see things in a peculiar way, but I would believe that if DHS were doing their job this wouldn’t be happening.
I disagree. This information would already be known by “the bad guys.” This article will spur security to make some changes to their lax policies.
Yet more evidence of our fine government at work.
The more stuff like this that I read the more I think that the only reason the muzzies haven’t been successful more often with their attacks is that fortunatley they are even more incompetent than the DHS.
I suspect that Phoenix is not unique and relaxed security overnight, to some extent or another, goes on with most airports in the country. Of course during the day you have supply trucks, cleaning trucks, repair crews, etc. coming through and I suspect it would be very easy to smuggle contraband in to the gate areas. If someone wanted to and had a confederate, they could easily stash weapons somewhere and pass to a “passenger” inside a secure area. And I agree that just telling DHS about this would change nothing — they are incompetent.
Because it is more important to feel safe than to be safe...
BINGO!
" You say illegal aliens are setting fire to forests and fields along the border to
distract U.S. Border Patrol Agents to make their crossing easier, and throwing
Molotov cocktails at US agents’ vehicles, and setting fire to their observation posts? "
"I'm the Homeland Security Chief. What do you want me to do about it? "
This article had BETTER spur security. Some people should be fired immediately! Oh, isn't TSA civil service? Can't fire anyone then, right? Federal employees, the protected class.
Homeland security is more likely to get people killed then this article. If ABC 15 had not aired this and gone to TSA, the TSA would have ignored it, as it is not a problem to them, since they in fact implemented the system.
Bravo ABC 15!
An additional fact you folks need to be aware of. The security company used by Sky Harbor employs many LPR’s and Refugee’s from Somalia.
My God, is that possible?
Remember back when the TSA was being formed, and the Democrats DEMANDED that these employees HAD to be Federal employees?
***This article had BETTER spur security. Some people should be fired immediately! Oh, isn’t TSA civil service? Can’t fire anyone then, right? Federal employees, the protected class.***
The Dems in Congress refused to vote for Homeland Security unless the workers were UNIONIZED.
BS, federal employees get fired all the time.
Care to post the regulations under which such firings may occur, and firing statistics on the number of federal employee vs non-federal employees?
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