Who is the Terrorist? (The horror that air travel in the U.S. is becoming)

A fine line exists between a uniformed agent exercising governmental authority and crossing over into willful intimidation and abuse. A friend of mine once called it putting small people in big jobs. Well, after returning from a recent trip through Terminal One of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., airport, I have a renewed appreciation of the liberties we honor each July 4. First, count me among those who believe our airlines should be as safe and secure as possible. If that means screening baggage and asking us to step through detectors, I have no problem with either. But the Transportation Security Administration is showing signs of needlessly imposing its own brand of terrorism on our own citizens.

A niece who serves in the U.S. military had departed a day before I did. She had called to tell me to "expect the worst" when I arrived at the airport, so when I walked into the terminal the next morning, it was in shorts without a belt, a loose-fitting golf shirt and sandals.

Even my carry-on bag contained only dirty clothes and some normal traveling odds and ends. Arriving nearly two hours early, I zipped through the e-ticket line and found only two ahead of me at TSA’s screening point. Well over a dozen agents clad in white shirts with "TSA" emblazoned on their backs were milling around, seemingly searching for any way to justify their existence.

Watch, ring, sandals, wallet and cell phone go into the small plastic bin. It all disappears through the x-ray machine with my carry-on. Everything is running smoothly. Then as I am exiting through the body-scan tunnel, the alarm.

A TSA agent claims my shoulder narrowly scraped one side. I had felt nothing. "Please step over here, sir," the agent says. Another sitting behind the baggage screening device begins shouting, "Bag check."

Out go my arms. No beeps. No armed terrorist here. Another agent explains that he has to rifle through my belongings. I say fine. He dives in to his elbow and gropes until he discovers something I’d long ago forgotten — my steel butane lighter. He flicks it. The faintest hint of a blue dot appears where there should be flame. "Sir," he says politely, "you’re going to have to take this outside and empty it if you want to keep it."

I look at the lighter, remind myself it had cost about $8 and reply, "Naw, go ahead, take it. It’s not worth all the hassle."

But he insists that I keep it, even escorting me to the nearby arrival gate and demonstrating how to insert the tip of a ball-point to empty the minuscule residue of fuel.

I obediently step 10 yards outside the arrival gate where two other TSA agents are standing guard and punch the pen’s tip into the lighter for one second. The bored younger of the two guards, apparently feeling especially authoritative in his new homeland job, bellows, "Hey, you. When he said take that outside, he meant to take it all the way outside this terminal. That thing could have toxic fumes in it."

Back to the line and another examination of me and my carry-on. I walk through the tunnel again. No alarm this time, but an agent’s voice still instructs me to "Please step over here to this row of seats for a body check." Meanwhile, my bag is passing through its second exam without hassle. The agent who had insisted on saving my lighter is overseeing the second wanding. Two minutes pass as he meticulously checks every inch, including the bottom of my bare feet.

In the process, I ask him a question about which I have wondered. "Can you tell me how many American citizens have hijacked airplanes in the United States during the past 30 or 40 years?"

He stares blankly and says, "I don’t know." I tell him I can’t think of one, short of the legendary D. B. Cooper in the Pacific Northwest a half-century ago, but he parachuted into oblivion.

Finally, the agent says I am fine and can leave. I grab my bag and draw a deep breath. The question of my legitimacy is resolved.

Arriving at my departure gate an hour early, I’m alone in the rows of seats. Placing the planet’s best scrutinized piece of carry-on luggage in the seat beside me, I lean back to stare at the ceiling. Yep, it was as needlessly bad as she warned it would be, I think.

The coffee stand 50 yards away beckons. I stroll over and wait several minutes in line. Then I return to the gate to find a large German shepherd and three uniformed TSA agents standing over my now-unzipped and once again well-rifled carry-on. "Are you Mr. Masterson?" the older one, who looks like a grizzled Philadelphia cop, fires the angry question like a bullet. "Yes, I am. Is there some problem?"

He looks at the bag, then angrily back at me. "Yeah, there’s a problem. You left your bag unattended. You’ll have to get it and come with me for another inspection."

He’s right. I blundered by going for coffee and mindlessly leaving my bag in the seat. I suppose that policy hadn’t even dawned on me since the damned thing had already been twice screened and thoroughly ransacked.

As we walk, this portly agent who never smiles reaches in to snatch the ticket jacket from my now notorious bag. He opens the cover. It is empty. "So just where is your ticket, Mr. Masterson?" he scowls accusingly. By now, I’m feeling like the uniformed Gestapo with their German shepherd have set Mr. Peacefully Traveling American up like a domino. I am definitely being made to look like a terrorist or some other kind of criminal. "My ticket was in there when I came through the gate twice before," I say, my heart now somewhere near my tonsils. "I don’t know where it is. This is crazy. It has to be somewhere in my bag."

By now, I am back in the inspection line for the third time. The little bag gets another search and I get wanded for a third and then a fourth time after a second specialist agent is brought in with a wand so sensitive that the staples in my checkbook sets it to singing. He also wants to see the bottom of my feet.

Through it all, the older cop wannabee agent is staring menacingly as if it’s him against me, and I am wondering (almost out loud) just what in the name of unnecessary fear and jackbooted intimidation we are inflicting on our own citizens today.

And by the way, where the heck is the ticket that 15 minutes earlier had been safely secured in my luggage?

Finally, the second wand wielder completes his assignment and I am pronounced clean in Terminal One of the Fort Lauderdale airport for the third time. With a smirk, the older agent grabs the ticket jacket and replaces my ticket, which he has been secretly holding all along. "Let this be a lesson to you, Mr. Masterson," he says. "Someone can put something into your luggage just as easily as they can take something out." Thirty minutes later, I was feeling the weight of the 757 finally lifting away from Florida soil, headed back to civilization. Rest assured, neither this American citizen nor the carry-on bag now permanently stitched to his hip will ever return for more guilty-until-proven-innocent treatment. Should your travel plans take you through Terminal One in Fort Lauderdale, I’d advise traveling naked without a carry-on.

"Yeah, but give him a skateboard and a Suicidal Tendencies T-shirt and he would be virtually invisible on State Street in Santa Barbara or Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley."

Or take off his head rag, and he looks like half the male college students in the US. Dress him in normal clothes and you won't know his ethnic background or religion.

If I'm not mistaken, all the 9/11 hijackers were dressed in western clothing and looked pretty normal.

But when all is said and done TAS is hassling people who do not deserve to be hassled for no other reason than to demonstrate that they are even-handed and not engaging in racial profiling.

The Israelis have offered to train our people in their security methods, but so far we have declined the offer.

Unlike us the Israelis don't look for contraband so much as they look for terrorists, but this involves profiling so we probably won't do it no matter how effective it might be.

I find this extremely difficult to believe.

So did I. And yes, the more important rule than the number of bags rule, is the 'don't take bags from strangers' rule. But that is the kind of decision making going on everyday at the airport. The TSA agent would have got yelled at for having someone show up with that many bags, but no one would be the wiser if he split them up.

Not if they want it to be effective. Look at El Al, most secure airline in the world, how do they get that way? They treat everybody like a hijacker.

The higher your security the less convenient and respectful, it's the nature of the beast, as soon as you start assuming somebody might not be a bad guy you lessen security. Good security revolves around a lack of trust for everybody, it simply has to.

"But when all is said and done TAS is hassling people who do not deserve to be hassled for no other reason than to demonstrate that they are even-handed and not engaging in racial profiling. "

Depends on your definition of "hassling." Since I fly a lot, I've been subject to more than a few extra security inspections. I've been wanded, patted down, and had my carryon searched thoroughly and padded down to check for explosive residues.

None of this ever took more than 5 minutes, and I didn't consider it being "hassled." It all appeared to be at random, since I didn't beep any beepers or anything else. Within five minutes, I was always on my way to the gate.

I've had to take my shoes off, before I switched to moccasins for travelling. I've had to demonstrate that my laptop worked, along with a cell phone, a GPS receiver, and even a portable DVD player. Hassled? Not really. I just turned the things on, and the screener was satisfied that the things worked.

I've been lightly frisked, when the buttons on my 501's triggered the metal detector. Now I wear a running suit. No metal on it.

What I haven't been was hassled. I've been screened, according to the rules of the TSA's screening policies. No biggie. When the screening was over, I said, "Thanks" to the screener, then went to the gate and got on my plane.

"Not if they want it to be effective. Look at El Al, most secure airline in the world, how do they get that way? They treat everybody like a hijacker.
"

Bingo. Fly El Al, especially in or out of Israel, and you'll understand what a real screening is. We're pikers when it comes to security screenings at airports. It's funny to hear folks recommending that we adopt their policies, and it's usually the same folks whining about the limited screeing in US airports as hassling.

Exactly, I don't think people realize that security in its essence is defining how a person is going to convince those in charge that they aren't a bad guy, in order to do that you must start from the position that everyone is at least a potential bad guy. Yeah it sucks, but anything else isn't security. Anything that assumes people aren't bad guys is nothing more than a show of force designed to intimidate the marginal bad guy, we aren't dealing with marginal bad guys any more.

Just wanted to report a positive experience. I was worried when my son, his 8th grade class and all of the adult chaperones were leaving from Reagan airport earlier this month. My 14 yr old seems to always get taken to secondary that we all expect it and find it amusing (he usually forgets to take out his CD player). This time the nice bag inspection man politely went through his bag, saw nothing, complemented him on his excellent choice of cologne and shook his hand. We spoke politely to him and he did in kind. We had a similar polite experience in San Diego earlier this year.

"Anything that assumes people aren't bad guys is nothing more than a show of force designed to intimidate the marginal bad guy, we aren't dealing with marginal bad guys any more."

Well, we do it wrong, of course, by using random selection for extra screening. That trick never works. Either we screen everyone thoroughly, or the screening is essentially useless.

Prior to 9/11, the last hijacking of a plane in the US was in 1987. A commuter plane was hijacked in CA by a disgruntled former employee of the airline, then he killed the cockpit crew and crashed the plane, killing all aboard.

One could argue that a fired employee is a security risk, but this guy was not a Muslim or anything of the sort. He didn't work at the place of origin of the flight, so nobody there knew him as a former employee. He bought a ticket like anyone else, then proceeded to carry out his action.

And after 1987, there were no hijackings until the 9/11 events. Hijackings are really, really rare, and highly unlikely, actually, to occur, screening or not.

Personally, I think the old style of screening, pre TSA, was adequate, with the magnetometer and carryon x-ray. The additional stuff probably isn't necessary, although viewing the contents of checked luggage probably isn't a terrible idea.

MineralMan wrote: Depends on your definition of "hassling"…

Strip-seasrching my neighbor's five month-old grandson was hassling.

Attempting to confiscate Joe Foss' Medal of Honor which he received for heroism in the skies over Guadalcanal was hassling.

Bingo. Fly El Al, especially in or out of Israel, and you'll understand what a real screening is.

But their screening is principally talking to their customers first and only giving a shake-down to those they deem suspicious.

There's no random and sensless humiliation of passengers based on the SWAG (scientific wild-assed guess) system.

"Strip-seasrching my neighbor's five month-old grandson was hassling.

Attempting to confiscate Joe Foss' Medal of Honor which he received for heroism in the skies over Guadalcanal was hassling.

"

If that strip search actually happened, which I doubt, you may well be right. And certainly the Medal of Honor incident was wrong, but I believe that happened pre-TSA, although I could be wrong. Such things are the exception, though. I don't base my opinions on individual incidents, when millions of people appear to be flying just fine and not having these problems.

PSA 1771

Dec. 7, 1987, is a black day in the annals of the U.S. airline industry and one that has had severe repercussions for airline pilots and the rest of the aviation industry. On that day, David A. Burke, a former airline customer service agent who was fired from his position the previous month for larceny, boarded PSA Flight 1771 armed with a .44-caliber revolver. The FBI has never issued a public report on its investigation into the downing of Flight 1771. However, reports at the time said that Burke boarded the flight intending to murder his former manager, who was also on the airplane. Reliable news reports and other sources said that during the flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Burke murdered his former employer and subsequently gained access to the flight deck and fired shots, presumably killing or severely wounding the flight crew. The aircraft, a BAe 146, crashed near San Luis Obispo, Calif., killing all 43 persons on board.

During the cleanup of the wreckage site, an identification badge belonging to Burke was found. Burke’s former employers’ representatives stated at the time that his badge had been retrieved when he was fired, but they also conceded that it was possible for an employee to have more than one badge. "I learned from reliable sources after the tragedy that Burke actually possessed several identification badges at the time that he boarded Flight 1771," notes Capt. Lloyd Anderson (Eastern, Ret.), former chairman and long-time member of ALPA’s Flight Security Committee. "Burke apparently gained access to the aircraft while armed, on the basis of an invalid ID and personal recognition by the screeners," Capt. Anderson explains.

MineralMan wrote: ("Strip-seasrching my neighbor's five month-old grandson was hassling.) If that strip search actually happened, which I doubt, you may well be right.

What the hell do you mean you doubt it?

Are you implying that I'm lying, or that my neighbor's son and daughter-in-law are.

This incident happened and I have heard news reports of similar incidents.

And no, it didn't happen pre-TSA.

They selected then for body Searches because their number came up on a computer and for no other reason.

They have — or at least had until recently — quotas and from all appearences at least some of the people are selected for no other reason than they are not minorities or non-white foreigners.

Something things the airlines do are inexcusable. More than once, though only on a certain well-known carrier, I've had flight after flight scratched because they needed the planes for more profitable routes (mechanical problems, weather delays). Why should I be screwed for that? Especially when they lie to me about it? Once I was delayed for eight hours. If they'd told me the truth about what was going on, I'd've just made the six hour trip by car. The security mess, I'll be happy to cut them slack on since it's not their doing. The rotten customer service? No way. And while no-one's trying to force me to fly and so I don't, they could sure use my money, couldn't they? Pity they don't want to do a better job in convincing me to give it to them.

I wouldn't go so far as to say random screening never works, but it's not very good. We do have a so-so level of default screening in place.

Hijackings are rare now. I remember the 70s, seemed like we alternated monthly between a hijacking and Ali defending his title. It's important to note that in this interim periods there haven't been many failed hijackings (at least that we know of), it just seemed to fall out of vogue with the terrorists. The problem with fashions is they come back, I'm suprised there was a spate of them after 9-11 which proved pretty substantially that it could still be done.

9-11 proved the old style screening wasn't enough. We'd been being told by a lot of people for a lot of years that the barn door was open and the only reason the horse hadn't left was he didn't feel like it. We still have the least secured air travel of any major nation. So the question really is: are they all paranoid, or are we just that lucky?

So far your advice is don't pack anyting of value, keep your mouth shut, change your style of dress, accept having yourself and your family being pawed at airports by low level goverment workers, your belongings being rifled through etc. etc.

Screw that. I won't set foot near an airport or an airplane until this madness stops. Americans have never hijacked a plane, this is as stupid and illogical as the people who defend it.

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