[XHogPilot]

Stupidity in the TSA's Leadership knows no bounds...

Terrorists have just been told which flights have no FAMs onboard!

P.S. I'm still waiting for the TSA to acknowledge my application to join the Federal Flight Deck Officer (armed pilot) training program....

[Rodney King]

Perhaps they are lying.

[Buckwheats]

Nobody could be this stupid, not even a bureaucrat....must be a fake-out....something must be up this weekend.

[grania]

Stupidity in the TSA's Leadership knows no bounds...

Marshalls should be on every flight. If not, a new kind of flight attendant should be there...with military training and the ability to physically stop terrorists. Dressed for combat if necessary. (LaraCroft, Flight Attendent)

Since 911, the prime objective has been to keep people using the airlines. Charge airline passengers what a flight actually costs. Too expensive? Then they should explain why railroads have to make a profit, and they don't.

[dawn53]

disinformation

[OXENinFLA]

HUH?

[OXENinFLA]

WASHINGTON, July 29 —  Despite renewed warnings about possible airline hijackings, the Transportation Security Administration has alerted federal air marshals that as of Friday they will no longer be covering cross-country or international flights, MSNBC.com has learned. The decision to drop coverage on flights that many experts consider to be at the highest risk of attack apparently stems from a policy decision to rework schedules so that air marshals don’t have to incur the expense of staying overnight in hotels.

Oh you need the whole paragraph to fully enjoy the TSA's incompetence.

[chainsaw]

Train and ARM the pilots - NOW

[Thane_Banquo]

Here's a possible solution:

1) Get rid of the air marshalls on these flights.
2) Deport all immigrants from Islamic nations like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, etc.

[Fighting Irish]

Now I'm glad my appplication was rejected (Sky Marshal). Was informed I was too old (44 at time of application).

I then applied for a supervising screener for the TSA. The cattle call reject pool for that met in the lobby of the conference center trying to figure out what we did wrong. In the group were former pilots, law enforcement, retired military,..etc.

As the group grew from 2, 3, 10 to close to 20 it became all too clear that us white/anglo-looking men need not apply.

Stupidity in the TSA's Leadership knows no bounds...indeed!

[gitmogrunt]

Al Qaeda thanks the TSA for cooperating with their future projects division. Representatives will be contacting an airline near you shortly.

[Movemout]

The whole TSA approach is screwed up. I spent three out of the last four weeks traveling on airplanes to Cleveland, Las Vegas, LA, Seattle, and DC. The process cannot be described as uniform in any way.

I almost missed my LA to Seattle flight because I had to wait in a stunningly long line at Alaska Air to check my bag and get my boarding pass at an e-ticket console. I was then directed to exit the building and stand in another stunningly long line to go through the take off your shoes so we can smell your feet line. Three whole TSA agents to zap your carry-ons and check your belt buckle. It only took me two hours of waiting to be reasonably sure that anyone who wanted to circumvent this asinine approach to security could do so.

Flying has turned into a tale that not even Kafka would write because it can't be true.

[FreePaul]

In keeping with our open borders policy we wouldn't want to interfere with terrorists taking over aircraft. Just wouldn't be fair to let these people enter the country then restrict their activities.

[twigs]

Ann Coulter says in her book, Treason, that the Bush Administration's one weakness is Norman Mineta, transportation secretary left over from the Clinton years. He exhibits all the anti-Americanism inherit in the Dem party worldview. He wants to leave America defenseless. Pretty sobering stuff.

[Squantos]

And deer have been instructed to never look up for hunters in tree stands...........disinformatinal use of presstitutional resources IMHO. But if true, I will agree it's pretty stooooopid. But then I don't use commercial air anymore.

Stay Safe !

[DonQ]

The real stupidity was releasing this news to the general public. This news might tempt hijackers to make a try ... even if the feds plan to drygulch them, I'd hate to see any sort of shoot-out aboard a plane in flight. And if the public reacts appropriately to this news, the only people buying airplane tickets will be the hijackers.

[sarasota]

I saw lots of TSA folks in St. Louis this weekend, sitting and chatting with each other.

[browardchad]

This is an interesting tidbit, relegated to the end of the story:

The air marshal program has been beset by a number of problems during its quick ramp-up from a few agents to thousands. MSNBC.com reported in June that more than 100 federal air marshals had been fired or stripped of their flight status for problems stemming from their security clearance background investigations. In addition, some air marshals were flying without having received their final security clearances, Transportation Security Administration sources said.

CYA to cover the cuts, or typical bureaucratic stupidity that's undergoing a correction? Is it possible that the new intel about attacks on airliners implicates an air marshall?

Whatever the answer is, it's not comforting.

[wasp69]

Why is it that I am having a sinking feeling about this announcement?

[samuel_adams_us]

I wonder if Bush is having this done on purpose in hopes that something will happen and he can come save the day and get his popularity back up? Otherwise this makes no sense other than a couple fat idiots at the top making another mistake.

[RightWhale]

Also, along the level of intelligence we see today, Barbara Boxer wants DARPA think-tankers fired for thinking.

-G. Beck