Posted on 06/11/2003 5:46:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Washington -- The federal Transportation Security Administration has concluded there was no wrongdoing when airport screeners were given almost all the questions in advance to an exam certifying them to operate bomb-detection machines last year.
The TSA launched an internal investigation as a result of Newsday stories saying screeners were read questions and answers before taking an exam to show they knew how to operate machines that detect bombs in luggage. Screeners around the country said they were read questions, often verbatim, and told answers at the end of a week of classroom training in December.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
I was operating such equipment at government licensed nuclear facilities at a time twenty-seven years ago when most of the people posting to this site were kicking the poop out between the slats of their cribs!
Did have someone, an facility employee much too clever for his own good, bring through a vacuum can of ground coffee with a plastic lid on the bottom that hid contraband. It looked to be sealed. It wasn't.
The bottom had been opened and small caliber gun placed inside with ground coffee all around it. It cleared the machine but before I could unlock the door to the facility he dropped the can, the plastic lid popped off and all the ground coffee along with the gun emptied onto to the floor.
The guy was fired, no surprise there.
Oh come on. 'Pure' is a strong word. I am reassured by them by a small amount, but it's enough that I'm willing to keep flying. There is room for improvement, and no system of defense is 100% safe. If you've got a better idea, then please by all means, put it in motion.
I would bet they read those test questions and answers to every single one of the 21,500 Screeners they trained. What would make you believe they only read the 'Final Exam' questions to the 'Welfare' mothers?
Some applicants still failed the test!!!
I'm not casting any aspersions on your own academic credentials, but the TSA didn't require an applicant have a high school diploma or even a GED!
A 6th grade drop-out with 1 year of working as a security guard could apply and would generally be accepted, if they were from the right 'targeted' minority group.
I'll bet a lot of these applicants were coached through the assessment examination as well.
The 'fix' was in on this whole selection process from the beginning.
Why do you believe the TSA won't tell anyone their scores on any of the tests they take?
They were probably passing out those answers at the local Democrat Party Headquarters offices all over the country.
We can do both. I think most Americans welcome the idea. In fact, I deporting illegals and blocking visitations and immigration from certain countries and religious groups would be just fine with most Americans.
It's the vocal, treacherous minority on the left that is confusing these matters at the moment.
I disagree, we have needed improved airport security for some time now, and it has to be standardized at the federal level because you can't have interstate inconsistencies in security practices. If there is a way we could privatize the units that deliver that service, then I'd be all for that. There will be some waste, and right now the training and deployment curve is way behind the ideal. But most Americans are happy that the TSA exists, no matter how much it slows down their "airport experience."
They need to be wiped out at the source and at the borders.
There is no reason that we can't do both. If I were president, we would have called in nuclear strikes on the mountains of northern Pakistan and the "Islamic bomb" would have melted by now; Mecca would be a sheet of glass, and Kim Jung Il would be sealed in a radioactive tomb. I'd be calling in napalm and fletchette laden B52 strikes on Palestinian terrorists instead of surgical helicopter attacks, and our own borders with Mexico and Canada would be mined and guarded by remote-sensing equipment and enforced with AC130 Spectre flights. Furthermore, anyone even suspected of being a muslim extremist would be either deported or in Gitmo, and illegal aliens of all origins would have been deported by 1/2002.
But I'm still in favor of a federal TSA. Let's be creative about how we staff it, sure. But we still need it. And you know what? We are still going to have terrorism on our aircraft because we are an open society. That's why it exists -- because we are a democracy and not an unflinching totalitarian state. By the way, I'm all for arming the pilots. I'd even allow every non-felon passenger on with his own handgun and frangible ammunition in 9mm, 10mm, .45 ACP, .38 spcl. and .32 ACP calibers supplied by the TSA itself. But we'd still see our planes attacked again eventually. It's only a matter of time. There is no defense that is 100%, but we have to try. Side note: I predict that in the next 35 years we will lose one or more American cities to nuclear blasts or biowarfare. But we still have to try to prevent it!
My support of the TSA is based on the principle that perfection is the enemy of the good. Perfection is impossible, but to do our best will actually help. I'm sure that the TSA has already saved lives. In post 9/11 America, one life is worth a lot of sacrifice and frustration.
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