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

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ^ | July 1, 2003 | Mike Masterson

[WOSG]

ah, but all were young single males ... enough with the granny body-searching. it's stupidity.

"If people want security they need to understand it's going to be a pain in the
ass, that's how security works. "

No, that's not security, mindless robo-searching of obvious innocents while real suspect go through the seive ... that's a pale imitation.
the Dems got the TSA bureaucracy in place, they won.
You want real security - go through tel aviv's Ben Gurion.

[MineralMan]

"the Dems got the TSA bureaucracy in place, they won.
"

Bush got TSA in place, not the Dems. This happened on his watch.

[MineralMan]

"Here is another couple of tips that gets me right through the airport.

"

Excellent list!

[CedarDave]

Also, don't be the first to board the plane. Don't jump to the front of the boarding line. They seem to choose folks at the front for gate screening, almost exclusively.

At Southwest, at least, they have stopped this practice. Maybe they don't need them now that the "professional" TSA screeners are on the job. (BTW, there have been 6,000+ complaints about missing items in checked baggage that has been searched. And several TSA inspectors have already been arrested. The lack of locked baggage now gives the ramp baggage handlers another chance to pilfer items from your bag if your transfer to another flight involves a lengthy wait.)

[WOSG]

Try this one on for size:
my 60-year mother-in-law wears a prosthetic leg, and they regularly require it to be removed and searched at airports.

They have no idea the pain and inconvenience this causes.
And it clearly serves no useful security purpose.
If you know of a single instance of 60-year-old females hijacking planes let us know.

[zoen]

Profiling would change alot of this. All you have to do is look for arab islamic muslims. We all know this.

I wont be flying again probably for a very long time. Say good by to my money

[MineralMan]

"(BTW, there have been 6,000+ complaints about missing items in checked baggage that has been searched. And several TSA inspectors have already been arrested. The lack of locked baggage now gives the ramp baggage handlers another chance to pilfer items from your bag if your transfer to another flight involves a lengthy wait."

And before that, airline baggage handlers stole stuff...they may still be doing it. You know what the solution is? Don't pack valuable stuff in your checked luggage. If you must carry it, carry it on.

Ship your valuables to your destination via FedEx, insured. Ship em to your hotel or wherever you're staying. Sheesh! Why tempt fate.

I would never check anything I wasn't prepared to lose. I've had too many bags go missing for a couple of days to do that.

[WOSG]

more correctly, Bush 'caved' in a compromise with the Dems to force the security agents to be govt employees. result: overstaffed bureaucracy, main mission: make flying more annoying. i was quite miffed when this happened, it was a big mistake.

IMHO, this whole TSA bureaucracy is just a pointless non-security-enhancing exercise in locking the gate after the horse has bolted.
Are you aware of a single hijacker caught in this net?

Just imagine if instead of 60,000 security guards we used that force *exclusively* on hunting down terrorists worldwide. which application would do more good?

And I like the other question: Do you know of an American citizen hijacker since 1980?

[quidnunc]

But the fact remains that the security people will still select people who have no — zero — liklihood of being terrorists — octigenarian, wheelchair-bound grannies, babes in arms and the like — for intrusive searches.

And they do it as a sop to American minorities and non-white foreigners so they won't be accused of 'racial profiling'.

And you can bet your last nickel that the security people wouldn't give the smartmouth to aforementioned minorities and non-white foreigners that they will to a white.

Getting on an airplane shold not be as difficult as gaining access to the inner sanctums of the National Security Agency.

[MineralMan]

"Try this one on for size:
my 60-year mother-in-law wears a prosthetic leg, and they regularly require it to be removed and searched at airports.

They have no idea the pain and inconvenience this causes.
And it clearly serves no useful security purpose.
If you know of a single instance of 60-year-old females hijacking planes let us know.
"

That's a tough one. Prosthetic legs would make great hiding places for explosives or drugs. No, your Mom-in-law is probably not a terrorist, and I don't know of any 60-year-old women who have hijacked planes. In fact, since 9/11, I don't know of anyone who is hijacking planes. I do know that elderly folks are being used as mules for drug smuggling, though. The prosthetic leg could hold a lot of cocaine or heroin. I don't know your Mother-in-law, and neither do the security folks.

I don't have an answer for this one. It's probably policy to check these prosthetics in all cases.

[MineralMan]

"more correctly, Bush 'caved' in a compromise with the Dems to force the security agents to be govt employees"

Hello. Bush had a GOP Congress, not a Dem Congress. He didn't cave. He was behind the TSA stuff all the way.

[mewzilla]

And here's a travel tip for the ladies: try to avoid wearing anything with underwires. Seriously.

[MineralMan]

"And here's a travel tip for the ladies: try to avoid wearing anything with underwires. Seriously."

Oh, yeah! My wife travels in a sports bra.

[January24th]

ping!

[mewzilla]

The hooks in one of mine (sans underwires) even set one of those handheld gizmatrons off once. Then I got my back felt up by a female screener. She wasn't rude or anything, but I still loathed the experience. According to the screener, there are differing levels of sensitivity the gizmos can be set at. Guess hers was on the really, really, paranoid setting. What fun :(

[Noachian]

I stopped flying when the TSA jackboots took over the airports. Flying use to be fun, but now it's an unpleasant experience, third world, I can do withhout.

No way I'm going through the hassle factor. It may take longer to drive but I can carry whatever I want, and I don't have to undress for some repressed Gestapo wanna-be.

I can understand the need for security, but it's being overdone. If a terrorist wants to bring down a plane he'll find a way, and it won't be by going through the passenger gates.

[MineralMan]

"I stopped flying when the TSA jackboots took over the airports. Flying use to be fun, but now it's an unpleasant experience, third world, I can do withhout. "

Your choice. I still fly a lot, and have no problems with security. By being prepared, I just breeze through. No jackboots at all. I don't beep. I don't carry wierd stuff. I just show my ticket, walk through the magnetic thing, pick up my carryon and go to the gate.

I haven't been pulled aside for months now. It's just a matter of planning.

But thanks, though. There's more room in the airport parking and in the terminal since you're not there.

[discostu]

Gimme a wig a thriftstore dress and some foam prosthetics and I can be an old lady too. It's not that hard to look like somebody you're not.

There are no obvious innocents until the plane lands safely at the end of the trip. People might look innocent but there's no reason to believe they actually are what they look like.

[MineralMan]

"The hooks in one of mine (sans underwires) even set one of those handheld gizmatrons off once. "

Yeah. Some of those things are really sensitive. The eyelets on my running shoes once set the thing off. I now wear moccasins when travelling. There's no metal on me at all these days, and I never beep. I haven't had any problems on any of my last dozen flights.

[mewzilla]

Well, it's not just being pulled aside. It's the wait, the security, cancelled flights, the lack of leg room, the lost/damaged luggage, the squirrely rules you have to follow to get a cheap flight, the byzantine scheduling...Flying is a pain in general. Why pay for pain?