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.

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.

Most correctly, a GOP House passed it, and a GOP White House signed it. The Republican Party is to blame for federalized screeners.

Do tell how you could discern their religion by their appearance.

It isn't just religion, but yes, all three look like the stereotypical Muslim.

I got the "extra" screening a few months ago as we were boarding for a family vacation. I guess to the TSA brain trust I looked like the terrorist who would take a wife and four kids down with him. Made the plane just fine, but one of those yahoos gave me the nastiest cold I've had in years.

Just had to share this one...

I was flying through Cincinatti a few months back and the woman two places in front of me in the line to go through security apparently had 1 too many carry on items. The TSA guard at the initial 'show me your ticket and ID' stand could NOT abide by this and told her she couldn't proceed with that many items.

She protested and generally looked panicked, the solution that the TSA agent came up with is that she should give her drafting tube to the complete stranger who was behind her in line (who didn't have any carry on's and would not violate the limit), and that she should carry it through security and give it back to her at the end.

As I watched, stunned, they actually agreed to this and moved on. Somewhere down deep I was hoping for the drafting tube to be filled with either cocaine or pastic explosives, just to see that second woman try and talk herself out of that one... :)

My 82 year mother in law in a wheel chair was scrutinized beyond reason at Houston. She told me she was touched (by a female) places "no one should be allowed to touch." From her point of view, she was molested.

Terrorists win when freedoms are forfeited. Terrorists win when our grandmothers are molested at our airports in the holy name of "national (in)security" courtesy of the TSA...

Even though they didn't set of the alarm, security took her and the baby aside for body searches during which hey made her remove the baby's diaper.

I came into the room late for the Fox news item but it sounded like they were saying the diaper searches have already started or are going to shortly. Airport screener jobs may attract some very sick individuals. When my daughter was about 2 (18 years ago), we took her to a local fair where they had kiddie rides, as we stood in line, I noticed the carnival worker that was loading the kids on the rides was touching all their behinds...we stepped out of line and LEFT the fairgrounds. Haven't gone to one since. Personally, I would not be able to justify any reason to subject my diapered infant to a strip search by anyone. And I hope parents will consider how much they are willing to subject themselves and families to for the sake of transportation.

Go here:

http://www.geocities.com/khlim777_my/ashijack.htm

Scroll down the page for a list of airplane hijackings since 1970. There aren't many.

Incidentally, this hijacking, in 1987, was the most recent hijacking prior to the 9/11 hijacking. Hijackings are really, really rare.

Hopespringseternal wrote: (Do tell how you could discern their religion by their appearance.) It isn't just religion, but yes, all three look like the stereotypical Muslim.

You will remember that Richard Reid (the shoebomber) set off alarm bells with security in Paris where his flight originated.

They took him off his originally-scheduled flight for investigation and put him up in a hotel for a night before allowing his to depart on a flight the next day.

I got a better idea: bankrupt the airlines and start over. I expect anyone that gets funding to start an airline will have to have some kind of plan to make security convenient ane respectful for those of that are not a source of risk.

2. Put all valuables, like Camera, GPS, and the batteries in your checked bag.

See MineralMan's post above. It's like everything else in life -- a crap shoot. Your odds of having something taken from checked baggage may be about the same as winning on a one-armed bandit in Vegas. But your odds of getting scrutinized at the gate increase enormously if you engage in any banter or make jokes with the inspectors. Too bad driving such long distances for my travel (Idaho to Texas) is impractical.

Some 1980s stories: A 3/4" or so blunt probe (inductive amplifier) was considered dangerous. Fortunately, it was
screwed on, and could easily be removed.

A CSR told me some guy tried to bring a used chain saw on as carry on. The would-be passenger couldn't understand either
the mace potential, or the dangers of gasoline/oil fumes.

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

I haven't talked about this in a while, but I think that given the security situation in this country it is probably best if those who don't really really need to fly stay out of the way at the airport. Of course the govt and airlines would never say that, they want people with money moving through. But their behavior discourages people, and in some ways I think that might be a good thing. That said, I agree with the people on here that you can smooth your way by being prepared, being courteous, not volunteering information, and not carrying a lot of stuff. I flew last a little over a year ago (international) and had no problem at all. The only person I saw getting shook down was a mohammed type. Then when I got to London the customs agent was a covered muslim woman, which was interesting.

>>Your odds of having something taken from checked baggage <<

I apologize, I corrected my mistake but it hit 51+ so got seperated. I meant, carry all the really important stuff in your carry on.

It's not the hijacking that is the worry now; it's the blowing out of the sky with concealed explosives.

A hijacker who tried to take over a plane these days would be lucky to escape with his life after the rest of the passengers got through with him.

I have in my hand a camera phone in which the camera is smaller than the diameter of a bic pen, and it is located inconspicuously in the hinge of the flip.

I expect pictures of TSA abuses to start showing up on Web sites. I hop ethis one makes it to the sex offender registry

I do the same myself. No hassle, no fuss, no bother.

Some people like the rules and regulations made up by the nanny state to supposedly keep them safe - I never did.

I look at those people from a positive point of view: as long as they're on a plane there's less traffic on the roads.

"It's not the hijacking that is the worry now; it's the blowing out of the sky with concealed explosives.

A hijacker who tried to take over a plane these days would be lucky to escape with his life after the rest of the passengers got through with him."

Not to mention the reinforced cockpit doors. But you're right. That's why things like prosthetic legs get checked. to reduce weight, they're generally hollow. A perfect spot for concealing things. Sure, that guy's mom-in-law is probably the salt of the earth, but she's a total stranger to the security screeners. I know some older women I wouldn't trust on a plane. One is schizophrenic and is constantly ranting about the evil government agents that are everywhere around her. She should not fly...she's a dangerous person.

Everyone's mother-in-law is a stranger to the security screeners. It's a big country, full of a lot of wierd, wierd folks.

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