"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.  The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

— Frederick Douglass    

American Despotism.  Cronyists used the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which could have been prevented by simple fixes (like the new reinforced cockpits), to create the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), with a budget of $8.6 billion and 65,000 employees.  "What the TSA is good at," writes J. D. Tuccille, "is high-visibility groping, scanning, and confiscating.  Making people drop their pants, take off their shoes, and surrender their shampoo annoys people in a way that says 'we're doing something' without actually accomplishing anything."  While spending millions on new gadgets, the TSA has an 80 percent to 97 percent failure rate at discovering weapons.

Trans woman left sobbing in JFK Airport after TSA agent hit her testicles: report.  A transgender woman was left in tears at JFK Airport after she claimed a TSA agent punched her in the testicles while she was going through security, the Daily Mail reported.  The unidentified flyer took to social media to vent about the incident, in which she said the agent "humiliated" her in front of everyone in a series of posts that have since been deleted, according to the outlet.  "hi so a tsa agent at jfk airport punched me in the genitalia, yelled at me for having a penis (?) and humiliated me in front of everyone after i told her to please stop," she captioned a photo of her crying in the airport bathroom, according to a screenshot of the post.  But the embarrassment didn't stop there, according to the woman.  "[The TSA agent] followed me into the women's bathroom and began talking about me to a coworker while I sobbed in a stall," she wrote, asking friends on the internet for advice as to what she should do.

The Editor says...
The whole purpose of being a transvestite is apparently to attract attention and sympathy on the internet.  Too many people are wallowing in self-pity because of their self-inflicted problems.

TSA Still Molesting at Warp Speed.  I traveled to Hartford, Connecticut last week for a conference.  It was the first time since the start of the pandemic that I had the pleasure of being pawed by TSA agents.  Alas, since 2020, neither I nor the Transportation Security Administration have become corrigible.  Flying out of Washington National Airport on Thursday, I saw a special entry for the CLEAR program that enables people who pay $189 a year to skip TSA lines.  I lambasted this program here back in December.  Travelers stand in photo kiosks that compare their face with a federal database of photos from passport applications, drivers' licenses ,and other sources.  TSA promises that its new airport regime will respect Americans' privacy.  Fat chance: TSA previously promised no traveler would be delayed more than 10 minutes at TSA checkpoints.

Facial Recognition Comes to a TSA Checkpoint Near You.  Facial recognition technology has come a long way in recent years, spurred in equal parts by convenience and the priorities of government snoops.  Now, if you plan to go a long way via air travel, you can expect to be required to stare into a camera as a computer algorithm scans your features to make sure you're no imposter.  The TSA is trying out facial recognition technology at airports as a means of ensuring that travelers are who they claim to be and speeding security lines.  It's, maybe, an improvement for impatient travelers, but even more so for the never-satisfied security state.

TSA argues for impunity for checkpoint staff who rape travelers.  Two years ago, at least a dozen women on a Qatar Airways flight to Sydney were ordered off the plane at Doha Airport in Qatar and subjected to forced vaginal examinations. [...] If you think that this couldn't happen in the USA, or that the victims would fare better with government authorities and in the courts in the USA than in Qatar, think again.

TSA Spends $18 Million on 'Non-Binary Screening Systems'.  According to a report from Fox News, The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been spending $18.6 million it received in funding in order to develop, test and deploy "non-binary screening systems."  The TSA says the change will "advance civil rights."

TSA spends $18.6 million on 'non-binary screening systems' set to roll out in January.  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been spending $18.6 million it received in funding in order to develop, test and deploy "non-binary screening systems," according to a new report.  The funding from the FY22 Omnibus Appropriations fund, Biden's yearly government spending budget, has been used to improve Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) units in airport checkpoints, working with the manufacturer to update the algorithm for "increased accuracy and efficiency."  The new technology will roll out at airports in January, but individuals who feel their gender was incorrectly assumed now have the option to ask for a re-screening before submitting to a physical pat-down.

TSA now wants to scan your face at security.  Here are your rights..  Next time you're at airport security, get ready to look straight into a camera.  The TSA wants to analyze your face.  The Transportation Security Administration has been quietly testing controversial facial recognition technology for passenger screening at 16 major domestic airports — from Washington to Los Angeles — and hopes to expand it across the United States as soon as next year.  Kiosks with cameras are doing a job that used to be completed by humans: checking the photos on travelers' IDs to make sure they're not impostors.  The TSA says facial recognition, which has been banned by cities such as San Francisco, helps improve security and possibly also efficiency.  But it's also bringing an unproven tech, with civil rights ramifications we still just don't understand, to one of the most stressful parts of travel.  After hearing concerns from Washington Post readers who encountered face scans while traveling, I wanted to know how the TSA is using the tech and what our rights are.  Everybody wants better safety, but is this really safer — and what are its real costs?

TSA's scanner 'inclusive' upgrade for transgender passengers costs taxpayers $18.6 million.  The Transportation Security Administration is spending more than $18.6 million of taxpayer money to update airport screening protocols and technology to be more inclusive of transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming passengers.  A large portion of the money is going to develop and deploy new gender-neutral body scanner technology throughout the nation's airports.  The TSA hopes the new technology will help reduce the pat-downs and other invasive screen procedures that are required when transgender individuals trigger body scanners "in a sensitive area."

TSA required strip-search of transgender teen at RDU, violating rights, lawsuit says.  A Raleigh mother has filed a federal lawsuit against the TSA, arguing that the airport security agency violated her transgender teenager's rights by requiring a strip-search at the airport.  Jamii Erway, 15 at the time, had a valid boarding pass when she passed through security in 2019. When she triggered a "false positive," the lawsuit said, a TSA screener told her she would have to have her genitals inspected in a private room.  The TSA "advised Jamii that she was not free to leave until she submitted to such a search, in violation of TSA policy, the Fourth Amendment, and state law rights of Jamii, and the boundaries of civil and decent society," according to the suit.

Common sense isn't common anymore.  We are trained monkeys, following senseless pronouncements that improve nothing.  Start with the airport.  For some reason, my TSA Pre-check status didn't make it onto my ticket.  So I was in the line that required me to take off my shoes and stand with arms over my head to be scanned.  I put every [...] thing in bins, of course.  My iPad in a separate one, of course.  I was behind another elderly lady, this one with some major physical issues.  The TSA agents took her sturdy, three-footed cane and handed her a slim wooden one to get through the scanner ordeal.  It was barely enough to keep her upright.  Once she was through the scanner, they pulled her aside, and I watched as she was patted down, head to toe, for about five minutes.  This lady was so clearly not a terrorist that a caveman could have told you so.  Old, overweight, barely able to walk.  Ankles so swollen that it looked painful.  I got to watch her ordeal because they patted me down, too, all because I'd forgotten I had a pill in my pants pocket that I was meant to take on the flight.  I was made to take it out, show it to the agent, and then they patted me down, focusing on that darned now-empty pocket.  Maybe it was a terrorist weapon?

What TSA Did With A Trump Supporter Will Make Your Blood Boil.  You know those First Amendment freedoms, about peaceable assembly?  Trump wasn't the only one our government was ready to play fast and loose with.  At present, while the Capitol is swarming with National Guards, we're seeing some really odd surveillance of citizens who have not been charged with having committed any crimes.  If the details of a story Jack Prosobiec shared are accurate, America is in worse shape than we thought.  A few pundits, like Dennis Prager, who have been concerned that the events on January 6th could be leveraged the very same way a certain group of 1930s German politicians leveraged the Reichstag Fire to eliminate their political competition are increasingly looking like they might be onto something.  We will include the text of the alleged incident which — for lack of any identifying information — we can neither confirm nor disprove.  The credibility of the story, and whether anyone else claims to have had similar experiences, we will leave to those who have more direct knowledge of the events.

Man and daughter detained, questioned at airports for being at the DC Trump rally.  [Scroll down]  I arrived in Newark NJ last night and proceeded to passport control, as I have done numerous times in the past with absolutely no issues, and was stopped at immigration and told I needed to follow them into the back room and be interviewed/interrogated.  At this point I am beyond upset (I'm a tax paying law abiding American with absolutely no record) and asked curtly what is going on???  (They also took my adult daughter in for questioning.)  The officer informed me that due to facial recognition I have been flagged as a participant in the DC domestic terrorist attack on the capitol and they needed to question me!!!  I was shocked.  I told them I did travel to DC on Jan 6th to attend the rally and to listen to the President BUT I was absolutely no where near where the incident occurred and how is it possible for me to be associated at all with the few radicals that went into the capitol when the majority of the people at the rally were peaceful and respectful?  Are we as Americans no longer allowed the right to assemble?  Thankfully the officer was very nice and after my initial shock I was able to answer his questions calmly and we were let go.  Only on my way home did I realize the reality of what had just happened.

Paging airline passengers:  You left $926,030.44 in cash at TSA checkpoints.  Those plastic bins at airport security checkpoints where you deposit your valuables for screening are doubling as bank teller windows for the Transportation Security Administration.  Passengers left behind nearly $1 million at airport security checkpoints during fiscal year 2019, which ended last Oct. 1, according to a newly released report by the TSA.  Officers collected $926,030.44 in U.S. currency and $18,899.09 in foreign currency that was left behind in the form of coins and cash from Oct. 1, 2018, through Sept. 30, 2019.

Homeland Security Seized $2 Billion in Cash From Travelers at U.S. Airports.  Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other Department of Homeland Security agents seized more than $2 billion in cash from travelers in U.S. airports between 2000 and 2016, according to a new report by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm.  The institute's report is the first to comprehensively analyze the use of civil asset forfeiture by federal law enforcement in airports, where multiple news investigations have revealed horror stories of passengers having their money taken even though they weren't ever charged with a crime.  Take a case that Reason covered:  Rustem Kazazi, a U.S. citizen who tried in 2018 to get on a plane to return to his native Albania from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.  Kazazi had roughly $58,000 in cash in his luggage, money he said he was taking to repair a house he owned and possibly to buy another.  Kazazi was strip-searched by CBP agents, who also seized his life savings.  The agency claimed the cash was "involved in a smuggling/drug trafficking/money laundering operation," despite there being no proof of that.

World-Renowned Malian Musician Claims JFK Airport TSA Agents Destroyed His Custom-Made Instrument.  A world-renowned kora player says that his custom-made instrument was ruined after going through TSA at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.  Ballaké Sissoko, one of Mali's most prominent musicians, shared photos of his ruined kora and a statement on Facebook on Wednesday, blaming the "ignorance" of the TSA agents that handled it.  The statement said that after Sissoko and his trio 3MA, which brings together string instruments from Mali, Morocco and Madagascar, concluded their recent tour in the United States, he boarded an overnight Air France flight back to Paris, where he lives, landing on February 4.

O'Rourke's America.  With apologies to Margaret Atwood and a thousand other dystopian novelists, we do not have to theorize about what an American police state would look like, because we know what it looks like:  the airport, that familiar totalitarian environment where Americans are disarmed, stripped of their privacy, divested of their freedom of speech, herded around like livestock, and bullied by bovine agents of "security" in a theatrical process that has an 85 percent failure rate because it isn't designed as a security-screening protocol at all but as a jobs program for otherwise unemployable morons.

Somewhat related:
JFK Airport's Terminal 1 launches facial recognition boarding.  A biometric self-boarding gate has officially been launched at John F. Kennedy International Airport's Terminal 1, officials said Tuesday [10/8/2019].  Lufthansa has deployed the paperless, high-tech boarding process — which uses facial recognition technology to verify travelers with a photo capture — at its largest US gateway at the Queens airport.  Air France, Japan Airlines and Norwegian Airlines are expected to follow suit at the terminal, officials said.

TSA makes you suffer because it's afraid to do security right.  [Scroll down]  After 10 days away, it felt like a police state, starting with the chaotic JFK Terminal 4 arrivals area.  TSA workers shouted rude insults — "Can't you people listen!" — to fliers trying to navigate a cattle-pen maze of barriers and passport-reading screens, half of which didn't work.  The NYPD's proliferating concrete barriers make Times Square, many Midtown streets and the Wall Street area look like a war zone.  So do machine-gun-toting cops and National Guard troops at Grand Central Terminal and Columbus Circle.  Why the contrast?  Israeli personnel are trained to profile, while American ones are forbidden to profile due to politically correct revulsion over "discrimination."  Israeli agents can focus on those who might truly be dangerous, while ours are trained to regard every human being as an equivalent threat.  So our police practice wholesale crowd control that mainly makes life hell for pedestrians.  The TSA subjects obviously harmless people to public harassment.  See, no discrimination here, folks!

Save us from the pointless burdens of the TSA.  The people shuffle along, shoeless, ready for their full-body check.  Their belongings have been taken from them.  If they question any part of this, in any way, they are quickly removed and taken to an undisclosed location.  No, it's not prison — it's the security check at your local airport.  Why do we stand for it?  The Transportation Security Administration was established in the wake of 9/11, when Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act.  Before that, private security agencies hired by the airlines handled security at the airports.

When transgender travelers go through scanners, the next step is often invasive.  [Scroll down]  TSA rules require that passengers be searched by officers of the same gender as they present.  But, according to Olivia, the TSA supervisor told her that she would have to be patted down by a male officer.  After Olivia refused to be searched by a man, the officers told her that because she was not consenting to a search, she could not board her flight and would be escorted out of the terminal.

The Editor says...
Problems encountered by transvestites during airport searches (or anywhere else) are problems they have brought upon themselves.  The purpose of the TSA, as I understand it, is to prevent suspicious, dangerous, or unstable people from boarding airplanes.  If the screener and the prospective passenger can't even agree on the passenger's gender, or if the passenger is concealing his or her identity, that's a giant red flag.  Take the bus.

'You ugly!!!': Airport guard fired for slipping mean note to random traveler.  It looks like the TSA is hiring the cast of "Mean Girls" now.  A traveler passing through security at Rochester International Airport got an unexpected sick burn from an employee — when she handed him a folded-up note that said, "You ugly!!!"  Neal Strassner, 40, said he was handed the small, folded-up piece of brown paper by a female worker before collecting his things at the checkpoint in June. [...] The woman, an employee of Virginia-based security company VMD Corp., which contracts with the TSA, has since been fired, the agency has confirmed.  "TSA holds contractors to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for this type of behavior," a statement from the agency read.

Woman sues TSA claiming she was forced to show genitals in 'horrific' strip search.  A Nevada woman has sued the Transportation Security Administration after officers allegedly made her expose her genitals and show them a feminine hygiene product she was using as part of an in-depth screening at an Oklahoma airport, according to a report published Saturday [6/8/2019].  Rhonda Mengert of Las Vegas filed the lawsuit in response to a strip search she claimed officers at Tulsa International Airport asked her to do on May 12, AP reported.  She said the incident has led to severe emotional distress and was a violation of her rights.

Hate Long TSA Lines?  Hate Them Enough to Get Your Eye Scanned Instead?  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has few diehard fans (if any at all among readers of this column).  Our federal airport security monopoly is slow, inefficient, and often handsy.  You might think you would jump at any chance to cut down on your interfacing with TSA "service."  But is it worth forking over an iris scan?  Customers of a private security service called "Clear" can just breeze through their red-roped entrance — calling it a "line" would be a misnomer, because there usually isn't any — to an independent identification kiosk.  After the normal TSA-managed x-ray of their person and effects, they are through security in a fraction of the time.

TSA Once Again Fails To Do Its Job As Passenger Carries Firearm Past Security.  The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) was created to stop another terrorist attack like the one we saw on 9/11, but the agency has only proven that it's good at making people feel uncomfortable and late for their flight.  It also has allowed so many contraband items to go through its security checkpoints that it's a wonder another terrorist action hasn't occurred.  Especially because this recent failure by the TSA involved someone getting a gun through.

TSA moving to all floppy-ear airport dog force because pointy-ear dogs 'scare children'.  The Transportation Security Administration is in the process of swapping out pointy-ear dogs for floppy-ear ones in an effort to put more of the public at ease when interacting with its canines.  "We've made a conscious effort in TSA ... to use floppy ear dogs," TSA Administrator David Pekoske said during a recent tour of operations at Washington Dulles International Airport northern Virginia.  "We find the passenger acceptance of floppy ear dogs is just better.  It presents just a little bit less of a concern," Pekoske said.  "Doesn't scare children."  Around 80 percent of the 1,200 canines TSA uses nationwide are ones with droopy ears, versus 20 percent that have cone-shaped ones.

Homeland Security Will Let Computers Predict Who Might Be a Terrorist on Your Plane — Just Don't Ask How It Works.  You're rarely allowed to know exactly what's keeping you safe.  When you fly, you're subject to secret rules, secret watchlists, hidden cameras, and other trappings of a plump, thriving surveillance culture.  The Department of Homeland Security is now complicating the picture further by paying a private Virginia firm to build a software algorithm with the power to flag you as someone who might try to blow up the plane.  The new DHS program will give foreign airports around the world free software that teaches itself who the bad guys are, continuing society's relentless swapping of human judgment for machine learning.

Daisy Fuentes BLASTS The TSA For Making Her Disrobe While Giving A Chick In A Burka A Pass.  Model and former MTV VJ, Daisy Fuentes Marx, posted her annoyance at TSA showing two standards for passengers — one for models in tank tops and a sweater, and another for Muslim women in a full burka and niqab.  What?!?  TSA gives women in a full burka with their face covered a free pass through the security screening?

US airport opens first fully biometric terminal.  What if you could simply look at a screen for two seconds and check in for your flight?  Imagine glancing at a screen for another two seconds to drop off your bags at a luggage station?  How easy would it be to merely look at another screen to breeze through ID checks at TSA security checkpoints or the departure gate?  All this, without having to use your passport.  Well, now you can.

Dear TSA, Please Stop Molesting Kids At The Airport.  [Scroll down]  The boy looked innocent enough to me — which might be exactly what the little would-be villain had in mind.  When the father inquired, the agent told him, right before touching his son's crotch, that this sort of thing had become necessary due to drug mules using children.  If you don't think the terrorists have won, you probably haven't visited an airport in a while.  Not only do these places needlessly gobble up hours of our day and billions of our dollars, but here that we collectively lose all dignity and act like a bunch of automatons just so they'll let us out of the place.  Though sometimes it seems like we might never escape.  If we really wanted to slow the caravan from Central American down, we would make them enter through a TSA checkpoint.  It is at those checkpoints that we suspend our disbelief and pretend that (often) disheveled and (very often) rotund government agents who separate us from our water bottles possess the expertise to ferret out terrorist plots.

Go Ahead and Pack Your Weed This Thanksgiving — the TSA Probably Won't Find It.  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says this Thanksgiving season could be its busiest on record.  More than 25 million people will board flights, the agency expects — an increase of 7 percent from 2017.  With that in mind, the agency wants to make sure passengers know ahead of time what they can and cannot take through security.  Turkeys are fine (as long as they're frozen), as are pies and even vegetable peelers.  Banned items include the usual suspects:  pocket knives, firearms, explosives, more than 3.4 ounces of most gels and liquids, etc.  Whether or not TSA agents will actually find such items in your carry-on luggage is another question.  A survey from Stratos Jets, a company that coordinates private plane charters, suggests the answer is probably no.

The Editor says...
Seems like a non-issue to me.  Who uses marijuana to hijack an airplane?

Trans-friendly TSA Bill Introduced in Congress.  Representative Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) has introduced a bill in Congress that would force the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to adopt "gender neutral" screening policies.  While civil libertarians have long criticized the TSA for its privacy violations, transgender-rights activists contend that the TSA's treatment of transgender and non-binary individuals is the battle worth fighting.  The "Screening with Dignity Act" asks the TSA to implement new training methods and privacy protections.  The bill also asks the TSA to conduct a cost analysis for recalibrating full-body screening technology so that transgendered individuals are not "mis-gendered" during the X-ray screening process.  The bill's 15 Democratic co-sponsors want the machines' technology to be updated so as to be able to "distinguish between foreign objects and human body parts" — presumably at the expense of the taxpayers.

TSA may stop screening passengers at 150 airports.  The TSA is considering nixing passenger screening at more than 150 airports across the country, a new report reveals.  The proposal, laid out in documents by a TSA working group, would get rid of screening at some small and medium-size airports serving aircraft with 60 or fewer seats, according to CNN. If the passengers on those planes are connecting at a larger airport, they would instead be screened there.  The documents say there could be some risk associated with the move, stating there would be "small (non-zero) undesirable increase in risk related to additional adversary opportunity."  The move would save $114 million per year, the documents show.

Why Can't We Sue the TSA For Assault?  When I was in Congress and had to regularly fly between DC and Texas, I was routinely subjected to invasive "pat-downs" (physical assaults) by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).  One time, exasperated with the constant insults to my privacy and dignity, I asked a TSA agent if he was proud to assault innocent Americans for a living.  I thought of this incident after learning that the TSA has been compiling a "troublesome passengers" list.  The list includes those who have engaged in conduct judged to be "offensive and without legal justification" or disruptive of the "safe and effective completion of screening."  Libertarian journalist James Bovard recently pointed out that any woman who pushed a screener's hands away from her breasts could be accused of disrupting the "safe and effective completion of screening."  Passengers like me who have expressed offense at TSA screeners are likely on the troublesome passengers list.

After pointlessly groping countless Americans, the TSA is keeping a secret watchlist of those who fight back.  "I need a witness!" exclaimed the security screener at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.  Because I had forgotten to remove my belt before going through a scanner, he explained, I must undergo an "enhanced patdown."  I told him that if he jammed his hand into my groin, I'd file a formal complaint.  So he summoned his supervisor to keep an eye on the proceedings.  I thought of this exchange last week when the New York Times revealed that the Transportation Security Administration has created a secret watchlist for troublesome passengers.  The TSA justified the list by saying that its screeners were assaulted 34 times last year, but did not release any details about the alleged assaults.

Orlando International Airport to scan faces of US citizens.  Florida's busiest airport will be the first in the nation to require a face scan of passengers on all arriving and departing international flights, officials said Thursday, a move that pleases airport executives but worries privacy advocates.

Look What TSA Did To This 96-Year-Old Woman!  If anyone tries to use a wheelchair-bound, 96-year-old woman to smuggle drugs or weapons onto a plane in at least one airport, we are safe.  TSA in a Virginia airport put an elderly woman through the ringer of pat downs, searching her for any illegal contraband.  The video has gone viral, and people are furious.

TSA comes under fire for 'prolonged and repetitive' pat down of a 96-year-old woman in a wheelchair.  A video of a 96-year-old woman being forced to endure a 'prolonged and repetitive' pat-down by airport security in Virginia has gone viral — and left many questioning why such behavior was necessary in the first place.  Jeanne LaBrier Clarkson posted a six minute video of her mother at Washington Dulles International Airport on May 15.  'The 3 of us were all in wheelchairs.  Only my 96-year-old mother was subjected to this prolonged, repetitive search,' Clarkson said in the video that has been viewed just under 9 million times.

The TSA Will Get Friendly With Your Thigh Even If It Did Nothing Wrong.  [Scroll down]  Just the same as John and doubtless thousands of other individuals, a professional, shall we say thorough TSA inspector explained to me how he was going to run his hands inside my waistband (which, the imaging resulting in what it did, is arguably passable) — but also run them up and down my legs, in a manner of unwelcome and quite awful foreplay.  As part of the sheeple, I allowed the employee to proceed without objection, as well as swab my fingers, and continued on my way after being green-lit several moments thereafter.  But why did this full pat-down occur?

LaGuardia Airport's security robot is giving women the creeps.  The operators of La Guardia Airport are paying thousands of dollars every month renting a security robot to patrol the airport — but the bot is creeping out women while the crooks look on and laugh.  "It's upsetting to have that thing creep up on you," said one female security guard at the airport, adding that she had just fended it off with a luggage cart.  "It's [an annoyance].  It keeps bothering people."  The airport deployed the R2-D2-esque Knightscope K5 three months ago to roll around outside Terminal B, recording everything with its four cameras, microphones and sensors.

Here are 1,366 well sourced examples of Barack Obama's lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc..  [#41] The Obama administration gave a very invasive patdown to a three-year-old boy in a wheelchair, which caused the boy to tremble in fear.  The Obama administration gave an aggressive patdown to a seven-year-old girl with cerebral palsy.  The Obama administration said that a four-year-old girl was a "high security threat."  The Obama administration placed an 18-month-old girl on its no fly list.  The Obama administration gave a patdown to Henry Kissinger.  The Obama administration forced a 95-year-old cancer patient to remove her adult diaper and fly without it.  The Obama administration ripped open the urostomy bag of a 61-year-old bladder cancer survivor, and forced him to fly covered in his own urine.  The Obama administration harassed a sick 3-year-old boy, and caused him to miss his flight. [...] [#118] The Obama administration labels anyone who objects to the TSA's sexual harassment as a "domestic extremist."

Mary Berry discusses airport arrest after security mistook her flour for drugs.  Former "The Great British Bake Off" star Mary Berry has seen the world through her culinary adventures, but one travel experience she'll never forget is being arrested at an airport when security mistook her baking ingredients for drugs.  On April 20, the 83-year-old Brit revealed on "The Graham Norton Show" that she was detained at unidentified air hub 25 years ago for carrying suspicious substances.  "I was going to the U.S. to do some cookery demonstrations and was worried that there might be problems.  So I weighed out all the ingredients — flour, sugar — and put them all in little plastic bags," Berry recalled, according to Bristol Live "When I arrived at the airport the sniffer dogs made a bee-line for me.  "Suddenly I was surrounded by uniformed people and my assistant and I were put in separate cells," she added of the "alarming" incident.

Woman fined $500 for saving free Delta Air Lines snack.  A Colorado woman is facing a $500 fine from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for saving a free apple she received as a snack from Delta Air Lines on her way back to the United States from Pairs, France.  Crystal Tadlock told Fox 31 Denver, toward the end of her flight from Paris, flight attendants passed out apples in plastic bags as a snack.  Tadlock put the fruit in her carry-on to save for when she was hungry during the second leg of her trip. [...] When questioned about the snack, Tadlock explained she received the apple from the airline and asked if she could throw it away or eat it, Fox 31 reported.  The Customs agent allegedly told her no and fined her $500 for carrying the undeclared fruit.

Arizona residents will soon need 'travel ID' to board planes.  The Arizona Department of Transportation has announced that state residents will require a new form of identification to pass through Transportation Security Administration screeners in the near future.  As of Oct. 1, 2020, Grand Canyon state residents traveling out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International, Phoenix Mesa-Gateway, Flagstaff, Tucson International and Yuma International airports will need to carry "Voluntary Travel IDs" or be grounded, AZ Family is reporting.  The new ID will also be requisite to access restricted federal buildings and military bases, as standard credentials will no longer suffice.

The Editor says...
That doesn't sound voluntary to me.

Screening Snacks May Be Part Of Stricter Airport Security.  These days, snacks and other items may be part of screening at airports across the country.  There are no changes to what you're allowed to carry on, but the screening at security has become stricter.

84-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Abused by TSA Draws Ominous Parallel With Her Time in Auschwitz.  The TSA is, without a doubt, one of America's most corrupt and incompetent agencies whose ostensible job is fighting terrorism.  However, last year, they became apparently so unsatisfied with the mere ability to strip search babies, remove colostomy bags, beat up blind cancer patients, and fondle your genitalia, that they announced a more invasive physical pat-downs.  The pat-downs, which TSA warned would probably prompt assault complaints with the police department because of their invasive nature, have been implemented and an 84-year-old holocaust survivor has become the TSA's latest victim.  Eva Mozes Kor exposed her abuse by TSA in a Tweet on Sunday, explaining how she was forced to undergo a "very demeaning body search" just to board a plane.  In her Tweet, she drew a parallel with the TSA and Auschwitz.

A Warning to Gun Owners Regarding Political Agendas and Democratic Dominated Police States.  In late January, a Colorado teacher, while traveling in NY, was arrested by local authorities at the Airport in Albany, NY (ALB) as she declared her legally-owned and correctly packaged-for-travel pistol (in checked baggage) to SW Airlines for her trip home.  TSA enforces federal law, so they don't care.  But local authorities, enforcing state law (or at least their interpretation of it), made the arrest, after SW Airlines turned her in.  This is just the latest in a endless series of arrests by state authorities in NY, NJ, MD, CA, et al of hapless out-of-state gun-owners who made the mistake of trying to fly out of ALB, JFK, LGA, EWR, et al, or who voluntarily "reported" their guns to local police, naively thinking they were thus in compliance with local laws.

Brie Larson discusses unwanted advances from TSA agent.  A vocal advocate for women's rights and sexual-assault survivors, actress Brie Larson revealed that she was recently forced to navigate an uncomfortable encounter with a male TSA agent at airport security.  "I merely smiled at a TSA agent and he asked for my phone number.  To live life as a woman is to live life on the defense," the 28-year-old Oscar winner wrote to her 633,000 Twitter followers.

8 Really Bad Laws That Went Into Effect Today.  [#6] Remove your electronics and prepare for pat-down:  Starting today [10/1/2017], the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) will require all passengers going through security screening to remove any electronics larger than a cellphone from their bags and place them in separate bins. [...] Most of what the TSA does at airports is kabuki security theater.  The agency has wasted billions of dollars, while perfecting the fine art of harassing travelers.

Pittsburgh airport will become the first since 9/11 to let people without tickets past security checks.  Those old romantic moments of seeing a loved one off at the airport gate are back — in Pittsburgh.  The city's airport this Tuesday will become the country's first since 9/11 to allow people without tickets past security checkpoints to shop or bid farewell to loved ones.  But the Association of Professional Flight Attendants — representing American Airlines employees — thinks it'll be a bad presence that'll only risk public safety and cause congestion.

Owner Is Angry His 20-Pound Lobster, Dinnah, Was Photographed by the T.S.A..  In the final hours of his life last weekend, he was plucked from anonymity, nestled in darkness at the bottom of an insulated cooler and given a name:  Dinnah, like how a Mainer might pronounce the last meal of the day.  His fate was sealed, literally, with Dinnah placed at the bottom and a layer of smaller friends on top in the cooler, which was wrapped with duct tape.  His owner, Christopher Stracuzza, a 32-year-old auto-body repairman from Savannah, Ga., wanted Dinnah, a hulking 20-pound American lobster, and another 20 pounds of more-modest crustaceans to reach their final destination peacefully.

Bay Area airport screener pleads guilty to taking bribes.  A supervisor screener who used to work at San Francisco International Airport pleaded guilty to receiving a bribe and turning a blind eye as 50 pounds of cocaine went through his X-ray machine.

Has There Ever Been a 'Book Bomber'?  Perhaps you heard the news that the Transportation Security Agency, under the leadership of John Kelly, is planning to add new abusive screening procedures before Americans can board flights — including banning altogether the carrying on of laptop computers aboard international flights.  He is also planning to adopt a policy currently being tested in Sacramento to examine the books you bring aboard the plane to read. [...] I'm really beginning to wonder about the appointment of John Kelly by President Trump.  He seems to follow in a list of Department of Homeland Security secretaries more determined to violate the privacy rights of American citizens than to help them travel more safely.  In all the years since 2001, has a laptop computer ever been used to bring down an airliner?  Haven't they all been screened for years to make sure they are just laptop computers?  Or was that just a ruse to make us wait in longer lines?  How is it that laptops pose a special hazard to international flights and not domestic?

The TSA Turns Harassing Travelers Into a Fine — and Pointless — Art.  [T]he TSA's working theory seems to be, if you make everybody dump their sandwiches, tablets, and paperbacks into separate bins at the security checkpoint, we vastly increase the chance of intercepting backpack nukes and rocket-propelled grenades, which themselves could be mistaken for sandwiches, tablets, and paperbacks.  Sure, the guards may still need some guidance as to which confiscated items are safe for noshing, but the security measures will be covering all bases.  The TSA has been quietly implementing the new rules at airports around the country, resulting in predictable screams when security guards at Kansas City International Airport forced passengers to dump paper products, even including documents and Post-It notes, out of their carry-ons.

At LA airport's new private terminal, the rich can watch normal people suffer.  [Scroll down]  The screen shows travellers hauling bags through packed terminals, queuing in long lines, looking harassed and being swallowed into pushing, shoving paparazzi scrums — routine hazards for the 80 million people who pass through LAX each year.  "There they process thousands of people at a time, they're barking.  It's loud.  Here it's very, very lovely," said Gavin de Becker, who runs the new terminal, called Private Suite.  He wasn't wrong.  The $22 [million] facility, the first of its kind in the US, opens on Monday [5/15/2017], giving the 1% a whole new way to separate themselves from everyone else's reality.

Your Friendly TSA Agent Is About To Get A Lot Friendlier.  If you thought your last pat-down at the airport was bad enough, you ain't seen nothing yet.  Because the new "screenings" done by the Transportation Security Administration are going to get a lot more "intimate."  In the past, agents had five options for patting down travelers who refused the body imaging or were pulled out of line at random.  Now there's just one — and it's pretty bad.

TSA implementing new pat-down procedures.  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is implementing a more "comprehensive" procedure for pat-downs at airports, Bloomberg reported Friday [3/3/2017].  A handful of different types of physical pat-downs have reportedly been replaced by a single approach.  "I would say people who in the past would have gotten a pat-down that wasn't involved will notice that the [new] pat-down is more involved," TSA spokesman Bruce Anderson told the publication.

Those airport pat-downs are about to get more invasive.  While few have noticed, U.S. airport security workers long had the option of using five different types of physical pat-downs at the screening line.  Now, those have been eliminated, replaced instead with one universal approach.  And this time, you will notice.  The new physical touching — for those selected to have a pat-down — will be more invasive in what the federal agency describes as a more "comprehensive" physical screening, according to a Transportation Security Administration spokesman.  Denver International Airport, for example, notified employees and flight crews on Thursday that the "more rigorous" searches "will be more thorough and may involve an officer making more intimate contact than before."

Get ready for more 'thorough' pat-downs at the airport.  Passengers at U.S. airports chosen for physical pat-downs will reportedly face a more "comprehensive" screening after a 2015 audit that apparently showed some safety vulnerability.  Bloomberg reported that airport employees have already been notified at some locations that they need to employ a "more rigorous" and "thorough" screening.  The screenings will reportedly include "more intimate contact" than before.  The new measure also applies to airline pilots and flight attendants.

U.S. Marshals Scan Passenger Retinas to Board Flight.  During the war on terrorism, Americans compromised their liberties to fight for freedom.  Now, during the war on immigration, Americans will again be compelled to sacrifice liberties for American sovereignty.  In the name of security, anywhere, anytime.  All measures will be justified, everyone will be authorized and the population will be controlled.

The Illusion of Freedom:  The Police State Is Alive and Well.  [Scroll down]  In fact, the American police state has continued to advance at the same costly, intrusive, privacy-sapping, Constitution-defying, relentless pace under President Trump as it did under President Obama. [...] The TSA hasn't stopped groping or ogling travelers.  Under the pretext of protecting the nation's infrastructure (roads, mass transit systems, water and power supplies, telecommunications systems and so on) against criminal or terrorist attacks, TSA task forces (comprised of federal air marshals, surface transportation security inspectors, transportation security officers, behavior detection officers and explosive detection canine teams) continue to do random security sweeps of nexuses of transportation, including ports, railway and bus stations, airports, ferries and subways, as well as political conventions, baseball games and music concerts.  Sweep tactics include the use of x-ray technology, pat-downs and drug-sniffing dogs, among other things.

New York mother battling breast cancer says she was 'violated' by TSA.  A breast cancer patient currently undergoing chemotherapy is speaking out after an incident in which she believes the TSA at Los Angeles International airport crossed the line while performing a security check.  Denise Albert was flying home to New York Sunday night when she says a TSA agent put her hands on her buttocks and crotch and then patted her left leg all the way down to the ankle, applying pressure the whole way.  In the incident, captured on video, the TSA agent then goes back up and repeated the process along Albert's right leg.

TSA = Jobs Program For Idiots.  The TSA is full of ignorant goobers and child molesters.  It's a federal jobs program for idiots who cannot find productive work.  It is nothing more than Kabuki theater to make the morons among us feel safe.

TSA: Turning Romantic Moments Into Dystopian Nightmares.  In the past, they saw loved ones and friends off right before they set out to freely travel the world.  Today, they goodbye as those same friends and relatives line up like prisoners in a jail or internment camp at the security checkpoint.  From there, passengers must prove to a federal agent they are innocent before they are allowed to get on board the plane.  As part of that process, they must take off clothing and subject themselves to all sorts of intrusive searches, no matter how absurd or unreasonable.  Even then, they can be kept from boarding due to a no-fly list.  That whole time, badged federal agents can detain and question passengers at their discretion.

TSA computers, not humans, to scan carry-ons.  In a first in the U.S., the Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday [7/5/2016] that it plans to begin using computed-tomography or CT scanners to inspect carry-on bags at one checkpoint in the Phoenix airport by the end of the year.

This Is How They Protect Us!  A partially blind, partially deaf young woman returning home from treatment for a brain tumor was brutally smashed to the ground by goon tug TSA "security" while her mother, a nurse, was shoved away. [...] This is America today.  We are forced to pay for our own brutilization by a criminal element that has taken refuge in "security" that "protects us."  We are in far more danger from the security forces allegedly protecting us than we are from terrorists.  Indeed, the security forces are the terrorists.

TSA Agents Beat and Jail Disabled Teen With Brain Cancer.  Nineteen-year-old Hannah Cohen and her mother Shirley are suing the TSA after a Thursday [6/30/2016] incident in which agents at the Memphis International Airport beat and jailed the young woman during a security check.  According to WREG Memphis, the Cohens were traveling from Memphis to Chattanooga, a trip they have been making for 17 years so that Hannah can receive brain cancer treatment at St. Jude Hospital.

Loathsome TSA Bloodies And Bruises Young Woman During Screening Process.  Charges were eventually dropped against Hannah [Cohen], but her family has filed lawsuits against Memphis Airport, Airport Police, and the Transportation Security Administration.  In response to this horrible event, TSA rep Sari Koshetz said, "Passengers can call ahead of time to learn more about the screening process for their particular needs or medical situation."  This is the same TSA that saw a staggering 95% failure rate when airport screeners failed to stop Homeland Security agents armed with guns, fake bombs and other contraband from making it through the screening process 67 out of 70 times during a nation-wide test of the system.  But throw a disabled young woman in their midst, and they'll take her down before you can say abusive behavior.

Family files lawsuit after TSA agents allegedly assaulted disabled daughter.  The family of a disabled St. Jude Hospital patient has filed a lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration after officers allegedly left her bruised and bloodied at a Memphis airport Thursday [6/30/2016].  According to WREG-TV, 19-year-old Hannah Cohen was heading home to Chattanooga after receiving treatment for a brain tumor when there was an incident at the security checkpoint at Memphis International Airport.

Airport security fix: better training — for humans and dogs.  Critics say the agency gives the appearance of airport security without doing much to make air travel safe.  Screeners performed dismally in tests last year involving mock weapons and bombs being smuggled through checkpoints.  The TSA suffers from understaffing, low morale and high turnover.

Airports are fed up with the TSA. Here's why it will be hard to break up with them.  Airports are sending the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) a clear message:  start doing your job well or you are out.  Unfortunately for the Port Authority of NY and NJ and others making similar demands, the TSA is like the pesky tenant who continually games the system in order to avoid eviction.  Let's begin with the basic facts:  the number of TSA screeners available has gone down, creating significantly longer passenger wait times at checkpoints.  And when it takes two or three hours to make it through security, people miss flights — and tempers flare.

The War Against Guns.  As American airport security lines are backed up for hours on end, causing many people to miss their flights, the administration and the media seem to believe that it has all been caused by circumstances beyond their control.  If a Republican had been in charge, he would have been taxed with gross incompetence and negligence.

TSA "Addresses" a "Problem".  [Scroll down]  Haroon Nikizad is suing the TSA for the price of his lost ticket.  Good luck with that; one of the reasons that bureaucrats are so unaccountable is that the courts have granted them a Patent of Nobility that immunizes them against legal accountability.  To inconvenience, hassle, rip off or abuse some mere citizen is just a matter of modern-day droit du seigneur.  Nikizad arrived at the recommended two hours lead time only to find that the TSA was going all out to excel their usual three-ring stumblebum slapstick security circus show.  He was still in line for his ritual groping when his flight's pilot not-flying wished the tower good day and changed to the RAPCONs departure frequency.  He [had made an error].  He trusted the TSA.

Your Government Is Failing You:  We're not any safer, just more miserable.  This summer, air travel is for people who expect to go to hell and want to know what it will be like.  Security lines have reached epic lengths in many airports.  Thousands of travelers have missed flights.  And the Transportation Security Administration now advises passengers to arrive two hours before departure for domestic flights — and three in some places.  The agency in charge of aviation security has become a major problem.  That's odd, because it was supposed to be a solution.  Nearly 15 years after it was created, it's a case study of how firm, well-intentioned government intervention can produce an exploding cigar.

TSA finally got the hint over those nightmare airport security lines.  Travelers reported moving quickly through airport checkpoints Friday [5/27/2016] after authorities opened extra screening lanes and used bomb-sniffing dogs to give some passengers a break from removing their shoes.

American Airlines: 70,000 People Have Missed Flights Due To The TSA.  American Airlines is not thrilled with the recent trend of TSA lines and slowdowns, and the company claims that delays in screening have caused 70,000 people to miss their flights this year.  An additional 40,000 bags did not make it to their destinations due to the TSA.  American thinks that the TSA isn't doing enough to ensure that lines don't get out of control.

TSA Says Passengers Only Have Themselves to Blame For Long Lines.  In a new statement, the TSA placed blame on passengers, claiming that individuals are at fault for showing up to checkpoints unprepared.  "Individuals who come to the TSA checkpoint unprepared for a trip can have a negative impact on the time it takes to complete the screening process," the agency said in a press release, which also included travel tips to help cut down on delays.  The release also blamed the uptick in wait times on shrinking staff and a rise in travelers.  Chicago's O'Hare Airport, for instance, has seen an 8 percent rise in travelers since the start of the year, but has not increased the number of TSA screeners on hand.

Happy Memorial Weekend from the TSA!  Passengers have begun lining up in airports across the country as Memorial Day weekend begins — and TSA must deal with record attendance.  More than 38 million Americans are expected to travel between Thursday and Monday, including 2.6 million by plane.  TSA still lacks staff to face peak traffic over the summer, despite plans to hire more than 700 new screeners by mid-June.

TSA PreCheck the answer to airport woes?  Think again.  With the Transportation Security Administration warning passengers that long lines at major airports are not going away, it seems the only immediate relief in sight is the TSA's PreCheck option — designed to get passengers through security faster.  But critics aren't so sure.  They say the pass is just a moneymaker for the TSA that's facing its own application backlog and doesn't always work at certain airports, anyway.

Mad about long lines at the airport?  Here's a more frightening reason to hate TSA.  As more and more examples of the ineptness and incredible incompetence of TSA management is exposed, the more that airlines, airports, and the flying public will demand that the TSA be privatized.  But we're talking about tens of thousands of union jobs at stake.  And Democrats in Congress would never allow it.

An Answer to TSA Incompetence:  Less Government.  The Transportation Security Administration has become infamous over the years for things that it doesn't allow on planes.  Consider these examples of the Keystone Cops in action.
  •   Confiscating a plastic hammer from a mentally retarded man.
  •   Detaining a woman for carrying breast milk.
  •   Hassling a woman for the unexplained red flag of having sequentially numbered checks.
  •   Demanding that a handicapped 4-year old boy walk through a metal detector without his leg braces.
  •   Putting an 8-year old cub scout on the no-fly list.
  •   Stopping a teenager from flying because her purse had an image of a gun.
  •   Seizing raygun belt buckles and Kitty Cat keychains.
But now the TSA is moving with such tortoise-like inefficiency that even the passengers without plastic hammers and kitty cat keychains aren't getting on planes.  Our cousins across the Atlantic are amused by the TSA's incompetence.

Airports are fed up with the TSA.  Here's why it will be hard to break up with them.  The "Screening Partnership Program," or SPP, was included in the 2001 law that created the TSA as a way to test whether private security screeners, operating under TSA oversight, could provide the same level of service as the newly minted security agency.  And there are good reasons to think they could.  Multiple studies have found that SPP screeners provide security at least as good as that provided by the TSA.  They've also found that SPP screeners are cheaper and could save as much as $200 million a year if used at major airports across the U.S.  And SPP screeners tend to outperform their TSA counterparts in terms of efficiency and customer satisfaction.  One study found that private screeners at the San Francisco airport were 65 percent more efficient than their federal counterparts in Los Angeles.

American Airlines Hiring Company to Help Run Security Lines.  American Airlines says it will spend $4 million for contractors who will help manage checkpoint lines and get passengers through security more quickly.

Burlington College.  [Scroll down]  It turns out the lines in the girls' bathrooms aren't all that long compared to the ones at the security gates at O'Hare Airport in Obama's hometown of Chicago.  This, thanks to the unionized incompetence of Obama's Transportation Security Agency, which has had some 400 of its own employees convicted of crimes but has yet to catch a single terrorist.  What it has caught, however, is travelers; at O'Hare, there have been some 4,000 of them who have missed a flight due to the long security lines, and the traveling public is unsurprisingly furious.  Travelers at O'Hare are told to arrive more than two hours ahead of their flight thanks to the slow-moving security lines, which is a sufficient irritant.  But what's worse, and more dangerous, is the obvious weakness the TSA's traffic jams present; all it would take is a terrorist with a powerful bomb in a large rolling suitcase getting halfway through the security maze before lighting off the device, and you'll have a Brussels or a Domodedovo writ large on our shores.

TSA's Union Power Grab:  Thousands Slowing Down Airports.  When it comes to public employee unions, there's no such thing as a coincidence.  All you travelers stuck in mile-long TSA security lines are pawns.  Convenient political pawns.  Big Labor bosses want more power and more money.  Stranded travelers are just the latest victims in this age-old game of D.C. extortion.  Union leaders want you to think the fault lies with a stingy Congress unwilling to fork over enough money to fill screener shortages.  White House spokesman Josh Earnest poured more partisan fuel on the fire last week by blaming the nationwide slowdowns on "the inability of Republicans in Congress to govern the country."

TSA is still ruining everything!  Last fall, Kemberlee Kaye reported on the continued incompetence of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and suggested that a smart presidential candidate should add become a "strong proponent of defunding the TSA."  Now, as one party has a presumptive nominee and the other is still fighting over the matter, it turns out that things have already changed at the TSA!  Changed as in gotten far, far worse, as airlines report that some 4,000 passengers have missed flights at O'Hare Airport because of the long wait times since February, and there have been reports of screening hold-ups, delayed baggage transport, and difficulties at many other airports.

Sen. Durbin: 58 more security officers going to O'Hare ASAP.  Sen. Dick Durbin said Tuesday [5/17/2016] that the Department of Homeland Security will send 58 more additional [sic] security officers to O'Hare International Airport immediately to help cut security wait times that have stretched two hours or more.  Durbin said he spoke to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and received assurances Tuesday that the agency was working to alleviate the horribly long lines that have caused thousands of passengers to miss their flights.

Long TSA lines snake through Atlanta airport.  Travelers faced a rough Monday morning [5/16/2016] at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as security wait times climbed to over an hour.  People took to social media to post photos of the line snaking through the main security area and into baggage claim.

Stranded travelers sleep on cots in TSA nightmare.  The TSA's notorious checkpoint delays were so bad at Chicago's O'Hare Airport over the weekend that an airline had to set up cots for its fliers.  "We held 30 flights [on Sunday], and 450 passengers missed their flights because of TSA delays," American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein told The [New York] Post.  "This weekend was probably the worst since spring break," said the rep, whose airline was forced to put out about 100 cots for stranded customers.  "Our concern is the summer, which is spring break every day from June till September."

Hundreds stranded, passengers sleeping in cots:  TSA security lines of up to three hours cause chaos at Chicago O'Hare.  More than 400 passengers missed their flights on one night thanks to TSA security lines of up to three hours on Sunday [3/15/2016] at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, as the growing crisis at the agency causes travel chaos across the nation.  Dozens of the passengers were forced to sleep on cots at the nation's third-busiest airport Sunday night, because extremely long security lines kept them from making their flights.  And the lines didn't improve Monday morning, as the lines wound back and forth through the hallways during the early morning rush when passengers were told to expect waits of as long as three hours for international flights.

Passenger Films Agony Over Unbelievably Long TSA 'Line From Hell'.  Sean Hoffman recorded the video of a massive line of humanity inside Chicago's Midway Airport Thursday [5/12/2016].  "I just couldn't believe it," he told Inside Edition.  "It was mindblowing."  The video seems to sum up widespread anger Americans are feeling about the long lines at TSA checkpoints.

NYC Airports:  We Can No Longer Tolerate TSA's 'Inadequacy'.  Management of the New York City area's three major airports is fed up with long lines at security check points, and they have given the Transportation Security Administration an ultimatum:  Either shorten the lines or we'll find someone else to do it.

The use of airport security as a weapon against political opponents:
Is the U.S. Government Now TRACKING 'Right-Wing Extremists'?  It started last summer.  I don't consider myself a "right-wing extremist" — but the far-Left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) does, and the FBI uses the SPLC as a resource.  Since then, every time I fly — and I fly almost weekly — I can't check in online.  I am always directed to go to the airline counter.  There — as soon as I present my identification — the trouble starts.  It generally proceeds like this:  [1] The clerk types a great deal, frowns at the screen, types some more, asks me what my middle name is, types still more, looks at me quizzically, and gets on the phone.  [2] They're very secretive about these calls, sometimes even moving to a different desk to make them.  They refuse to tell me anything about them afterward, including who they called or why.  [3] The call usually takes around ten minutes.  The whole process takes fifteen or twenty minutes.  Then I am checked in and allowed to go to my gate.

No, Budget Cuts Aren't Why You're Waiting Hours To Get Through Airport Security.  Air travelers are in for a long hot summer.  News reports show airport security lines stretching across airports and tell of passengers forced to wait hours for the privilege of taking their shoes and belts off and getting patted down by a TSA agent.  These delays are costing passengers time and airlines money.  American Airlines says that 6,800 missed flights in one week in March because of delays getting through airport security checkpoints.  Some airports are recommending that passengers arrive three hours before their flight.

How to fix the TSA and make air travel fun again.  Newark Liberty International, which runs a close second to JFK on Fox News' list of US airports with "the worst TSA checkpoints," also was slammed for lax screening and reports of employee theft.  That resulted in a rare occurrence in government:  Several employees were actually dismissed.  Not to be outdone, a screener at JFK last summer was likewise busted for theft, trying to abscond with a passenger's Rolex watch.  Another TSA security screener at JFK was arrested three weeks later on an unrelated theft charge.

The worst TSA checkpoints in the US.  The Transportation Security Administration is the federal agency everybody loves to hate.  Call them "necessary evil" if you will, but bad-mouthing them all the time is not always fair.  Some checkpoints have been organized in a way that makes the job easier, while others are lacking the infrastructure or staff to get people faster through security.

TSA comes under fire again as 6,800 American Airlines passengers miss their flights in one week.  American Airlines joined a list of critics blasting the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for long lines, closed checkpoints and missed flights yesterday, when it branded the organization's service 'unacceptable' and said it had gotten 'exponentially' worse.  The remarks came after it was revealed that a shocking 6,800 of the airline's customers had missed their Spring Break flights in just one week last month, NBC reported.  'The lines at TSA checkpoints nationwide have become unacceptable,' American spokesman Ross Feinstein said in a statement Wednesday [4/13/2016].

TSA: Beefed up airport security could roil summer travel lines.  Bomb blasts in Brussels two weeks ago have caused U.S. security officials to do a reassessment back home, meaning summer travelers will likely see a bigger police presence and more random searches before flying this year.  TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger told reporters Friday that the agency has significantly stepped up its visible presence after the Brussels blasts, just one effort to deter would-be copy cats from targeting U.S. airports and train stations.

10-year-old girl's Capri Sun container leads to TSA pat-down.  A California dad is livid after the discovery of a Capri Sun juice pouch in his 10-year-old daughter's carry-on handbag led to an extensive frisking from a Transportation Security Administration agent — and he caught the entire uncomfortable encounter on video.  "Maybe the TSA agents were bad apples, maybe they were undertrained, maybe they need re-training, maybe they did everything by the book," Kevin Payne, the girl's dad, told WNCN.  "I don't really know.  But it was an uncomfortable situation."

TSA Can Now Force You Through Those Ghastly Body Scanners.  The Department of Homeland Security was rather busy last month.  It apparently included granting the Transportation Security Administration the right to force airline passengers through those creepy body scanner machines.  In the past, passengers had the option to opt out of going through the scanners and could ask to go through a metal detector and get a pat-down instead.  The new rule will still allow travelers to opt out if they desire, but now TSA officers can deny individuals this privilege and force them to go through the machines at will.

One-third of all Americans own a gun, it's time for TSA to stop discriminating.  On a recent flight from Nashville to Washington, I approached the TSA counter only to realize my drivers' license was tucked away in a pocket of my jeans at home.  Unfazed, I pulled out my handgun carry permit to identify myself to the agent.  The card bears my picture, my full legal name, my date of birth, and a hologram with the state seal.  Further, as any firearm owner knows, the process of obtaining your handgun license is significantly more involved than obtaining a drivers' license.  It requires completion of a safety course, a fingerprint, and a thorough background check.  If that's good enough to carry a weapon, then surely it is sufficient as a form of identification to board a plane, right?  Wrong.  As I handed over my permit, I was met with a look of immediate disapproval.

Weapons smuggled past TSA screeners with ease: officials.  Two top federal watchdogs warned Tuesday [11/3/2015] that the Transportation Security Administration agents are failing in their mission to secure airports — and are allowing weapons to slip through their supposedly thorough checks.  One lawmaker who reviewed classified information on the number of times weapons were smuggled past TSA screeners in undercover tests called their performance "horrific."

The Editor says...
How many unionized/black/female TSA employees will lose their jobs over this?  I'd bet on the number zero.  Stories like this prove that airline passengers are being searched for no reason other than the illusion of security.  Those who really want to smuggle weapons aboard an airplane are able to do so, right under the TSA's virtual nose.

TSA screener charged with stealing $7,000 diamond watch at JFK airport.  A TSA screener at John F. Kennedy International Airport was charged with steeling a passenger's $7,000 diamond watch, authorities said.  The screener, Margo Louree-Grant, 41, of Brooklyn, admitted taking the "Diamond Master" watch at a JFK checkpoint on Aug. 26, but told investigators she destroyed it after fearing she would be caught, said Joe Pentangelo, a Port Authority Police spokesman.

TSA agent accused of sexually molesting college student who claims he demanded she go into a bathroom to be searched.  A college student has alleged that she was sexually assaulted by a TSA agent at LaGuardia airport who was in official uniform and demanded that she 'go into a bathroom to be searched.'  The 22-year-old, who has not been named, says the incident happened after she got off a Southwest airlines flight from Salt Lake City at 8 p.m. and was apprehended on the third floor of Terminal B.  She described how the agent, now named as Maxie Oquendo, 40, lured her into the restroom, according to The New York Post and told her that said had to be searched and then molested her.

Singer Accuses TSA of Sexual Assault; TSA Disagrees.  [Scroll down]  Let's remember that, for the TSA, doing their normal duty can be sexual assault.  At least one agent (we have only caught one so far) was deliberately using the system to trigger an alert on attractive travelers so he could put his hands on them.  Also, when a man pretended to be a TSA agent and got women to cooperate with a "search" he was treated as a "sexual assault" suspect.  Doing what the TSA does is sexual assault.  How many terrorists have they prevented from flying?  Zero.

TSA Spent $160 Mil For Scanners With A 96% Failure Rate.  When Congress decided to let the federal government take over airport security in the wake of 9/11, critics said it would only make matters worse.  Fourteen years later, it looks like the critics had it exactly right.  On Monday [8/17/2015], Politico broke the news that the federally run TSA has spent $160 million — or more than $150,000 per unit — on body scanners meant to prevent fliers from bringing contraband onto planes.  And what did taxpayers get for their money?  A recent security audit found that TSA scanners failed to stop explosives and weapons 96% of the time.

Morrissey says TSA screener groped him at San Francisco airport.  The Transportation Safety Administration has denied allegations made by singer Morrissey that he was groped by a security screener at the San Francisco International Airport.  Morrissey said he was leaving the San Francisco airport Monday [7/27/2015] and heading to London when he was stopped by a TSA security screener and sexually assaulted.

Are airport security checks a total waste of time? Tests show TSA 96% failure rate in spotting weapons.  The new leader of the Transportation Security Administration said on Wednesday [7/29/2015] his top priority would be to close security gaps at airport checkpoints where an internal report showed 96 percent of undercover tests failed.

Lost, stolen, broken: TSA pays millions for bag claims, USA Today investigation finds.  The Transportation Security Administration paid passengers $3 million over the last five years for claims that airport security screeners broke, lost or stole their luggage or items inside, according to a review of about 50,000 complaints.  After investigating to determine if TSA or its agents were responsible, the agency approved or settled with passengers in about 15,000 cases — nearly 1 out of 3 claims filed from 2010 to 2014.  Payments ranged from a few bucks for missing food or medicine to several thousand dollars for jewelry, electronics and other items passengers said were broken or disappeared in TSA's hands.

Orlando airport 2nd in nation in TSA claims.  The Transportation Security Administration paid more than $130,000 over the past five years to settle claims that its workers at Orlando International Airport had stolen, damaged or lost passengers' items.  Between 2010 and 2014, Orlando International passengers filed 2,054 claims against the TSA.  Of those, the TSA settled and paid the passengers 656 times.  Another 323 claims remain unresolved.  Of large airports, only Dulles International paid more claims on a per-passenger basis.

TSA Official Tweets Photo of Passenger's Luggage Contents.  A spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration on Tuesday [6/30/2015] posted photos online of a passenger's luggage, which contained large amounts of cash, despite admitting it violated no laws or regulations.  Agency spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein posted a photo on Twitter showing a bag she said contained $75,000 in cash.  "Is this how you'd transport it?" she asked.  "Spotted this traveler's preferred method."

TSA Failures Point to Need for Private Airport Security.  In an exclusive scoop, ABC News is reporting that the Transportation Security Administration failed to stop undercover agents in 67 out of 70 recent probes of TSA screening.  These agents carried fake weapons through checkpoints at major airports across the country and were not stopped.  ABC reports that Jeh Johnson was "apparently so frustrated by the findings he sought a detailed briefing on them last week at TSA headquarters."  Johnson has good reason to be frustrated: Such a high failure rate is unacceptable.

Investigation: Undercover agents snuck fake explosives, banned weapons past TSA.  Undercover agents were able to sneak fake explosives and banned weapons through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, in an investigation that revealed a massive, system-wide security failure at America's airports.  The findings were part of a DHS inspector general probe.  The report is still classified, but Fox News has confirmed the investigation found security failures at dozens of airports.  Homeland Security officials confirmed to Fox News that TSA screeners failed 67 out of 70 tests — or 96 percent — carried out by special investigators known as "red teams."

TSA chief ousted after 95 per cent of agents failed explosives and weapons screening test at airports.  Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Monday he reassigned the acting administrator for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) after earlier ordering improved security at U.S. airports.  The moves follow media reports that checkpoint screeners failed to detect mock explosives and weapons in 95 percent of tests carried out by undercover agents.  Johnson said in a statement that Melvin Carraway, an 11-year veteran of the TSA, would be reassigned to serve in the Office of State and Local Law Enforcement at Department of Homeland Security headquarters.

Not fired, not "ousted," just moved to a different desk.
Acting TSA head reassigned after watchdog report reveals airport security failings.  The acting head of the Transportation Security Administration was reassigned late Monday [6/1/2015] after a watchdog report revealed undercover agents were able to sneak fake explosives and banned weapons through checkpoints as part of an investigation that revealed a massive, system-wide security failure at America's airports.  Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced that TSA Acting Administrator Melvin Carraway had been sent to work in the department's Office of State and Local Law Enforcement.

TSA missed weapons, explosives in 95% of security tests.  No one enjoys going through screening at the airport, but at least it's making us all safer, right?  And there was that one time you made it through with a Swiss Army knife in your backpack, but surely any real weapons or explosives would be spotted, right?  ABC News is reporting that, in an internal investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) failed to detect banned weapons and fake explosives smuggled in by undercover agents posing as passengers 95% of the time.

TSA Records Detail Alleged Sexual Assaults of Travelers at Three U.S. Airports.  Judicial Watch announced today [5/12/2015] it obtained 58 pages of records from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that detail alleged sexually-related assaults on passengers by TSA personnel at three major U.S. international airports.  The documents describe incidents at Denver International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, and Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

DHS Secretary: 'We Should Not Profile at Airports'.  Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said his agency considered signing on to the Justice Department's expanded non-profiling policy earlier this year, but because that policy was developed for law enforcement, it "didn't quite fit" for airport screeners.  "But TSA knows my view that we should not profile at airports," Johnson told the a Senate Homeland Security Oversight hearing on Tuesday [4/28/2015].

Possible victims of TSA groping contact Denver authorities; 2 security agents fired.  More than two people have come forward with allegations that security agents at Denver International Airport groped them.

TSA agents fired for conspiracy to fondle passengers at DIA.  The Transportation Security Administration has fired two screening agents following an investigation into allegations they conspired to target certain passengers for extra screening with the intended purpose of groping men one of the agents found attractive.  The TSA contacted the Denver police sex crimes unit in mid-March to report they had received an anonymous tip on November 18, 2014.  A screener had confessed that he "gropes males who come through the screening area."

TSA agents clear SLA terrorist for expedited security screening.  Two angry US senators want to know why the Transportation Security Administration allowed a woman who admitted she planted bombs under police cars in the 1970s to join a program that lets selected passengers board planes with less rigorous screening than other fliers.  A TSA screener recognized Sarah Jane Olson, 67, boarding a flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in June 2014, and asked a supervisor why she had been allowed into the PreCheck program, according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general.

The TSA uses a 92-point checklist to decide whether you're a terrorist.  Since 2007, specially trained TSA officers have used a system called Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) to eyeball air travelers and determine whether they're a threat to flight safety.  But the TSA's unofficially confidential checklist of factors for analysis is enough to make you roll your eyes (surprisingly, that's not one of the things agents are watching for).

Port Authority perks: No airport lines and golf cart rides to the gate.  Some of the perks of being a commissioner for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey were revealed today [2/12/2015] with the release under a long-standing public records request of so-called "Special Passenger Assist" documents showing that several members of the powerful bi-state agency, their friends, and family members, were routinely helped by airline personnel and airport staff, given police escorts and granted special treatment that helped them navigate the airports operated by the Port Authority and avoid lines or crowds.

Confessions of a former TSA officer.  I hated it from the beginning.  It was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly, and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show.  I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security.  I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots — the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying.  Once, in 2008, I had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming home from Afghanistan.  It was celebration champagne intended for one of the men in the group — a young, decorated soldier.  He was in a wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be taken away in the name of national security.

Air Travel Privacy.  In earlier responses to security threats the FAA issued a secret regulation that allowed airlines to demand photo identification and instituted a new profiling program called CAPPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System) based on travel data airlines routinely collected.  New proposals advocate using biometric credentials for "trusted travelers" and using extensive data mining of credit history, criminal records, and travel patterns to profile all airline passengers.  NASA has even suggested developing "non-invasive neuro-electric sensors" or brain scans at the security gate to see if people are having suspicious thoughts.  The stated goal of these new proposals is to rely on technology to reduce the "hassle factor" in airports and to reduce security threats.  The core idea is to focus security resources on suspicious travelers, while ensuring that most people are not inconvenienced by heightened security.  Terrorists, however, have been known to go to great lengths to look like most people.

Only a little off-topic:
How to travel like a spy.  A 14-page document from the Central Intelligence Agency carrying the arduous bureaucratic title of "Surviving Secondary: An Identity Threat Assessment of Secondary Screening Procedures at International Airports" offers a case in point.  Translated into normal English, this means how undercover agents can avoid trouble when going through passport and custom controls.  Although the study deals narrowly with the CIA's concern that its clandestine agents will be stopped in passport checks and their false identities exposed, its information holds interest to anyone who travels internationally.

Racial profiling will still be allowed at airports, along border despite new policy.  As the Obama administration prepares to announce new curbs on racial profiling by federal law enforcement, government officials said Friday [12/5/2014] that many officers and agents at the Department of Homeland Security will still be allowed to use the controversial practice, including while they screen airline passengers and guard the country's southwestern border.

DHS Sec. Doesn't Deny Report TSA Considering Carry-on Luggage Ban.  DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson did not deny reports that the TSA is considering a carry-on luggage ban on flights during the upcoming holiday season.  "Without a doubt, our counterterrorism efforts and concerns continue to focus, to a degree, on aviation security, which is the reason why we directed certain enhancements at airports overseas in our screening of people before they get on airplanes, and we continually evaluate whether more is necessary without unnecessarily burdening the traveling public," Johnson told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday [12/4/2014].

Profiling: Sin or Survival Instinct.  The overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks have been committed by Middle Eastern men between the ages of 18-35.  And yet, such men wearing Islamic apparel breeze pass TSA at the airport, due to hypersensitivity against profiling.  Meanwhile, an old white-haired Caucasian grandmother confined to a wheel chair is all but strip searched by TSA.

Government employees and politicians gets special status from TSA.  Government employees and politicians get preferential treatment from the Transportation Security Administration simply for being government employees and politicians.  Meanwhile, everyone else is stuck in an "aviation security caste system" based on dozens of watchlists compiled by the TSA, FBI and other law enforcement agencies, along with a secret formula the TSA believes can sort passengers based on hypothetical analyses and conjecture.  That's the conclusion drawn by Hugh Handeyside, a staff attorney for the ACLU, who reviewed a recent audit of the TSA, every traveler's favorite government pseudo-police force.

Zipping through airport security? TSA says 50 percent of travelers do.  More than half the people passing through U.S. airports now receive preferential security treatment because they pose no clear threat to aviation safety, federal officials say.  The shift has significantly reduced the lines at security checkpoints, according to the Transportation Security Administration, reflecting the goal of TSA Administrator John S. Pistole to move away from a "one-size-fits-all" approach to screening passengers.  For years, the TSA faced criticism from Congress, the travel industry and fliers for giving the same scrutiny to grandmothers, toddlers, airline pilots, soldiers and other seemingly harmless passengers that it gives everyone else.

Naked full-body scanners failed to detect weapons: study.  Not only did the body scanners at some U.S. airports expose a traveler's every line and curve, they weren't very good at finding weapons, researchers say. [...] Researchers described the scanner as ineffective for screening contraband against those who had access to the machine to test and refine their methods, the study shows.  The scanners were used by several U.S. airports at security checkpoints between 2009 and 2013, but were bombarded with criticisms over privacy concerns because it showed Transportation Security Administration officers what is essentially a naked body under a pile of clothes.

Fake screener probes passengers at SFO.  The allegedly drunk man suspected of posing as a security screener at San Francisco International Airport long enough to direct a couple of women into a private booth for pat-downs has been identified as a private-equity executive with a big-time international resume.  Eric McLean Slighton, 53, who has addresses in both San Francisco and Hong Kong, was arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness following the bizarre episode at the A-side security checkpoint of the International Terminal about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday [7/15/2014], according to law enforcement sources.

Is The TSA The Most Monstrously Incompetent Agency In History?  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has identified a massive new threat to domestic airline security.  No, it's not ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Taliban.  It's the dead battery on your smartphone. [...] Your cell phone is evidently part of a "global threat environment," and so it must be turned on in order to prove that it's a legitimate mobile device.  "Powerless devices will not be permitted onboard the aircraft," the TSA now threatens.  "The traveler [with a powerless device] may also undergo additional screening."  It seems the only truly powerless device in this situation is the traveler, who must yet again submit to the whims of an incompetent and unthinking bureaucracy.

Reporter stopped by TSA agent who didn't know District of Columbia is in US.  It's something most students learn in elementary school — the United States is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia.  But Channel 9's Justin Gray found out it's a lesson that an Orlando agent with the Transportation Safety Administration seems to have missed.  Gray, who lives in Washington, D.C., was flying out of Orlando International Airport when a TSA agent said Gray's District of Columbia driver's license wasn't a valid form of identification.  Gray said his license is legal and up-to-date, but the TSA agent didn't seem to know what the District of Columbia was when Gray arrived at the security checkpoint over the weekend.  When Gray handed the man his driver's license the agent demanded to see Gray's passport.

The District of where? Geography-challenged Orlando TSA agent rejects D.C. drivers license.  According to [WFTV], Justin Gray — a D.C. resident — was flying out of the airport and attempted to use his driver's license as his form of identification when passing through a security checkpoint.  The TSA agent attending to Mr. Gray rejected the license and demanded his passport.  Mr. Gray, who did not have his passport on his person, asked the agent why it was necessary, and the agent responded that he did not recognize Mr. Gray's Washington, D.C. driver's license.  Mr. Gray briefly questioned the agent and quickly realized he did not know where the District was located, according to WFTV.  He was eventually able to make it though the checkpoint, and then Mr. Gray complained about the incident to at TSA supervisor.

TSA Goes Coin-Flipping.  The biggest threats to airline passengers have consistently come the TSA.  TSA baggage screeners have stolen passengers' valuables, committed rape, groped women, humiliated breast cancer survivors, strip-searched infants, bullied the elderly, fondled genitals, and disassembled prosthetic devices on wounded military.  TSA has also been identified as a major security risk when it comes to safeguarding the personal data of passengers.  In fact, the TSA has made flying America's worst travel experience.

It Ought to Be Curtains for the TSA.  It has been the worst-kept secret of the last decade: a truth that dared speak its name only when muttered quietly, a ruse that has been justified and rejustified on grounds that would never traditionally pass muster; and a target for Americans across the political board — for the recalcitrant, for the complaisant, and for those somewhere in between.  It, of course, is the TSA — that vain, extravagant, and unhappily anxious piece of post-9/11 performance art that has been extended far beyond Broadway and out onto a permanent tour of the provinces, in whose airports a cast of little Napoleons engage gravely in what has become nothing less than an impudent con.

'We laugh at naked bodies and take take apple butter from old ladies'.  A former TSA officer has confirmed many of the worst suspicions about airport security screeners:  they stop passengers for having an attitude, they confiscate snow globes from children and nail clippers from pilots, they profile passengers based on their nationality.  And yes, they do see travelers naked in the X-ray photos.  In a confessional piece for Politico, former TSA agent-turned-writer Jason Harrington spills the secrets on the ways that the security workers pass the time during their long shifts.

Ex-TSA Agent: Yes, America, We Saw You Naked. And We Laughed At You.  Thousands Standing Around. Taking Sense Away. Touching Stuff Aggressively.  Whatever you want to call TSA, this former agent confirms that most of what the agency does amounts to ridiculous security theater. [...] We paid for this systematic invasion of privacy, we're still paying for it, and the Democrats have unionized it despite their promise not to, making it more difficult to fire those who gawk at us and mock us and are not making us any safer.

Dear America, I Saw You Naked.  More than a million people saw the video within a few days of its being posted.  Finally, the public had a hint of what my colleagues and I already knew.  The scanners were useless.  The TSA was compelling toddlers, pregnant women, cancer survivors — everyone — to stand inside radiation-emitting machines that didn't work.

TSA Harasses Police Chief.  Traveling by commercial airlines from Albuquerque, NM to Las Vegas, NV, [Police Chief Shane] Harger was asked by TSA to show his credentials.  Minutes later a man flashed a badge claiming to be a federal agent (agency unknown) also demanding to see Harger's credentials.  Harger was told that he was a person of interest, and the federal agent wanted to know where he was going and why.  Bear in mind, no one is required to provide this information under these circumstances.  Harger said that the federal agent told him that the he, the federal agent, was paid to be suspicious of everyone.

5 firearms a day found at TSA checkpoints in 2013.  Transportation Security Officers found more than 1,800 firearms in carry-on luggage at checkpoints all over the United States in 2013.  Of the 1,813 firearms — or 5 firearms a day, on average — found at TSA check points in 2013, 1,477 or 81 percent were loaded.  The number of found firearms was a 16.5 percent increase from 2012's total of 1,556.

Records Prove Muslim Brotherhood Delegates Skipped Airport Inspections.  Newly released records confirm a 2012 Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) report that the State Department cleared the way for a visiting delegation of Muslim Brotherhood officials to enter the country without undergoing routine inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

Court Rules No Suspicion Needed for Laptop Searches at Border.  A federal court today [12/31/2013] dismissed a lawsuit arguing that the government should not be able to search and copy people's laptops, cell phones, and other devices at border checkpoints without reasonable suspicion.  An appeal is being considered.  Government documents show that thousands of innocent American citizens are searched when they return from trips abroad.

Interior border guard checks spur ACLU complaint.  Border Patrol agents routinely violate the constitutional rights of southern Arizona residents when they stop drivers at interior checkpoints on major highways and state routes near the border, according to an official complaint filed Wednesday [1/15/2014].  The complaint sent to Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties alleges that checkpoint agents conduct searches and detain people without justification and use immigration enforcement as a pretext for "fishing expeditions" for potential criminal activity.

The TSA Continues to Expand Its Reach.  The Transportation Security Administration had another year characterized by abuse, theft, and violations of civil rights.  There was a steady stream of children being tormented, property being stolen, and genitals being grabbed this year, as usual.  Americans are being searched without probable cause or warrants while being threatened with arrest over loudspeakers if they talk back to the checkpoint agents.  There are too many of these stories to count and this behavior has been standard operating procedure since the TSA was created.  Some of the agency's recent advancements deserve to be mentioned, however.  Checkpoints are now involving a much deeper look into traveler's private personal information.  Nothing short of a criminal background check will allow a person to fly in America anymore.

TSA Offers 'Transgender Travelers' an Advice Page.  The TSA is well-known for being too aggressive in its body searches, so it shouldn't be surprising in the Obama years that the TSA has a web page titled "Transgender Travelers: Special Considerations."  "TSA recognizes the concerns members of the transgender community may have with undergoing the security screening process at our Nation's airports and is committed to conducting screening in a dignified and respectful manner," they promise.  First, they reasonably suggest that your birth date, name, and gender on your reservation match your government ID. [...] Then there are those pat-downs that can go wrong.

An Israeli security expert on why the TSA is all wrong.  I've been writing for years about how awful US (and European) airport security is and how much better and more effective the Israeli model is.  Now here's a real expert [...] Rafi Sela, former head of security at Tel Aviv - Ben Gurion Airport with seven reasons why the TSA is so awful.

Seven Reasons the TSA [Stinks].  For a bunch of people in snappy uniforms patting down crotches, the TSA is remarkably unpopular.  Nobody likes going through security at the airport, but you probably figured most of it had a point.  All those hours spent in line with other shoeless travelers are a necessary precursor to safe flying.  It's annoying, but at least it wards off terrorism.  That's all [nonsense].  The TSA couldn't protect you from a 6-year-old with a water balloon.

Abolish the TSA.  The TSA's value proposition to provide security as a trade-off for infringing on rights is flimsy; despite years of service and billions of dollars, the agency fails to prevent the initiation of force.  As we've seen, the government agency's existence increases the threat to today's traveler.  The TSA's power is arbitrary.  Agents disrupt travel, molest passengers at random, and are frequently accused, charged and jailed for petty and worse crimes including sexual and physical assault — and acts of terrorism.

Travelers left $500,000 in spare change in airport security bins in 2012.  The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday [12/3/2013] to pass a bill that donates to the United Service Organizations the combined loose change that travelers across the country forget to retrieve from airport security bins.  The USO is a nonprofit benefitting members of the U.S. military and their families.

TSA agent confiscates sock monkey's toy pistol.  "Rooster Monkburn" the cowboy sock monkey is without his pistol, thanks to a diligent TSA agent in St. Louis.  Phyllis May of Redmond, Wash. says she is "appalled and shocked and embarrassed all at the same time" about the incident that happened on Dec. 3.

Report: TSA searching records of passengers before they reach airport.  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is screening people before they get to the airport by looking at records in government and private databases, according to a report.  The new screening system goes beyond the regular background check the government has conducted for years, according to the New York Times.  Travelers' passport numbers will now be scanned, which is routine when crossing the border.  Officials will also tap into other databases run by the Department of Homeland Security.

An obvious affront to the First Amendment:
TSA introduces loudspeaker warnings threatening travelers with arrest for cracking a joke about airport security.  Travelers who attempt to make a joke about strict security procedures at airports have been warned they face arrest.  A loudspeaker announcement made by the Transport Security Administration warns the public:  'Any inappropriate remarks or jokes concerning security may result in your arrest.'  Concerned passenger Matt Miller recorded the loudspeaker message while passing through George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Ben's Prescription for Shutdown Pain.  A few weeks ago, I arrived from Europe at one of the Washington area's international airports.  The wait in the customs line approached an hour, because there was only one customs agent working as more than 20 of the booths stood empty.  I was told by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent that this was a result of sequestration and it was designed to inflict maximum inconvenience on travelers so they would realize no part of the federal budget can be cut without horrible consequences.

Satan-obsessed former Los Angeles airport screener busted for making threats on eve of 9/11 anniversary.  A Satan-obsessed airport security screener who allegedly made creepy comments to a teen traveler in June is behind bars on suspicion of calling in threats to LAX and taping a menacing note inside his closet invoking the Sept. 11 anniversary, FBI officials said.  Nna Alpha Onuoha, 29, worked for the TSA for seven years but was recently suspended after Los Angeles high school student Sarina Frauenfelder accused him of making inappropriate comments about her apparel as she passed through security June 16, a well-placed source told the Daily News.

The Editor says...
Of course, it's illegal to inquire if someone is Satan-obsessed before hiring him or her.

Ladies, prepare for TSA Operation Boob Squeeze.  Ladies, it seems the terrorists have finally come up with a way to make our lives even worse without ever blowing up a single tourist attraction.  Apparently, on "credible intelligence" that has taken the security world by storm, Heathrow airport security is on high alert for any woman who looks like she might have breast implant, because explosive-laced fake boobies are the new weapon in the war on freedom.

Fear of Flying.  I don't know how many people still enjoy flying, but I'm one of those who dread every moment of the experience.  But I'm not referring to the traditional trepidation some people have about soaring through the air at 30,000 feet; I'm talking about the drill we must submit to before we ever get into our seats.

TSA searches valet parked car.  She says she had no warning that someone was going to search her car after she left to catch her flight.  So the woman contacted [WHEC].  We found out it happened to her because she valet parked her car.  Those are the only cars that get inspected.  So if security feels it is necessary to search some cars in the name of safety, why not search all of them?

The TSA agents who can't tell a hero from a terrorist.  A wounded war veteran has described the moment security agents treated him like a 'terrorist' on a recent trip to California because he couldn't raise his injured right arm in a full-body scanner and his dress uniform contained 'too much metal.'

Wounded warrior treated 'shamefully' by TSA screeners.  When a decorated, disabled and retired Marine corporal traveled to Sacramento to receive an honor from his state representative, he received dishonorable treatment from security officers.  Although Cpl. Nathan Kemnitz wore his medal-laden Marine Corps uniform on his trip to be honored as his legislative district's veteran of the year, it earned him no preferential treatment with Transportation Security Administration or Sacramento, Calif., security officers, according to Military Times.

Complaints pile up over airport border guards.  Dozens of travellers arriving home at Ottawa International Airport have filed complaints about rude treatment and harassment by Canada Border Services Agency officers, including one who allegedly asked a young woman if she was menstruating.  Many of the complaints share a consistent theme:  the aggressive tone of border officers who greet them when they return home.

TSA to use bomb sniffing canines to speed up lines.  The security lines at many airports are long and slow, and it looks like the Transportation Safety Administration agrees.  The government agency has begun a pilot program using dogs to pre-screen passengers in security lines in an effort to hasten the pace of travel.

The Editor says...
I have a better idea:  bomb-sniffing pigs!  Why?  Because the people who are most likely to bring a bomb to the airport are the people who don't want to have pig snot all over them when they blow themselves to bits.  If you don't like pigs, stay away from the airport.  Problem solved.

The New American Enemies List.  The CIA and FBI knew of the suspicious activity of the Boston bombers, of Major Hasan, and of Anwar al-Awlaki.  And they did nothing to preempt their violence.  The FBI is said to be carefully avoiding monitoring mosques, although all of the above terrorists were known by many fellow Muslim worshipers to be either disturbed or extremist or both.  In contrast, the NSA monitors, we are told, nearly everyone's communications rather than focusing on Middle Eastern male Muslims, even though Middle Eastern male Muslims have been involved in the vast majority of post-9/11 terrorist plots.  The NSA is the electronic version of the TSA, which feels it is noble and liberal to stop an octogenarian in a wheel chair for special frisking as proper compensation for every focused look at a West Bank resident or Pakistani visitor on his way into the United States.

It's better to take our chances with the Muslim terrorists than to forfeit our liberty.
Are you Willing to Die for your Freedom?  [Scroll down]  I'm willing to die for my freedom.  I'm certainly willing to take the slightly-increased risk of dying in a terrorist attack that ostensibly will result from the government not sifting my email and monitoring all my calls and banking activity and who knows what else.  At this point, I'm becoming convinced it's not worth it.  We're groping children and Korean War vets in airports as part of an expensive show of security.  We're teaching our kids to put up with government intrusion into our lives.  On my most recent flight, I saw a father help his 5-year-old son remove his shoes and show him where to put them, how to remove his belt, how to wait his turn, how to go through security and comply with routine government searches.  It's not worth the toll on our freedom and our veneration of freedom.

"Justice is supposed to be blind, not stupid."
US snooping is slippery slope to abuse of civil liberties.  A Top Israeli security official zeroed in on the American system of airline security:  "You worry about what people are carrying.  In Israel we worry about who the people are." [...] The sweeping collection of data on private behavior is every bit as indiscriminate and flawed as the airport-screening system.  In both, everybody is guilty until proven innocent.  Because one terrorist hid a bomb in his shoe, we all must remove our shoes before flying.  Because one terrorist hid a bomb in his underwear, we all are subject to X-ray- like screenings.

What is the difference between a hunch and a profile?
Dept. of Homeland Security: Laptops, Phones Can Be Searched Based on Hunches.  U.S. border agents should continue to be allowed to search a traveler's laptop, cellphone or other electronic device and keep copies of any data on them based on no more than a hunch, according to an internal Homeland Security Department study.

TSA = Thousands Standing Around.  [P]aying passengers are commanded each day to surrender their canes, dentures, prosthetic limbs, bottles, stuffed animals and other personals and necessaries — a sort of inverse profiling, where the very people who present the lowest possible threat are counterintuitively hassled and probed for gratuitous "security inspections," X-raying and explosive-residue swabbing.

TSA gets rid of full-body scanners at US airports.  The full-body scanners that caused an uproar for taking semi-scandalous snapshots of fliers at security checkpoints have been removed from America's airports.  The move comes after a congressional mandate and several complaints lodged by privacy-rights activists who likened the scanners to a virtual strip search.

U.S. Grants Saudis Privileges to Help Them Through Airport Security.  The Obama Administration is making it easier for Saudis to get through security at airports.  In fact, now they will be allowed to bypass custom authorities due to an agreement quietly signed between U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Saudi Arabian Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.  After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Saudi Arabia acknowledged 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens.

TSA agents 'humiliated' wounded Marine with aggressive inspection: report.  Transportation Security Administration inspectors forced a wounded Marine who lost both of his legs in an IED blast and who was in a wheelchair to remove his prosthetic legs at one point, and at another point to stand painfully on his legs while his wheelchair was examined, according to a complaint a congressman has registered with the TSA.  Rep. Duncan Hunter said in his letter Monday [3/18/2013] that the Marine, who is still on active duty and showed TSA agents his military identification, was still forced to undergo that scrutiny.

The Editor says...
You could file a complaint every time you fly, and nothing would change.

Female senator tweets about 'very uncomfortable' screening by TSA.  Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) complained Monday she was subject to a very uncomfortable screening by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).  McCaskill tweeted about the experience before boarding a flight on Monday [3/11/2013].  The senator, who has complained about the TSA's security techniques in the past, tweeted that she was selected for a pat-down and that the experience was not a pleasant one.

Former Newark Airport TSA screener says the job does little to keep fliers safe.  It is perhaps America's most unsafe airport.  Despite being the launching point for one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 — Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania — Newark Airport has had numerous security violations since.  The latest:  a fake bomb that made it past Transportation Security Administration officers.  Here, a Newark TSA screener who recently left the agency tells how silly policies and lazy workers do little to stop real threats.

TSA allows knives on planes, flight attendants union calls decision 'dangerous'.  The Transportation Security Administration announced Tuesday that U.S. airline passengers will soon be allowed to carry small knives in their carry-on bags, a move that prompted swift condemnation from a flight attendants union.  The union for Southwest Airlines flight attendants called the decision "dangerous" and "designed to make the lives of TSA staff easier, but not make flights safer."

Kansas lawmakers want to end TSA's bad touch.  Some lawmakers in Kansas want a state law that would make it "illegal for Transportation Security Administration screeners to touch an airline passenger's private parts as they conduct a pat-down," according to the Kansas City Star newspaper.  "Air travelers are subjected to aggressive, humiliating pat-downs, many of which would land the average stranger off the street in jail," the newspaper quoted state Rep. Brett Hildabrand, a Republican from Shawnee, as saying.

'I don't want to go to Disney World anymore'.  Nathan and Annie Forck were flying out of their home state of Missouri on a February 8 flight bound for Orlando, Florida with their wheelchair-bound daughter Lucy and their two other children.  Mrs Forck took a six-minute video detailing their toddler's cries as she said through tears that she didn't want to go to Disney World anymore, and is claiming the TSA discriminates against people who use mobility devices.

TSA to remove controversial X-ray scanners.  The Transportation Security Administration says the scanners that used a low-dose X-ray will be gone by June because the company that makes them can't fix the privacy issues.

Cowards!
Homeland Security training TSA workers to save themselves in shooting.  Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint screeners are receiving training to prepare them for the possibility of a mass shooting at one of the agency's airport checkpoints, and those TSA personnel are being instructed to "save themselves" should a shooting occur.  It is unclear whether the TSA is conducting the reported mass shooting scenario training at airports around the nation or only at the airport where our source, a veteran of the TSA, is assigned.  The TSA source claims with obvious concern that his own life, along with the lives of other unarmed TSA personnel, would be in grave danger were an airport checkpoint shooting to unfold.

The TSA: On the road to the American police state.  The TSA was born in the panicked backwash of 9/11, which is understandable given the events of that day, when Muslim maniacs screaming allahu akbar murdered 3,000 Americans and others in the name of Islamic global jihad.  But a decade after 9/11, due entirely to political correctness, it's completely out of the question to profile Mohammed at the airport yet absolutely necessary for that bloated agency to "randomly" select your pre-teen or teenage daughter for a body search performed by a government matron in a TSA uniform.  This frequently under-the-clothes and against-the-skin complete body search may done in full public view, or in a hidden back room, solely at the discretion of the TSA agents involved.  Meanwhile, Mom and Dad stand off to the side where they have been directed to wait, saying nothing, scarcely moving, avoiding random eye contact lest a TSA security agent catch a wayward smirk or utterance of protest.

Enforcing the TSA's Monopoly on Airport Molestation.  Until recently, Carol Price was an employee of the Transportation Security Administration.  As a member of the TSA's blue-shirted legion of gropers, Price enjoyed plenary immunity to touch air travelers in any way she chose.  When passing through airport security at Southwest Florida International Airport on April 20, Price was on the receiving end of the treatment her agency routinely inflicts on the public, and she didn't like it at all.

Coffee, Tea, or Should We ...  I'd originally thought that I'd simply been randomly selected for the more excessive than normal search.  You know, Number 50 or whatever.  Apparently not though — it was both of us.  These are your new threats, America:  pregnant accountants and their sleepy husbands flying to weddings. [...] It's seemingly becoming the norm in America — lies and deliberate distortions on the part of those in power, no matter how much or how little power they actually wield.

TSA detains 12-year-old girl for an hour 'after detecting explosives on her hands'.  Shelbi Walser was travelling to Florida with her mother, Tammy Daniels, for treatment for her brittle bone disorder when she was stopped at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas.  A TSA agent swabbed Shelbi's hands and she tested positive for explosives.  But the wheelchair, which is likely to have transferred any substance to her hands as she pushed it, was never tested, her mother said.

Media Progressives, State Power, and the TSA.  [Scroll down]  No, the "experts" can tell you that the so-called Underwear Bomber's apparatus would not have been detected by the porn scanners.  Furthermore, the idea that travelers have to be humiliated by TSA goons because someone unsuccessfully tried to sneak a bomb in his underwear is becoming a tiresome mantra, but when a newspaper is promoting State Power, any mantra will do, I guess.

Maker of Airport Body Scanners Suspected of Falsifying Software Tests.  A company that supplies controversial passenger-screening machines for U.S. airports is under suspicion for possibly manipulating tests on privacy software designed to prevent the machines from producing graphic body images.  The Transportation Security Administration sent a letter Nov. 9 to the parent company of Rapiscan, the maker of backscatter machines, requesting information about the testing of the software to determine if there was malfeasance.

This probably doesn't help your airport experience:
U.S. government jobs report finds almost half of Homeland Security workers hate their job.  Those are the findings of a recent survey to measure the job satisfaction of millions of American government staff.  And it was the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — set up in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — which comes out worst with only 52.9 percent happy with their job.

Special Alert to All Federal Security Screeners Employed by TSA.  The media is reporting that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has agreed to a contract with American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union bosses that governs some of your terms and conditions of employment with TSA.  Even though all security screeners will be covered by that contract, there is NO requirement that any security screener join the AFGE union or pay a cent of dues to that union.

TSA issues holiday warning to 'Opt Out and Film' privacy rights activists.  The Transportation Security Agency sent out a message to privacy activists planning to opt out of TSA's "nudie scanner" screenings and film the TSA's optional patdown process.  "We will no longer allow the TSA to stick their hands down our pants and touch our private parts!" reads a note on a related Facebook page.

TSA Ordering Travelers To Go Through Body Scanners?  People traveling through the United States have a right to opt out of the dangerous body scanners.  However, we have encountered numerous instances of TSA workers implying or outright lying in telling people they have to go through the scanner even if they try to opt out.

Texas Bill Would Ban Invasive TSA Pat Downs.  A new bill introduced today by Rep. David Simpson (R-Longview) would criminalize invasive TSA pat downs in Texas and put the Lone Star State on course for another collision with the feds who last year torpedoed similar legislation after threatening to impose a federal air blockade.  The Texas Travel Freedom Act, House Bill 80, would ban the very procedure that has caused rancor across the country, namely any pat down that, "touches the anus, breast, buttocks, or sexual organ of the other person, including touching through clothing."

Naked Scanner Maker Accused Of Manipulating Tests To Make Scans Look Less Invasive.  First, apparently there is some concern that the makers of the Rapiscan machine (and, yes, it still amazes me that anyone thought that was a good name), OSI Systems, may have "manipulated" tests in order to claim that the machines did not invade travelers' privacy.

TSA grabs union contract.  When Congress decided to take over airport security, it was never about safety. [...] Over the past decade, the public has been forced to shell out $57 billion for an agency that has made flying an ordeal.  All of the groping and indignities passengers have been subjected to has been for naught.  TSA has never caught a single terrorist, yet it continues to insist on spending billions on pornographic scanning machines.  The European Union, by contrast, refuses to adopt the technology.

Illustration by David Dees, used with permission.

Appeals Court Curbs Border Agents' Carte Blanche Power to Search Your Gadgets.  A federal appeals court for the first time ruled Friday [3/8/2013] that U.S. border agents do not have carte blanche authority to search the cellphones, tablets and laptops of travelers entering the country  — a "watershed" decision in the court's own terms and one at odds with the policies of the President Barack Obama administration.

9th Circuit Appeals Court: 4th Amendment Applies At The Border.  For many years we've written about how troubling it is that Homeland Security agents are able to search the contents of electronic devices, such as computers and phones at the border, without any reason.  The 4th Amendment only allows reasonable searches, usually with a warrant.  But the general argument has long been that, when you're at the border, you're not in the country and the 4th Amendment doesn't apply.

In 1949, this definition of "terrorism" could be found on page 1346 of
Funk & Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of the English Language.

Airport Security: Groping for Guidelines

(CNSNews.com) - At the airport, when does a "screening" become a grope?  A growing number of women say they know a grope when they get one, and they're taking their complaints to the Federal Aviation Administration.  According to press reports, dozens of women accuse male security screeners of improperly touching them in the course of random body searches, or "pat downs."  Under current policy, female travelers may ask for a female screener to perform the pat-down, but federal law does not require airlines to provide a same-sex screener for that purpose.  After the recent flurry of complaints, that may change, however.  Right now, the FAA is sending the complaints to the individual airlines, which are responsible for disciplinary measures involving screeners.