TSA set to enforce controversial Real ID program next May with two-year transition period.  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are set to begin enforcing their controversial Real ID program next year, albeit with a two-year transition period.  Unveiled only on September 12, the proposed rule would require all U.S. residents to obtain a Real ID card by May 2025 or risk being denied entry to domestic flights and some federal facilities.  Multiple organizations are speaking out about TSA's rush to implement the program, which they claim is a severe breach of states' rights, individual liberty, and privacy.  The Real ID program dates back to Congress passing the Real ID Act in 2005.  The law and subsequent regulations have aimed to create a centralized ID to replace traditional state-issued forms of ID, such as a driver's license, purportedly to increase national security.  Opportunities for public comment on the enforcement of Real ID ended on Tuesday, October 15.

TSA Tyranny Goes Cutesy.  In the glorious age of the Kamala Ascendency, the TSA is no longer restraining its contempt for American travelers.  After squeezing millions of butts and boobs and never catching a terrorist, TSA decided to have fun by taunting its victims.  After a traveler asked online, "Why does TSA need social media anyways?" TSA's Instagram account taunted: "Idk Kyle, why do your friends keep bringing stuff they shouldn't in their carry-on?"  Almost 40,000 people liked that post (slightly fewer than the total number of TSA employees).  [Tweet]  The TSA Instagram team added another smack at travelers who failed to devote their lives to pleasing federal agents:  "You see how we don't have 20 different things shoved in our pockets before airport security?  Very cutesy, very demure."  Obviously, any American who does not approach a TSA checkpoint stripped down like a convict entering a prison shower bears all the blame for whatever problems he causes.  [Tweet]  TSA officials pirouetted as if they had the moral high ground.  But TSA has perennially relied on idiotic seizure statistics in lieu of competently protecting the American public.

TSA says peanut butter is classified as a liquid, sparking debate.  The Transportation Safety Administration sparked a debate about the viscosity of peanut butter this month when they called it a liquid.  Because the TSA considers the nut spread a liquid, plane passengers must limit the amount they bring in their carry-ons.  Like all other liquids, passengers are limited to 3.4 oz or less of peanut butter in their carry-on bag, but can also put the snack in their checked baggage.  The TSA tweeted about the peanut butter rule on March 21, joking that "you may not be nuts about it."  They also shared the definition of a liquid, which "has no definite shape and takes a shape dictated by its container."

Rand Paul Wants Answers From TSA About Alleged Surveillance Abuses.  Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is attempting to get to the bottom of the Transportation Security Administration's watchlist and blacklist programs following several high-profile cases and whistleblowers scrutinizing these TSA systems.  "Recent disclosures from whistleblowers raise serious concerns that these mechanisms may have been improperly employed to target individuals based on their political views and participation in constitutionally protected activities, rather than legitimate security threat," the Kentucky Republican wrote to TSA Administrator David Pekoske in a Wednesday letter shared with The Daily Signal.  Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is reportedly among the victims of this effort to surveil and control the travel of individuals on the basis of their political beliefs.

The Worm Turns:  House, Senate Investigate TSA Surveillance of Tulsi Gabbard.  Two weeks ago, former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard found out she'd been placed on the TSA's "Quiet Skies" watch list, and put under "Special Mission Coverage" surveillance by Federal Air Marshals.  A Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserves who enlisted and served in Iraq after 9/11, Gabbard was almost speechless at reports of her placement on a terror list.  She felt "the deepest sense of betrayal," she said, adding: "It cuts to the core."  Since then, multiple Air Marshals came forward as whistleblowers and their firm, Empower Oversight, sent letters to eight House and Senate Committees of jurisdiction.  Each was asked to "get to the bottom" of why Gabbard was surveilled and look into Quiet Skies more generally.  Today, Racket learned members of at least three of those Committees decided to investigate, giving deadlines to Transportation Security Administrator David Pekoske to answer a range of queries, and not just about Gabbard.

TSA, SSSS, Tulsi Gabbard, Pre-Crime and PsyWar.  What do you know about the dreaded "Quad" or SSSS TSA designation?  If SSSS is printed on your air ticket, the US TSA has selected you for Secondary Security Screening.  The topic of TSA SSSS designation is now hot in (alternative) news circles because of recent reporting by Matt Taibbi (Racket News, on Substack) regarding US congressperson and former US Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. [...] Tulsi Gabbard; born April 12, 1981) is an American politician, United States Army Reserve officer, and political commentator who was the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. Gabbard was the first Samoan-American to become a voting member of Congress.  She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election, before announcing in October 2022 that she had left the Democratic Party to become an independent.  And apparently, also a domestic terrorist?

Biden administration gave Cuban officials a full tour of Miami airport's security system.  [Scroll down]  U.S. officials were taking them all over into the innards of the Miami International Airport where they got to look at the layout of the airport, could examine its security systems, may have learned how it gets staffed (so as to get their operatives in), could examine the technology used (the better to jam it), and could get the names of personnel for blackmail purposes or pro-Cuba proclivities.  People who know airports think the whole thing looks like a disaster in the making.

TSA Visited Apple and Google To Discuss Collaboration for Digital ID.  The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is continuing collaboration with Big Tech concerning the use of biometric surveillance technology, but also the development of digital IDs for passengers.  On its site, the TSA revealed that its officials traveled to California recently where they met with representatives of Apple and Google to talk about continuing work on implementing digital ID on people's phones.  The TSA delegation to Silicon Valley, led by Administrator David Pekoske, referred to Apple and Google as their "innovation partners."  The goal is to continue with yet another example of "public-private" aka, government-Big Tech "partnership."

California Looks to Ban 'Clear' Service.  Are you a frequent flyer?  If so, you really should get Clear, a service that allows you to shorten your wait time in the TSA security line.  It costs $189 a year, so if you don't fly often, you might want to pay the time tax, but if you fly more than 2-3 times a year it is well worth it to simplify your airport experience and reduce aggravation.  [Tweet]  Aggravation, of course, is exactly what the DEI crowd wants people to experience, and since more White people are likely to buy Clear, two California legislators are looking to ban the service.  To be clear, Clear is not the same as the federal government's TSA pre-check, which gets you around even more barriers than Clear does.  Rather, the company uses biometric IDs to ensure the identity of the person preparing to fly.  It is sort of a pre-screening, in which you exchange money and agree to give a company your fingerprints and a retina scan in exchange for a shorter line experience.  Very dystopian, and yes, I pay for it.  I hate lines.

TSA Covering Up 'Quiet Skies' 'Terror' Watchlist On People Who Were In DC On J6.  [Video clip only.]

Dems letting migrants fly without ID are playing Russian roulette with our safety.  If you're rushing to the airport and forget your photo ID, good luck being allowed on the plane.  But many migrants without "an acceptable form of identification," according to airport signs, don't need a photo.  They get special treatment.  Migrants who have entered the country using President Biden's new CBP (Customs and Border Protection) One app — at least 422,000 — can fly domestically without photo ID.  A sign posted in Miami International Airport tells migrants, "1. Notify the TSA officer that you are a migrant.  2. The TSA officer will take a photo (optional).  3. If requested, provide your alien identification number or biographic information."  Taking a photo would allow the Transportation Security Administration officer to confirm the person boarding matches the person pictured in the CBP app.  But the airport sign repeats, "Photo capture is voluntary."  The migrant trying to board could be anybody.

TSA [is] Rolling Out Worrying New Tech at More Than 400 Airports.  Just in case your opinion of the Transportation Security Administration wasn't low enough already, now they're going to be getting even more of your biometric data.  According to a Monday report in tech policy outlet Nextgov/FCW, the TSA is planning a rollout of new facial-scanning units at over 400 airports in the United States and is currently "working with the Department of Homeland Security's research and development component to analyze data to ensure that the new units are working correctly."  "The latest CAT scanners — known as CAT-2 units — incorporate facial recognition technology by taking real-time pictures of travelers and then comparing those images against their photo IDs," the outlet reported.

Annoyed With Clear, the Company That Fast-Tracks Its Customers Through Airports?  Like some 10 million others, I am a member of TSA PreCheck, the federal program through which Americans can access faster airport security lines while keeping their shoes on and their laptops in their bags as they pass through the scanner.  Applying for TSA Pre, as it's often called, requires providing fingerprints and undergoing a background check, as well as paying $78 every five years.  When TSA Pre first rolled out in 2013, its efficiency suggested genuine progress.  But that feels like a long time ago.  At Virginia's Dulles Airport recently, I idled in a lengthy TSA Pre queue as the handful of people in another line to my left got far speedier service.  This was thanks to Clear Secure, a publicly traded company.  Clear Secure's identity-verification product, CLEAR, is entirely separate from TSA Pre; its members typically pay over $100 per year to have their retinas and fingerprints scanned at airports.  After a member's identity is confirmed, Clear Secure workers usher them straight to a TSA agent, ahead of everyone else.

Reaction to the article above:
CLEAR wants to scan your face at airports.  Privacy experts are worried.  In case it's not obvious, CLEAR is a scam, a way to pay extra money to cut ahead in the TSA line and slow everyone else down.  It has nothing to to do with improved security or simplified processes (that's TSA precheck), just pay to go ahead of the proles:  [Link to the article above]  Having said that, the face scanning genie left the bottle quite a long time ago.  I have NEXUS, which is similar to Global Entry, get approved as a low risk traveler so you can go through immigration faster.

Biden regime expanding intrusive facial recognition scans to all 430 'federalized' airports.  Joe Biden's Transportation Security Administration is moving forward with plans to expand facial-recognition technology at 430 U.S. airports despite the fact that a bill has been introduced with bipartisan support calling for the government to end the invasive policy of stealing the biometric data of millions of airport passengers.  The TSA announced it will install enhanced Credential Authentication Technology (CAT) devices at the airports, an upgrade from previous units used in a pilot program at nearly 30 U.S. airports.  "TSA uses facial recognition algorithms developed by top-performing vendors," the agency says in its press release.  This is a system powered by artificial intelligence.  In the press release, TSA makes it sound like it is willing to jump through any hoop to protect passengers' privacy, when we know this is an outright lie.  In another document, Homeland Security, under which TSA is a sub agency, admits they are collecting personally identifiable data on people at airports.

U.S. citizens are heavily regulated and monitored, but illegals are free of mandates, regulations and bureaucratic harassment.  Joe Biden's Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, is working with Customs and Border Protection to allow illegal aliens to fly without proper identification.  This is in contrast to the treatment of U.S. citizens, who are required to show identification at airports before they are allowed to board a flight.  The New York Post reported that while U.S. citizens are required to show a passport or a valid form of identification to travel by plane both domestically and internationally, signs at various airports claim that the TSA and CBP are collaborating to enable illegal immigrants to travel without any ID.  As Americans find out about this double standard, they're understandably not happy about it.  But until this article in the NY Post, there's been very little information about this secret program to allow illegals to fly unidentified.  I've always said that the creation of TSA and Homeland Security under George W. Bush had nothing to do with safety or security and everything to do with controlling people.  This two-tiered system proves it.

The TSA Plans [a] Big Digital ID Push in 2024.  The US's leading transportation security organization, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), is taking significant steps towards a more digital future.  And, of course, that means more surveillance and tracking.  The plan is that, by the end of 2024, many of their operational objectives will encompass a digital identity component, a move that suggests an enduring commitment towards streamlining traveler experiences with technology, even though it undermines privacy.  In a four-part action plan released by the TSA, the agency plans to extend its mobile driver's license initiative and more widely utilize facial recognition technology in airports.  This includes up-scaling their current pilot program testing digital identities and mobile licenses — used at TSA checkpoints — to at least nine states.  It follows a previous announcement in May that disclosed the TSA's examination of the potential for digital license and ID implementations across 25 domestic airports.

TSA Letting Illegals Board Flights Without Passports.  Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) tells me that thousands of illegal aliens are being flown to cities and towns across the nation courtesy of the American taxpayers.  Norman said a pilot reached out to him for a major American air carrier and was very disturbed about the illegals who he was being forced to board his plane.  The pilot said none of the illegals had government identification or medical clearance.  Meanwhile, journalist Bill Melugin posted a photograph of a sign at the Tucson airport.  The sign directed illegals with no passports to form a separate line.  There's a very real chance that terrorists have been allowed to board jetliners.  And now those terrorists and sleeper cells may be in your communities.

TSA Accepting Arrest Warrants as ID for Illegal Immigrants.  I wish, oh how I wish I could tell you that the headline is a joke.  It almost has to be a joke, right?  No sane country would accept an arrest warrant as a form of ID, right?  Well, this is no longer a sane country.  But you probably already know that by now.  But no one, even in an opium-induced fever dream, would think that the TSA would accept an arrest warrant as a form of legal ID.  But it apparently does, and I think at this point, any doubts that the inmates have taken over the asylum or that there is a cabal so dedicated to left-wing ideology that no idea, no matter how ludicrous, should be taken off the table, can be put to rest.  I would very much like to believe that this administration has lost its mind and is randomly pushing buttons until something happens.  But we can't take evil off the table.  We would be stupid if we did.

Oh... so that's who those guys are.
Air Marshals National Council Director Reveals Marshalls Are Quietly Following Every Person Who Flew to DC Around January 6, 2021.  Sonya Labosco, Director of the Air Marshalls National Council said Air Marshalls are quietly following Americans who flew into the DC area around January 6, 2021.  Labosco said Air Marshalls are no longer going after terrorists or the bad guys because they are now stalking and following every single person who flew into the DC area around January 2021 even if they did not go to the US Capitol.  "We're not flying right now.  The only missions that we are doing are 'Quiet Skies' missions and those are missions that are following the January 2021 people," Labosco said.  "So we're either on the border for illegal immigrants or we're following folks from January 2021.  We're not doing our regular missions where we're out there looking for the bad guys so for now most flights you're not gonna have Air Marshalls."  The Fox News host was stunned: "What do you mean that you're following January 2021 people?  What does that mean?  Labosco said their primary mission is to stalk every single person who flew into the DC area even if they never went to the Capitol and were never charged with any crimes.  "That means our primary mission is a little group called 'quiet skies' — it's a mission called quiet skies that we're following people that flew into the national capital region in January 2021 and they did not have to go to the Capitol or the rally and you've been put on a specific list that TSA has now assigned Air Marshalls to follow these people who have not had any type of criminal investigation — they haven't committed a crime, but yet three years later we are following the same individuals day in and day out," Labosco said.

The TSA Is Still Crazy After All These Years.  The TSA has been promising to end its boneheaded ways for more than 20 years.  Flying out of Dallas International Airport last week, I ruefully recognized that all TSA reform promises are malarkey.  As I neared the end of a TSA checkpoint line, I saw two women loitering behind a roped off section for CLEAR, a new biometric surveillance program that works with 35 airports and coordinates with TSA.  CLEAR involves travelers standing in photo kiosks that compare their faces with a federal database of photos from passport applications, driver's licenses, and other sources.  The Washington Post warned that airport facial recognition systems are "America's biggest step yet to normalize treating our faces as data that can be stored, tracked and, inevitably, stolen."  Though the CLEAR program is purportedly voluntary, TSA agents at Washington National Airport recently threatened long delays for any passenger who refused to be photographed by CLEAR, including U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).  Merkley said that TSA falsely claimed there were signs notifying people that the facial scans are optional.  But the clock is ticking down on seeking voluntary cooperation.

TSA Agents Caught Stealing From Luggage At Miami International Airport.  Surveillance video caught TSA agents at Miami International Airport stealing from passengers as they went through security.  The shocking footage shows Labarrius Williams, 33, and Josue Gonzalez, 20, working together to steal money from passengers' bags at security checkpoint E on June 29.  [Video clip]

We Finally Know Why The TSA Is Cracking Down On CLEAR At Airport Security.  CLEAR is a paid program that takes your biometrics and expedites security screening, mostly at airports.  They are part-owned by Delta and United, and have a partnership with American Express.  Since you go through a biometric ID check, you usually don't have to show ID at the security checkpoint, although you randomly are asked to do so.  I get my CLEAR membership reimbursed by my American Express Platinum card.  I have had to show ID frequently anyway ('randomly flagged').  But it's very useful to skip to the front of the security line, whether the front of the PreCheck line if you have PreCheck or the front of the regular line if you don't, in the airports that they operate.  The TSA has been working to end the 'skip showing ID' process for people identified through CLEAR, citing a security incident last year.  They wouldn't end skipping security lines, just not showing ID which is something you can't always count on now to begin with.

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.

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.

TSA Receives $400M in Pay Raises.  As part of the 4,000+ page, $1.7 trillion omnibus bill passed last month, the Transportation Security Administration will receive $400 million to boost its employees' salaries, according to Reason.  These pay raises are modest compared to a bill legislators tried to pass in June, which would have cost $1.6 billion and would have raised salaries across the board by about 30%.

TSA spends $18.6 million on security screening for gender-neutral passengers.  The Transportation Security Administration is spending $18.6 million to deploy "non-binary screening systems" for gender-neutral passengers traveling through U.S. airports.  The federal spending watchdog group OpenTheBooks.com reported on the new security screening that will be rolled out starting this month.  TSA is spending tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer funds to "advance civil rights" of these passengers, indicating it will improve the customer experience of nonbinary passengers by implementing the new technology.  The funding for the non-gender imaging technology will be appropriated from funds inside the omnibus spending legislation that President Joe Biden just signed.

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?

U.S. Air Marshals Planning Rebellion After Biden Orders Them To Southern Border: Report.  U.S. air marshals reportedly plan to "mutiny" against an order from the White House to leave their posts aboard commercial flights and take up posts at the U.S. southern border.  Dozens of marshals have promised to disobey the order in protest, Air Marshal National Council President David Londo told The Washington Examiner.  President Joe Biden has ordered U.S. air marshals to the southern border to make up for a lack of Border Patrol agents, a move expected to leave the marshals at one-eighth their normal coverage of U.S. flights.  "The rank and file air marshals are going to refuse to deploy and risk termination," Londo said.  "You're almost going to have a mutiny of a federal agency, which is unheard of."  "Morale is so destroyed from this," he added.  "I've never seen anything like this."

If the TSA can't keep weapons off planes, why [does it] exist?  A passenger on an airline flight brandished a box cutter and threatened to stab someone on the plane.  No, this is not a reference to the 9/11 hijackers.  This happened on November 11, 2022, on a Frontier Airlines flight from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.  The question is how it could have happened.  The TSA was created to protect passengers and crew from events like this.  The agents are notorious for confiscating shampoo, nail clippers, and other mundane things, but somehow a passenger smuggled a box cutter on board an airplane.

CBP sparks privacy fears after it's revealed that 2,700 of its officers have warrantless access to travelers' confiscated phones.  Thousands of US government officials have unlimited access to as many as 10,000 devices which are seized from travelers moving across the country.  Electronic devices such as cellphones, iPads and laptops taken from those going through airports, seaports and border crossings are being mined for data.  The leader of the Customs and Border Protection told congressional staff that the massive database can be accessed by 2,700 CBP officers without a warrant.  During a briefing, which took place in the summer, officials also said that the data is maintained for 15 years.  It has raised alarms in Congress about what the government is using the information or, with many of the devices taken from people not suspected of any criminal activity.

TSA: One Traveler's Mortifying Experience at LAX Will Hopefully Lead to Improvements for All.  We've all been there.  Standing in that maddeningly long line in airport security waiting for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents to poke, prod, and scan our bodies and our belongings.  Imagine instead of the usual aggravation, you get to the scanner and are cussed at by the TSA agent and then told you need to strip right there in public.  Um, what?!  That's exactly what happened to passenger Thomas Exler in terminal 4 at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) last April.  Exler is one of nearly one million Americans who live with an ostomy pouch.  Born with a rare birth defect called bladder exstrophy, his bladder was on the outside of his body at birth.  At four years old, Exler had a urostomy pouch put in place and has led a relatively normal life ever since.  Last April, however, what was supposed to be a routine flight home turned into a mortifying moment for Exler — and ultimately, a teachable opportunity to improve TSA treatment of those with medical conditions.

What It's Like to Be Flagged by the Feds:  A Personal Story.  Red flag laws are all over the news these days in the wake of the Uvalde shooting and the search for "common sense" gun laws.  Red flag laws sound like an answer — simply put, somebody shows signs of erratic behavior, they get put on a list and are banned from buying guns.  Simple, right?  No, because nothing in life is ever simple, as RedState's Brandon Morse points out.  For one, people could use such laws for revenge on people they don't like.  Your neighbor's dog keeps pooping on your lawn?  Report him for erratic behavior, get him on a list, see if he ever gets off it.  Hint:  He probably won't.  Once you're on a federal list, there's a good chance you're on it for life.

Amtrak Asks TSA to Start Screening Rail Passengers Against Terrorist Watchlist for the First Time.  Amtrak has asked the TSA to start screening some of its passengers against the Terrorist Screening Database watchlist maintained by the Threat Screening Center to see if known or suspected terrorists have been riding the rails, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security privacy impact document obtained by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit.  A DHS Privacy Impact Assessment obtained by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit reveals a rail passenger watchlist screening program[.]  The program, part of the Amtrak Rail Passenger Threat Assessment and which has not been previously reported, would compare personal passenger information from Amtrak — which may also later include a traveler's "publicly available social media" profiles viewed by DHS personnel — to the government's terrorist screening database.

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 should use dog teams to make up for workers' low vax rate:  Schumer.  The TSA should use its canine teams to keep airport security lines moving if there is a worker shortage amid the federal COVID-19 vaccination mandate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday [10/17/2021].  President Biden's vaccination order for federal workers takes effect three days before Thanksgiving — the busiest time of the year for air travel.  "If TSA lags in jabs, send in the dogs," Schumer said during a press conference in Manhattan, citing recent revelations from the TSA that 40 percent of its employees remain unvaccinated.

TSA faces vaccine mandate deadline that could force it to fire anyone unvaccinated.  Traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday may become even more chaotic this year, as about 40 percent of TSA workers face potential termination for refusing to get the coronavirus vaccine.  Approximately 24,000 employees, including some airport screeners, have until November 22 — the Monday before Thanksgiving — to get the shot or risk being fired under President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for all federal workers.  The president announced the mandate for all federal workers last month, and said on Thursday [10/14/2021] that vaccine mandates shouldn't divide Americans as he warned that more directives were coming for private businesses.

Send the TSA to the Southern Border.  Ever secretly desire to remove one of the numerous retractable belts forming the maze in front of TSA checkpoints?  Struggling through the twists and turns of the makeshift queue at a major airport, I recently did the unpardonable.  While pushing my wife's wheelchair with one hand and dragging two carry-on bags through the difficult turns, I rebelliously detached the nylon belt to bypass the challenging path.  Sure, no one was in the line, and the sound of crickets echoed through the vacant labyrinth of nylon strips, but rules are rules — and I broke this one.  Wrestling the two bags and a wheelchair through the opening I illegally made, I found myself face to face with a stern TSA agent, who directed me to push my wife back through the empty lane I now stood in and re-enter the uninhabited lane with my wife.

TSA Agent At JFK Airport Finds Missing Diamond For Distraught Travelers.  A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer at John F. Kennedy International Airport found a lost diamond for a couple traveling on their honeymoon, according to a press release from TSA.  While on their way to Guam, the Durranis stopped to get coffee after passing through the TSA checkpoint at JFK airport, according to the press release published Monday [7/19/2021].  At the coffee shop, the new bride screamed when she realized the large diamond was missing from her ring.  "My wife was crying hysterically as we did not know what happened, nor did we know how to approach the situation," said Amir Khan Durrani, according to the press release.  Amir Durrani ran back to the checkpoint to notify the TSA agents.

Maxine Waters among lawmakers accused of using air marshals as a 'concierge service'.  Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) may not be the biggest fan of police, but she apparently has no qualms about federal air marshals.  The liberal lawmaker is among the members of Congress from both parties accused of turning a program created to protect airline passengers in the wake of 9/11 into a "concierge service," Fox News reported Friday [5/14/2021].  According to the Air Marshal National Council union, lawmakers began requesting extra protection while traveling to and from their districts — and even while going on vacation — in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol.  In response to those requests, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) allegedly began pulling marshals from flights deemed "high-risk" so that they could protect members of Congress instead.

How TSA Explains Allowing Illegal Immigrants to Fly With You.  The Transportation Security Administration has an "established process" for identifying illegal immigrants who board domestic flights to a new home in America, a spokeswoman told The Daily Signal, although the Biden administration formally refers to this population as "undocumented."  The TSA was responding to a Daily Signal report Friday about such commercial flights carrying illegal aliens — specifically one that departed McAllen International Airport in Texas the day before — and the security waiver necessary for them to board without showing required identification.  Amid the new surge of illegal immigrants at the southern border, the Biden administration has facilitated putting some of them on flights to cross the United States to new destinations at taxpayers' expense.

TSA extends mask mandate for planes, public transportation in U.S. until September.  The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it has extended through Sept. 13 its orders requiring people to wear masks in transportation settings, including at airports, on commercial aircraft, and on buses and trains.  TSA officials said the extension of the mask requirement is consistent with updated policies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The TSA requirement had been set to expire May 11.  "The federal mask requirement throughout the transportation system seeks to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation," Darby LaJoye, a senior TSA official, said in a statement.  "About half of all adults have at least one vaccination shot and masks remain an important tool in defeating this pandemic."

'Serial stowaway' escapes facility, busted again at Chicago airport.  The Chicago woman who has managed to sneak past airport security and board dozens of flights without a ticket allegedly escaped from an electronic monitoring residential facility before returning to the airport.  "Serial stowaway" Marilyn Hartman was taken into custody at O'Hare Airport after fleeing the court-ordered facility Tuesday, according to WGN.  Investigators were able to arrest Hartman at the international airport thanks to her tracking device, the report said.  The 69-year-old — who has fooled the TSA at least 30 times over three decades — was not able to evade the checkpoint this week, and police picked her up in the airport's non-secure section, the local station reported.

TSA Announces It Could Slap You With a $1500 Fine if You Don't Wear a Mask.  [Scroll down]  There's just one problem with that.  We already have something that gives us the right to due process — and the right to decide if and when we wear a coronavirus face bag.  It's called the U.S. Constitution.  Executive orders signed by the man or woman sitting behind the Resolute Desk are not laws.  And that line about the process possibly being a long one?  Sounds like it might skirt several basic rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.  Also, isn't the TSA supposed to be about keeping us safe from terrorists?  Nothing in this big government power grab has a thing to do with handling that task, as far as I can tell.

Use of the No-Fly List as a political weapon:
Dem congressman suggests Cruz, Hawley be placed on no-fly list.  A top Democrat said Monday that Republicans could end up on the no-fly list for actions surrounding last week's assault on the Capitol by supporters of President Trump.  House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie G. Thompson specifically listed Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who helped lead an objection to counting some Electoral College votes — just as Mr. Trump was riling up supporters over the same matter.  Those supporters would later attack Congress.  Asked [...] whether the no-fly sanction should be applied if they are found liable, Mr. Thompson said "there's no question about it."

Atlanta airport sees delays after TSA agent tests positive for coronavirus: reports.  Travelers using one of America's busiest airports faced delays Wednesday after a Transportation Security Administration agent tested positive for the coronavirus.  The diagnosis prompted officials at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia to shut down the airport's main security checkpoint for a thorough biohazard cleaning, FOX 5 of Atlanta reported.  Long lines were seen at the airport's North Checkpoint after travelers were rerouted there, according to the station.

How much are we paying for the TSA?  How many people got fired over this incident?
Report details how woman without ticket boarded Delta flight.  A woman without a ticket or government-issued ID walked past a Transportation Security Administration agent and entered a terminal at Orlando International Airport in October by blending in with a group of people, a report said.  She then boarded a Delta flight bound for Atlanta by pretending to be a wheelchair passenger, according to a TSA report.

25 TSA officers in 7 different states have tested positive for coronavirus.  As the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country, 30 Transportation Safety Administration airport employees have now tested positive for the virus.  TSA employees, most of them working directly with the public as security screeners, have tested positive for COVID-19 in at least seven states and one U.S. territory as of Monday [3/23/2020].

Democrats block measure to prevent terrorists from working at TSA.  Well, not just terrorists, but that's probably the more alarming part of the headline.  With all of the coronavirus and Democratic primary news swamping the networks, you might think that Congress was basically shut down, but it turns out that they're actually trying to get some work done.  One example of this effort was a vote this week on the Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act.  The bill is designed to bring the handling of TSA employees more in line with other federal workers, possibly making it easier to attract new applicants.  But as part of the process, an amendment was offered that would require screening applicants and conducting background checks.  These would specifically prevent the hiring of people convicted of sexual assault and other violent crimes or those whose names appear on the terror watch lists.  Given all of the complaints about TSA agents misbehaving when screening travelers at airports, that seems to make sense, doesn't it?  Apparently not to a lot of the House Democrats.

174 Democrats Vote Against Amendment That Aims To Make It Harder To Hire TSA Employees With Terrorist Or Sexual Crime Record.  House Republicans and 42 Democrats joined forces Thursday to pass an amendment to the Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act that would keep people convicted of sexual assault, terrorism and other violent crimes from working for the Transportation Security Agency (TSA).  But 174 House Democrats — including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer — did not support the legislation.

The Editor says...
That's because the TSA workers are unionized, and their union dues go right back to the Democrats.

The TSA & Security Theater:  Understanding American Airport Security Following 9/11.  Following the attacks of September 11th, Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA), creating the Transportation Security Agency (TSA).  The TSA replaced private security screening companies with one government agency.  Since then, air travelers have bowed to pat downs, bans on water bottles and other inconvenient, intrusive procedures as the "new normal" at our nation's airports.  But does any of this make us safer?  The short answer is no, it doesn't.  What's more, laid out below is the quantifiable evidence that the TSA is a massive boondoggle that has done little to keep Americans safe while they travel.  Indeed, it might make us less safe by providing a false sense of security, as American politicians shy away from ever questioning the efficacy of the TSA (or other elements deemed necessary for "homeland security").  Perhaps more disturbing is the established record of TSA agents stealing from passengers.  You're far more likely to get robbed by a TSA agent than you are to get protected by one, a shorthand for the bureaucratic state if there ever was one.

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.

DHS Lets Airlines Rush Security to Keep Traffic Moving — "Red Carpet" for Middle Eastern Carriers.  The massive agency created after 9/11 to protect the nation risks security at U.S. airports by letting airlines impose expedited measures to keep traffic flowing, according to government officials interviewed by Judicial Watch.  "The airlines call the shots," said a veteran federal agent who has worked at one of the nation's largest airports as well as the Mexican and Canadian border.  "It's all about facilitating traffic, moving people.  Airlines have incredible power at airports and they dictate how Customs and Border Protection (CPB) entry/exit inspection agents do their job."  In fact, airline employees are allowed in the inspections/customs area for incoming passengers specifically to monitor wait times and file complaints with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which caters to them.

A Massive Hole in TSA Security.  Next time you're waiting in your socks as your luggage is rifled through by security at the TSA checkpoint, you might reflect on how unchecked people and vehicles are getting through security in other parts of the airport.

TSA sending 650 airport screeners to U.S.-Mexico border.  The Transportation Security Administration plans to send more than 650 airport screeners and federal air marshals to beef up protection along the U.S.-Mexico border.

This is exactly what the TSA is supposed to prevent:
TSA allowing illegal migrants to fly without proper documents.  The federal agency tasked with overseeing security at transportation hubs has been violating its own policy by allowing migrants who have been released from federal custody onto flights despite not having required documents, according to several Department of Homeland Security officials.  For the past six months, the Transportation Security Administration has allowed migrants released from the custody of other Homeland Security agencies to board flights to other parts of the country despite the passengers lacking any of the 15 documents it states are the only acceptable forms of identification.

Things Are Getting So Desperate At The Border, They're Deploying The TSA.  The Department of Homeland Security is "retasking" hundreds of Transportation Security Administration employees to the United States-Mexico border to assist with the frontline immigration process in an effort to relieve some of the pressure on United States Customs and Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Freshman Dem calls for defunding Homeland Security, after insisting TSA workers get backpay.  While there have been growing calls from Democrats to abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), there hasn't been a strong demand to defund the entire Department of Homeland Security, which also includes the Transportation Safety Administration, Secret Service, Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency.  But just an hour before calling for DHS to be defunded, as Fox News anchor Rob Schmidt points out, Omar tweeted her outrage on behalf of TSA workers in Minnesota who haven't received back pay due to the recent partial government shutdown.  "Ilhan Omar angry and complaining TSA agents haven't received back pay," Schmitt writes, "then an hour later calls to defund DHS... which would end TSA."

Raiders' Jared Cook Says Desperation Caused by Government Shutdown Caused TSA to Steal His Shoes.  Oakland Raiders tight end Jared Cook has accused the TSA of stealing several costly items out of his luggage at Orlando International Airport, due to government workers suffering during the partial shutdown.  In an interview conducted in Florida, Cook noted that he had several personal items disappear from his luggage as he made his way to the Pro Bowl this week.  "The great folks at TSA went through my bag and stole my shoes, and some of my clothes," Cook told Vegas Sports Daily.

After Trump Gets His Wall Funding, He Should Fire The TSA.  In their constant search for shutdown-related disasters, the media are now fixated on airport screeners.  The shutdown is wreaking havoc on airports, they say.  Except that it isn't.  The shutdown does, however, present an opportunity to re-privatize the troublesome TSA.

Border Patrol and the TSA [were] allowed to secretly spy on everyone's social media accounts.  The U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) and the TSA claim they need to secretly spy on everyone's social media accounts so they can understand a person's relationship with their friends, family and the government.  According to a DHS report published last month, nothing can stop the Border Patrol or the TSA from secretly spying on everyone's social media accounts.  "In order to conduct a complete investigation, it is necessary for DHS/CBP to collect and review large amounts of data in order to identify and understand relationships between individuals, entities, threats and events, and to monitor patterns of activity over extended periods of time that may be indicative of criminal, terrorist, or other threat."  Understanding a person's relationship with "entities" is just a euphemism for the government.  The Feds want to know if you are anti-government an activist or a protester.

Miami airport closes terminal as TSA workers refuse to work without pay during government shutdown.  As Transportation Security Administration screeners refuse to work without pay during the government shutdown, Miami International Airport will temporarily close off a terminal to accommodate fewer staff.  Chin told media outlets the security checkpoints in terminal G will be closed after 1 p.m.  Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  Terminal G is one of the airport's six terminals.

Hundreds of TSA workers calling in sick amid government shutdown.  Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration workers called off work sick this week after being forced to work without pay during the now 14-day partial government shutdown, union and agency officials said.  Hydrick Thomas, president of the national TSA employee union, told CNN that up to 170 employees called in sick each day this week at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.  Other workers were forced to cover the shifts by working extra hours.  And there's been a three-fold spike in call-outs at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Hundreds of TSA screeners, working without pay, calling out sick at major airports.  Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers, who are required to work without paychecks through the partial government shutdown, have called out from work this week from at least four major airports, according to two senior agency officials and three TSA employee union officials.  The mass call outs could inevitably mean air travel is less secure, especially as the shutdown enters its second week with no clear end to the political stalemate in sight.

Welcome to the Quiet Skies.  Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.  The previously undisclosed program, called "Quiet Skies," specifically targets travelers who "are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base," according to a Transportation Security Administration bulletin in March.

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.

You May Be Secretly Watched by the TSA on Your Next Airplane Flight.  A government surveillance program that secretly monitors Americans on domestic flights, even if they are not suspected of any crime and have no ties to terrorism, is being questioned by civil liberties advocates and the general public.  The program — called "Quiet Skies" by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) — has been in existence since 2010, when Barack Obama was in the White House.  But it was disclosed to the general public this past weekend via reporting by The Boston Globe.

Flying the quiet skies.  Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.  The previously undisclosed program, called "Quiet Skies," specifically targets travelers who "are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base," according to a Transportation Security Administration bulletin in March.  The internal bulletin describes the program's goal as thwarting threats to commercial aircraft "posed by unknown or partially known terrorists," and gives the agency broad discretion over which air travelers to focus on and how closely they are tracked.

TSA adding more bomb dogs, screeners to deal with surging summer travel season.  The Transportation Security Administration plans to hire hundreds of additional screeners and dozens of new canine teams to its ranks in the coming weeks to deal with what's expected to be a record number of air travelers this summer.  TSA expects to screen more than 243 million passengers at airports around the country, up from the 239 million screened last year between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  Last summer included four of the 10 busiest days in the agency's 15-year history, but this year could see new daily records.

Here are 1,366 well sourced examples of Barack Obama's lies, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, hypocrisy, waste, etc.  [#362] In October 2013, the Obama administration announced the following on loudspeakers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas:  "Inappropriate remarks or jokes concerning security may result in your arrest."

Texas Tech student questioned by TSA for brandishing school's 'finger gun' salute.  Taking a semester off from Texas Tech University to help her family recover from Hurricane Harvey, Diana Durkin was thrilled to return to campus for her sophomore year.  But ironically, it was her enthusiasm that nearly halted her plans when she was stopped by the TSA before a Jan. 6 flight out of William P. Hobby Airport in Houston.

TSA Agents Don't Know What The District Of Columbia Is.  Transportation Security Administration officers continue to be confused about their nation's capitol.  District of Columbia Del.  Eleanor Holmes Norton sent a letter Tuesday to TSA Administrator David Pekoske Wednesday about a Washington, D.C. resident who had issues at the Newark International Airport with her driver's license.  Holmes Norton said that a TSA officer denied that the I.D. was valid and had to consult with colleagues before allowing the D.C. resident to catch her flight.

TSA: Total Security Abyss.  Last summer, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general raised the alarm on the TSA's faulty aviation worker vetting process.  The IG's testing showed "that TSA did not identify 73 individuals with terrorism-related category codes because TSA is not authorized to receive all terrorism-related information under current interagency watchlisting policy."  Nor does the transportation bureaucracy have effective controls in place for ensuring that its employees "had not committed crimes that would disqualify them from having unescorted access to secure airports areas" and "had lawful status and were authorized to work in the United States."  On top of that, "thousands of records used for vetting workers contained potentially incomplete or inaccurate data, such as an initial for a first name and missing social security numbers," investigators found.  "TSA did not have appropriate edit checks in place to reject such records from vetting."  Stunningly, the IG disclosed that TSA has had to "deny credentials to 4,800 individuals that the airports had previously cleared for work in the United States because it could not verify lawful status for those individuals."

TSA Busted In Massive $100 Million, 40,000 Lb Cocaine Smuggling Conspiracy.  In a case highlighting the infiltration of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) by transnational criminal organizations, twelve current and former TSA officers and airport staff were indicted for allegedly trafficking over 20 tons of cocaine — worth over $100 million — into the U.S. over an 18-years timeframe.  Last Wednesday [2/8/2017], a federal grand jury returned an indictment against the twelve defendants, who are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

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.

Beleaguered TSA awaits new director as glitches mount.  February isn't over yet, but already this month, the list of TSA glitches is stacking up:
  •   On Monday, 11 people walked through a security lane at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport without being screened;
  •   Last week, TSA employees were indicted for smuggling cocaine from Puerto Rico
  •   Earlier this month, a House Homeland Security Committee report indicated the TSA failed to properly vet and screen potential employees, uncovering examples of "insider threats" within U.S. airports.
John Halinski, a former TSA deputy administrator, said the agency is in dire need of a leader.

TSA workers helped Puerto Rico-based ring smuggle $100M of cocaine, prosecutors say.  Prosecutors in Puerto Rico have smashed a ring of current and former U.S. Transportation Security Administration workers that allegedly smuggled 20 tons of cocaine worth as much as $100 million into the U.S. over more than a decade. [...] Authorities said the federal employees used their positions as TSA baggage screeners to wave massive amounts of coke through security.

The TSA Continues to Excel.  Excellence, TSA style, is in the news again, this time for its agents' merry participation in a cocaine smuggling ring that has been running through Puerto Rico since prior to the misbegotten agency's existence.  Not surprisingly, the smugglers found that TSA employees, far from threatening the criminal enterprise, were delighted to join in.

TSA to deny 9 state licenses as valid ID for domestic travel.  If you're like most Americans, you use a driver's license to get through security at the airport.  Well, the rules on what makes that license a valid form of federal ID are changing.  It's a process more than a decade in the making.  In 2005, Congress passed the Real ID Act.  It sets stricter and more secure requirements for state driver's licenses and identification cards.

Driver Licenses From Nine States Won't Be Valid IDs for Domestic Flights in 2018.  Beginning Jan. 22, 2018, travelers from nine states will no longer be able to travel with only their driver's licenses.  Residents of Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington will have to use alternate ID forms (passport, military ID, or permanent resident card) to pass TSA security checkpoints — even for domestic travel.  On Thursday [12/22/2016], the TSA began placing signage around airport security checkpoints to inform travelers of the new rules going into effect in 2018.

TSA Official Admits No Federal Air Marshals Are Allowed on Non-Chartered US-Cuba Commercial Flights.  At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday [9/14/2016], a top Transportation Security Administration official admitted that federal air marshals are not currently allowed on non-chartered commercial flights between the U.S. and Cuba, despite reports to the contrary.  Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) questioned Dr. Huban Gowardia, deputy administrator for the Transportation Security Administration, about a draft agreement between the TSA and the Cuban government which would allow federal air marshals on commercial flights.

TSA Expands Bureaucracy, Spending, and Regulation Without Improving Safety.  There is an agency in Washington that spends over $7 billion per year and employs about 60,000 people nationwide, yet fails to do its one job 95% of the time when tested.  Nearly half of the agency's employees have received complaints for misconduct in the last three years.  Private companies providing the identical services are 65% more efficient while costing taxpayers less money.  This agency is regularly exposed for thefts, assaults, spending millions on useless equipment, and punishing attempted whistleblowers.  American citizens are subjected to delays, humiliations, and constitutional rights violations at the hands of this agency.  The agency's response to all these failures:  give us more money.  No one will be surprised that this a description of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Monument to Idiocy.  [Scroll down]  But such logic was ignored in the frenzy to do something after September 11.  The Bush White House, anxious for quick action, caved to public pressure and promised to sign whatever bill emerged from Congress, even if it was the Democrats' version.  The Republicans won a few concessions — the TSA wouldn't be unionized, and a few airports could experiment with their own screening systems — but the Democrats prevailed in creating another federal bureaucracy, with utterly predictable results.  Soon travelers were referring to the TSA as Thousands Standing Around, and the agency has made headlines ever since for rudeness, inconvenience, and incompetence.  The three-hour lines this summer are just the latest failures of a top-heavy bureaucracy (one administrator for every three screeners) and a workforce that has gotten even more unmanageable since it was unionized in 2011.

The TSA's Screwed Up System For Transporting Firearms.  [Scroll down]  First of all, lock your case while transporting your gun in the checked luggage, no matter what he said.  Declare your firearm at the ticket counter.  The airline will call for TSA.  From here things get confused, like Barney Fife is doing the work.  I've had TSA agents ask me to open my case (which is why I keep the keys to the lock handy).  I've had TSA agents look at the weapon, look at the form I completed asserting that the firearm was unloaded, ask me to lock my case, and then (almost always) throw the form down on top of the case, NOT inside it (the airlines insist that your form be visible inside the luggage but not inside the gun case, and they usually request that I simply place it on top of the gun case).  Luggage handlers and TSA agents need to be able to see that there is such a form, and if it's inside the case, they can't.  I have always had TSA and the airlines insist that ammunition be inside the luggage, but not inside the gun case.  I've also had TSA agents swipe the inside of the case (as if looking for residue of some sort, and there will always be residue inside my gun cases), and then ask me to lock my case.  Not once have I ever had an agent verify that my firearm was unloaded.

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.

TSA Security Head Removed from Post.  TSA head of security Kelly Hoggan has been removed from his post, according to an internal memo and the House Oversight Committee. [...] Even after TSA failed to catch fake bombs and banned weapons smuggled through checkpoints by undercover investigators, Hogan received bonuses totaling $90,000, causing widespread outrage among lawmakers.

He wasn't fired, just moved to a different desk.
TSA boots head of security amid furor over long lines.  The Transportation Security Administration ousted its head of security this week because the agency is seeking a "different approach," not because of any wrongdoing, TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger said Tuesday [5/24/2016].  Kelly Hoggan was removed from his post amid an uproar over long lines at airport security checkpoints and intense scrutiny of bonus payments.  Neffenger said he hoped to find another place "for Hoggan's talents" within TSA.

'Fired' TSA Security Chief Is On Paid Administrative Leave, Collected $90,000 Bonus.  The former head of security for the Transportation Security Administration is on paid administrative leave and will be reassigned, not fired, despite being replaced after repeated security failures.  Deputy TSA administrator Darby LaJoye replaced Kelly Hoggan Monday as security chief, but did not fire him.  Hoggan will reportedly be reassigned and is currently placed on paid administrative leave.

5 Years, 1 Firing:  TSA Shakeup Highlights How Rarely Its Execs Get Canned.  What does it take to get fired from the top ranks of the Transportation Security Agency?  It's hard to tell — because it happens so infrequently.  The agency, under fire for long lines at airport checkpoints, security miscues, high turnover rates, retaliation against whistle blowers and lack of accountability for senior staff, has terminated one executive in the past five years, according to data provided to NBC News by the federal Office of Personnel Management.  By comparison, 6,889 employees who worked under those executives were fired during that time.

The High Price of Security Theater.  Since 2001, the U.S. government has laid out mind-boggling sums to keep the homeland safe from violent extremists.  There was the $30 billion raise for the FBI that didn't see 9/11 coming and $70 billion for the bureaucrats who have consistently failed to keep our airports safe.  Add in more than $200 billion for a new Cabinet-level department to coordinate all of this activity and half a trillion for mass surveillance, plus the incredible costs of a decade and a half of military action abroad, and the total comes to a whopping $4 trillion.  Where did all that money go?

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.

TSA Spending Millions on Advertising, PR, Holograms While Travelers Suffer.  As travelers suffer through long airport security lines, the Transportation Security Administration is spending millions on advertising, public relations, new uniforms, and office furniture.  The agency has blamed budget constraints for the nightmarish lines, which have caused 4,000 Americans to miss their flights and 100 travelers to sleep on cots overnight at Chicago's O'Hare airport.  However, an analysis of recent government contracts reveals that over the past month the TSA has spent more than $2 million on various services unrelated to increasing manpower or improving security.

Fire The TSA.  If a private company wasted billions of taxpayer dollars, hired workers who failed to do their job 95% of the time, and then forced people to wait in line for hours, how long do you think they'd be in business?  So why is the TSA being treated any differently?  Over the weekend, 400 passengers missed their flights at Chicago O'Hare International Airport because they were stuck in a TSA line for up to three.  Since February, roughly 4,000 passengers have missed flights waiting to get through security.  American Airlines says that, in March alone, 6,800 of its passengers were in TSA lines when their flights left.

Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport a mess after TSA can't check checked bags.  Travelers flying out of Phoenix Thursday [5/12/2016] are no doubt safely at their destinations by now.  For their luggage [it is] much different story.  After a screening glitch that lasted hours Thursday [5/12/2016], travelers by the hundreds were left wondering when their belongings would show up.  Thousands of checked bags piled up at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix after technical issues with computer servers prevented the Transportation Security Administration from using machines to screen the luggage.

Lawmakers rip TSA for $90K bonuses amid failed security tests.  House lawmakers on Thursday blasted the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for doling out $90,000 in bonuses to one agency official despite a damning report that showed screeners failing to detect fake bombs and weapons during security tests.  Oversight and Government Reform Committee members pressed TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger, who stepped into the role last summer, on how he is overhauling the agency in the wake of high-profile security lapses and reports of misconduct.

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.

Whistleblowers Describe TSA as a Dysfunctional Nightmare.  As noted here a couple of weeks ago, the TSA experience has become so flawed that the delays are forcing the airlines to finally weigh in on the problem.  New evidence from whistleblowers inside the agency describe a situation even worse than the public's perception of it.

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.

The TSA Loves American Travelers.  Really, if Tales of the TSA were a work of fiction, it would have racked up more rejection slips than the initial Harry Potter novel did.  Not for lack of entertainment value, but only because there are too many plot holes in the TSA story.  "Which to believe?  Boy wizard in a parallel magical universe invisible to us, or the agency supposed to prevent terrorists boarding planes hired actual terrorists and put them to work groping peaceable passengers?  Gotta go with the wizard kid."

TSA: Total Security Abyss.  [A]s the TSA carries out its multibillion-dollar charade of homeland security on babies' bottles of breast milk, veterans' prosthetic devices and suburban moms' updos, who is screening the screeners?  Last summer, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general raised the alarm on the TSA's faulty aviation worker vetting process.  The IG's testing showed "that TSA did not identify 73 individuals with terrorism-related category codes because TSA is not authorized to receive all terrorism-related information under current interagency watchlisting policy."  Nor does the transportation bureaucracy have effective controls in place for ensuring that its employees "had not committed crimes that would disqualify them from having unescorted access to secure airports areas" and "had lawful status and were authorized to work in the United States."

Disclosure: TSA Cannot Verify Employees' Criminal Histories.  Government oversight officials informed Congress on Wednesday [2/3/2016] that the Transportation Security Administration continues to operate in disarray, failing to record basic security details for thousands of employees and not tracking official IDs and badges that allow access to the most sensitive areas of an airport.  Lawmakers described the security agency as operating "in chaos" and expressed frustration with Obama administration officials as they informed the House Oversight Committee about a range of security shortfalls that continue to endanger the nation's 450 commercial airports.  TSA's inability to properly screen and track employees has been well documented for years.  However, the administration has failed to enact multiple reforms aimed at tightening security and making it more efficient, lawmakers said.

What better way to keep an eye on them?
72 employees at DHS on terror watch list.  Six dozen DHS employees are on the terror watch list, and the TSA has a 95% failure rate.  No further comment is needed.  The numbers speak for themselves.

TSA Says 73 Employees Were on Terror Watch List.  A few months ago, top TSA officials were forced to hand over their plastic badges and report for bin-stacking duty after it was discovered that 95% of the time, fake, planted "bombs" and "firearms" were able to make it swiftly through security at a bunch of American airports (just don't wrap your face powder up in your underwear or they'll spill out the contents of your luggage across the "security screening area" with abandon, before testing you and your laptop for exploses, because obviously you're a terrorist, boarding a flight to that high-impact target Cleveland at an ungodly morning hour... not that I'm bitter).  Anyway, the malfeasance inside the TSA extends throughout the agency, apparently, from line workers, to top brass and even to HR.

Rep. Adam Schiff on Airport Security: 'When We Test the TSA, They Fail'.  The effectiveness of security at foreign airports has come into question in the wake of last weekend's deadly Russian jet crash after takeoff from Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh Airport, and today, Rep. Adam Schiff said security is a problem at United States airports as well.  "This is a problem here at home.  When we test the TSA, they fail," Schiff told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos today [11/8/2015] on "This Week."  "And I think we really need to step up our security here."  Schiff, D-California, is the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees components of agencies including the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

TSA airport screeners' ability to detect weapons declared "pitiful".  US lawmakers and federal watchdogs on Tuesday [11/3/2015] derided the Transportation Security Administration's ability, or lack thereof, to adequately detect weapons and other contraband during the passenger screening process at the nation's airports.  "In looking at the number of times people got through with guns or bombs in these covert testing exercises it really was pathetic.  When I say that I mean pitiful," said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), speaking Tuesday during a House Oversight hearing concerning classified reports from federal watchdogs.  "Just thinking about the breaches there, it's horrific," he added.

3 San Francisco airport screeners allegedly allowed cocaine to pass through security.  Three security screeners at San Francisco International Airport were arrested Friday on charges of defrauding the government and smuggling cocaine.  A federal indictment charging the three individuals was unsealed on Thursday [11/5/2015].  All three worked for Covenant Aviation Security, a private security that contracts with the Transportation Security Administration to provide addition security at the San Francisco airport, according to the Justice Department.

Steve Lynch: TSA chief vows total overhaul after scathing IG probe.  The Transportation Security Administration is going "back to the drawing board" to design new safety protocols after airports around the country failed to find weapons brought through screening in an undercover sting operation, U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch told Herald Radio today [11/5/2015].  The South Boston Democrat said Peter Neffenger, the new TSA administrator, is beginning the process of rethinking what passengers will have to do before boarding a plane.

Layers of security at US airports 'simply missing'.  The Transport Security Administration claims it has improved security following an undercover probe at eight airports found that 95 percent of fake bombs and weapons were not intercepted.  The investigation found major flaws in systems at the eight airports, which were intended as a random sample.  Entire levels of security 'were simply missing'.

Wedding favors cause evacuation at Denver airport.  TSA said the bride and groom's names both start with a "T," so their wedding souvenirs were labeled TNT.

The Editor says...
And the TSA agents, too stupid to know the difference between dynamite and candles, evacuated the entire terminal.  Really, if a terrorist were to bring TNT into the airport, and submit it to inspection, would it be labeled TNT in big cartoonish letters?

TSA agent allegedly took bribes to let marijuana safely pass through LAX security.  Deondre Smith, 33, of South Los Angeles, was charged with counts of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and bribery of a public official, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.  Smith allegedly accepted at least $500 to make sure checked baggage filled with marijuana pass through screening checkpoints at the airport, according to the indictment.  The bags containing marijuana were flown to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina and were distributed.

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.

TSA whistleblowers describe security concerns, culture of 'fear and distrust'.  Whistleblowers on Tuesday [6/9/2015] portrayed the beleaguered Transportation Security Administration as an agency mired in a culture of "fear and distrust" while raising security concerns over several programs — including TSA PreCheck, in which passes for expedited screening allegedly are passed out "like Halloween candy."  The TSA employees leveled their criticism during a Senate hearing that follows recent bombshell inspector general reports.  One showed undercover agents were able to sneak fake explosives and banned weapons through airport checkpoints about 96 percent of the time; the findings led to the acting TSA secretary being reassigned last week.  A second report released Monday [6/8/2015] showed the agency failed to flag 73 commercial airport workers "linked to terrorism."

GOP Sen. Says Classified TSA Details 'Even Worse' Than Public Failures, Calls For Their Release.  The Transportation Security Administration is inexcusably failing to keep the nation's airports secure and the American people have a right to know about it, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) argues.  Following the leak of results from an inspector general report, which found that TSA failed to uncover mock explosives and weapons nearly 96 percent of the time, Sasse is calling on President Obama to declassify the full report and release further information about TSA's security lapses.

TSA Fails to ID 73 Airport Employees With Links to Terrorism.  A new Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report found that the Transportation Security Administration failed to identify 73 aviation employees with active clearance badges with links to terrorism.  The people, who were employed by major airlines, airport vendors and other employers, were not identified because TSA is not authorized to receive all terrorism-related information under current inter-agency policies, the report said.

TSA Failed To Identify 73 Aviation Workers With 'Links To Terrorism'.  The Transportation Security Administration granted access to secure airport areas to 73 aviation workers with "links to terrorism," according to a new report from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.  The audit, released Monday [6/8/2015], reveals that TSA was unable to vet out 73 individuals with terror-related category codes because the agency did not have enough access to terror list information.

The Editor says...
The Department of Homeland Security was created after the 9/11/2001 attack in order to encourage dozens of federal security bureaucracies to talk to each other and share information.  Now we know that doesn't happen, so why does the DHS still exist?

GOP Sen. Says Classified TSA Details 'Even Worse' Than Public Failures, Calls For Their Release.  The Transportation Security Administration is inexcusably failing to keep the nation's airports secure and the American people have a right to know about it, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) argues.  Following the leak of results from an inspector general report, which found that TSA failed to uncover mock explosives and weapons nearly 96 percent of the time, Sasse is calling on President Obama to declassify the full report and release further information about TSA's security lapses.

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 Failing 'in Almost Every Area of Their Functions'.  The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security remains "deeply concerned" whether the agency charged with maintaining internal security is up to the task.  John Roth told the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee that the Transportation Security Administration, an arm of DHS responsible for ensuring airport safety and screening passengers before boarding, faces "significant challenges" in contracting for goods and services.  "Despite spending billions on aviation security technology, our testing of certain systems has revealed no resulting improvement," Roth said.

Report: TSA doesn't know if bomb-detecting machines are 'operational'.  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has such poor management over its airport security equipment that the agency does not know if its screening machines are working, according to an audit by the Office of Inspector General.  American lives may be at risk due to ineffective maintenance of its equipment, which has cost taxpayers $1.2 billion.

Former TSA officer pleads guilty to faking cancer to get paid time off.  Federal prosecutors said Monday that 42-year-old Marc Bess of Atlanta pleaded guilty to theft of government funds and will be sentenced July 24.

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].

Union renews call for armed TSA officers after New Orleans machete attack.  A machete-wielding man attacked two TSA workers last Saturday [3/21/2015] at the New Orleans airport.  He allegedly sprayed one TSA worker with wasp killer and slashed another TSA agent with his machete — before he was shot by a third, non-TSA, officer.  The attacker, identified as Richard White, 63, died at a local hospital.  The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union representing the TSA, said the attack is a "sad reminder" that more needs to be done to keep airports safe.  Specifically, the union wants an armed TSA unit.

Watchdog says TSA allowed convicted felon to use PreCheck program.  A convicted felon and former member of a domestic terrorist organization was allowed to pass through an expedited security line designed for passengers who are not considered a security threat, the Homeland Security Department's internal watchdog said Thursday night [3/19/2015].

TSA allowed 'domestic terrorist' to get 'PreCheck' status: Audit.  The Transportation Security Agency granted expedited passenger status to a traveler investigators described as part of a domestic terrorist group, and refused to rescind the designation even after a line officer recognized the person, an inspector general said late Thursday [3/19/2015].  TSA officials initially approved the traveler through the agency's Secure Flight Program, which is supposed to screen passengers based on the host of information — name, date of birth and sex — that the airlines now demand whenever a ticket is purchased.

Let's Just Kill 'Homeland Security'.  DHS oversees almost two dozen agencies and groups, including the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Patrol, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), immigration processing and enforcement, the Secret Service, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the brave folks responsible for an endless series of junk-touching, drug-stealing, and kiddie-porn scandals.  Given all those fearsome responsibilities, you'd figure Barack Obama would be sweating gravy over even a partial shutdown of DHS.

TSA jails innocent traveler when he asks to file a complaint.  Apparently, working as a supervisor for the Transportation Security Administration at Philadelphia International Airport comes with a perk:  You get to throw people in jail for no good reason and still keep your job.  If that's not the case, why is Charles Kieser still employed by the TSA?

TSA Disputes Claim That It Will Spy On Air Travelers' Social Media, Credit Card Activities.  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says language included in a draft agreement that was to allow private contractors to scour air travelers' social media activities and credit card purchases before approving them for expedited travel under the agency's PreCheck program was included "inadvertently."  The TSA recently filed a request for proposal which included the draft agreement with third-party vendors the agency plans to hire to pre-screen PreCheck applicants.  Under the agreement, companies hired by TSA would plug "commercial data" into algorithms to determine whether travelers qualified as "low-risk," and, thus, eligible for PreCheck boarding at airports.

Passengers' Personal Data At Risk.  Remember a few years after 9/11 when the airlines started requiring you to use your full name as it appears on a government issued ID, date of birth and gender when you buy a plane ticket?  That's so the TSA can check you against the Federal No-Fly List.  But there is more than meets the eye. [...] TSA now plans to release applicant's data to federal, state, tribal, local, foreign governments and debt collectors.

TSA Whistleblower Confirms Illegal Aliens May Board Planes With CA Licenses.  Illegal immigrants can board airplanes with California's driver licenses despite repeated guarantees to the contrary.  A whistleblower from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has turned over documents to Gotnews.com that contradict media reports that illegal immigrants may not travel within the U.S. with a California driver's license.

How to Eliminate Almost Every Federal Agency.  [For example, the] Homeland Security Department:  The Cato Institute's David Rittger wrote in 2011 that DHS had become too bloated and "made it too easy for politicians to disguise pork barrel spending in red, white, and blue," so he proposed restoring most of DHS's responsibilities to their original agencies.  Immigration, border security, and customs would be grouped under a new "Border Security Administration," while the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Air Marshals Service would be axed completely.

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].

TSA chief John Pistole steps down after difficult 4 years.  The leader of the Transportation Security Administration, John Pistole, announced Thursday [10/16/2014] that he would retire after 4½ tumultuous years leading the agency.  "It has been an honor and a privilege to have served as TSA administrator," Mr. Pistole said.  "I could not be more proud of all that our employees have accomplished together, particularly what they have done to help enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of transportation security while improving the passenger screening experience."

TSA Admits Lying About Illegal Aliens Flying Without Proper ID.  A new letter from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) admits that illegal aliens were being allowed to board planes using Notice to Appear forms received after entering the U.S. illegally.  The revelation directly contradicts a TSA statement last month denying such allegations to various media outlets, including Breitbart News.

TSA fee hike takes effect today.  The Transportation Security Administration fee that gets added to the cost of an airline ticket more than doubles today [7/21/2014], with passengers now paying $5.60 each way to finance X-rays, pat-downs and other forms of airport screening.

Has the Dept. of Homeland Security become America's standing army?  The TSA now searches a variety of government and private databases, including things like car registrations and employment information, in order to track travelers' before they ever get near an airport.  Other information collected includes "tax identification number, past travel itineraries, property records, physical characteristics, and law enforcement or intelligence information." [...] Under the direction of the TSA, American travelers have been subjected to all manner of searches ranging from whole-body scanners and enhanced patdowns at airports to bag searches in train stations.  In response to public outrage over what amounted to a virtual strip search, the TSA has begun replacing the scanners with equally costly yet less detailed models.  The old scanners will be used by prisons for now.

TSA 'Abusively and Arbitrarily' Using Security Designation to Hide Information.  The Transportation Security Administration has been misusing its power to withhold certain sensitive documents from view under the guise of maintaining safety, according to a congressional report, while actually endeavoring to keep potentially disconcerting information from the public eye. [...] According to the new report, the Federal Aviation Administration in 1974 created a category for sensitive but unclassified information popularly known as "Sensitive Security Information" and issued regulations prohibiting the disclosure of information designated as such as detrimental to transportation security.  Under the regulation, documents designated as SSI were exempted from release under the Freedom of Information Act.

TSA investigations boss tapped to replace Air Marshal director amid ongoing gun probe.  The head of the Transportation Security Administration's internal investigations unit has been tapped as the next director of the embattled Federal Air Marshal Service, FoxNews.com has learned.  The newly named director, Roderick Allison, is currently leading a TSA internal probe into the Air Marshal Service.  Allison's office has been probing allegations an Air Marshal supervisor, Danny Poulos, obtained discounted and free guns and provided them to agency officials, including outgoing director Robert Bray, for their personal use.

Outgoing Air Marshals director signed 'settlement agreement' with TSA.  Amid an ongoing probe into an alleged gun selling operation within his agency, outgoing Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) Director Robert Bray struck a settlement that included a provision to suspend any possible disciplinary actions against him, according to a letter from the head of the Transportation Security Administration.

Air Marshal director resigns amid agency gun scheme probe.  The director of the Federal Air Marshal Service is retiring after being investigated for his role in an alleged operation to acquire guns for officials' personal use, FoxNews.com has learned.  Director Robert Bray's home was raided in December in connection with the ongoing probe, according to sources and documents.  Law enforcement and congressional sources told FoxNews.com that Bray's recently announced retirement, which is effective in June, is directly related to the investigation.  Transportation Security Administration officials say no such raid ever happened.

TSA Goes Coin-Flipping.  Twenty years ago it was the U.S. Postal Service that was the iconic example of what's wrong with the federal government. [...] Today, the representative example of bad government is the Transportation Security Administration.  TSA has a labor force of 65,000 employees.  It has cost the American taxpayer about $75 billion.  This includes more than $60 billion spent through 2012 and nearly $8 billion spent in each of 2013 and 2014.  In spite of its gigantic size and cost, TSA has not caught one terrorist.  Not one airline hijacking is known to have been foiled.  However, more than 25,000 security breaches have occurred on its watch.  The biggest threats to airline passengers have consistently come the TSA.

Have you ever had a Gun or Knife Stolen by the "Authorities"?  Has an authority figure ever used their power to steal something from you?  I have seen it most commonly with guns and knives, where people often do not know the precise law, and allow the theft as a form of low level extortion.  The trade off is clear: the authority figure ends up with your item, and they do not charge you with a crime.  My first experience with this occurred at about age 14.

At Newark Airport, the Lights Are On, and They're Watching You.  Visitors to Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport may notice the bright, clean lighting that now blankets the cavernous interior, courtesy of 171 recently installed LED fixtures.  But they probably will not realize that the light fixtures are the backbone of a system that is watching them.  Using an array of sensors and eight video cameras around the terminal, the light fixtures are part of a new wireless network that collects and feeds data into software that can spot long lines, recognize license plates and even identify suspicious activity, sending alerts to the appropriate staff.

Noted Author Reading The Jewish Press Detained at JFK.  Had the situation been reversed, had a Muslim woman been stopped and her luggage searched simply because she was reading Islamic materials, it would be front page news and the subject of civil rights rallies.

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.

Checkpoints, Warrantless Searches Become a Way of Life.  The state of the 4th amendment is in truly bad shape, given the prevalence of warrantless checkpoints and warrantless bag searches being used all around the country for various reasons.  No longer restricted to airport terminals, the unconstitutional tactics are now being used in subways, bus stations, on bridges, at parades, and anywhere else the government can get away with them.  This is facilitated by the palpable fear of terrorism and with financial incentives from the federal government.

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.

TSA Wants to Hire 'Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business'.  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is looking exclusively for an "economically disadvantaged woman owned small business" when it awards its next $30 million contract for security training.  The agency announced a solicitation for a company to conduct training for its Inter-Modal Security and Training Exercise Program (I-Step) last week. [...] An economically disadvantaged woman is one who earns less than $350,000 a year, with a net worth not greater than $750,000.

The Editor asks...
What happened to "equal employment opportunity without regard to race or gender"?

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.

Time to Get Rid of the TSA.  After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress rushed to create a new agency to protect America's planes, trains and trucks.  The Transportation Security Administration enabled the federal government to control the screening of passengers and baggage at all but five of the 429 U.S. commercial airports.  Eleven years and billions of dollars later, the TSA has mastered the art of the grope but falls short on increasing security.

Abolish the TSA.  In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the United States took a number of rapid actions.  One was the passage of the Patriot Act, which I regarded as a mistake then, and which doesn't seem much better now.  Another was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, a bureaucratic monstrosity that doesn't seem to have done much to keep us actually, you know, safer.  And another was the federal takeover of aviation security by the Transportation Security Administration, which also seems to have been a bust.  There's now some talk about repealing or revising the Patriot Act, and the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to do much good seems pretty widely acknowledged. But it's widely accepted — even by the Government Accountability Office — that the TSA's army of unionized federal employees is no better, and perhaps worse, than private screeners.

Congress should abolish the TSA — it's time to privatize airport screening.  A government study that finds a program doesn't work and proposes to cut it is almost as rare as pigs that fly.  But a new Government Accountability Office study on aviation does just that:  it proposes chopping the Transportation Security Administration's SPOT security program because it finds no evidence that it could stop airline terrorists.  The GAO routinely finds waste in programs, but it usually just proposes ways to fix them — so the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques program must be really lame.  The GAO finds no "scientifically validated evidence" for the $200 million program, and it says that TSA deployed it before even doing a cost-benefit analysis.

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.

Dozens Of TSA Employees Fired, Suspended For Illegal Gambling Ring At Pittsburgh Int'l Airport.  Dozens of local Transportation Security Administration workers have been fired or suspended after they were caught in an illegal gambling ring at Pittsburgh International Airport.  TSA sources tell the KDKA Investigators that the officers were fired or suspended Thursday morning [9/19/2013].  The investigation took a few months.  TSA took a look at more than 300 of its employees who work at Pittsburgh International Airport.

TSA Agent Arrested for Smuggling Illegal Aliens.  A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent was arrested Friday for conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens into the country.  Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers arrested David Alexander Díaz-Torres in Orlando, Fla., according to the Justice Department. Díaz-Torres and five others were charged in a 13-count indictment for bringing, transporting, harboring, and shielding illegal aliens within the United States.

TSA plans to procure nearly 3.5 million rounds of ammo.  The exact quantity of .357 SIG caliber training rounds sought in the RFP is 3,450,000, which means the TSA could fire off more than 9,400 rounds per day, every day of the year, to consume that entire quantity annually.  However, TSA insists that the manufacturer warrant that the "usable storage life" of the ammunition without degradation is a minimum of three years.

Expanding the T.S.A: VIPR Squads Search Citizens.  Americans appear willing to live in a police state, subject to unconstitutional violations of rights by their own government in exchange for the mirage of security.  TSA, the organization founded in 2001 to screen airline passengers at airports, is searching commuters without warrants or probable cause and having citizens arrested for minor violations wholly and entirely unrelated to "terrorism."

T.S.A. Expands Duties Beyond Airport Security.  With little fanfare, the agency best known for airport screenings has vastly expanded its reach to sporting events, music festivals, rodeos, highway weigh stations and train terminals.  Not everyone is happy.  T.S.A. and local law enforcement officials say the teams are a critical component of the nation's counterterrorism efforts, but some members of Congress, auditors at the Department of Homeland Security and civil liberties groups are sounding alarms.  The teams are also raising hackles among passengers who call them unnecessary and intrusive.

Report: TSA employee misconduct up 26% in 3 years.  The Transportation Security Administration is probably not going to top anyone's list of Favorite Federal Government Agencies.  And the stories of its failures spread faster than a speeding jetliner:  TSA officers stealing money from luggage, taking bribes from drug dealers, sleeping on the job.

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 Orwellian government depends on a continuous state of emergency.
Warning Pollution.  In addition to diligently reminding people what they can and cannot bring through security, TSA takes great pains to inform airport travelers to say something if they see something.  Besides reminding us not to leave our bags unattended, airports that award taxi monopolies also encourage us to take only approved cabs at the cab stands for our own safety, along with reminders not to leave our cars when we pick up or drop off passengers and various and sundry other nagging reminders [...]

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.

The TSA Is Coming To A Highway Near You.  Believe it or not, only 7 years ago, TSOs went by a more deserving title, "airport security screeners."  At the time, their title and on the job appearance consisted of a white shirt and black pants.  This was fitting because airport security screening is exactly what's required of the position.  However, this is no longer the case.  In the dead of night, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) administratively reclassified airport security screeners as Transportation Security Officers.  The TSA then moved to administratively upgrade TSOs uniforms to resemble those of a federal law enforcement officer.  They further completed the makeover with metal law enforcement badges. Not surprisingly, government bureaucrats at the TSA left out one crucial component during the artificial makeover — actual federal law enforcement training as is required of Federal Air Marshalls.

TSA fires 3, suspends 23 at Newark airport.  Twenty-six baggage screeners at Newark Liberty Airport were fired or suspended recently as part of an investigation into lax security procedures, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday.  Three screeners were fired and 23 others were suspended at the conclusion of disciplinary proceedings this week.  Seventeen of those suspended had initially been targeted for firing.

TSA Allowed at Least 11 Airport Employees With Criminal Backgrounds To Receive Security Badges.  The Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) mismanagement of a program responsible for issuing security badges to aviation employees resulted in at least 11 individuals with criminal backgrounds obtaining badges that allowed access to secure areas of U.S. airports.  An aviation employee is anyone who is allowed unescorted access to secured areas of airports.  This includes airport employees in addition to TSA Officers.

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."

Not One Penny to Spare.  A thousand bucks a year?  Not too shabby, and the new uniforms look really snappy and nice too, with just the right amount of scary ornamentation to maintain the crucial projection of absolute authority so necessary to the job of herding the lowing, balky cattle and keeping them properly, umm, cowed.  These are probably a bargain at any price, really.

TSA Sealed $50-Million Sequester-Eve Deal to Buy New Uniforms.  The impending sequester did not prevent the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) from acting in late February to seal a $50-million deal to purchase new uniforms for its agents — uniforms that will be partly manufactured in Mexico.

Privatize Airport Security.  Endless airport lines under sequestration are not about security, they are about the inability of a government agency to do its job with its available means.  In the real world, if a business fails to provide a promised service, its contract becomes void.

Who (or What) Are They Looking For?  TSA is omnipresent.  Trains, planes and automobiles.  Now railroads and buses.  Next it will be dog walkers and model airplanes.  Homeland Security peers through every remote camera and surveillance platform.  The federal decision to see and record everything is approaching total coverage.  You're even recorded and surveilled in many national parks.  Who, or what, are they looking for?

These cowards will immediately duck and cover if there's any trouble.
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.

Former Edison police officer accused of racism landed TSA job at Newark airport.  He spat out epithets for African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian Indians, fellow officers said.  He called women "whores" and said a pregnant officer's baby "should be killed," the colleagues said.  The combustible allegations are contained in statements — obtained by The Star-Ledger — that Edison police officers made to an internal affairs investigator about their controversial sergeant, Alex Glinsky.

The TSA as we know it is dead - here's why.  For starters, TSA Administrator John Pistole refused to testify before the committee on the innocuous subject of "common sense" improvements to America's airport security, reportedly because the committee has no jurisdiction over his agency.  One by one, panelists took turns excoriating the agency charged with protecting America's transportation systems.  It was plainly clear why Pistole was a no-show, and it had nothing to do with jurisdiction; it would have been an openly hostile crowd.

GOP fumes as TSA head skips aviation security hearing.  TSA Administrator John Pistole was listed as an invited guest for the hearing, which was focused on the aviation security agency's impact on commerce in the United States.  But when Aviation Subcommittee Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) called Thursday's meeting to order, Pistole's seat was empty.

A Call for TSA Reform.  Since 2001, TSA staff has grown from 16,500 to over 65,000, a near-400% increase.  In the same amount of time, total passenger enplanements in the U.S. have increased less than 12%.  Since 2002, TSA procured six contracts to hire and train more than 137,000 staff, for a total of more than $2.4 billion, at a rate of more than $17,500 per hire.  More employees have left TSA than are currently employed at the agency.

GOP report: TSA hasn't improved aviation security.  After a $56 billion federal investment in airline security, flying is no safer than it was before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the bare hands of passengers might be the best defense once a terrorist gets on board, two members of Congress said Wednesday [11/14/2012].  Deriding the Transportation Security Administration as a bloated bureaucracy that recruits security personnel with ads on gas pumps and pizza boxes, the two House Republicans said it needed to undergo almost a dozen reforms.

Three Reasons to Kill the Dept. of Homeland Security:  It's unnecessary, ineffective, and expensive.  And that's just for starters.

"What we're doing is nothing more than a show.  By embarking on the fantasy that we can solve this problem strictly by screening, we're doing nothing but wasting the taxpayers' money.  It sure isn't making the traveling public any safer."

 — Captain Tracy Price, Chairman  
Airline Pilot's Security Alliance ^{1 2} 

House Democrats' sit-in.  The Democrats are chanting their silly meme, "No fly no buy."  The idea is that if you are on the terrorism no fly list, you should not be able to buy a gun.  The terrorism list started in 2003 as a data base to help identify potential terrorists, not to keep people off of airplanes.  But it evolved.  Today, for reasons never stated, a nameless, faceless bureaucrat can put anyone on the no fly list and it is almost impossible to get off.  If someone put on the list has resources, they can try to sue, but often when the case gets to court and the plaintiff demands to know why they are on the list, the government invokes the "State secrets" privilege.  That privilege is invoked when there is allegedly classified information in a case and is generally used to deny access to that information.

Connecticut to ban gun sales by those on no-fly list.  Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy proposed Thursday [12/10/2015] to use an executive order to ban gun sales to those on federal no-fly watch lists.  The Democratic governor said that his order would make Connecticut the first state to do so and that state officials are working with the federal government to get access to the lists.  "If you cannot fly due to being on a government watch list, you should not be able to purchase a firearm while on that watch list as well," Malloy told reporters at the Capitol.

So Josh Earnest, how many mass shooters have been on 'no-fly' list you're so obsessed with?  The "solution" Dems are obsessing over wouldn't have stopped a single mass shooting, but who cares — they've got an NRA to demonize!

Our Superstitious President.  The president also insists that the government in reaction to the San Bernardino terrorist attacks must now rush to make it illegal for anyone on the no-fly lists to buy guns.  Is there any scientific evidence that such a move would have much effect in preventing or abating terrorism?  Or is such a call based on folklore and ideologically driven superstition?

Obama's No-Fly-List Gun Ban Should Be Permanently Grounded.  President Obama wants to ban anyone on the government's "no fly" list from buying a gun, asking "what could possibly be the argument for allowing" such gun purchases.  In fact, there are many.  There are about 47,000 names on the "no fly" list, 800 of whom are Americans, although nobody knows the exact number since the list is kept secret.  Those on the no-fly list can be blocked from flying into, out of or over U.S. airspace.  This isn't a list of terror suspects, it's a "predictive assessment" of those the government thinks could pose a threat to Americans.  But the government's ability to make such predictions accurately has proved incredibly unreliable.  Over the years, the no-fly list has swept up Marine veterans, air marshals, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Rep. John Lewis, CNN reporter Drew Griffin, a nun and an 18-month-old child.  Not on the no-fly list:  The San Bernardino terrorists.

Obama's Top Speech Lies, One By One.  Lie #2:  "Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun.  What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon?  This is a matter of national security."  Suspects on the list are just that, suspects, meaning there have been no charges or convictions lodged against them.  Furthermore, National Review contributor John R. Lott Jr. pointed out, "While some people on 'no-fly' lists are there because they are suspected of terrorist activity, you can also get added because you are a suspect in a criminal case, made controversial statements or tweets unrelated to terrorism, are the victim of a clerical error, or refused to become a government informant."  An investigation by The Intercept, an online publication formed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and featuring veteran reporter Glenn Greenwald as an editor, revealed that just the government's Terrorist Watchlist alone — separate from the No-Fly List — contains at least 280,000 men and women with no verifiable link to a terrorist organization.

President Obama's latest pathetic speech on terror.  President Obama tried yet again Sunday night to convince the nation he's serious about fighting terror, and, as usual, proved the opposite.  Days after the San Bernardino attack, he finally called it terrorism, but he's not offering anything new to combat the menace.  He still won't call it Islamist terror, and still wants to fold these attacks in with nonterror mass shootings — and fight them all with trivial tweaks to the gun-control laws.  Ban gun sales to anyone on the terrorism watch list?  [Indeed,] the list didn't include the Fort Hood shooter, the Tsarnaevs or the latest attackers.  How about getting a watch list that's worth [something]?

The Man Who Can't Stop Lying.  Of course, astute observers will note that while Obama talked about the horribly-flawed "no fly" list in his address, that isn't the list that Democrat lawmakers have been pushing to use against American citizens in recent weeks.  They have instead been attempting to use a much larger and even more arbitrary database numbering nearly one million souls, the "terror watch list."  This database has even lower standards, and you can be placed upon it for merely working with someone that said something controversial on Facebook, has a name similar to yours, who attempted to make a purchase with an expired credit card, or my own personal story, had the temerity to write an article that Obama Administration loyalists did not like.  Sadly, I'm hardly the only journalist to have ended up on a watch list that doubles as a corrupt President's enemies list.  There are nearly 300,000 people who have now ended up on this list for having the wrong opinions, or for no credible reason at all.

Rubio: No-fly list full of 'everyday Americans'.  Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says a majority of the people on the federal "no-fly list" do not belong there and therefore should not have their right to purchase firearms taken away.  "These are everyday Americans that have nothing to do with terrorism, they wind up on the no-fly list, there's no due process or any way to get your name removed from it in a timely fashion, and now they're having their Second Amendment rights being impeded upon," Rubio said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday [12/6/2015].

Numbers Tell the Story of Our Government's Watchlisting Binge.  The government is adding people to its already bloated watchlisting system at breakneck pace, and it's still hungry for more. [...] The documents confirm what we have long suspected:  It doesn't take much to get yourself on a terrorist watchlist.

The NRA Is Absolutely Right to Fear the 'Terrorism Watch List'.  [Scroll down]  Predictably, that "explosive growth" has led to the entanglement of almost 300,000 people who have "no affiliation with known terrorist groups" but who fall under "reasonable suspicion" nevertheless.  This chart, from the right-wing-extremist hatesite TechDirt breaks down the composition.

MSNBC's 'No-Fly List Is Islamophobia' Poster Boy Arrested in Turkey as Part of ISIS Cell.  A man, who just two years ago was the poster boy for the far-Left media's attacks against the U.S. government's no-fly list for "unfairly" targeting Muslims, finds himself and several family members sitting in a Turkish prison — arrested earlier this month near the Turkey-Syria border as members of an ISIS cell.  It's a long way from 2013 when Saadiq Long's cause was being championed by MSNBC's Chris Hayes, Glenn Greenwald, and Mother Jones, and was being represented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) terror front.

Flashback: Huffington Post Agreed with NRA on No-Fly List in 2014.  Following the Paris terror attacks, a trickle turned to a stream, which turned to a torrent of Democrats and Democrat surrogates attacking the NRA for continuing to oppose the inclusion of the no-fly list in the prohibited categories for background checks in the United States.  And although the NRA has spent a decade explaining that their opposition rests on the fact that the no-fly list is imprecise, and just about anyone could end up on it by happenstance [...] Democrats and anti-gun publications are ganging up in hopes of forcing the gun rights giant to cower down and say uncle.

Changes planned on how travelers can protest placement on no-fly list.  The decision comes after a federal judge's ruling that there was no meaningful way to challenge the designation, a situation deemed unconstitutional.

Terror watchlist can include dead, acquitted suspects.  Federal rules for adding someone to the government's terrorist watchlist are broad enough to include people who are dead or have been acquitted in court of terrorism charges, according to a government document that emerged on Wednesday [7/23/2014].  A 166-page guidance for the government database that includes the "no-fly list" and other lists declared that agents do not require "concrete facts" or "irrefutable evidence" that someone is a terrorist.  Instead, the system requires officials have a "reasonable suspicion" that someone could be connected to terrorist activity, which can include "violent acts" that could harm people or property and "intimidation or coercion" that affects the government or public.

Federal judge rules U.S. no-fly list violates Constitution.  The U.S. government's no-fly list banning people accused of links to terrorism from commercial flights violates their constitutional rights because it gives them no meaningful way to contest that decision, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday [6/24/2014].

No-fly list used by FBI to coerce Muslims into informing, lawsuit claims.  [Naveed] Shinwari is one of four American Muslims in a new lawsuit who accuse the FBI of placing them on the no-fly list, either to intimidate them into becoming informants or to retaliate against them for declining.  Filed on Tuesday night [4/22/2014] in the US district court for the southern district of New York, the case accuses the US attorney general, Eric Holder, the FBI director, James Comey, the homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, and two dozen FBI agents of creating an atmosphere in which Muslims who are not accused of wrongdoing are forbidden from flying, apparently as leverage to get them snitching on their communities.  Their lawsuit seeks not only the plaintiffs' removal from the no-fly list but also the establishment of a more robust legal mechanism to contest placement upon it.

American Airlines: Attendant trainee on no-fly list gets the boot.  American Airlines says one of its flight attendant trainees was found on the Transportation Security Administration's "no-fly" list after he was accused of making several bomb threats to a competing airline.

The terrorist watch list and the no-fly list must overlap — and they might be identical.
Chris Christie Signs 10 Gun Bills Into Law.  One of the new laws will disqualify any person on the federal terrorist watch list from obtaining firearms identification cards or permits to purchase handguns. [...] Civil liberties advocates have criticized the watch list for its secrecy.  The list is not public, nor can one petition to have his name removed from it.  There were about 420,000 names on the watch list as of 2011.  It has swollen to nearly 900,000 as of this year.

Washington Deserves a Declaration of Incompetence.  According to a House Judiciary Committee statement, the Justice Department's inspector general "found that the number of known or suspected terrorists admitted to the Witness Security Program is unknown, that DOJ has lost track of two suspected terrorists in the program, and that critical national security information is not being shared with other agencies," including the FBI.  Such confirmed or assumed terrorists previously on the federal No Fly List did not have their new names added to the list.  Thus, "several known or suspected terrorists have been able to board commercial airplanes in the United States."

Judge rebuffs feds' secret arguments on no-fly list.  A federal judge in California has rejected the Obama administration's effort to use secret arguments and evidence to defeat a lawsuit relating to the so-called no-fly list designed to keep suspected terrorists off of airline flights.

The Transportation Security Administration, which administers the list, instructs airlines not to deny boarding to children under 12 — or select them for extra security checks — even if their names match those on a list.