In case you needed any confirmation that the TSA was intrusive, shameful, and useless … here you go. A former TSA agent, Jason Edward Harrington, who had been anonymously posting insider information on his blog, just came out of the shadows to re-confirm what we have all suspected for quite some time.
Apparently, the TSA knew all along that their profiling, scanning, and groping amounted to little more than a waste of taxpayer time and money. TSA agents really were gawking at your naked pictures and laughing or lusting.
And yet the TSA was defended and funded nonetheless. Year after year. And all the while, average American citizens were told that all of this useless waste and immoral intrusion was “for their safety.”
I recommend you read the whole article on Politico, but an excerpt here should suffice:
I hated it from the beginning. It was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show. I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying.
Once, in 2008, I had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming home from Afghanistan. It was celebration champagne intended for one of the men in the group—a young, decorated soldier. He was in a wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be taken away in the name of national security.
The bottom line is that completely ending the TSA would do little other than (perhaps) make us feel a little less safe. This parade of absurdity we’ve been putting up with for over a decade needs to stop. Yesterday.
i’m glad I do not fly that often. I think metal detectors and logical profiling would do the trick in most cases. Let’s not kid ourselves, you will never catch all the people whom what to do harm to others…. and in this case the harm being done by the protector is much more then the harm being done by the “attacker/terrorist”.
Bye Bye TSA. Just more FEDstoppo!
No more flying for me…..I don’t voluntarily take that kind of abuse from anyone……if I can’t drive I won’t go. And the first time I run into a tsa checkpoint on the open highway I’ll probably end up in jail. I do very little travelling at all any more as there are too many hungry LEOs and municipal courts out there for a single old man to confront.
This is to prove they are guarding the borders,the only thing wrong is its to keep us in.I’ve never been through one of these check points and I don’t plan on it.Now they are on our highways stopping people to inspect their anuses.You never know when someone is going to stick a bomb up his ass.To believe people actually put up with this is amazing to say the least.The jews had it easier except they didn’t have guns.They will take your freedoms one at a time until there isn’t any left.Pathetic sheep will do nothing.I’m glad to call myself a lone wolf.
I don’t know about that word “LONE” wolf. There are many of us vets who have already been declared terrorists by Homeland Security. It seems to me, if one has already been designated a terrorist before doing anything unlawful, one doesn’t have much to lose. What are the authorities going to do, call you a terrorist and watch you closely?
Two words…Amen and AMEN!
Wide open national borders with perverts groping you at the airports. Is this country f**ked up or what? If you can’t drive or take a bus or a train, don’t go. But as soon as we have our first rail/bus terrorist attack, that too will change. Just a matter of time. Just keep letting the liberal progressives run things–we won’t be traveling at all.
Rather drive 6 hours than fly for 1. After the following article I will consider a 18 hour Amtrack Trip or a 13 hour Drive rather than a 2 hour flight for a reunion this spring.
I guarantee I will never buy a sports ticket when they attempt this at stadiums.
“The Transportation Security Administration is not just angering travelers at airports. The TSA also does buses, trucks, subways and trains.” “If passengers refuse the search, an Amtrak police officer is to courteously take them to the ticket counter and be certain they get a full refund.” “It is not well known, but the TSA must have permission to go onto private property. That makes no difference at airports because the TSA must approve any new airport security arrangements if the agency is ordered to leave. The TSA has made it known that it will immediately move its equipment out of any airport that tells it to leave, and it will take weeks or months to approve any new security arrangements and equipment.” (Last sentence shows TSA is holding Airports hostage.) http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/06/opinion/don-phillips-tsa-vipr-teams/
“The Transportation Security Administration isn’t just in airports anymore. TSA teams are increasingly conducting searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass transit locations around the country.” http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/20/nation/la-na-terror-checkpoints-20111220
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely”
Flying was already a pain in the butt and now add the TSA to it and its impossible!