Abolish TSA Now - Or, Why We Deserve To Be Laughed At Around The World

I don’t think there has been another period in American history when we looked as foolish and pathetic as we do now. There has been much made of the reputation of the U.S. with the rest of the world and how we have damaged it almost beyond repair. I don’t think that reputation suffers as much from the war in Iraq and it has come to a head because of the weak constitution of Americans.

There is a story about the Transportation Security Administration and how it is changing a policy because of one complaint. A woman had a piercing in a private location and was asked to remove it to proceed to an aircraft. She has complained because one of her piercings had become stuck as the skin healed around it, and she told the officer that she couldn’t remove it except with pliers. So, the officer complied with her request and provided a pair of pliers. Now the woman wants to sue. And TSA has decided to change their policy.

For those who do not know, I worked for TSA for five years. I was one of the first employees hired after 9/11, and spent the first eight months managing security and training workforces during the federalization of the workforce. I handled nine airports, and in the early days TSA had a great opportunity to define itself as an important and effective agency in the war on terror and in the security of our nation. It was top-heavy in law enforcement experience, and that served the security function well.

Then TSA became “customer sensitive.” I have always disliked the word “customer” when dealing with security issues, and the focus on worrying about everyone’s feelings has decreased the security posture of our airport security officers. Most people do not understand the true threat we face from radical theologies. Most people don’t have the first notion as to what is involved in security operations and how many ways someone can carry out an attack. I am so tired of hearing about how we harass grandmothers and children at airports. Your grandmother may not be a suicide bomber, but is there a mandatory retirement age for terrorists?

The rates at which elderly people are being used to smuggle drugs into America is on the rise. Is it that hard to conceive of an elderly person being angry at the government, or something, and blow up an aircraft? Remember all of those radical 60s hippies who planted bombs? They are still alive, but getting older. You don’t think that one of them might get a brilliant idea about resurrecting the Weather Underground or the SDS?

It doesn’t take a large bomb to bring down an aircraft. The bomb that brought down Pan Am 103 at Lockerbie, Scotland is estimated to have contained SIX OUNCES of plastic explosive. That is less than the hamburger you bought at McDonald’s today. It was packed in a small “boom box” and punched a hole in the fuselage – nature and physics took care of the rest.

TSA does a poor job of managing resources. They do a poor job of putting security first. I have experienced firsthand the poor priorities of the agency. In one entire quarter of 2006, TSA spent more hours on “diversity training” than they did on security training. Procedures are written by people who have never conducted any of the procedures in an airport.

I don’t think that TSA should truly be abolished. The officer at the operations level is the most committed and serious professional you will find. They take the job seriously and want to do a good job each and every day. The problem lies with the political correctness and whiny perspective of every day Americans. Taking their shoes off is too much trouble, despite the fact that someone really did put a bomb in their shoes and try to blow up an aircraft. People want to walk through screening with metal piercings without being screened, and don’t understand that some detonators are smaller than a golf pencil. Standing in line is ok if they want a Mocha Latte at Starbucks, but to make sure that 300+ people actually live through an entire flight is too much.

We have to want to win. This war has seen no sacrifice required from the general citizenry, but they don’t want to be imposed upon to take off their belt at a checkpoint. We have to re-focus on the reality of today.

Speak out against this nonsense. Speak up for real security measures. I don’t know about you, but if I have to fly I am more than happy to do it however they need me to because I want to get home to my children. Is it logical to change a national security policy because one woman has piercings in a place where no one can see them? The rest of the world scoffs at our weakness…