Clipmarks | Tsa Clips

Metal signage to send message to TSA screeners

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:39:10 GMT

clipped by: pcmkrfn

I'm to Chicken to Try and Fly Without an ID

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:58:05 GMT

clipped by: I Google Myself
clipper's remarks: The original post is long but interesting. It seems that it would be very easy to get passed security without an ID but try to get on a plane with LIP GLOSS and it's all bad!!

Clip Source: philosecurity.org

Flying Without a Wallet

There’s been a lot of speculation among security professionals regarding TSA’s policies, since so much of it is shrouded in secret. Last month, TSA announced a change of policy: passengers who “willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access… This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers.”

I was curious to learn more about the TSA’s new practices for ID-less travelers. As a security professional, I decided to research TSA’s latest security screening procedures. Below is a recounting of my experiment.

What Happened

A man in a dark suit with a TSA pin approached. The name on his badge was Peters. He introduced himself as John Peters.

“How old are you?” he asked.

“Twenty-seven.”

“And you don’t have identification?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have my wallet.”

“What happened to it?”

Tags: airport security

Commercial Pilot On TSA Terrorist List

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:44:27 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: He even gets to carry a gun in the plane cabin.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

James Robinson is a retired Air National Guard brigadier general and a commercial pilot for a major airline who flies passenger planes around the country.

He has even been certified by the Transportation Security Administration to carry a weapon into the cockpit as part of the government's defense program should a terrorist try to commandeer a plane.

But there's one problem: James Robinson, the pilot, has difficulty even getting to his plane because his name is on the government's terrorist "watch list."

"Shocking's a good word; frustrating," Robinson -- the pilot -- said. "I'm carrying a weapon, flying a multimillion-dollar jet with passengers, but I'm still screened as, you know, on the terrorist watch list."

"There's going to come a point in time where everybody's on the list," Robinson said.

TSA Ignorance Grounds Nine Planes By Damage

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:39:18 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: What a bunch of tools!

Clip Source: www.aero-news.net

They're the government... and remember, they're here to help. A bumbling inspector with the Transportation Safety Administration apparently has some explaining to do, after nine American Eagle regional jets were grounded at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Tuesday.

Citing sources within the aviation industry, ABC News reports an overzealous TSA employee attempted to gain access to the parked aircraft by climbing up the fuselage... reportedly using the Total Air Temperature (TAT) probes mounted to the planes' noses as handholds.

"The brilliant employees used an instrument located just below the cockpit window that is critical to the operation of the onboard computers," one pilot wrote on an American Eagle internet forum. "They decided this instrument, the TAT probe, would be adequate to use as a ladder."

TSA agents "are now doing things to our aircraft that may put our lives, and the lives of our passengers at risk," the pilot wrote on the forum.

I feel safer, really I do !

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:24:37 GMT

clipped by: douchrti
clipper's remarks: Why not? When our leaders can get away with it, what makes it wrong for others to try it.

Clip Source: www.analyst-network.com

Homeland Security Meets The Sopranos

Last spring, shortly after airing a news report that embarrassed the TSA and the Federal Air Marshal Service, CNN’s investigative reporter Drew Griffin was suddenly placed on the TSA’s terrorist watch list. Last week, CNN ran a follow-up piece. Anderson Cooper interviewed Griffin — a reporter who had suddenly moved from telling an important story to being part of it.

TSA = They Suck Ass

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:42:02 GMT

clipped by: fudomyoo
clipper's remarks: if you fly at all, you have a story of abuse of power - how can it be so rampant and yet no one does anything?

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Still more from TSA's you-can't-make-this-up list of airport contraband: gel shoe inserts.

Now, do I really need to point out that an airline pilot at the controls would hardly need a butter knife if he or she desired to inflict damage?

the requirement that crew members be subject to the same screening as passengers is wasteful and pretty much pointless in the first place, especially when you consider that thousands of other workers with access to planes, including fuelers, caterers and cabin cleaners, receive only occasional random checks.

TSA has become a bureaucracy with too much power and little accountability.

the industry appears to have little concern while an out-of-control agency delays and aggravates its customers.

New Scanners That See Through Clothing Installed In US Airports

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:58:49 GMT

clipped by: jmjoness

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Scanners that see through clothing installed in US airports

A random selection of travellers getting ready to board airplanes in Washington, New York's Kennedy, Los Angeles and other key hubs will be shut in the glass booths while a three-dimensional image is made of their body beneath their clothes.

While it allows the security screeners -- looking at the images in a separate room -- to clearly see the passenger's sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger's face is blurred, TSA said in a statement on its website.

But the new machines have provoked worries among passengers and rights activists.

The ACLU said in a statement that passengers expecting privacy underneath their clothing "should not be required to display highly personal details of their bodies such as evidence of mastectomies, colostomy appliances, penile implants, catheter tubes and the size of their breasts or genitals as a pre-requisite to boarding a plane."

Tags: airport, security, privacy, scanners, tsa

Scanners that see through clothing installed in U.S. airports

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:32:55 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Many jokes come to mind--but I'll just make one about myself...Maybe they can find my penis, 'cuz I haven't see it in a long time....hahahahaha

Clip Source: www.japantoday.com

Security scanners which can see through passengers’ clothing and reveal details of their body underneath are being installed in 10 U.S. airports, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.

A random selection of travelers getting ready to board airplanes in Washington, New York’s Kennedy, Los Angeles and other key hubs will be shut in the glass booths while a three-dimensional image is made of their body beneath their clothes.

The booths close around the passenger and emit “millimeter waves” that go through cloth to identify metal, plastics, ceramics, chemical materials and explosives, according to the TSA.

But the new machines have provoked worries among passengers and rights activists.

While it allows the security screeners—looking at the images in a separate room—to clearly see the passenger’s sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger’s face is blurred, TSA said in a statement on its website.

Airport Screeners Swiping Your Stuff?

Fri, 23 May 2008 18:51:41 GMT

clipped by: Rebecca Ruiz
clipper's remarks: According to this blogger, the Transportation Security Administration has a little stealing situation on their hands. What are they allegedly taking? Everything from an engagement ring to cash to designer eyewear to electronics. How can you safeguard your belongings? Elliot's recommendations include leaving valuables at home or taking them with you on the plane instead of putting them into a checked bag.

Clip Source: www.elliott.org

Since it was created in 2001, the agency has fired about 200 employees accused of stealing. Although the TSA has taken steps to discourage these government workers from helping themselves to our personal effects — including background checks on new hires, video cameras in screening areas and rules forbidding backpacks or lunchboxes at checkpoints — more and more passengers like Fleiss are coming forward to say they’ve been ripped off by the very people who are supposed to protect them.

It doesn’t help that hardly a week goes by without another story about alleged TSA pilferage making headlines. Here’s one from a Miami TV station, where 1,500 items have been reported stolen at the airport since 2003. Here’s someone who had his engagement ring filched by screeners in Los Angeles. Here’s another one involving a 12-year-old’s heartbreaking loss of $265 in birthday money.

The stealing isn’t as random as the TSA may want you to believe.

How to Skip the Airport Security Line

Mon, 12 May 2008 18:33:01 GMT

clipped by: Rebecca Ruiz
clipper's remarks: There's an easy solution to the problem of long security lines: pay to join a shorter queue. I've clipped about this before, but this author raises some interesting points about "registered traveler" programs. For a $100 fee and a $28 TSA background check, these programs give frequent travelers a fingerprint or iris image that allows you to join an expedited security line. The author argues that, "What looks to one person like flexibility looks to another like bribing your way through the system." What do you think?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

There have always been special queues for first-class check-in and boarding. Those are part of a private transaction between an airline and a customer. But two-tiered security checks are a different story.

So-called “registered traveler” programs, like Verified Identity Pass, which has about 100,000 members, offer private queues in more than a dozen airports. Anyone can pay a $100 annual fee and $28 for a T.S.A. background check. If you’re not a security risk, you get a biometric identifier (an iris image or a fingerprint) that lets you get in a new, faster line.

But something doesn’t add up. Even a suicide bomber can have a fixed address and a clean police record. The actual security procedures at the checkpoint — the rummaging and scanning and X-raying — remain indispensable. This means the background check and the biometric stuff are just mumbo-jumbo to hide the real nature of the transaction, which is a fee for a shorter line.

Airport security: "Nipple piercings? Here are pliers!"

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:03:29 GMT

clipped by: petercasier
clipper's remarks: no piercing too small to blow up a plane!

Clip Source: theroadtothehorizon.blogspot.com

Mandi Hamlin from Texas was about to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.

Tags: airport security, airplane, airlines, security, tsa, terrorism

SoCal Attorney: TSA Forces Woman To Remove Body Piercings With Pliers

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:58:11 GMT

clipped by: spherepet

Clip Source: www.nbc11.com

SoCal Attorney: TSA Forces Woman To Remove Body Piercings With Pliers

POSTED: 10:51 pm PDT March 27, 2008

UPDATED: 8:07 am PDT March 28, 2008

A Texas woman was forced by the Transportation Security Administration to remove her nipple rings before she was allowed to board a flight, an attorney said Thursday.

"The woman was given a pair of pliers in order to remove the rings in her nipples," said Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred. "The rings had been in her nipples for many years."

"I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Mandi Hamlin, 37, said at a news conference. "My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way."

Hamlin said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems

The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest

Tags: body piercings, metal detector

Traveler says she was forced to remove nipple ring

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:32:21 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Traveler says she was forced to remove nipple ring

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A Texas woman who said she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation.

"I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Mandi Hamlin said at a news conference. "My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way."

Hamlin, 37, said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on February 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.

The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said.

Tags: travels, tsa, nipple ring, body piercing

Are body piercings really worth it?

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:46:55 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: Jokes aside, it's weird that nipple rings set off the alarm but belly-button piercings don't. It makes you wonder if male agents calibrate the machine.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Mandi Hamlin, at center with attorney Gloria Allred, demonstrates how she removed her nipple ring.

"I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Mandi Hamlin said at a news conference. "My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way."

Hamlin said she told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The agent called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the jewelry, Hamlin said.

She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring.

She said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring.

Tags: airlines, security

Accidental Discharge in Flight!? Only in ...

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:27:54 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Shoot the Plane!

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

GMT

Gun fired 'accidentally' on US flight

A gun belonging to the pilot of an American plane went off during a domestic flight at the weekend

The US Airways plane, carrying 124 passengers from Denver, Colorado, to Charlotte, North Carolina, was preparing to land on Saturday when the gun on board "accidentally discharged"

It was the first time a weapon issued under a federal scheme to arm pilots had been fired

Officials did not say where the bullet hit

The flight deck officer scheme allows pilots and others to use a firearm to defend against any act of air piracy or criminal violence

The federal transportation security administration (TSA), which was opposed to the arming of pilots, is now investigating how the gun discharged. It is being assisted by the air marshal service

agency is also investigating to ensure the plane is safe, and the airline has taken the Airbus A319 out of service

Pilots must volunteer, take a psychological test and complete a week-long government firearms training program

Tags: usa, weapon