The TSA (Post your bad Experience by the Washington Post)

[Uncle Ted]

Attachment 3458 Attachment 3459

http://www.amazon.com/PLAYMOBIL®-361...pr_product_top

Not complete without the line....
By M. MCKNIGHT on March 8, 2008
This toy would be a lot more realistic with about 350 people standing in line for an average of an hour. It still makes a nice set with the interrogation room.

[Lost Student]

Attachment 3458 Attachment 3459

http://www.amazon.com/PLAYMOBIL®-361...pr_product_top

My family was planning a vacation to Europe, so I purchased this item to teach my twins about what to expect at the airport and hopefully, alleviate some of their anxiety. We also downloaded the actual TSA security checklist from the American Airlines website and then proceeded with our demonstration. Well, first we had to round up a Barbie and a few Bratz dolls to play the other family members, so that cost us a few extra bucks at the Dollar General and it is aggravating that the manufacturer did not make this product "family-friendly." Of course, since the playmobil Dad could not remove his shoes or other clothing items, unlike the Barbie, the playmobil security agent became suspicious and after waving her wand wildy a few dozen times, called her supervisor to wisk the Dad into a special body-cavity search room, (which incidentally led to quite an embarasing and interesting discussion with my twin daughters about personal hygiene and a slight adjustment to the rules we had them memorize about touching by strangers). But worst of all, since the suitcase did not actually open, the baggage inspector made a call to the FBI and ATF bomb squads which then segregated the family's suitcase (which btw was the only suitcase they provided for our educational family experience) and according to the advanced TSA regulations, had to blow it up, (since they could not otherwise mutilate the luggage, break off the locks and put one of those nice little advisory stickers on it), which we had to simulate out in the backyard with a few M-80s and other fireworks. The girls started crying. They became so hysterical by the whole experience that we could not even get them in the car when the time came to actually take our trip, and so we had to cancel the whole thing at the last minute, losing over $7,000 in airfare and hotel charges that we could not recoup do to the last minute cancellations. We've now spent an additional $3,000 to pay for the girls therapy and medication over the past year since this incident occurred, and the psychologists have told us that this will affect them for life, so much for their college fund and our retirement. Then, to top it all off, when we tried to use to playmobil phone to call the company to ask for reimbursement, as you might expect, of course the damn thing didn't even work; neither did our efforts to e-mail them using the computer screen on the baggage checkpoint; and our real-life efforts to contact them to obtain re-imbursement have also likewise been ignored. Worse yet, we had the product tested and found out that it was positive for both lead paint and toxic chemicals, having been manufactured in China by workers holding formerly American jobs, so now we all have cancer and have been given only another year or so to live. My advice - educating your kids about airport security with this toy may actually be more harmful to them than just packing them in the damn luggage with some bottled water & hoping they survive.

...

[Uncle Ted]

Valet park your car at the airport so the TSA can search it while you are on your flight...

TSA now overseeing warrantless vehicle searches for cars parked at airports

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has now expanded its intrusive searching protocol to include the interior of parked cars left at the airport. Reports of vehicle searches have been reported at multiple airports since this summer.


Since roughly June, airports have been performing vehicle searches of cars parked in front of terminals. According to their signs, this is being done in accordance with TSA mandates and local authorities.


Over the Thanksgiving holiday, a traveler photographed the sign pictured above at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Alabama. It reads:


“ALL CARS WILL BE SEARCHED BY UNIFORMED SECURITY AS MANDATED BY BAA AND TSA”


The sign is being displayed by AmeriPark, a valet company. It cites the Birmingham Airport Authority and TSA as the government agencies responsible for the warrantless vehicle searches.

This report is similar to what was reported in Rochester, NY, this July. A woman discovered a note left in her car that her vehicle had been searched without her permission or notice. Laurie Iacuzza said she was “furious” that airport personnel had used her keys to gain access to the vehicle which she had entrusted to a valet parking attendant.
[...]

http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/w...s-at-airports/

Apparently terrorists always use valet parking.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Valet park your car at the airport so the TSA can search it while you are on your flight...




http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/w...s-at-airports/

Apparently terrorists always use valet parking.

I do not consent to searches. See the Fourth Amendment for details.

I wonder if putting a "I do not consent to searches" bumper sticker on my car would force the TSA to fill out paperwork on "reasonable suspicion" or "probable cause" or some such.

[Uncle Ted]

I do not consent to searches. See the Fourth Amendment for details.

I wonder if putting a "I do not consent to searches" bumper sticker on my car would force the TSA to fill out paperwork on "reasonable suspicion" or "probable cause" or some such.

Maybe a sign saying something like "There are no iPads, iPods, or expensive cameras in my car so there is no need to 'search' my car." would work better.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Maybe a sign saying something like "There are no iPads, iPods, or expensive cameras in my car so there is no need to 'search' my car." would work better.

Maybe so. I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I do know a little because I advise student journalists and do on-site work with them. Do I really know what my van full of student journalists has on their person or in their belongings (and in the van I'm driving)? No.

Besides, it's a right to refuse searches. The fact that I am a law abiding citizen with a spotless record is beside the point.

[Uncle Ted]

Maybe so. I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I do know a little because I advise student journalists and do on-site work with them. Do I really know what my van full of student journalists has on their person or in their belongings (and in the van I'm driving)? No.

Besides, it's a right to refuse searches. The fact that I am a law abiding citizen with a spotless record is beside the point.

I don't think there is anything in the so called Patriot Act that excludes folks with spotless records. Terrorists come in all forms.

Maybe you need to search those student journalists before allowing them to get in the van. You may need to put in a requisition request to buy one of those metal detector wands and a big box of rubber gloves.

I wonder if this sign would keep the TSA out of my car?...

545770789_cab3468d9c_m.jpg

[SCcoug]

So does TSA call the locksmith division to search the cars? Do they leave a note like they do when they go through your luggage?

[Uncle Ted]

So does TSA call the locksmith division to search the cars? Do they leave a note like they do when they go through your luggage?

You should try reading the article yourself...

[Uncle Ted]

I wonder when the church is going to sell garments with radiation blocking technology...


MBT44Gr012_m.jpg

"Wear every day to block natural and man-made radiation protect the family jewels."

http://www.rockyflatsgear.com/mens-t...n-blocker.html

[Uncle Ted]

For some reason I don't think this is going to help the DHS's case...

DHS stalls no-fly list trial by putting witness on no-fly list

Phil writes, "Edward Hasbrouck of the Identity Project is doing a fantastic job of reporting on-site from Ibrahim v. DHS, the first legal challenge of United States government's no-fly list that has ever seen a courtroom. On the first day of trial, the judge learned that the plaintiff's daughter, scheduled to testify, was delayed because she had been denied boarding of her flight because she was put a Department of Homeland Security no-fly list. DHS staff deny this. The government's lawyers told the judge that the daughter is lying. The airline provided documentation of the DHS no-fly order. The subject matter of this trial is intense---restriction of movement based on blacklists---but there's no sign of an end to the jaw-dropping entertainment."

“None of that was true,” Ms. Pipkin told the court this morning. “She didn’t miss the flight. She was there in time to check in. She has not been rebooked on another flight.” And most importantly, it was because of actions by the DHS — one of the defendants in Dr. Ibrahim’s lawsuit — that Ms. Mustafa Kamal, was not allowed to board her flight to SFO to attend and testify at her mother’s trial.


Ms. Pipkin said that Ms. Mustafa Kamal had sent her a copy of the “no-board” instructions which the DHS gave to Malaysia Airlines, and which the airline gave to Ms. Mustafa Kamal to explain as much as it knew about why it was not being allowed to transport her. Ms. Pipkin handed Judge William Alsup a copy of the DHS “no-board” instructions to Malaysia Airlines regarding Ms. Mustafa Kamal.


Major props to Malaysia Airlines for providing a copy of the DHS instructions to Ms. Mustafa Kamal. Other airlines receiving similar instructions have acquiesced to DHS orders to keep the instructions from the DHS, and the reasons for the airlines’ actions, secret from the would-be travelers whose rights are affected. So far as we know, this is the first time an actual no-fly order has been disclosed to a would-be traveler or potentially to the public.

http://papersplease.org/wp/2013/12/0...-day-in-court/

http://boingboing.net/2013/12/04/dhs...ml#more-272145

[hostile]

Maybe they should put out tip jars.
http://swampland.time.com/2013/12/05...nge-last-year/

[Uncle Ted]

Maybe they should put out tip jars.
http://swampland.time.com/2013/12/05...nge-last-year/

I am guessing that doesn't even include the iPads and other stuff they just take out of your bag.... http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/12/tsa-ipads/

TSA baggage screener Sean Henry reportedly was caught leaving the airport with two iPads after a joint TSA and Port Authority sting, according to ABC News. Officials used the iPad’s own GPS tracking mechanism to keep tabs on the tablet and pinpoint the thief.


Other instances of note: In September, a TSA agent in Florida was caught pilfering an iPad left at a security checkpoint. In July, a Continental Airlines employee caught a TSA worker trying to take an iPad by stashing it in his pants. Not smooth, bro. He was alleged to have sold around $50,000 of stolen gear on Craigslist. And a TSA screener at Dallas-Fort Worth International was arrested in January and found with seven Apple tablets in his possession. One for each day of the week, perhaps?


In the most brazen example, more ambitious thieves (believed to be airport employees, but not necessarily TSA employees) swiped two entire pallets of iPads at JFK Airport — 3,600 in all, worth $1.5 million.


It should be said that the TSA employ more than 50,000 people, so while the thefts are troubling, there are literally tens of thousands of ethical, non-horrible TSA employees out there. Our hats are off to them.


With the incredibly busy holiday travel season upon us, be sure to double check that your electronics and valuables are still in tow as you navigate the nation’s airports — particularly after you’ve taken them out at security. Helpfully, the TSA released a list of airports where their employees are most likely to steal your possessions. Miami International (29 incidences), JFK (27 incidences), and LA International (24 instances) take the top three spots on the list.


Perhaps if TSA agents had to go through nudie scanners each day like we do, thievery wouldn’t be such a problem.

[Uncle Ted]

TSA makes fun of fat people and body piercings...

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/vi...scans.cnn.html

Edit:

Most of my co-workers found humor in the I.O. room on a cruder level. Just as the long-suffering American public waiting on those security lines suspected, jokes about the passengers ran rampant among my TSA colleagues: Many of the images we gawked at were of overweight people, their every fold and dimple on full awful display. Piercings of every kind were visible. Women who’d had mastectomies were easy to discern—their chests showed up on our screens as dull, pixelated regions. Hernias appeared as bulging, blistery growths in the crotch area. Passengers were often caught off-guard by the X-Ray scan and so materialized on-screen in ridiculous, blurred poses—mouths agape, à la Edvard Munch. One of us in the I.O. room would occasionally identify a passenger as female, only to have the officers out on the checkpoint floor radio back that it was actually a man. All the old, crass stereotypes about race and genitalia size thrived on our secure government radio channels.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...#ixzz2s65Oyyfn

[Uncle Ted]

Obama DOJ’s New Abuse of State-Secrets Privilege Revealed

For nine years, the U.S. government refused to let a Stanford PhD student named Rahinah Ibrahim back in the country after putting her on the no-fly list for no apparent reason. For eight years, U.S. government lawyers fought Ibrahim’s request that she be told why. Last April, despite his promise in 2009 to do so only in only the most extreme cases, Attorney General Eric Holder tried to block Ibrahim’s case by asserting the state secrets privilege, declaring under penalty of perjury that the information she wanted “could reasonably be expected to cause significant harm to national security.”


Last week, a federal judge publicly revealed the government’s explanation for Ibrahim’s long ordeal: an FBI agent had “checked the wrong box,” resulting in her falling under suspicion as a terrorist. Even when the government found and corrected the error years later, they still refused to allow Ibrahim to return to the country or learn on what grounds she had been banned in the first place.


Holder, in his April declaration, restated his own new state secrets policy, that “[t]he Department will not defend an invocation of the privilege in order to: (i) conceal violations of the law, inefficiency, or administrative error; (ii) prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency of the United States Government”.


Then he did exactly what he had said he wouldn’t do.

The bogus national security claims invoked were even more outrageous because they were used to continue the persecution of someone the government knew to be innocent.


Ibrahim’s ordeal started on January 2, 2005, when she arrived at San Francisco International Airport to catch a flight to Malaysia for a Stanford-sponsored academic conference. A citizen of Malaysia, she had been living in the United States for four years on a student visa. But when a ticket agent saw her name on the no-fly list, he called the police.


Despite being wheelchair-bound due to complications from a medical procedure, Ibrahim was handcuffed and taken to a detention cell where she was reportedly humiliated and threatened by San Francisco police officers. She was denied access to medication she had been travelling with, despite suffering excruciating pain due to a recent surgery. Her obvious medical distress apparently won her no sympathy. As she recounted in an interview about the incident years later: “My back felt as if it was hit by an electric shock with every beat of my heart and I repeatedly asked for painkillers and nearly collapsed, but they ignored me.” Shaking and in tears, she was eventually allowed to board her flight to Malaysia but found herself banned from returning on the way back.


[…]

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2...ets-privilege/

[Bo Diddley]

New York TSA worker accused of sexually abusing passenger

Oquendo then allegedly motioned for the woman to follow him to a bathroom, the statement said. When she asked that a female TSA employee screen her, the officer ordered her to face a mirror and raise her arms...

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I hope our esteemed poster HBCoug had a good experience today with TSA as he traveled!

[Uncle Ted]

TSA paid $1.4 million for Randomizer app that chooses left or right
When someone starts learning how to code, one of the first things they create is a program that generates and outputs random numbers. In most cases it’s an incredibly simple program to make because your programming language of choice has a randomizing function available to use.


Keeping the above in mind, I now turn your attention to the Transport Security Administration and the Randomizer app they use every day. If you’ve traveled through US airports in recent years then you’re well aware of the TSA Pre-Check lanes. It is a faster way to get through airport security for low-risk travelers, and allows you to keep your shoes and belt on.


TSA Pre-Check is faster, but it also includes random searches and that’s where the Randomizer app comes in. The app randomly chooses whether travelers go left or right in the Pre-Check lane. That way, nobody can predict which lane each person is assigned to and therefore can’t figure out how to avoid the random checks.


Here’s the app in action:



So how much did the TSA pay to have the Randomizer iPad app developed? At least $336,413.59.


That’s $336,413.59 for an app that does nothing more than randomly select left or right a few hundred times an hour.


We know this thanks to developer Kevin Burke, who submitted a Freedom of Information Act request asking for details about the app. And if you think paying over $336,000 for an app like this is ridiculous, well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.


The contract for the TSA Randomizer app was won by IBM. The total paid for the project is actually $1.4 million, but the cost is not broken down in the documents Burke received in response to his request. It could be IBM supplied all the iPads and training as well as the app itself. Even so, the cost of the project is crazy. It’s an app that is just randomly selects left or right.


I understand that software used for security checks at airports must be rigorously tested and reviewed, but I have a hard time believing such checks cost $1.4 million. In fact, I’m sure there’s many reputable developers out there who’d supply the TSA with the same app for a few thousand dollars.

http://www.geek.com/apps/tsa-paid-1-...right-1651337/


I guess the TSA didn't know you can just ask google to flip a coin for free.

[Non Sequitur]

As an employee of IBM, I would say that it was $1.4 million well spent.

[Uncle Ted]

Not exactly a TSA story but close enough...

I’ll never bring my phone on an international flight again. Neither should you.

A few months ago I wrote about how you can encrypt your entire life in less than an hour. Well, all the security in the world can’t save you if someone has physical possession of your phone or laptop, and can intimidate you into giving up your password.

And a few weeks ago, that’s precisely what happened to a US citizen returning home from abroad.

On January 30th, Sidd Bikkannavar, a US-born scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory flew back to Houston, Texas from Santiago, Chile.


On his way through through the airport, Customs and Border Patrol agents pulled him aside. They searched him, then detained him in a room with a bunch of other people sleeping in cots. They eventually returned and said they’d release him if he told them the password to unlock his phone.

Bikkannavar explained that the phone belonged to NASA and had sensitive information on it, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. He eventually yielded and unlocked his phone. The agents left with his phone. Half an hour later, they returned, handed him his phone, and released him.
[...]
If a police officer were to stop you on the street of America and ask you to unlock your phone and give it to them, these amendments would give you strong legal ground for refusing to do so.


But unfortunately, the US border isn’t technically the US, and you don’t have either of these rights at the border.


It’s totally legal for a US Customs and Border Patrol officer to ask you to unlock your phone and hand it over to them. And they can detain you indefinitely if you don’t. Even if you’re a American citizen.
[...]
With a lot of hard work on our part, enlightenment will triumph. Privacy will be restored. And we will beat back the current climate of fear that’s confusing people into unnecessarily giving up their rights.


In the meantime, follow the Boy Scouts of America Motto: always be prepared. The next time you plan to cross a border, leave your phone at home.

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/ill-...e5f#.1enu87s8w

I think I will erase/wipe phone before re-entering the U.S. but leave just one picture on it:

[Uncle Ted]

[Bo Diddley]

I had a great time at the Terminal 2 TSA checkpoint at SLC yesterday. I'm still wearing a medical boot from surgery on my foot, so I asked the TSA agent if I needed to take it off and send it through the machine. This was the Pre-Check line, so I didn't know if the leave-your-shoes-on still applied. "No, you'll be fine. The machines aren't sensitive enough to be set off by that." My mistake was to not think that through very clearly, because the boot has two metal supports going up each side of the boot. But by the time the metal detector alarm went off, I was locked into a string of events now out of my control.

First, they sent me through the body scanner, and had me pat down my own boot, they swabbed my hands, and inserted the swab into the analyzer. It came back positive for whatever they check for. I'm assuming it was gun powder residue from the rifle scopes I had loaded into my carry on bag that morning.



Next, they had me take a seat so they could run my boot through the X-ray machine, and said they'd have to pat me down. They asked if I wanted to go to a private room, because the pat down would be VERY thorough. Yeah, like what I want is for you to have your way with me and no witnesses. I remember the story of what happened to that last lady...

He gave me a very thorough pat down, and then swabbed his gloves to run it through their detector again. But before he did, he swabbed MY hands again. Oops. The other agent threw it away, and gave him another swab for his gloves. Knowing that he had contaminated his gloves, I was nervous that the detector would pick something up again. Fortunately it didn't, and I was on my way. If it did, I wonder what their protocol was, and if I'd be escorted to another room for a strip search. How ironic would that have been from my prison guard days?

My take-away is that whenever I handle military equipment prior to a TSA screening, I'm going to wash my hands prior to screening.