It is September 11 that immediately comes to mind when
most Americans think of terrorism. Although the 9/11 attacks were
indeed horrific terrorism’s first big heyday may have been the
1980s.
More than 300 were killed in the 1983 bombings of the U.S.
Embassy and the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. A U.S.
Navy diver was killed during the 1985 Hezbollah hijacking of TWA
flight 847. The same year a wheelchair-bound American was killed
during a take-over of the Mediterranean cruise ship Achille
Lauro.
Using grenades and assault weapons Palestinian gunmen
killed 19 and wounded 140 on attacks at the Rome and Vienna
airports in late 1985. In 1986, four U.S. citizens were killed by a
bombing aboard TWA #840 en route to Athens. Two U.S. servicemen
were killed and dozens were injured when a bomb detonated in a West
Berlin discotheque in 1986. The bombing of New York-bound Pan Am
flight 103 in 1988 killed all 259 passengers and crew and another
11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, England. One-hundred ninety
of those killed were American.
In a previous career I was a U.S. intelligence officer
stationed in London during the 1980s. I traveled extensively
throughout Europe and the Middle East. I worked on terrorism and
related issues. During that time I was in a small group that had
access to a highly classified codeword program focusing on
suspected terrorists and terrorism planning. Not a single alleged
terrorist planner was ever caught or an anticipated attack thwarted
as a result of this program. Yet, that did not stop the sponsors of
the program from claiming incredible success.
I am reminded of this as I review of the performance of
the Transportation Security Administration. In nearly a decade
there is not a single report of a terrorist having been caught
during the TSA screening process. No bombs have been discovered. No
hijackings have been thwarted. For the TSA to claim it has made the
nation’s skies safer is as absurd as the rooster taking credit for
the sun rising each morning. Observant passengers have caught more
terrorist-wannabes than the 67,000 TSA employees.
My low opinion of the TSA is not due to recent events but
began soon after the agency was created. The recent spate of
reports of TSA officials acting irresponsibly has finally brought
the agency much needed scrutiny.
It is long past time to disband the TSA. Replace it with
an effective, free market system that actually works.
Critics of the TSA’s naked body scanners and intrusive
pat-downs (including its genital probing) miss the biggest problem
with this agency. It is the TSA’s premise that the 89-year old
great-grandmother in a walker, the soccer team comprised of 11-year
old girls, the two-year old toddler on the family vacation, the
airline crewmember and the soldier traveling home from Iraq pose
the same potential threat to airline safety as the Middle Eastern
man traveling alone, without luggage, on a one-way First Class
ticket that was purchased with cash. The TSA is fueled by political
correctness run amuck. Its sole accomplishments to date have been
establishing a sizable airport presence and humiliating
passengers.
For a number of years following 9/11 I regularly flew
between Baltimore and Atlanta. I was saddened at the
all-too-frequent sight of a soldier dressed in his camouflage
uniform on the way to or from his two-week R&R with boots off
and the contents of his backpack strewn across the floor as a TSA
agent nosed through the belongings to see what potential threat
faced other air travelers.
No one has been spared the unwarranted indignities and
gross violations of privacy perpetrated by the TSA.
In 2002, then-75 year old Congressman John Dingell (D-MI)
was
forced to strip down to his underwear
because his artificial hip set-off alarms on the magnetometer. The
issue is not that Dingell should undergo the same invasive
inspections as everyone else. Instead, it is that the 99% of
American airline passengers who do not raise meaningful red flags
should not be subjected to such invasive inspections. (As an aside,
I happen to believe members of Congress pose a greater threat to
the American way of life when they are voting than when
flying.)
Then-U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) was asked to produce
a picture I.D. at the Washington National Airport security
screening area before a 2002 trip. Reagan National is the airport
used by nearly every member of Congress when flying. Burns
showed the TSA screener his U.S. Senate
identification. The official refused to accept the
government-issued I.D. but allowed Burns to proceed to his flight
when he produced his Sam’s Club shopping card as proof of
identification.
Retired Brigadier General and former South Dakota Governor
Joe Foss nearly lost his Medal of Honor when TSA officials
threatened to confiscate
it from him during a 2002 screening of his carry-on
belongings. Believing the medal could be used as a weapon, the TSA
screeners fortunately relented when the 86-year old showed them a
photograph of President Franklin Roosevelt presenting the medal to
him for his WWII heroics.
In 2003, a U.S. Army medic who was wounded in Afghanistan
when he was shot in the jaw was grossly mishandled at San Francisco
International Airport. His jaw wired shut, the soldier was given a
small pair of wire clippers to use in the event he became air sick
in order to keep from choking on his vomit. TSA officials
confiscated his wire clippers and he was forced to fly from San
Francisco to Texas even though flight attendants informed him there
was nothing on board the aircraft to open his jaw in an
emergency.
In 2004, a chartered airline flight rotating an Army unit
back to the U.S. from an Afghanistan deployment was stranded on the
tarmac at San Francisco airport for hours during a layover. The
troops were not permitted to deplane to purchase food and drink nor
to use the bathroom. TSA officials ruled the soldiers posed a
threat to airport security because the unit’s weapons were stored
in the cargo hold of the aircraft.
This quarantine of troops returning from combat is not
isolated. A planeload of servicemen were
detained at nearby Oakland airport on their
last layover while en route Hawaii in 2007 after departing Kuwait a
day earlier. In spite of having all baggage x-rayed and
hand-searched before boarding their aircraft in southwest Asia, the
troops were ordered by TSA to deplane near an outdoor baggage
handling area if they wanted to stretch their legs. TSA prohibited
them from entering the terminal as they posed a threat to airport
safety. Troops returning from Vietnam may have been spat upon but
at least they were permitted to visit the snack bar and men’s
room.
Last year a retired assistant police chief who observed
she had been chosen for
additional screening with uncanny regularity
during her frequent travels asked a TSA screener why it appeared so
many women had been selected for secondary screening on that
particular day. The answer, said the screener, was that
cross-gender pat-downs were not permitted and on that TSA shift
there was a shortage of male screeners so women were singled-out
for further scrutiny.
One commercial airline pilot confided his frustration at
continually being subjected to x-ray screenings and pat-downs. He
told me that in the first 1500 feet of elevation after take-off and
the last 1500 feet before touch-down that no other crewmember in
the cockpit could prevent him from using the jetliner as the
ultimate weapon if he wanted to fly the aircraft into the ground.
“I’m in complete control and no one can stop me.”
Another commercial pilot who is a licensed Federal
Flight Deck Officer and is permitted to carry a
sidearm onboard his aircraft reports that half of the time after
checking in with the TSA he is whisked through security. The rest
of the time he is instructed to place his weapon in his carry-on
bag and run it through the x-ray machine to determine if he
possesses any objects that might pose a threat in flight. It is as
if the script writers on Saturday Night Live are making up
the rules.
It is not as if the TSA is a highly professional workforce
merely following asinine rules. In 2003, TSA baggage screeners at
La Guardia airport were
given the answers in advance of their
certification exam to ensure an appropriate number of screeners
were cleared to work.
The General Accountability Office issued a critical
report earlier this year regarding TSA’s Screening
of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program. The GAO
found the SPOT program was not based on scientifically validated
“methodology and work methods” and “it lacks outcome-oriented
measures to evaluate the program’s progress toward reaching its
goals.” In spite of spending $1.2 billion on SPOT over the next
five years the program will accomplish nothing with respect to
airport security.
Calling it a “bloated, ineffective bureaucracy,”
Congressman John Mica (R-FL)
reported that under the watchful eye of the
TSA, at least 17 known terrorists evaded screeners and traveled on
23 occasions from eight U.S. airports utilizing SPOT methodologies.
Among these was the failed Times Square bomber who was apprehended
just prior to boarding his flight to Dubai. Meanwhile, TSA
screeners continue to poke, grope and fondle longtime airline
crewmembers who are merely trying to do their job.
Earlier this year, the Washington Post
reported that “at least 23” TSA workers have
been fired since 2007 for stealing from passengers. There are
numerous reports of TSA workers having also been fired for drug
use, perpetrating pranks on passengers and other misbehavior. From
a numerical standpoint, more TSA employees than terrorists have
been caught who pose a threat to Americans.
The rash of reports of TSA officials humiliating
passengers and overstepping the bounds of common decency underscore
the agency is indeed broken. One surmises it is only a matter of
time before it is discovered that naked body scanner operators are
swapping graphic images of runway models and other attractive
people who are forced to enter the voyeurs’ playground.
In 2003, a colleague filed a FOIA request with TSA
requesting a copy of its security screening policies. According to
multiple sources with access to such information, federal workers
and the military traveling on official business are
disproportionately singled-out for increased security screening.
This is accomplished by coding airline tickets procured through
government travel offices. The reason, according to the sources, is
to pad secondary inspection numbers by relying on federal employees
who are judged to be less likely to file complaints. Another source
claimed the elderly are singled out for secondary inspection for
the very same reason. The TSA denied the FOIA request.
Obviously U.S. airports require a competent security
screening program. Two programs offer a model. Anyone who has
crossed from Tijuana into California at the busiest border crossing
in the world has witnessed U.S. border agents who observe, profile
and question the public in order to narrow the field to those who
legitimately require secondary inspection.
The same is true of the system at Tel Aviv Airport.
Airline security officials in Israel are not required to be
politically correct and give the third degree to a Danish school
teacher on holiday for every Palestinian they further scrutinize.
Israel’s El Al Airlines has had a rather impressive security record
and it does not rely on humiliating elderly widows or terrorizing
toddlers.
