January 28, 2008, - 4:19 pm

And My Lipgloss And Orange Juice Get Thrown Out Because . . .?

By Debbie Schlussel
Feel safe? You shouldn’t. Yet another TSA undercover operative gets yet another bomb through security at Tampa’s airport.
CNN tails “Jason,” the middle-aged 40-year law enforcement veteran and TSA “covert tester,” while he gets the small explosive device through. It’s an interesting read. But it begs the question, one I repeatedly ask on this site:
If they can’t catch the bombs, why do they keep making me throw out my lipgloss and orange juice? Why do they make a guy with a 4-oz tube of toothpaste throw that out?
Priorities, priorities. Or more accurately: Incompetence, incompetence:

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In Tampa, everything goes smoothly as Jason steps through the metal detector portal. The detector alarm goes off, as Jason expects it to, not because of the nonmetallic device strapped to his back but due to his metal knee.
It’s the perfect tool for ensuring he gets to “secondary,” where more extensive searches are conducted.
Soon Jason is in a posture familiar to air travelers. He is standing, legs apart, with his arms extended. A screener “wands” him with a hand-held metal detector, and it beeps as it passes his metal knee, his necklace and the rivets on his bluejeans.
The screener then pats him down, running latex-gloved hands over Jason’s legs, arms and torso. And he pats down Jason’s back, including the lower part where the device is concealed.
But Jason explains away the back support. He tells the screener that he has a bum back in addition to having a metal knee.
With the patdown over, the screener releases Jason. He picks up his belongings and walks freely into the airport, the fake bomb still fastened to his back.
TSA officials say the Tampa test demonstrates the type of systemic vulnerability that the agency is working to expose and address.
Screeners have cultural sensitivities toward travelers’ handicaps, and they are sometimes hesitant to perform intrusive searches, officials said. Terrorists could exploit that reluctance, they said.

Naw, they’d never do that. Pretending to be handicapped is not nice. And Muslims–especially the terrorists–are very nice. At least, that’s what they taught TSA screeners in sensitivity training seminars.
“Jason” could be at your airport and get through with his fake bomb. But one day soon, it could be Ahmed or Mohammed or Tom the Muslim convert. And then, the only thing that will be fake is the President’s repeated claim that America is safe. That, and the full name of the TSA–Transportation Security Administration. Security has nothing to do with it.
Good luck, America. The reason there hasn’t been another successful attack on U.S. soil–and that fact is debatable: Trolley Square Massacre, Shooting at the Seattle Jewish Community Center, Reza Taheri-Azar driving into students at UNC–has nothing to do with George W. Bush . . . or Michael “Serpenthead” Chertoff.




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5 Responses

Debbie,
Did you see Daniel Day-Lewis and Angelina Jolie sitting next to each other at the SAG awards last night? I was flipping through just when Day-Lewis won his award, and saw them both. The minute I saw them I thought of your posts about their Palestinian terrorist pandering, and wondered what type of rhetoric was going on at their table.
Yuck!

Bomb Bomb Iran on January 28, 2008 at 5:00 pm

I went to Lithuania last year and was unpleasantly surprised to watch a young guy walk through without having to clear the metal detector. I said as much to my screener and he told me that that was one of the benefits of working there. I stuck to my guns and told him that he should still have to clear the area like I did. Didn’t matter though. I latter learned this is and has been the practice since 911. Swell. I also wasn’t happy to see several people from Yemen speaking on their cells standing next to their biiiig boxes marked Yemen covering their mouths as they spoke. WTF.

samurai on January 28, 2008 at 9:01 pm

I travel to TPA airport quite a few times a year for business. MANY screeners appear to be senior citizens who volunteer to stay busy – it’s a joke. One time, my wife and then 7-year daughter flew down to meet me. On the way back to NY, my wife did NOT set off the metal detector but was basically fondled by a TSA agent in the middle of the screening area. When she objected, they tried to bring her to a ìprivate screeningî room but stated that my 7-year daughter would not be allowed in the room & would need to stand in the middle of the airport alone!!! Totally ridicules treatment for a women traveling alone with a small child. Needless to say, she did not get on that flight as she objected to leaving my daughter alone. She rented a car and drove 1,200 miles back to NYC. Yup ñ we are REAL safe with idiots like this running the show. We filed a formal compliant with the TSA to no avail.

TonyDee on January 29, 2008 at 9:15 am

The whole TSA is a 45 Billion welfare to work program designed to employ more loyal liberal Government Union employees.
It amazed me that GWB went for this agency. The Democrats have been trying to get more loyal Federalized voters for decades and he bent over and said thank you very much.
If they fired all of these morons security would probably get better.

ScottyDog on January 29, 2008 at 2:42 pm

I have heard about it before and now i got it.

Jewish Community Center palm beach gardens on February 12, 2013 at 4:05 pm

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