July 23, 2007, - 5:29 pm
Nothing New: TSA Doesn’t Screen Airport Employees, Period; Phoenix Story No Scoop, Much Worse Elsewhere
By
The Drudge Report and Phoenix’s ABC 15 are making a big deal out of the fact that Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport doesn’t check airport employees or their bags and packages for four hours overnight.
But I don’t see what the scoop is. The story is NOTHING NEW. And, actually, if Phoenix Sky Harbor actually screens its employees and their packages for all but four hours a day, that would make it the nation’s SAFEST airport, not the least safe.
I’ve been writing on this site for well over a year about how (but for random searches at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, and even those are haphazard). That’s why it’s ridiculous that the rest of us are taking off shoes and limiting ourselves to 3-oz containers for liquids.
Remember when I wrote about the Orlando ComAir employees who to Puerto Rico? That’s because–as I noted and warned previous to the story–they DON’T SCREEN AIRPORT EMPLOYEES. Glad Phoenix ABC 15 reporters finally woke up. But they’re hardly discovering America. The fact has been repeatedly reported in USA Today, on its front page, and elsewhere. Hearings have been held on the issue to no avail.
ABC 15 is claiming a victory because, now, TSA chief Kip Hawley has ordered 24-hour screening of all airport employees. While that’s a victory, it’s something I and many others have been complaining about for a long time and which is still the status quo at every other airport, nationwide. And not just for the 4 hours a day that they weren’t checked at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor.
ABC 15 claims that Hawley says the airport is violating TSA policy. But, if that’s the case, all airports are violating TSA policy, and so is Hawley, since he told USA Today that it’s not practical to search all airport employees. That’s interesting, since at Detroit Metropolitan Airport has a large number of Muslim employees with extremist views. It’s very comforting to know that they always enter the Detroit airport
Why isn’t ABC 15 pointing that out? Likely, the reporter doesn’t have a clue. So what else is new?
We aren’t safe. All the inconvenience is just that–inconvenience . . . and window dressing, courtesy of Michael Chertoff.
Tags: ABC, America, Atlanta, Debbie Schlussel, Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, Kip Hawley, Michael "Serpenthead" Chertoff, NO AIRPORT, Phoenix, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Phoenix's Sky Harbor, Puerto Rico, reporter, SAFEST airport, Sky Harbor airport, TSA chief, United States, USA Today
TSA has announced the Director (TSA) at Sky Harbor is now suspended. They are also going to RESUME 24 hours screening. Sounds to me like they are scapegoating the Director.
Oh, and way to get on that security guys. It’s clear that we need to be louder in our objections of the management of our country.
Mark L. Jackson on July 23, 2007 at 6:43 pm