TSA tester slips mock bomb past airport security

[baldguy]

Source: CNN

TAMPA, Florida (CNN) -- Jason -- that's the name CNN was asked to call him -- slides a simulated explosive into an elastic back support. The mock bomb is as slim as a wallet; its fuse, the size of a cigarette. He wraps the support around his torso, and the bomb fits comfortably into the small of his back.

...

Then, with CNN's cameras in tow, Jason heads to Tampa International Airport, where he'll try to sneak the fake explosive past security screeners.

So Jason -- looking every bit the middle-aged man on an uneventful trip to anywhere -- shows a boarding pass and an ID to a TSA document checker, and he is directed to a checkpoint where, unbeknown to the security officer on site, the real test begins.

He gets through, which in real life would mean a terrorist was headed toward a plane with a bomb.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/28/tsa.bombtest/index.html

---

The TSA sceening process isn't designed to keep the traveling public safe. It's designed to keep them afraid.

[KansDem]

1. Yeah, mock bombs and loaded guns can get past airport security...

But whenever I travel with my saxophone, I've got to put my reed knife in my check-through luggage lest I have it confiscated...

[havocmom]

4. They pay a lot of special attention to busty young women too from what I hear.

And harassing old grannies is a safe way for brown-shirt wanna-bees to get their kicks.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. and don't you dare complain

One of my friends had a TSA screener tell her (in spanish) that "her tits were fucking awsome" and then he licked his lips.

When she complained they threatened to throw her out of the airport.

For my part, the TSA just steals shit from me.

[havocmom]

15. Have long felt the TSA farce is all about getting an army of domestic brown shirt wanna bees

You see it. Give the wrong people a little authority and they WILL abuse it. Let them get away with that, back them up with power and they get addicted and will do your bidding.

Nazis knew this ugly side of some human nature and used it. cheney/bush do the same.

Ever wonder about those Presidential Prayer Pledge cards they had troops in Iraq fill out early on? I sure as hell got a bad feeling about THAT stunt.

[boricua79]

53. wanna hear a funny story?

One time, my brother and I were traveling to Puerto Rico. We're both musicians. He had mistakenly left a paint scratcher tool (a tool to scratch off paint before repainting) with a very sharp edge in his music bag. When the attendant lady went through our bags, she took out the scratcher thing, and my brother's face turned white. He was afraid they'd think he had brought that on purpose. The lady switched open the scratcher tool, looked at the sharp blade, re-sheathed it, and put it in his bag, without making any more mention of it.

Then she looked through my Bongo case, which had attracted suspicion from the computer monitor official for having too much metal (the rims around the wooden drums that hold the skin heads). She opened up my bongo case, and inside the bongo case, I had my Salsa cowbell, its wooden beater, and a standard-issue lug wrench that is sold with the bongos for tuning the bongo (by twisting metal lugs on the metal rims). The wrench has NO sharp edges...it's just a regular, metal wrench designed for the lugs on the bongos.

She said, "oh...no...no sir, this can't go on the carry-on. you're going to have to check that Bongo case."

Not wanting to grab more attention to myself, I let the lady take my bag and put it as luggage (which I didn't want to do, since I don't trust them to be very careful with instruments). However, I spent the entire trip incredulously thinking how it was possible for that neanderthal of a woman to let my brother's SHARP paint scratcher tool go through, but she had to check my Bongo case for a standard-issue dull wrench.

After that experience, I have absolutely no faith in the cognitive skills of TSA workers.

[knight_of_the_star]

57. Or my wine key

Because heaven forbid it has a half-inch long blade for cutting the foil on wine bottles.

[Parche]

2. terra terra terra

The sky is falling chicken little..........:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :hi:

[truthisfreedom]

3. They're preparing the public for "pat-down" searches.

This is just subtle psychological preparation for the inevitable... being felt-up every time you want to fly.

[havocmom]

6. Why? They already have x-ray machine that stripes you naked

x(

They are preparing the public for no real means of travel.

[pitohui]

8. not true, the back brace was found in the secondary pat down

the flyer simply explained it away as a back brace and clearly the man was disabled (he also had a knee implant) so the screener believed the explanation

what is to be done? tell disabled people they can't fly? tell them they must remove their back and other braces?

a pat down does nothing since even if you find the back brace you can't strip it off the person

has a letter bomb (which is what this is simulating) ever brought down an airplane, i don't think so, maybe we can all agree that it is no use worrying about items that really only have "nuisance" value?

[MADem]

12. I think they're preparing America for x-ray AND puff/sniff searches that can detect explosives

And it will be a mandated exercise. Not optional. No screening, no flying.

If you returned that rental car and spilled gas on your shoe, you're FUCKED. It's off to secondary screening and fifty questions for you!!!

[LeftyMom]

19. They already put everybody through the puff and sniff sensors at TPA.

Takes for fucking ever and the line backs up like crazy- I almost missed my flight because of it. x(

[awoke_in_2003]

31. Well, if I ever go to an airport

with the puff and sniffers, I am gonna eat some bean burritos first :)

[plantwomyn]

38. The "truth" is that there is almost nowhere you can go without

being searched. Every official building have metal detectors an x ray now. Can't even take my keys into the courthouse, It would take too long to get all the sharp stuff off my key ring.
BTW you can demand a male if male and female if female for the pat down. Maybe some of ya'll should start asking for opposite sex TSO's if you are that persuasion. Maybe most of you guys would enjoy it more.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. "There's a case for full body backscatter X-ray searches."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray

Anyone want to bet how long it is before a TSA spokesman says that?

[ladywnch]

7. they've already floated that balloon. n/t

[Gormy Cuss]

10. I know, my point is that letting CNN tag along with a tester is a nice way to cow the public

into accepting them.
Without the media obsession with the wacky Reid incident the public would have resisted more to the shoe dance.

[MADem]

13. I think they might have reinflated the thing with this little "scoop." nt

[pitohui]

9. yeah the purpose here is clearly corporate welfare

there are millions if not billions to be made selling backscatter x-ray devices and who cares if the flyer is subjected to additional radiation (flyers, esp. crew members, already have elevated cancer risk), nope, all that matters is that greedy manufacturers make $$$ selling devices that otherwise have no market and no purpose

[armodem08]

14. They also project images onto travelers' luggage to keep them sharp.

"For starters, every TSA X-ray machine has a Threat Image Projection system, which digitally inserts images of guns, knives and bombs into the X-rays of luggage, to keep screeners alert. This system library contains "tens of thousands" of images, said TSA spokesman Christopher White.

If screeners observe a suspicious object, they can check with the simple click of a computer mouse. If they detect a threat object, the computer congratulates them. Successes and failures are recorded for use in a screener's performance evaluation and are factors in determining pay.

Some 69,929 threat image tests are conducted on an average day, or more than 25 million tests per year. An array of other tests also are conducted to assess screeners, including the red team ones."

That part is the most interesting to me. How many secondary screenings can be blamed on a screener using a "threat image test" as justification to hide racial profiling?

[juno jones]

16. This is why I took my last journey by plane in 2004.

The airlines can bite me.

[ingac70]

17. Come on now. They do such an awesome job of ....

making sure no one brings more than 3 ounces of shampoo on a flight!

[superconnected]

28. Plus they take care of the mentally ill.

By killing them.

[plantwomyn]

18. I have some questions to ask all of you poor mistreated fliers

who are victims of x rays, theft and groping.
Do you have any idea how much radiation you are exposed to every time you fly on a plane. Look it up.
Have you reported the thefts to the Airline, the Police and TSA? What were the results of the police report?
How many of you are tested on a regular basis at your jobs and held responsible for the results?
How many of you would appreciate the company you work for testing you without your knowledge?
How do you think our police departments would feel if we held them responsible every time they failed to stop a crime in our towns and cities? If their department heads went around attempting to get away with a crime and if successful sent the officers back for remedial training? Can you say union? Can you think of the high regard any police officer in every show you've ever seen hold for the Internal Affairs?:sarcasm:
Do you believe that every woman working for TSA is a lesbian, and that every dyke working there is into groping strange women? :wtf:
If a TSO gropes you ask for their supervisor. Write a letter of to the FSD of the Airport. Demand action. Stop whining if you didn't!
What do you think happens when an object is seen to be a threat by TSA?
What happens when they see something in your baggage or on your person?
They call the bomb squad right? WRONG!
Step right up everyone of you who wants to open that bag and give it a good looking into. Come on all you brave fuckers. Wait, remember to wear your protective TSA uniform and latex gloves.
Ya let's just line up to take Jason into the search area and frisk him real good this time. Don't worry. That gold TSA emblem on your shirt will protect you if Jason decides to activates his bomb rather than go to jail.
Who should be afraid, the flying public without TSA, or the TSA employees putting they life in danger every day, or both?
:banghead:

[LeftyMom]

20. Putting their lives in danger?

Precisely how many of them have died? Did I miss the part on the news about terrorists blowing up the guy at the airport who yells at people to take off their shoes?

You buy into the bullshit. I'd advise you to get over that.

[plantwomyn]

37. Great so you can be the first in line.

Personally I wouldn't take the job without full battle armor. It amazes me that most people would agree that an EMT has a dangerous job and would give them respect but cannot put themselves in the position on a TSO who has to open baggage that could well hold a bomb.

[LeftyMom]

39. "Could" The toaster box at Target I picked up the other night could also have held a bomb.

Now it didn't, and as far as I know, nobody's ever suffered any injury from exploding toasters at Target, but that would put it in exactly the same risk category (small, purely theoretical) as the danger of exploding luggage in American airports. So those "brave" civil servants are pawing through our socks and underpants to protect us from a danger that likely doesn't exist, at no identifiable risk to themselves. Hardly heroes.

On the other hand, the risk of getting leered at, yelled at, stolen from, felt up or otherwise inappropriately treated by a TSA agent is a real one, as almost anybody on this thread has agreed.

[plantwomyn]

41. Remind me exactly where in my post I said

that THEY were brave or heroes? Nowhere. If you believe that TSA is a totally unwarranted use of federal fund call your Congressman.
If you have been abused by TSA report it and demand results and restitution. This thread makes it more than obvious that they are doing a thankless job. Do we feel the same about the Correctional Officers in our jails and prisons? Most of their job consists of searching prisoners for weapons, day after day.
I'm just trying to be the devil's advocate here, trying to show it from a different prospective. It seem many here hold TSO's responsible for TSA and government policy. TSO's do what they're ordered to do by the Executive Branch just like the military. There is abuse from TSO's just like the military. But I don't see anyone telling the military that their just a part of Bush's fear mongering.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

43. its less dangerous than standing infront of the deep fryer at McDonalds

more people have shot up fast food resturants in this country than have attacked airport checkpoints.

[dmallind]

50. Wait a minute

Unless the bomber has the kindness of heart to bring his bomb in on a wet Sunday morning at 3.30AM in early December in Des Moines for a 2 person charter flight, there's going to be a damn sight more "poor mistreated fliers" (aka "customers" to most industries' way of thinking) in danger of any explosion than the brave professional highly tained whiteshirts - it's not like they search the damn bags in leaded bunkers is it? It's not like they're the ones crammed shoulder to shoulder in lines 50' long and 2" apart while grannies in wheelchairs get their toes spread apart looking for toothpaste bombs is it?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. How does it feel to know you are the enemy?

You TSA thugs are nothing more than the foot soldiers of the Bush regime and your job is to keep Americans in a state of paranoid fear so they believe whatever insanity the Bush regime embarks upon is justified.

Go find some honest work,

[dmallind]

29. A bit extreme, but I share some concerns

No doubt the TSA job has its own frustarions and challenges like all of them. It's not dishonest or immoral work, although again like all jobs no doubt some dishonest and immoral people are incumbents. This is especially true of positions like this where authority is given in much greater scope than training or skills required to achieve it. Jobs that allow people to bully attract more than their fair share (not all of course!) of bullies.

However the ridiculous nature of the job is that it exists as is, not in the men and women who perform it. There is an absolutely infinitesimal chance of any flight being made safer by TSA procedures and practices. The screenings are always one step behind the bombers, and I have seen absolutely no evidence of any real threats being detected or prevented by TSA checks. Even the shoe bomber guy whom we have to thank for hordes of slow creaky people fumbling with their shoelaces and sharing their foot odor in the departures area wasn't caught by TSA checks but identified as behaving suspiciously in the queue. No bomb has been detected or removed along with the tens of thousands of toothpaste tubes and nail clippers. Terrorists are not that stupid. They know the checks.

I'm all for X-rays and walk through detectors. It's a reasonable inconvenience for a very plausible threat. Bringing a gun on board a plane is very easy without those checks. However mixing chemical weapons from tubes of Aquafresh while using your belt buckle to impale flight attendants is not a plausible threat except to McGyver watchers.

The simple solution to almost all feasible passenger-directed threats is already done, and is alone sufficient - armored locked cockpit doors. The very worst option remaining is killing all passengers - and how likely is that after passing through the X rays and metal detectors? If Mr. Al-Qaeda, with what we know now, can massacre 250 people with a plastic spike in a confined space then hey so be it.

So we get very little benefit for lowering an already minimal risk a tiny fraction - not even as yet demonstrated to exist - for an awful lot of inconvenience, expense (wouldn't those TSA dollars be better spent somewhere else?), delay, frustration and indignity. It's bad enough being locked in a metal can cramped into a seat too small for a 15 year old gymnast and breathing recirculated air that has passed through 250 sinuses, without having to behave like cattle at the whim of rent a cops for no reason.

[plantwomyn]

36. Bombs have been found every year.

Even in small airports. Guns and knives everyday.
I'm not really following you either.
Are you holding TSA responsible for the shitty airlines?
Do you want TSA to be closed down and just have the airlines protect their pilots? I'd hate to have to try and recruit the rest of the crew.
Hell why don't we just let everyone bring whatever they want on board? That way when the some jerk goes postal it can be a free for all.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

44. The pilots I know fucking hate the TSA,

One quit flying for an airline to fly private jets because she was frequently single out for special screening by the TSA. When you go through security multiple times a day, it gets old quickly. She found this treatment especially insane because once in the cockpit she (and every other pilot) has a crash axe in their reach.

[plantwomyn]

45. And the crew has

those teeny tinny little bottles of booze.

[dmallind]

49. Apparently I was too obtuse

I want to go back to how it was before the paranoia after 9/11 - with x rays and metal detectors. What bombs have been found with the new silliness? What bombs are we talking about anyway? Huge explosives or kids firecrackers? Any links?

Do I hold the TSA responsible for shitty airlines? Kind of strange to extrapolate that from what are clearly two separate clauses detailing separate issues with flying but hey if you need the clarity no not really - I just hold them responsible for making the experience even shittier than it already is, often times intentionally, and all for no detectable gain.

[plantwomyn]

35. I don't work for the government.

I wonder if you would say that to the soldiers fighting Bushes war. Would you tell them to go fond honest work? I bet not to their faces.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

42. The US Military isn't

Engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the American people. Nor has any serving member of the US Military stolen from me or tried to intimidate me.

[plantwomyn]

46. The TSA is under the Executive Branch and it's Bush's campaign.

The military and TSA have to follow orders no matter whether they "believe whatever insanity the Bush regime embarks upon is justified" or not. They all volunteered. The bush regime just can't get away with sending the military out to search for bombs without body armor anymore.
Again I ask if you reported the theft and intimidation? If not, why not?
BTW I think there may have been theft from baggage before TSA. Just a thought.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

47. I did report it

and I got a form letter from the TSA thanking me for sharing my concerns but that they were unable to take further action at this time. And no I can not recall anything being stolen from my CARRY ON bag before the TSA. In addition prior to the TSA you were allowed to lock you bags to prevent theft, this right has been taken away.

The TSA and the professional US Military are NOT the same thing, and while I see that you are trying to bring the TSA under the "supporting the troops" strawman, standing around and screaming at American civilians at LAX is nothing like fighting in a war.

There is nothing stopping an honest man from resigning from the TSA when their role requires that they abuse the rights of their fellow Americans. You can't be put on trial for quitting the TSA.

[plantwomyn]

52. Never said they were the same thing

But they do have the same boss.
The TSO that stole from you could make a lot more money as a pick pocket than in TSA since if the theft was from your carry on the TSO did it right in front of your face. Carry on bags are searched in plain sight of the owner.
As far as the "right" for baggage locks see:
http://www.safeskieslocks.com/index.php
Every government building in the country has the same type of security. Most counties and towns in this country can't afford having two or three Sheriffs standing at security checks at the court house and the city hall. I'm sure they would rather be "fighting crime". I don't like it any more than anyone else that I can no linger stroll into the courthouse anymore. But they are there and "when their role requires that they abuse the rights of their fellow Americans" they do their job and "protect and defend".
"There is nothing stopping an honest man from resigning" and they won't be "put on trial for quitting". I would be hard put to tell them their job in dishonorable and that now that they are ordered to "abuse the rights" of everyone that enters the courthouse they should quit their job.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

54. what government buildings are you visiting?

I am a regular visitor to federal courthouses, the department of commerce in Washington, the United States Embassy in Ottawa and I have never had to endure the type of freakshow that goes on at the airport. Hell, I had to visit a courthouse on unrelated business while some aryan brotherhood members were on trial and all they made me do other than go through the metal detector was roll up my sleeve to check for gang tattoos. Kinda absurd when I look more jewish than Jon Stewart, but nowhere near as insane as the airport security theater with the removal of shoes, freedom baggie and contradictory instructions being screamed by half a dozen different people who are standing around while they screen one person every 2 minutes.

And TSA locks don't do a hell of alot of good when it is the TSA who has been issued keys who are doing the theft - and no they will not wait for you to finish your groping before pilfering through your carry-on. Once when I protested the woman bashed my laptop case into the counter as hard as possible and screeched back "do you want to fly today whitey?" (LAX, Terminal 5, Feb. 22nd 2005, check-point furthest to the left-hand side of the terminal)

By that time I had stopped registering complaints with the TSA because I had come to realize that the TSA encouraged a culture of passenger abuse and that nothing would come of it.

If you are an employee of the TSA your job is to re-enforce the culture of fear and paranoia created by the Bush regime, nothing more - nothing less. I have been everywhere on this planet with a runway and I have seen alot of airport security that didn't involve menacing screaming assholes confiscating Dr. Pepper and spreading athletes foot.

[reclinerhead]

55. Nope

Sorry, but comparing your job and your co-workers to our soldiers is going too far. I echo the sentiments of another poster further up... time for you to find honest work.

[plantwomyn]

56. Don't work for TSA or any gov. agency

nt

[ixion]

22. TSA is bogus, and truly un-American...land of the free and the brave my ass

land of the paranoid and petrified is more like it. :eyes:

[MindPilot]

26. I just love it when I get to the hotel and find that little note in my luggage

explaining ever-so-condescendingly how a TSA agent had to violate my rights in the name of national security.:grr:

TSA is another Bush legacy that needs to be abolished.

[bpj62]

23. TSA and airport security.

TSA does nothing to truly protect us that wasn't being done prior to 9/11. The real threat facing the airports is someone walking into the concourse over a holiday weekend or during the holiday season and either blowing themselves up or shooting hundreds of people before they are killed. There is absolutely no protection at the ticket counters or at the drop off points at the airports. These guys have moved beyond ariplanes and are looking for something else to try.

[14thColony]

25. Exactly

And that tends to be the nature of security: slam the barn door shut just as the last horse bolts - defend against the last threat, not the next one. The 9/11 hijackers used box cutters, so that was the new paranoia. Reid used a (half-assed) shoe bomb, so now we must fear shoes. It goes back a long way in time: In World War I the French bled in the trenches, so they built the Maginot Line to make sure they won the next trench war. Trouble is the Germans simply found a new way to attack. In most cases the enemy does not use the last means of attack (he's not stupid), so often the last one is the most pointless one to defend against. To defend against 'the last thing they did' is merely the facade of security.

God forbid if someone finds a way to make cloth out of plastique or sew blasting cord into their clothes. Reaction: we'll all be flying naked.

[Diclotican]

30. 14thColony

14thColony

When it come to France and the MAGINOT-LINE and the german who manage to by them, and attack France from behind. It was well known that the Tank, or Panzer as it was known in Germany was the tool in the future. The France and Uk high command was planing, very good for the good part of the 1920s, and 1930s, about how to use the tank to best use. But it was the german who understand the new weapon and to use it when it come to war.. And the early war in the west, was more and less blueprint for what france and United Kingdom had planed for 10 or maybe 15 year before..

When it come to TSA and what they are doing. I have not experienced the TSA firsthand, but it looks like they are not treating you that good anymore. Everyone who are a passenger is a possible terrorist and have to be treated as sutch..
I have been in many east-european country, both before and after the cold war, and even there, in the cold war, you was not treated that bad as many as telling here on DU or on other sites. Yes they was very strict, and you have to wait in ques, and the pasportsecurity was rather interesting to see about, even that you was a young boy and probably was not political active yet;. But you was not treated like this, you was not treated as an criminal...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad English, not my native language

[14thColony]

33. Not so much my problem

Actually I live in Europe, or at least on a large island off the coast of Europe, and travel to the US as little as possible. Even then I've had enough dealing with TSA. Their pompous attitude is what really gets me. As an 18-year military officer with considerable experience, I know what efficiency in a security setting looks like, and that ain't even close. As I said before, it's the facade of security. They'll continue to catch the complete idiots now and then (even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while) but a trained operative would have very little trouble getting past them.

****************************warning: pedantic and pointless crap from this point on, and completely off-topic**************************************

As an aside to the main thread here, while the British had somewhat adopted the armored warfare theories of B.H. Liddel Hart, the French really had not. Up until early 1940 the tank was seen by the French as very much an infantry support weapon, and were assigned usually in company strength to support infantry units as mobile gun platforms. This was in contrast to the Germans who, themselves drawing on Hart's work, had organized regiments and even entire divisions of tanks to use as armored 'fists' in the attack. The French belatedly organized four armored divisions in early 1940, but it was too late in the game to try to build decades of armor doctrine, and the French armored divisions were largely ineffective despite the impressive technical superiority of the French tanks and their overall larger numbers. Again, the French planned for the last war, not the next war. But that's what everyone tends to do, so not their fault by any stretch. As an army they put up quite a fierce resistance to the German forces, and on a number of occasions they were the ones who saw the Germans off the field.

Pointless trivia for you: the commander of the French Army's 4th Armored Division (by far the most effective one) was a colonel named Charles de Gaulle.

[Diclotican]

48. 14thColony

14thColony

Ok, the British isles then?. Ireland or UK?. I believe that to be the biggest island on the coast of mainland europe;)..

As a military you know about this thing better than I do anyway, and if a extremist, with explosives want to go past airport security, it can be doing even that it Will take some time and resources to go past security. And as one point, some agents who was working for TSA, was going true the security gates with a mock up of a bomb, easy as you say cheese on a picture.. So I guess TSA have some work to do before it is "more secured":. And it can maybe be, that they have to treat their customers, the people who are passenger on aircraft little more decent too?

US as it was, is not what is today.. It looks like the TSA don't want foreigner welcome to US anymore... And that is bad, you would go back to a country where you are treated as criminal when you first come to the country do you?

I know, have read about it, both that france thinking about the armored forces a little more than a support-infantry weapon, and that Charles de Gaulle was the commander of the French army's 4th armored division..

The german was very clever of using the armored forces to best work, with the air force, and the armored forces it was little or nothing to stop them in the early stages of WW2.. But as you pointed out, france beat germans when they worked together good.. But even that was not enough I guess..

Diclotican

Sorry my bad English, not my native language

[MindPilot]

24. TSA is the biggest welfare program ever. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

40. That's true

For all the good they do, it's probably the equivalent of FDR's "ditch-diggers".

The side benefit, of course, is that they're reducing the unemployment rolls.

[superconnected]

27. Well yeah! They're too busy looking for shampoo and toothpaste

to notice a bomb.

[sarcasmo]

32. We are so much safer with Republicon's. LMFAO.

[high density]

34. I don't care.

A few months ago I watched my 82 year old grandmother with a pacemaker get patted down (including her fucking feet!) to get on a plane... It is insanity. It is fascism.

[fryguy]

51. sure...but I bet the kept the airport safe from beverages

what's the next step for TSA? require every one to take off their shirts?