The Last Chance Of Freedom : TSA & Airport Security

Thursday, October 27, 2011

TSA & Airport Security

Recent Research and Commentary

"Get Your Freak On" Baggage Screener Gets Disciplined by TSA

October 26, 2011, 9:57pm Robert Poole
The TSA continues to find ways to violate air travelers. After a baggage screener left Jill Filipovic, who was flying from Newark Airport to Dublin, Ireland, a note in her luggage that said, “Get your freak on girl,” I’m dismayed to see that the TSA only “disciplined” the screener who wrote a “highly inappropriate note” in the bag that was searched.

Read Full Column

TSA Isn't Looking for Guns In Checked Luggage - And You Don't Want Them To Start

October 24, 2011, 3:32pm Robert Poole
Media reports are expressing alarm about the fact that a loaded handgun was found by Alaska Airlines baggage workers loading bags on to a flight at LAX on Sunday. The Los Angeles Times declared, "Security officials at LAX fail to detect loaded gun in bag," The gun fell out of a duffel bag that had been screened along with the rest of the checked baggage for the flight.
Despite all the hand-waving, guns in checked baggage are not illegal (though they are supposed to be disclosed to the airline and packed unloaded). Nor are they a threat to the safety of flights. And the idea that TSA should minutely inspect everything in checked bags would not only add costs and time to the bag-screening process. It would also make an already overly-intrusive TSA into even more of a threat to people’s privacy and liberty.
We need to distinguish here between what is being looked for at passenger checkpoints and what is being looked for in checked baggage. At the passenger checkpoint, TSA is instructed to look for anything that might be used as a weapon by a passenger during the flight—knives, guns, explosive vests, underwear bombs, shoe bombs, etc. Many aviation security experts believe, correctly in my view, knives and guns are not as serious a threat as they were prior to 9/11. That’s due to both strengthened and locked cockpit doors and the vigilance of passengers and cabin crews to resist any attempt to gain access to the cockpit.
Checked baggage screening is a different story. Here, the threat being guarded against is explosives. It is to detect explosives in checked bags that airports and the TSA have spent billions purchasing several thousand huge explosive detection machines. They use equipment similar to CAT scanners to check for objects with a density similar to known explosive substances. If a potential object of this type is detected by the machine, the bag is flagged for closer visual inspection.

Read Full Column

Airport Policy and Security Newsletter #72

Rethinking airport funding, reforming small-airport subsidy program, GAO on tarmac delay rule

October 14, 2011 Robert Poole
In this issue:

Rethinking U.S. airport funding
Reforming the small-airport subsidy program
GAO on the tarmac delay rule
Return of wayports?
TSA reauthorization overdue
News Notes
Quotable Quotes

Read Full Column

TSA Security Fee: Another Federal Revenue Grab

September 28, 2011, 9:16am Samuel Staley
The Obama Administration's proposal to increase the airline security fee from $2.50 to $5.00 per air segment adds insult to injury as they look for ways to fund an ineffective and expensive program.