TSA

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The Touch, Squeeze, and Assault Transportation Security Administration is a shitty display of security theater, which does nothing to make us safer while simultaneously violating everyone who wants to ride a plane. It's known for massively overreacting to everything, having never stopped a terrorist attack. In other words, it's a useless funnel of our money and yet another example of our wasteful response to 9/11. Liberal[1][2] and conservative[3][4] sources agree that the TSA sucks. It's cost inefficient, overspending, and a waste of taxpayer money.[5][6]

Effectiveness[edit]

An X-ray body scanner

A 2001 paper[5] found it questionable that the TSA helps to prevent terrorist attacks similar to 9/11. The TSA director got reassigned in 2015: after testing by the Department of Homeland Security in which his administration failed to detect fake bombs and weapons 95% of the time.[7] The US GAO (Government Accountability Office) had to step in to make suggestions that the TSA provide accurate and sufficient data on performance.[8]

TSA's SPOT program has been found to be ineffective by the GAO[9] and by Nature.[10] The ACLU has criticized the SPOT program as racial profiling.[11][note 1]

Body-scanners used by the TSA, the Rapiscan Secure 1000 full-body scanners, are not good at catching contraband or illegal weapons and can easily be bypassed.[13] The TSA ended their contract with the maker of Rapiscan body-scanners in 2013 due to the privacy risk posed by the machines.[14] Another body-scanner, the millimeter-wave machine, regularly reports false positives: it can mistake sweat as weaponry.[15] X-ray body scanners may increase cancer risk.[16] These scanners have been banned in European countries.[16] The TSA removed the X-ray body-scanners in 2013.[17]

Sexual assault and harassment[edit]

Nun-a-ya business!
See the main article on this topic: Rape

Two TSA screeners were fired for a sexual assault scheme against men in 2015.[18] A former TSA employee stated that sexual assaults against passengers were common.[19] At LaGuardia Airport, 2015, a TSA agent was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman.[20] A female TSA employee's criminal charges over sexual assault at the Denver International Airport were dropped in 2014.[21]

Rapiscan body scanners gave TSA agents low-res naked photos of screened passengers to inspect for weapons.[14] TSA officers commonly shared low-res nudes of passengers without consent.[22]

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) had to write a guide for victims of sexual assault regarding the TSA.[23] Angela T. Rye, a journalist filmed her frightening pat-down where the TSA agent was very close to grabbing her private parts.[24] Aida Rodriguez, a rape victim has said that the TSA pat-down made her feel incredibly uncomfortable.[25] Sarah Beaulieu, a survivor of sexual assault, broke down in tears when faced with the prospect of a TSA screening.[26] Gina Miller has recounted her sexual assault by a TSA agent.[27]

In 2010, a new pat-down method included breast and buttocks groping and examining genitals.[28] In 2017, the TSA introduced a new even-more invasive pat-down method, of which they warned police departments about increased complaints.[29]

Neglect of duty[edit]

TSA keys are now available to anyone with a 3-D printer.
+This section requires expansion.

People cracked all seven master keys used to unlock luggage in 2015, and the TSA doesn't seem to care.[30]

It took seven years for the TSA to finally respond to a journalist's Freedom of Information Act request.[31] The TSA disclosed data on passenger complaints, four years after he requested the data.[32]

External links[edit]

Their social media:

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ This pattern of racial profiling has been sarcastically dubbed "Flying While Muslim."[12]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Airport Security: Astoundingly Expensive and 95 Percent Ineffective by Kriston Capps. CityLab
  2. ↑ Acting TSA director reassigned after screeners failed tests to detect explosives, weapons by Eric Bradner and Rene Marsh CNN
  3. ↑ The TSA Was and Is a Gigantic Mistake by Brittany Hunter. Foundation for Economic Education
  4. ↑ TSA Boondoggles: High Costs, Low Effectiveness, But It's Only Your Money by George Leef Forbes
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Assessing the Risks, Costs and Benefits of United States Aviation Security Measures by M.G. Stewart and J. Mueller
  6. ↑ The Naked Truth about TSA Spending by Chris Edwards CATO Institute
  7. ↑ TSA Director Reassigned in Wake of Security Failures by Justin Fishel and Mike Levine ABC
  8. ↑ Aviation Security PDF GAO
  9. ↑ Aviation Security: TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities GAO
  10. ↑ Intent to deceive? PDF Nature
  11. ↑ TSA Refusing to Release Documents About Spot Program’s Effectiveness, Racial Profiling Impact ACLU
  12. ↑ Khalife, Leyal (February 17, 2018). "'Flying While Muslim' is an actual thing and the reality is disturbing". Step Feed. 
  13. ↑ Security Analysis of a Full-Body Scanner PDF
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 TSA ends contract with Rapiscan, maker of full-body scanner by Hugo Martin LA Times
  15. ↑ Sweating Bullets: Body Scanners Can See Perspiration as a Potential Weapon by Michael Grabell and Christian Salewski. Propublica
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 U.S. Government Glossed Over Cancer Concerns As It Rolled Out Airport X-Ray Scanners by Michael Grabell Propublica
  17. ↑ TSA Removes X-Ray Body Scanners from Airports by Mark Schoofs Propublica.
  18. ↑ Two TSA Officers Fired for Scheme to Grope Attractive Men at Denver Airport by Andrew Blankstein and Phil Helsel. NBC News
  19. ↑ Former TSA Agent: Groping Scandal Is Business as Usual by Jason Edward Harrington. Time
  20. ↑ TSA agent accused of sexual assault at LaGuardia CBS News
  21. ↑ No Criminal Charges Against TSA Agent Over Pat-Down At DIA CBS Local
  22. ↑ 8 Things You Don't (Want To) Know About TSA Checkpoints by Robert Evans and Anonymous Cracked
  23. ↑ Airport Security for Survivors RAINN
  24. ↑ Dear TSA: The country is not safer because you grab vaginas by Angela T. Rye CNN
  25. ↑ TSA Body Search Leaves CNN’s Angela Rye In Tears 3:16 The Young Turks
  26. ↑ What TSA Screenings Mean For Sexual Assault Survivors by Sarah Beaulieu wbur
  27. ↑ My sexual assault by the TSA by Gina Miller Renew America
  28. ↑ Changes in Airport Passenger Screening Technologies and Procedures: Frequently Asked Question PDF by Bart Elias Congressional Research Service
  29. ↑ TSA Introducing New, More Invasive Pat-Down Method by Mary Beth Quirk Consumerist
  30. ↑ TSA Doesn't Care That its Luggage Locks Have Been Hacked by Jenna McLaughlin The Intercept
  31. ↑ The TSA Releases Data on Air Marshal Misconduct, 7 Years After We Asked by Michael Grabell Propublica
  32. ↑ TSA Reveals Passenger Complaints … Four Years Later by Michael Grabell Propublica
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