Checkpoint of the future

IATA, the International Air Transport Association, has unveiled a new airport security checkpoint plan that, according to them will reduce time, limit searches, and, as the head of the organization stated, restore dignity.

No longer “one size fits all, the program is  based on intelligence and risk profiling, not racial profiling, and includes technology that is mostly available today. It would mean no more stripping, unpacking or groping.

IATA’s new security checkpoint.

Personally, I like it. 

(Frank II)

Actual survival kit

“Survival kit” is often (over)used figuratively to denote a set of essential items for a given activity or interest. Let’s talk about a bare minimum, actual set of (life) survival items that even a light traveler could carry. A couple of disposable breathing masks, iodide tablets, antibiotics? I don’t wish to go overboard or become a survivalist per se, but surely many of us have been thinking about this in recent days.

And while I’m at it - this moderated blog/board/live update page from Reuters is the single best Japan disaster news source I’ve seen.

(Brad)

Update on March 17, 2011 by Frank@OBOW

FRANK II’s Pick

UK losing "foul" liquid ban, baby

Don’t expect the US to follow suit, but the UK has set a date to flush their liquids-in-carry-on ban:

The ban on carrying liquids in hand luggage at UK airports is to be eased and could be phased out completely by 2013.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond revealed that airports would begin to relax restrictions next April…

Mr Hammond said he sympathised with parents with young children.

He said: ‘I have seen mothers tasting it, and doesn’t it taste foul? The good news is that by 2013 the ban on mush will have ended.’

Mr Hammond said he planned to make the system more flexible. - Daily Mail

Somehow I can’t imagine US officials speaking this way. The EU announced earlier this year that the ban could be lifted in 2013 because of the development of technology to detect explosives in liquids. I’m sure it’s easier to get the liquid detection tech distributed around a small country. Sounds like a rolling phaseout — good news anyway.

(Brad)

Update on December 8, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

More British common sense from the Telegraph:

Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, has been pushing his European counterparts to overhaul airport security, which he believes is too rigid.

He is lobbying hard for changes which would allow bodyscanners to be used as a primary screening method and an alternative to metal detecting arches.

Last month he Mr Hammond told the Transport Select Committee that he believed airline passengers were being subjected to more security checks than necessary,

“It is possible in some cases more searches than are necessary are being carried out. Different approaches using technology could eliminate risk,” he said.

“I am not suggesting we relax the standards we require. I am suggesting more flexibility.”

This guy obviously didn’t get the same memo that the US agencies got. Or missed an important meeting. Expect him to be sacked any day.

iPad vs. TSA

The power of information (technology) keeps a mom from losing her baby’s food:

Iseri asked to see the TSA’s baby-food rules and also, where they got the authority to open her jars. An agent told her, “That’s not public information.”

She whipped out her iPad and pulled up the TSA site, which said,

[G]reater than 3 ounces of baby formula, breast milk, or juice are permitted through the security checkpoint in reasonable quantities for the duration of your itinerary. - Consumer Traveler

Update on December 1, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

TSA vs. another mom:

The latest case of TSA tyranny to hit the headlines comes in the form of a young mother who was subjected to enhanced groping and then shut inside a screening box for almost an hour by agents after she refused to allow them to put her breast milk through an x-ray device, a legitimate request that is even written into the TSA’s own guidelines. - Prison Planet

(Brad)

A holiday message from Pistole

TSA Administrator John Pistole Issues Holiday Travel Message to the Public

Press Release

November 20, 2010

WASHINGTON – Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator John S. Pistole today issued a message to the public with tips for air travel this holiday season. The message is posted on TSA’s website at www.tsa.gov and also appears on TSA’s YouTube page. The message is also being made available to airports nationwide to play during the busy holiday travel period to ensure passengers are prepared when coming through security checkpoints.

Here is a transcript of the video/message:

“Hello, I’m TSA Administrator John Pistole. As you travel this holiday season I want to remind you that TSA’s mission is to ensure the safety of you the traveling public and we are committed to doing so efficiently, courteously and professionally. 

I’d like to offer a few tips and some important information we’d like you to know before you go through security. Remember our 3 simple steps to security: Have your ID out, coats & shoes off and laptop and liquids and gels less than 3 ounces out and ready. 

As you enter the checkpoint you will be directed to pass through either a walk through metal detector or, at some airports, an Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) unit. 

If you are directed to pass through an AIT, you may opt out. If you choose to opt out, you will receive a thorough pat-down by someone of the same gender. If you alarm either the metal detector or the AIT, you will also receive a thorough pat-down by someone of the same gender. 

In either case where a pat-down is required, you have important options that we want you to be aware of: you have the option to request that the pat-down be conducted in a private room and you have the option to have that pat-down witnessed by a person of your choice. 

We very much appreciate your involvement, cooperation and assistance in ensuring the safety of you, the traveling public. If you have questions about these procedures, the technology used by TSA, or our efforts to ensure your safety, please do not hesitate to ask for one of our supervisors or visit TSA.gov.   

Thank you and remember that at TSA, your safety is our priority.”

To view the video from Mr. Pistole on YouTube, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fpOALc2RbI.

To learn more about traveling this holiday season, visit www.tsa.gov.

Update on November 20, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

PRES FEELS TRAVELERS’ PAIN…THEORETICALLY:

President Barack Obama has asked security officials whether there’s a less intrusive way to screen U.S. airline passengers than the pat-downs and body scans causing a holiday-season uproar. 

For now, they’ve told him there isn’t one, the president said Saturday in response to a question at the NATO summit in Lisbon. 

“I understand people’s frustrations,” Obama said, while acknowledging that he’s never had to undergo the stepped-up screening methods. - AP via CBS

Bill Clinton was a much better empathizer. What would Bush have been called - the Empathicator?

(Brad)

Update on November 20, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

And three Senators discover what we’ve reported at least twice: Scanners don’t have to strip you to show suspicious items.

(Brad)

Travelers sue the Blue

An active suit from a 2008 incident:

“As the TSA agent was frisking plaintiff, the agent pulled the plaintiff’s blouse completely down, exposing plaintiffs’ breasts to everyone in the area,” the lawsuit said. “As would be expected, plaintiff was extremely embarrassed and humiliated.”

TSA workers continued to laugh and joke about the incident “for an extended period of time,” leaving the woman distraught and needing to be consoled. After the woman re-entered the boarding area, TSA workers continued to humiliate her over the incident.

“One male TSA employee expressed to the plaintiff that he wished he would have been there when she came through the first time and that ‘he would just have to watch the video,’” the suit said. - Prison Planet

Blogger sues.

Another lawsuit against the TSA involves Ron Corbett, a businessman and frequent traveler who is so infuriated by the plethora of cases where TSA workers have sexually groped passengers, squeezing breasts and genitals, that he has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Miami requesting an injunction against the TSA to prevent them from touching private areas without reasonable suspicion. - Prison Planet

And the pilot who is suing:

(Brad)

Scan/grope roundup, afternoon edition

I hate this story:

TODDLER SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

You might think a 3-year-old would whiz through security. A child is non-threatening, wears slip-on shoes, and carries little luggage.

Not the case for Mandy Simon who was passing through security with her dad at the airport in Chattanooga, Tenn.

A TSA employee gave Mandy the pat down and she started screaming and kicking her legs. Her dad, Steve, happens to be a TV reporter and caught 17 seconds of the ordeal on his cell phone. - sfgate.com

Speechless. See video at bottom of post follow-ups.

Meanwhile, TSA chief says:

… the government is not always ahead of the terrorists and that his agency seeks “the proper mix” between passengers’ rights and protecting airplanes.

“We want to be sensitive to people’s sensitivity to privacy and their being while ensuring that everybody is secure on every flight,” he said.

Pistole told fliers that he is concerned about their safety and privacy and asked them to “work together” with his agency. - ABC

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

(Brad)

Update on November 16, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Update on November 16, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Junk man John Tyner’s blog.

Update on November 16, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

"Junk man" investigated

John “Don’t touch my junk” Tyner is under investigation for resisting the scan or hand treatment. Looks scary doesn’t he? Looks doubleplus unsafe.

(Brad)

Update on November 16, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

ON ANOTHER FRONT - 

Sorry, I’m not as excited about this story as Matt Drudge is. Not TSA; not hi-res “recognizable” images. Whatever you think of Drudge (right), you must admit he’s driving the travel security story now and the pressure on the Feds is a good thing.

(Brad)

Update on November 16, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

More on scanner profits and the lobbyists who love them.

Update on November 16, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

And some humor on an unfunny day (Thanks to Paula)

Update on November 16, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Enough already!!!!

“I have to go in your waistband, I have to put my hand down your pants” 

Update on November 16, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Euro scanner, a different view

Thanks to Till for this tip: Some of the European scanners in development show a much less detailed view of you than the US scanners do. This looks a lot more likely to be accepted by the exasperated flying public. There was talk of something similar over here but the “guy in the cap” scanner is not what’s been implemented.

Update: Euro scanners fooled by creased clothing.

(Brad) 

Update on November 16, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

CLICK PHOTO FOR LINK TO EARLIER OBOW POST

Reminder from Rep. Mica

Did you know that the nation’s airports are not required to have Transportation Security Administration screeners checking passengers at security checkpoints? The 2001 law creating the TSA gave airports the right to opt out of the TSA program in favor of private screeners after a two-year period. Now, with the TSA engulfed in controversy and hated by millions of weary and sometimes humiliated travelers, Rep. John Mica, the Republican who will soon be chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is reminding airports that they have a choice.

Mica, one of the authors of the original TSA bill, has recently written to the heads of more than 150 airports nationwide suggesting they opt out of TSA screening. “When the TSA was established, it was never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees,” Mica writes. “As TSA has grown larger, more impersonal, and administratively top-heavy, I believe it is important that airports across the country consider utilizing the opt-out provision provided by law.” - Washington Examiner

Gee, I believe this would be a way to make your airport instantly more popular….

(Brad)

Good question

Enough with the app. From crunchy con Front Porch Republic:

For someone whose sympathies lie on the left side of the political spectrum, I’m not especially worried about the rise of the Tea Party and the Republican sweep in the last election; despite their numbers, I really don’t think they’re in a position to drive our national government in any particular direction whatsoever…  But in regards to the TSA, I’d be delighted to see some “simplistic” refusals–a demand to simply say no to this increasingly ridiculous operation that, however genuine its intentions, has obviously become locked into a way of thinking about airport security that sees the whole matter as a balance between “privacy” and “safety,” with all other values–like dignity–being non-quantifiable and therefore irrelevant. Yes, I think it’d be wonderful to see the Tea Party movement turn on the TSA, perhaps if the organization’s latest actions can be painted as “unconstitutional” somehow. Let’s try to make sure that Glen Beck has to fly on a commercial airline sometime in the near future, and see what he thinks of it all. No doubt he’ll find a way to connect it all to an Obama-inspired communist conspiracy, but at least that might mean TSA could find itself facing a serious Congressional inquiry, for once. - FPR

The US Senate may in fact be getting into the act.

(Brad)

Abolish the TSA

Bipartisan support should be immediate.  For fiscal conservatives, it’s hard to come up with a more wasteful agency than the TSA.  For privacy advocates, eliminating an organization that requires you to choose between a nude body scan or genital groping in order to board a plane should be a no-brainer.

But won’t that compromise safety?  I doubt it.  The airlines have enormous sums of money riding on passenger safety, and the notion that a government bureaucracy has better incentives to provide safe travels than airlines with billions of dollars worth of capital and goodwill on the line strains credibility.  This might be beside the point: in 2003, William Anderson incisively argued that some of the steps that airlines (and passengers) would have needed to take to prevent the 9/11 disaster probably would have been illegal. - forbes.com

And the question is being asked — is all this dissuading people from flying? Of course it is. I know people who have said “Never again!” A co-worker of mine nearly passed up free accommodations on St. Maarten just because he was afraid he couldn’t tolerate the security scan/grope.

Vote here.

(Brad)

Update on November 15, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

And why does OBOW so often focus on “travel insecurity” news? Because our readers are likely to be frequent, serious travelers who make a great deal of effort to travel efficiently - just the type to be most affected and vexed by security theater. Avoiding checked luggage used to be the ticket to travel bliss. The checkpoint hassle has greatly offset this. Knowledge (about the security protocols) should equal power. Alas, all are powerless before the big blue monster. 

Update on November 15, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Skivvie-il disobedience (no nudity, only the scanner operators get to see that)

Update on November 15, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

And behind every fetid, corrupt, stupid, Washington-hatched fiasco you’ll find — surprise, surprise — a bi-partisan cabal of lobbyists. 

Resistance: National Opt-Out Day

The wave of resistance to the TSA’s latest invasive “security” measures is growing. National Opt-Out Day is the latest sign. Some say Matt Drudge is stirring the pot. I say the facts on ground are sufficient to create outrage with no incitement necessary.

A major lawsuit is also in the works.

(Brad)

Update on November 11, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

From http://www.optoutday.com/:

How?

    By saying “I opt out” when told to go through the bodying imaging machines and submitting to a pat down.  Also, be sure to have your pat down by TSA in full public - do not go to the back room when asked.  Every citizen must see for themselves how the government treats law-abiding citizens.

follow us on twitter:  http://twitter.com/nationaloptout

 

For more information on these machines and to read stories of what happens when you use the naked body scanners or opt out, please visit:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security-222/

http://www.dontscan.me/

http://www.thousandsstandingaround.org/

To file an incident report, use the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s site:

http://epic.org/bodyscanner/incident_report/

Update on November 11, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Update on November 11, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

The story KLW refers to in his comment below:

"TSA Fondles Women & Children"

That’s the headline. I call that bad press for the boys and girls in blue.

(Brad)

Update on November 5, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Update on November 5, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Joe Sharkey of the New York Times on the perils of “opting out.”

“Opt out! We got an opt out!” one bellowed about me in a tone that people in my desert neighborhood in Tucson usually reserve for declaring, “Rattlesnake!”

Other screeners took up the “Opt out!” shout. I was marched from the metal detector lane to one of those nearby whole-body imagers, ordered to take everything out of my pockets, remove my belt and hold my possessions up high. Then I was required to stand still while I received a rough pat-down by a man whose résumé, I suspected, included experience at a state prison.

“Hold your pants up!” he ordered me.

What did I do to deserve this? Well, as I approached the checkpoints, I had two choices. One was a familiar lane with the metal detector, so I put my bag on that. To my right was a separate lane dominated with what the Transportation Security Administration initially called “whole-body imagers” but has now labeled “advanced imaging technology” units. Critics, of course, call them strip-search machines. - read more

(Brad)

Obvious to all the world

US travel “security” measures are a worldwide embarrassment and irritant:

European air officials accused the United States of imposing useless and overly intrusive travel security measures, calling Wednesday for the Obama administration to reexamine policies ranging from online security checks to X-raying shoes.

British Airways’ chairman made the first in a wave of complaints, saying in a speech to airport operators that removing shoes and taking laptops out of bags were “completely redundant” measures demanded by the U.S.

He was joined less than 24 hours later by British pilots, the owner of Heathrow airport, other European airlines, and the European Union. The EU submitted formal objections to a program that requires U.S.-bound travelers from 35 nations to complete online security clearance before departure. It called the system burdensome and said it could violate travelers’ privacy. - ABC News

Now that I think about it, “OBLIVIOUS to all the world” would have made a good headline too.

Update on October 28, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

All hands - enhanced patdown

Now this:

Logan airport security just got more up close and personal as federal screeners launched a more aggressive palms-first, slide-down body search technique that has renewed the debate over privacy vs. safety.

The new procedure - already being questioned by the ACLU - replaces the Transportation Security Administration’s former back-of-the-hand patdown.

Boston is one of only two cities in which the new touchy-feely frisking is being implemented as a test before a planned national rollout. The other is Las Vegas. - Boston Herald

Update on August 24, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Big Sister Janet is still very proud of the girls and boys in blue:

Secretary Napolitano Announces Second Major Aviation Security Milestone this Month

Press Release

June 24, 2010

DHS now performs 100 percent watchlist matching for all flights by all U.S. air carriers

Washington, D.C.—Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced that 100 percent of passengers flying domestically and internationally on U.S. airlines are now being checked against government watch lists through the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Secure Flight program—the second major step in fulfilling a key 9/11 Commission recommendation achieved this month.

Today’s announcement comes less than three weeks after TSA reached 100 percent watchlist checking for all passengers traveling within the United States and its territories through Secure Flight. Before TSA began implementing Secure Flight, airlines held responsibility for checking passengers against terrorist watchlists. - DHS

TSA's (felonious?) follies

Now that’s what I call a checkpoint:

At what point does an airport search step over the line?

How about when they start going through your checks, and the police call your husband, suspicious you were clearing out the bank account? - read more (HT: Jeff)

Tangled up in blue:

 A former supervisor for the federal Transportation Security Administration has pleaded guilty to stealing $20,000 worth of jewelry and other items from checked luggage at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. - read more

Carry on then hold on

We’ve been down this road before but I must take you there again. Ryanair again floats pay-to-pee, no-seat travel. Since Ryanair promotes carry-on/no-checked-bags travel you wonder where the standing passengers’ bags are going to go. You also wonder if this idea will ever fly. Or if it’s just another of O’Leary’s stunts.

Update on July 3, 2010 by Frank@OBOW

Never worry, never fear

Janet Napolitano will soon be here:

“I want to stress, I am respectful and cognizant of the privacy concerns,” she told participants in the Regional Civil Aviation Security Conference, referring to protests against a US drive to use full body X-ray scans at airports.

“Respect for privacy is a value we share. But all countries have unique legal traditions, cultural differences, and political realities.

“I believe that we should not allow these differences to keep us from working toward a common goal and a deep and stronger partnership with respect to security and privacy,” she said. - Breitbart

What in the wide, wide world of sports does this mean? Only use scanners if your sheepish citizens don’t mind too much?

TSA's got the 311

3-1-1 gone? 

Not so. While we continue to aggressively work to find a way to relax the 3-1-1 requirements, we know liquid explosives still pose a threat to aviation security. This remains a top priority and TSA is partnering with vendors to find a solution that effectively screens liquids. - TSA blog

And you can take that to your failed Icelandic or Greek bank.