Security Curve Weblog

TSA: it wouldn't be so bad if there were a point

So, the other day I was going from Seattle to Manchester. And believe me, it was one hell of a trip... The day was kicked off by finding out that SeaTac had no power in Terminal A, and ended 20 hours later (finally) in New Hampshire where I found out that the TSA had searched my luggage. Now, I don't know about you, but in past when people have searched my belongings, they didn't wind up breaking stuff. This time, however, the gloves were off. Those guys did it all - wrinkled my suits, made little "snowballs" out of my shirts, pulled matched socks apart, and finished it off by breaking stuff; specifically, by breaking the zipper on my suitcase and by breaking my belt. Now I got the suitcase for free from LL Bean, but it retails for a hundred and change; the belt I bought at Banana Republic for 80 dollars (don't ask - I was at a conference and needed a belt.) So, almost 200 dollars worth of damage. They did, however, leave a little courtesy form-letter telling me they had "inspected" (read: gone apesh*t on) my luggage.

Now, I'm usually pretty calm about stuff like this. They're just doing their job, right? And all of this stuff has a security benefit, so it's worth it, right? Um... Well, maybe not. Now, you all have had to hear me gripe about why this stuff doesn't do anything for security - like why it's "good marketing" for TSA to put on a show of checking for stuff when the security benefit it provides is basically nil. I've had countless conversations with security folks, the majority of whom believe that the TSA security measures are useless. And now yet another respected news outlet is saying it too. And you know what? He's totally right. The security measures are a show... And underneath the show? Continued incompetence.

Incompetence like the fact that they have yet to fix the problems with the Watch List. Now, you might say that inconveniencing a few thousand people is worth the price of increased security; and maybe you'd be right - if this watch list did anything. But it doesn't - in fact it does the opposite. It wastes money that could be spent efficiently on terrorism prevention, it wastes cycles that could be spent on doing something productive, *and* it makes travel more painful all around thereby accomplishing the terrorists' original goal of disrupting our way of life. Wanna get pissed off? Take a look at the TSA fact sheet for 2006 where the DHS lists their "highlighted" accomplishments for 2006. Accomplishment number one is this BS about the liquids... They "trained over 40000 people" and "conducted extensive explosive testing" (all at taxpayer expense) for a threat that we all know isn't feasible. And when TSA finally clued in to the fact that it's bogus? They "proved their flexibility" by "modifying the ban". And what did that cost us, the taxpaying public? Hundreds of millions that could have been spent on developing automated approaches to baggage screening that won't leave innocent travelers with wrinkled clothes and no belt.

Now that's progress.