Reply #12: Don't worry, the shit's not going to hit the fan

[Alcibiades]

My point is that the TSA does a job that does not need to be done. They're perpetually fighting the last war. On 9-11, terrorists armed with box cutters took over four planes. That's never going to happen again. The only reason it was able to happen in the first place was because passengers thought they were victims of an old-style hijacking, where the plane winds up landing somewhere and the hostages are eventually released. Now that we know that any Muslim terrorists taking over a plane are likely to use it as a guided missile, I don't think such a plan would work. They would never get to the cockpit. Al Quaeda's not going to take over a plane with box cutters again, not because the TSA is there taking knitting needles from grannies, but because they know that the other 100 or so passengers wouldn't allow them to do it.

I also have a close relative who is in law enforcement. He works for one of the agencies/bureaus under the Dept of Justice. He no longer shows his government ID when traveling for court, because, every time he does so, the screeners want to see his weapon, which he does not carry when traveling for court. They never believe him, and search him. At this point, they may find he has sensitive documents which they will try to examine, which he refuses to allow them to do, because they don't have clearance. They take umbrage at this, and he has to tell them he's been subpoenaed to testify and they are welcome to contact the federal judge. They never do. Once he was going to testify against some actual terrorists, homegrown white supremacists, and the screener finds all these background documents and reads through them. He starts asking a whole bunch of questions--not because of any potential threat, but because this sounds like a group he'd like to join.

Anyway, now he just shows his regular ID and goes right on through, without the additional screening that the TSA feels it is necessary to give someone who could travel with a service weapon if they wanted to.

I do appreciate your partner's service. Most of the folks in my family have made a career out of the government and or the military. I do think, however, that as a matter of public policy, the TSA is not cost effective. Drunk pilots probably pose a much greater threat to civil aviation than my granny's knitting needles. The TSA has confiscated tons and tons of toothpaste and nail clippers by now, and have not found a single bomb or Al Quaeda operative. If saving lives is the objective, we would have gotten a lot more bang for our buck if we had spent the money on training traffic cops, paramedics, doctors, etc.