| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| What's the real goal of the TSA? |
| 2017-07-07 |
| Moved to Page 4 [American Thinker] A news story at Breitbart.com, "Airport in Minneapolis Fails 95 Percent of Security Tests," talks about a recent security test of the TSA there and the pathetic performance of the operation. While I cannot dispute the data and conclusions, the false assumption is that the purpose of the TSA is to provide transportation security. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Certainly, if the screeners confiscate a loaded gun or jumbo-sized toothpaste tube, it's not a bad thing. But that's not the high-level purpose of the TSA. Did you know that in 2016, the TSA screened 738,318,264 passengers, according to their year in review article? That is over twice the population of the U.S. From what figures I can find, it appears they have screened about nine billion passengers since 9/11. Those are just passengers flying in the U.S. Other countries have similar jumbo toothpaste investigative operations with even more hundreds of millions of screenings annually. I propose that the true purpose of the TSA is to train the population of the U.S. to submit to invasive, embarrassing, and demeaning searches in exchange for the perception of increased security. It's not as though we are actually getting increased security, judging from the article ‐ just the perception thereof. Acquaintances of mine who travel frequently just shrug off the pat-downs. "What can you do? We're safer for it." That's the desired response: resigned submission. Through blackmail...uh, agreements with other governments, the TSA extends these "security" requirements to every airport launching flights into the U.S., and those requirements affect every passenger, not just those traveling to the U.S. And since only the world's upper crust travels by air, we can conclude that those billions experience not just one security screening per year, but several. I know I have. And with every contact, the air traveler shrugs less and less, until he doesn't even remember being fondled. You know the TSA drill. You have lived it: having some prison guard-looking person rub that blue glove all over your person. But I want you to think beyond that. It's obviously not about security. What could it be about? What are they training us to endure, for the sake of security? |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #20 I heard their motto was "We're not happy 'till you're not happy." |
| Posted by: Anomalous Sources 2017-07-07 21:45 |
| #19 TSA at Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta could be a case study in government welfare and fraud. It creeps me out to think that $ .01 cent of my money funds these endolent creatures. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-07-07 19:59 |
| #18 TSA started under George W. I seem to recall that too, as well as lot of pressure by the Donks and their lapdog media to make it so. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-07-07 19:55 |
| #17 I agree the TSA is B.S., but still no attacks since 9/11 |
| Posted by: Regular joe 2017-07-07 18:07 |
| #16 "What's the real goal of the TSA?" To feel up as many elderly ladies and handicapped people as they can. |
| Posted by: Barbara 2017-07-07 17:25 |
| #15 Darth, I know, but now it looks like there is more energy going into them in light of recent attacks abroad. I used to be a TSA, but gave it up for a respectable position: bedpan orderly in the dysentery ward |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2017-07-07 15:40 |
| #14 George Washington? |
| Posted by: Raj 2017-07-07 13:59 |
| #13 TSA started under George W. |
| Posted by: 746 2017-07-07 13:30 |
| #12 That's been out there since Obumble, USN. Along with a proposal to add them as protectors of the Highways. Both have sat in committee for a while. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2017-07-07 12:41 |
| #11 Don't look now but a bill before Congress is to extend the TSA to all public transportation modes; AMTRAK, G'hound, etc. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2017-07-07 12:18 |
| #10 I just stopped flying. |
| Posted by: Heriberto Chavick1420 2017-07-07 12:16 |
| #9 Eventual mandatory union dues and Donk coffer fillers. Next question. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-07-07 11:30 |
| #8 TSA isn't just the pat down thugs. The huge tracking infrastructure also serves as a reporting tool for bags and passenger seat mile monitoring of the airlines. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-07-07 10:11 |
| #7 TSA---Thousands Standing Around |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2017-07-07 10:04 |
| #6 The real goal is the same as the other bureaucracies. Expand its power, creep its mission and get more money. The ability to do its job is nowhere in its goals. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2017-07-07 09:53 |
| #5 don't forget the unions That's it in a nutshell. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2017-07-07 09:28 |
| #4 I propose that the true purpose of the TSA is to train the population of the U.S. to submit to invasive, embarrassing, and demeaning searches in exchange for the perception of increased security. What is the end goal of the surveillance society? Is it total submission and compliance? Are we headed for some existence such as depicted on the TV fictional program "Person of Interest?" We were warned by Benjamin Franklin long ago: Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2017-07-07 07:46 |
| #3 There is also the goal to grow the bureaucracy and increase the power and prestige of the managers. Then there are all of the opportunities for graft. Oh, btw, don't forget the unions. All of this is in line with the "resigned submission" goal. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2017-07-07 07:46 |
| #2 "Do something" |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2017-07-07 06:35 |
| #1 ...Two words: "security theater". From the beginning, TSA has never had the slightest intention - philosophically, professionally or otherwise - of doing what actually needs to be done to insure actual security for US air passengers. If we did it the way the Israelis do it, there would be at least some realistic possibility of catching the bad guys. But we won't, because in order to do so, we have to profile, and our politicians would rather see a hundred 9/11s instead of doing what needs to be done, no matter how unpleasant. So the theater will continue, until the next time. And I guarantee that afterwards, we will see video of the bombers or hijackers walking serenely through the checkpoints, while some toddler or grandmother is patted down. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2017-07-07 05:32 |