TSA Officer Implicated in Alleged Prostitution Ring

If you're holding down a TSA job, would allegedly moonlighting as a pimp be a good TSA career move?

Wheelchair-Bound Toddler Gets the TSA Treatment

Could this be another example of "groping and pillaging" by the Transportation Security Administration?

In this video, a TSA agent insisted on checking out a three-year-old boy with a broken leg on his way to Disney with his family.




 

Still Wondering What is TSA?

The security queue is something that everyone has to put with when traveling by air.

This infographic from onlinecriminaljusticedegree.com depicts the federal money pit known as the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Whether you are a occasional or regular traveler, or even someone considering a TSA job or TSA career, this info is something to take into account as you approach the airport security checkpoint.



[Created by: Online Criminal Justice Degree]

TSA Scanning: A High-Tech Peep Show?

TSA agents are at it again:

Help Wanted: The TSA is Looking for a Few Good Gropers

The spring/summer travel season is right around the corner, and the TSA--the U.S. Transportation Security Administration--has a new recruitment video for airport security officers.

Actually this video is satire by "Health Ranger" Mike Adams and naturalnews.com.



According to many passengers, TSA also stands for "thousands standing around" or "total sexual assault" among other nicknames.

Update--Grope tax: So-called passenger security fees will be doubled under the administration's budget proposal: "Obama’s budget plan as reported yesterday calls for hiking the ticket fees for passenger and bag security from $2.50 to $5 next year, while cutting federal subsidies to airports. By 2018, the fee would jump to $7.50, raising billions of dollars for the government."

 

Another Day, Another Failed TSA Nominee

Based on what we personally observed this week at a large airport in the south, there is a lot of room for improvement in the way Transportation Security Administration agents carry out their screening function. But it looks like one of their other problems, finding a new boss, won't be solved anytime soon.

President Obama’s choice to lead the agency that guards United States airports abruptly withdrew his nomination on Friday night amid questions about his work as a defense contractor, the second time the White House has lost a nominee for the critical security post.

Maj. Gen. Robert A. Harding, a retired Army intelligence officer, was selected to take over the Transportation Security Administration, or T.S.A., just two and a half weeks ago, following the withdrawal of Mr. Obama’s first pick under fire.

No third choice was announced, and the back-to-back failed nominations mean that the job is likely to remain unfilled for months to come.

General Harding’s bid came unraveled after reports that his firm collected more federal money than it was entitled to for providing interrogators in Iraq. ..

The president’s first nominee, Erroll G. Southers, a former F.B.I. agent and counterterrorism supervisor for the Los Angeles airport police, withdrew his nomination in January after giving conflicting answers about conducting police background checks on a man his estranged wife was seeing.

Privacy Violations: TSA's New Full-Body Screening Procedures Too "Transparent"?

Privacy and individual rights advocates claim that the Transportation Security Administration has been less than candid about the possible abuse of intrusive airport full-body scanners:

Pushback against the deployment at airports of digital image scanners that show people's naked images through their clothes is gaining steam, bolstered by the Electronic Privacy Information Center's publication of government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security papers suggest the Transportation Security Administration overstated the privacy protections travelers subjected to the scanners would have.

Contrary to TSA's claims, the controversial backscatter scanners are able to store and send images, according to the documents EPIC obtained. There are 10 variable privacy settings on the device, which presumably can be dialed up or down at the point of operation with the required access code.

DHS: Make "EZ Pass" Permanent

The Homeland Security Department wants to make permanent a biometric-based international trusted traveler program:

The U.S. Homeland Security Department today proposed to make permanent its ongoing Global Entry pilot program, which expedites and automates the customs process for prescreened travelers entering the United States.

The pilot program, initially launched in June 2008 at three airports, has since expanded to include 20 major U.S. entry points, including airports in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. Releasing the program from pilot mode would enable DHS to further expand the program. The proposal now undergoes a public comment period, ending Jan. 19, 2010.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that operates the program, said Global Entry is available to travelers who pay a non-refundable $100 enrollment fee and undergo a background check to demonstrate clean criminal, customs and immigration records.

When arriving in the United States, Global Entry members can bypass lines for customs agents and scan their passport through an automated kiosk, where a photo is taken, declaration questions are fielded and the traveler is asked to submit fingerprints to be matched against those on file. CBP said the kiosk then prints a receipt, which the traveler must present to a CBP officer upon leaving the customs area.