TSA Epic Fails

[Torakus]

The only issues I have with that video are:
1) That guys sucks at presenting
2) Plausible? I am not sure that is the best term for the attack vectors he envisions. As many here have mentioned before, other passengers and flight crew activity make the act of pulling one of these Rube Goldbergesque contraptions out of your carry on and having the time to actually use it, less plausible; still possible I admit, but much less plausible.
3) Scaling them up. The plausibility of the passenger being able to conceal the contraption and then actually assemble or use it on the plane is inversely proportional to its scale and complexity. So when he casually says, you just have to scale this up to make it effective, he is completely wrong. Smaller and less complex is going to be more effective.
4) I don't think he actually tried to lock himself in to the family restroom for any extended period of time at any of the airports he suggested. If you don't believe that, please feel free to try. I guarantee that after about 15 minutes you will already have gotten some attention, and if you went in without a child, the door will be opened and you will be checked on.

I think he was trying to make the point that dangerous things can be purchased at the airport, but nothing he used is on the prohibited list. So I guess I missed his point on that. I could just bring a hard copy of The Stand and wing it at the PIC as they leave the lavatory and create as much of a chance to get into the flight deck as I would with his crossbow and nobody would think twice about me getting up and grabbing a book. Of course you are not allowed to stand in the aisle forward of row six of most aircraft while a crew member is accessing the cabin door on most airlines.

I would have been really impressed if he had created an explosive from the household cleaners on the janitorial cart. Since no MSDS or labeling is required for "household" cleaners, nobody knows exactly what is on those carts. A resourceful threat with an insider helper could very easily get what they need, where they need it.

[Ddrak]

Fair assessment of the video. I would probably agree with the TSA confiscating the hardcover version of The Stand though. That's just not cool to bring on a plane...

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

I thought of this thread when I saw this picture

[Torakus]

Funny story:

Douche bag in Congress...let's call him oh....John Mica as a pseudonym....spends millions of dollars on a witch hunt, constantly demanding GAO and DHS IG investigations and reports regarding a single Agency in the Executive Branch. For this story we will call them the TSA (I know, far fetched...but stay with me here).

Douche Bag...I mean the Honorable Mr. Mica receives his latest multi-million dollar report regarding employee misconduct at this agency....the same day his staff release bits and pieces and the story grabs national headlines..."Are They Stealing From You? - Misconduct at TSA increases 26% in 3 years".

Turns out that 99.944% of the "misconduct" had fuck all to do with "stealing from you" but were the same things all employers are challenged with (employees not showing up to work - 32%, employees not following procedures correctly - 20%, employees lying on official documents 10%, etc), and only 52 (just over 1 half of 1 percent) of the over 9,000 incidents of misconduct were related to theft (and, oh by the way, some of those thefts were of government property, not passengers).

Two days after story breaks....it dies.

Moral of story? Go fuck yourself Mica.

[UltraBurz]

TSA groped me and took photos of my junk in that full body scan machine when I was traveling to Korea this past June. Unfortunate true story.

[Ddrak]

It doesn't count if you asked them, or if your junk is so large they suspect it's carrying drugs of its own.

Dd

[UltraBurz]

It doesn't count if you asked them, or if your junk is so large they suspect it's carrying drugs of its own.

Dd

That's what I get for wearing only a speedo.

[Torakus]

I had the CCTV tapes pulled. SOP requires that men wearing women's underwear be groped.

[Ddrak]

Interesting experience with the TSA/FBI: http://varnull.adityamukerjee.net/post/ ... ng-ramadan

Dd

[Torakus]

Interesting experience with the TSA/FBI: http://varnull.adityamukerjee.net/post/ ... ng-ramadan

Dd

With all of the recent interest DHS is taking in its employees online activity, this one almost feels like a set up, but I will respond anyway.

Suddenly I remembered something: the very last thing I had done before leaving was to take the bed sheets off of my bed, as I was moving out. Since this was a dorm room, to guard against bedbugs, my dad (a physician) had given me an over-the-counter spray to spray on the mattress when I moved in, over two months previously. Was it possible that that was still active and triggering their machines?

"I also have a bedbug spray," I said. "I don’t know the name of it, but I knew it was over-the-counter, so I figured it probably contained permethrin." Permethrin is an insecticide, sold over-the-counter to kill bed bugs and lice.

Permethrin on his clothing was not likely the alarm source, however it was part of the reason he was detained. Thousands of military members fly in uniforms that are treated with permethrin every day and they don't alarm at checkpoints or in their checked bags. What this blogger doesn't note is what was going on with that checked bag of his. TSA and the airline most certainly knew he had a checked bag, so his assertion regarding that must be a lie. In fact the checked bag is probably the most important part of the story. And while I cannot divulge why, the blogger could have, yet chose not to. I wonder why?

Excessive exposure to permethrin can cause nausea, headache, muscle weakness, excessive salivation, shortness of breath, and seizures.

Imagine a can of that going off in someone's luggage somewhere in the bowels of the airport. Imagine, if you will, what the security reaction would be to screeners exhibiting these symptoms afterwards.

[Ddrak]

Uh, what???

http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2 ... -requests/

The TSA is allowed to lie on FOIA requests?

Dd

[Torakus]

Uh, what???

http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2 ... -requests/

The TSA is allowed to lie on FOIA requests?

Dd

Lots of hyperbole in his blog, not much reality.

1) Can the TSA (or local governments as directed by the TSA) lie in response to a FOIA request?

I could not find where TSA lied on the FOIA request. Broward County Florida may have lied but they are not TSA. And before you make the same b.s. claim that Corbett makes, TSA did not direct Broward County to lie. In accordance with the contract TSA has with BCF to operate the CCTV systems at the airport, TSA told them not to provide the footage to Corbett.

2) Can the TSA hide the names and faces of its public-facing employees (and any local law enforcement coming to their aid) who are accused of misconduct?

Yes. Your accusation of misconduct does not trump their right to privacy. If they are under investigation for misconduct by some entity that has the authority to conduct that investigation, then they lose that right to privacy due to public interest trumping it. But Mr. Corbett's intent is not to investigation misconduct (regardless of his lack of authority), but to harass these people by posting their PII online.

3) Can the TSA frustrate court review of whether or not a document is releasable under FOIA simply by “ordering” it secret?

This isn't even the issue. TSA is not frustrating the court review by ordering anything secret. They simply said that their search for documents was reasonable and the court agreed. The court also determined that THIS PARTICULAR court does not have the jurisdiction to review the SSI information, but that the appeals court does.

I find it funny that this turd still thinks he got away with fooling the AIT. He didn't. Nor are there any "nude body scanners" or any that use ionizing radiation left in operation. Not that they were taken out because of his supposed vulnerability or due to the radiation being hazardous. They were shelved because RAPISCAN could not implement the ATR requirements in the statement of work. With ATR the operator only sees an outline person and the computer does all the work detecting stuff. The only AIT still in use are the MMW systems that use an EHF signal at lower power than you cell phone to create a radar image that is processed for anomalies by the computer and displayed on a stick figure display.

Tora

[Ddrak]

I could not find where TSA lied on the FOIA request. Broward County Florida may have lied but they are not TSA. And before you make the same b.s. claim that Corbett makes, TSA did not direct Broward County to lie. In accordance with the contract TSA has with BCF to operate the CCTV systems at the airport, TSA told them not to provide the footage to Corbett.

That would certainly mean BCF made a false statement to the effect that no footage existed, when the reality was the existence of footage was SSI and can't be confirmed or denied. The judge appears to agree that BCF can legally state something that is untrue in response to a FOIA. That ruling seems suspect to me.

Dd

[Torakus]

I could not find where TSA lied on the FOIA request. Broward County Florida may have lied but they are not TSA. And before you make the same b.s. claim that Corbett makes, TSA did not direct Broward County to lie. In accordance with the contract TSA has with BCF to operate the CCTV systems at the airport, TSA told them not to provide the footage to Corbett.

That would certainly mean BCF made a false statement to the effect that no footage existed, when the reality was the existence of footage was SSI and can't be confirmed or denied. The judge appears to agree that BCF can legally state something that is untrue in response to a FOIA. That ruling seems suspect to me.

Dd

And like I said BCF is Broward County Florida. Not TSA. TSA simply directed BCF under the contract that they were not to disclose SSI footage to Corbett. TSA then released the requested footage in sanitized form under FOIA rules. The judge was not ruling on FOIA in this portion but on the FPRA. He stated that Federal law preempts State law and that the point was moot, because even if BCF lied, TSA released the requested material under FOIA rather than allowing BCF to release it under FPRA. In asking for summary judgment regarding BCF's alleged violation of the FPRA, Corbett is essentially requesting release of the footage, which he already has. The ruling makes sense to me.

The only thing I find wrong is when the judge says that BCF acted on TSA's direction to deny the existence of the footage. The background of the case does not state this, but rather that TSA denied them permission to disclose the footage. I think there might be some confusion regarding the use of the term disclosure. I do not think that this line sets a legal precedent, so it isn't a big deal, but the judge probably did err when he said that.

[Ddrak]

Sounds like we're agreeing. BCF should have said they can't confirm/deny the existence of footage (as requested by the TSA, assuming it even exists and hasn't been erased) rather than the footage didn't exist.

Dd