TSA Pays Blogger to Mock People Harassed by TSA

http://reason.com/blog/2010/01/19/tsa-pays-blogger-to-mock-peopl

by cwan • 17 years ago

63 33 17 years ago

reason.com

philk• 17 years ago

It's disturbing to think that these people are responsible for the safety of our flights.

pyre2• 17 years ago

I highly doubt that the blogger in question has responsibilities that large.

modoc4• 17 years ago

They aren't. Not in any useful way. You are always responsible for yourself, and flying is risky. Not as risky as driving a car, or showering, but there is a risk at putting yourself in a tin can 30k feet up etc...

But yes, the TSA is a mockery of actual security, and the general american public is the one being laughed at.

fretlessjazz• 17 years ago

True that you're responsible for yourself, but would you rather go to an airport with no metal detectors, no X-ray machines or armed personnel?

dpatru• 17 years ago

Why is it "disturbing to think that these people are responsible for the safety of our flights"? Did something about the blog-post in question disturb you, or just what you know in general about the TSA? I'm not being sarcastic. I just want to know what prompted your comment.

pyre2• 17 years ago

The article content was interesting, but the title is highly link-bait. I don't cwan though, because it is the exact title of the actual article.

[EDIT] I'll make the additional comment that claiming that "there are no children on the No-Fly List" is dodging the issue. Just because terrorist "John Smith" is on the No-Fly List and isn't a child doesn't mean that a child named "John Smith" won't be hassled because the name "John Smith" is on the No-Fly List.

tlrobinson3• 17 years ago

Ugh, talk about sensationalism. The mother who is "appalled" at this is more annoying than the slightly insensitive TSA blogger.

She even made a Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Get-Mikey-OFF-The-List/2971719...

qeorge2• 17 years ago

What would you do if it were your kid?

tlrobinson3• 17 years ago

I would hope not overreact. She's taking it personally, acting as if her kid is being insulted by being on the watch list. I too am sometimes flagged as being on some kind of list for no apparent reason, and can't check in online. I do not take it as an insult.

If it happened more often I might take the time to file the paper work, which is sounds like she finally just did.

DavidSJ• 17 years ago

The title is pretty misleading. It makes it sound like the TSA was paying "third party" bloggers to shill for them on their behalf, under a false pretense.

In fact, this was just on the TSA blog. Doesn't make it okay, but let's try to keep sensationalist, misleading titles off of HN.

billymeltdown• 17 years ago

Agreed, title is misleading. Still, an interesting, if outrageous, article.

lmkg• 17 years ago

The TSA is apparently working on a fix for this sort of situation. I fly a lot, and recently on Southwest's booking system, I've started to see a form field for entering a special "I am not a terrorist" ID for people with coincidental identifying information. I don't know what it takes to get one, but I'll copy-paste the help file:

> The Redress # is a unique number issued by the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) that is used to facilitate passenger clearance for persons who have the same name as someone on the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) watch list.

> For more information about the Secure Flight program, visit TSA's Secure Flight Web site: http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/secureflight/index.shtm

invisible• 17 years ago

And to be fair, the blog that does poke fun at the media's sensationalism does point out that a) children under 8 should be automatically de-selected, and b) there is a redress option in place for those that are afraid they may have a similar name. It's obvious this TSA guy just doesn't have anyone proof reading his post for air-headed comments. The rest of his post was informative.

anamax• 17 years ago

> children under 8 should be automatically de-selected

"should" doesn't matter if SOP is that they are.

> there is a redress option in place for those that are afraid they may have a similar name.

That's the claim, but the folks involved say that the redress option doesn't actually work.

param• 17 years ago

What I've never understood about this situation is the fact that the list, apparently, only contains names to identify people. Someone would have thought that in a country of 300m and a world of 6b, there would be multiple people with the same name.

Atleast the last 4 digits in the SSN or the passport/visa number should be used to identify people when needed.

ojbyrne• 17 years ago

When traveling from Canada, you're required to give your name, gender and birthdate. You would think the birthdate would actually be significant, but apparently not.

pinstriped_dude• 17 years ago

The title is very misleading. It almost sounds like TSA paid some random blogger who was anonymously mocking people stopped by TSA. (which is not the case). The guy is an official TSA blogger. And I sense more exasperation in his entry, than mocking. Also "harassed" is a little harsh. The Airport security screening system is far from perfect. But the actual agents at the airport have no choice but to screen a person, when there is a match, or a near match on someone's name. They have been told to err on the side of caution (after the Underwear bomber security breach).

I request the person who posted this entry to edit the title and make it less sensational.

redwax2• 17 years ago

If there are no children on the list - why do they check children against the list ?

redwax2• 17 years ago

Given the attitudes of the previous administration who set this up I would think it likely that there is a correlation between being on the list and being as it were 'left-wing'.

The suggestion that the list was set up to hassle lefties rather than stop terror is not untenable.

Be interesting to see if in fact this list is not a great danger to America by subverting its advertised purpose for political ends.

A nice mashup perhaps would be party membership of those on the list.

People are prepared to give up liberty in emergencies - the abuse of such powers to harass pacifists, enviromentalists in the UK anyway puts us all in danger for when a real emergency requires fast action.

Similar to the fable of the boy crying wolf (but a more sinister young fellow with political ambitions).

TSA Pays Blogger to Mock People Harassed by TSA

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