IP: Interesting TSA guidance... Worthwhile reading

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
Organization: INFOWARRIOR.ORG
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 23:14:17 -0400
To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: Interesting TSA guidance...

Dave - for IP if you want.....

They actually tell you not to talk about terrorism at airport security
checkpoints.

> http://www.tsa.dot.gov/trav_consumers/guide_to_getting_onboard.shtm
>
> * Don't discuss terrorism, weapons, explosives, or other threats while going
> through the security checkpoint. Don't joke about having a bomb or firearm.
> The mere mention of words such as "gun," "bomb," etc., can compel security
> personnel to detain and question you. They are trained to consider these
> comments as real threats.

While I would never 'joke' about having a bomb or gun (and I would love to
see anyone who does joke about such arrested on the spot at an airport), I
see no reason why I could not have a legitimate chat with my travelling
companion on terrorism, national security, foreign affairs, etc.
particularly if that was my line of work or if it was news of the day (which
it happens to be, actually).....I mean, what's going to happen, you're
talking with your colleague, and then it's "so how about those yankees last
night?" when you get within earshot of the buck-an-hour screeners?

How grade-school immature is that policy? It's like keeping the lovenote
you're scribbling hidden when the teacher walks next to you during class,
and then starting to scribble again after she passes you by.

I'm waiting for the day when they say you can't talk about anything
controversial - politics, religion, weather, or family values on line
either.........blah.  In fact, just keep eyes front, mouth closed, and
shuffle along like cattle to the trough.

Amazing what lunacy we're putting up with in the name of "homeland security"
- as such, I enclose below George McGovern's WSJ oped that addresses parts
of this issue from the other day. A great read, IMHO, and a sad commentary
on where we're going in today's Three-Ring-Homeland Security-Circus.

cheers,

rick
infowarrior.org



http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1027894801697858880,00.html?mod=opinion%5
Fmain%5Fcommentaries

Flying the Unfriendly Skies
by George McGovern

When I go to an airport these days I don't worry about a terrorist bomb.
I've been flying steadily and unsteadily for 60 years, beginning with my
days as a bomber pilot in World War II. I've always known that a bomb in
somebody's suitcase could blow up the plane I was on, just as I knew every
day in 1943-45 could be my last. No one can ever take all the risk out of
flying. On the wrong day you can even be hit by a drunken driver going to
or from the airport.

But what terrifies me at the airports now is not the terrorists or drunks.
It is the fear that I won't be able to get through all the checkpoints, or
that my car will be seized for parking within a mile of the airport, or
that I will have forgotten my identity card, or that I'll forget one of my
shoes while my toes are being examined for explosives, or that my foot
odor will offend some examiner and get me arrested as a public nuisance.

I worry that the little nail-clippers in my toilet article bag will be
detected by the X-ray machine and get me arrested as a threat to the pilot
and flight crew. But most of all I worry about missing the deadline for
being checked in, rechecked and checked again before finally reaching my
assigned seat flustered, humiliated and exhausted.

On Sunday morning, April 21, 2002, I was trying to make a 7 a.m. Northwest
Airlines departure from Sioux Falls, S.D. -- in my home state -- so that I
could make a speech in Portland, Ore. I set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. at my
home in Mitchell, an hour's drive from Sioux Falls. Unfortunately, my
reputation for fast driving, or what has been disrespectfully described as
"low flying," failed me that morning because of an unbelievable late April
snowstorm -- almost a blizzard. Despite this obstacle I was at the Sioux
Falls Airport by 6:30 a.m., a half-hour ahead of flight time. This would
have been an unusually early arrival for me in the old days, but not under
the terrifying police-state bureaucracy that has now seized our airports.

I parked my car at a respectable and legal distance from the terminal and
made it to the ticket counter 20 minutes before flight time. At that hour
no other person was in sight except a single Northwest woman at check-in
who informed me triumphantly that it was too late for her to check me in.
She said I had missed the 30-minute deadline. No amount of pleading,
punctuated by the kind of words not ordinarily used by me around a woman,
would shake this dutiful employee on guard at the ramparts of freedom.
Since I had represented South Dakota in Congress for nearly a quarter
century, been nominated for the presidency and been in the news off and on
since then, I was quite certain the agent hadn't mistaken me for Osama bin
Laden. But she was not to be moved from the grip of bureaucratic devotion.
Fortunately, since no one else was in sight, my indelicate language was
not heard.

God and logic failed me and I was left sitting at the airport until a
slightly more relaxed airline attendant got me to Portland via Denver on
United Airlines. Better late than never -- I guess.

Next day in Portland I went through the same experience with Delta Air
Lines. Glowing from a great standing ovation from a large crowd in
Portland after the dedication of the biggest food bank in America, I was
determined to be on time for my flight to Washington, D.C., which left the
next morning at 6:55 a.m.

I was in a hotel about a mile from the airport and could have walked to
the terminal except for a heavy bag and my natural laziness -- or is it
that I'm now 80? Arranging with the hotel for a ride to the airport I went
down at 6 a.m. only to discover that the driver was at the airport with
other passengers. He returned at 6:15, and I was at the check-in counter
30 minutes before boarding time -- nothing to worry about. This time I
discovered that Delta is even more stubborn and rigid than Northwest.

When I pointed out that it was still 30 minutes before departure, the
Delta enforcer said, "We quit checking people in 30 minutes before
departure." Then as if she had just come down from Mt. Sinai with the 11th
Commandment, a supervisor hurried over to tell me that even if they wanted
to check me in the computer would not let them do it. Presumably if I had
arrived 10 seconds earlier the computer would have said, "This is a loyal
American, let him pass."

The computer has become a new weapon of mass destruction to overrule our
minds and our common sense. Did I tell you that I am terrified by
computers, e-mail and the Internet? The only things worse are automated
telephones that tell you to press numbers 1 through 99 and then inform you
that the item you want is no longer in stock. Civilization is crumbling
before these awful gadgets -- although my grandsons are threatening to
show me that they are not any more dangerous than the atomic bomb or AIDS.

[RFF - Of course. The computer is always right. Bow down to the silicon
jesus and offer up your common sense and intelligence. It's right, you are
wrong. Trust in the silicon jesus - all others we treat as enemies of the
state, even if they're not....]

I'll probably yield to the computer age eventually despite my strong
instincts against it. But deep inside I'll never yield to the airport
terrorism that President Bush has imposed on us as his answer to Osama bin
Laden. I'm willing to shoot bin Laden. I'd even volunteer to fly a bomber
against him if we had any idea of what country he is in. But I'm not
willing to let fear of Osama bin Laden weaken our civil rights and convert
our airports into police-state nightmares.

Mr. McGovern was a U.S. senator from South Dakota, 1963-1981, and the
Democratic presidential nominee in 1972.


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