Entries Tagged "homeland security"

Page 17 of 37

Michael Chertoff Parodied in The Onion

Funny:

“While 9/11 has historically always fallen on 9/11, we as Americans need to be prepared for a wide range of dates,” Chertoff said during a White House press conference. “There’s a chance we could all find ourselves living in a post-6/10 world as early as next July. Unless, that is, we’re already living in a pre-2/14 world.”

“1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5,” Chertoff continued for nearly 45 minutes, “12/28, 12/29, 12/30, 12/31—these are all plausible and serious threats.”

Not very far from reality. Refuse to be terrorized, everyone.

Posted on January 14, 2009 at 12:04 PM • View Comments

Kip Hawley Is Starting to Sound Like Me

Good quote:

“In the hurly-burly and the infinite variety of travel, you can end up with nonsensical results in which the T.S.A. person says, ‘Well, I’m just following the rules,'” Mr. Hawley said. “But if you have an enemy who is going to study your technology and your process, and if you have something they can figure out a way to get around, and they’re always figuring, then you have designed in a vulnerability.”

Posted on January 6, 2009 at 5:51 AM • View Comments

Gunpowder Is Okay to Bring on an Airplane

Putting it in a clear plastic baggie magically makes it safe:

Mind you, I had packed the stuff safely. It was in three separate jars: one of charcoal, one of sulphur, and one of saltpetre (potassium nitrate). Each jar was labeled: Charcoal, Sulphur, Saltpetre. I had also thoroughly wet down each powder with tap water. No ignition was possible. As a good citizen, I had packed the resulting pastes into a quart-sized “3-1-1” plastic bag, along with my shampoo and hand cream. This bag I took out of my messenger bag and put on top of my bin of belongings, turned so that the labels were easy for the TSA inspector to read.

Posted on December 29, 2008 at 7:05 AM • View Comments

DHS Reality Show

On ABC:

Every day the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security patrol more than 100,000 miles of America’s borders. This territory includes airports, seaports, land borders, international mail centers, the open seas, mountains, deserts and even cyberspace. Now viewers will get an unprecedented look at the work of these men and women while they use the newest technology to safeguard our country and enforce our laws, in “Homeland Security USA,” which debuts with the episode “This is Your Car on Drugs,” TUESDAY, JANUARY 6 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on ABC.

Sure it’s propaganda, but the agency can use the image boost.

Posted on December 23, 2008 at 1:10 PM • View Comments

Schneier on 60 Minutes

I’m on 60 Minutes today. If you’re a new reader who has just found me from that show, welcome. Here are links to some of my previous writings about airplane security:

Airport Pasta-Sauce Interdiction Considered Harmful
The TSA’s Useless Photo ID Rules
Airline Security a Waste of Cash
Airplane Security and Metal Knives

I also interviewed Kip Hawley last year.

This page contains all my essays and op eds.

Everyone, consider this the thread to discuss the show.

I’m particularly croggled by this quote from the CBS page:

“…it’s why the TSA was created: to never forget,” Hawley tells Stahl.

This quote summarizes nicely a lot about what’s wrong with the TSA. They focus much too much on the specifics of the tactics that have been used, and not enough on the broad threat.

EDITED TO ADD (12/23): Here’s the segment.

Posted on December 21, 2008 at 4:00 PM • View Comments

Bypassing Airport Checkpoints

From a reader:

I always get a giggle from reading about TSA security procedures, because of what I go through during my occasional job at an airport. I repair commercial kitchen cooking equipment—restaurants etc. On occasion I have to go to restaurants inside a nearby airport terminal to repair equipment, sometimes needing a return trip with parts.

So here’s the scene. I park inside the parking garage area in my company truck. I carry my 30 pound toolbox and a large cardboard box, about 2 1/2 feet long with parts for a broiler to be repaired. I go to a restaurant outside the security zone and pick up an “escort”, typically a kid of maybe 25 years old. I obviously can’t go through the TSA checkpoint, as they’d have absolute conniptions about my tools and large parts. So, without ever having to show ID, or even looking at what I may have in the large cardboard box or my large metal toolbox, the escort takes me down an elevator, out onto the tarmac, past waiting planes pulled up to the terminal, back inside the terminal building and coming out on the other side of the TSA checkpoint, then off to the restaurant to be repaired. Then, when I’m done, they escort my out the normal way, past the TSA screening area, with my toolbox and large cardboard box in hand. No one bats an eye as to what might have transpired or how my stuff magically appeared on the “secure” side and is now leaving right in front of them

And people wonder why I call it all security theater?

Posted on December 18, 2008 at 10:19 AM • View Comments

Ed Felten on TSA Behavioral Screening

Good comment:

Now suppose that TSA head Kip Hawley came to you and asked you to submit voluntarily to a pat-down search the next time you travel. And suppose you knew, with complete certainty, that if you agreed to the search, this would magically give the TSA a 0.1% chance of stopping a deadly crime. You’d agree to the search, wouldn’t you? Any reasonable person would accept the search to save (by assumption) at least 0.001 lives. This hypothetical TSA program is reasonable, even though it only has a 0.1% arrest rate. (I’m assuming here that an attack would cost only one life. Attacks that killed more people would justify searches with an even smaller arrest rate.)

So the commentators’ critique is weak—but of course this doesn’t mean the TSA program should be seen as a success. The article says that the arrests the system generates are mostly for drug charges or carrying a false ID. Should a false-ID arrest be considered a success for the system? Certainly we don’t want to condone the use of false ID, but I’d bet most of these people are just trying to save money by flying on a ticket in another person’s name—which hardly makes them Public Enemy Number One. Is it really worth doing hundreds of searches to catch one such person? Are those searches really the best use of TSA screeners’ time? Probably not.

Right. It’s not just about the hit rate. It’s the cost vs. benefit: cost in taxpayer money, passenger time, TSA screener attention, fundamental liberties, etc.

Posted on December 17, 2008 at 6:38 AM • View Comments

Flying While Armed

Two years ago, all it took to bypass airport security was filling out a form:

Grant was flying from Boston to San Diego on Jan. 1, 2007, when he approached an American Airlines ticket counter at Logan International Airport and flashed a badge he carries as a part-time assistant harbor master in Chatham, according to federal prosecutors.

Grant, a medical supplies salesman, also filled out a “flying while armed” form and wrote that he worked for the Department of Homeland Security, prosecutors said.

[…]

He allegedly did the same on his return trip to Boston three days later.

But this time, according to court documents, he was invited into the cockpit, was told the identity of the two air marshals on the flight, and was informed who else on the plane was armed, which raises security concerns.

Since then, the TSA has made changes in procedure.

At the airport, law enforcers now need advance permission to fly armed.

“We have added substantial layers of security to this process,” said TSA spokesman George Naccara.

The case took almost two years to come to light so federal authorities could tighten airport security and prevent similar incidents, said Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

“The flying public can be assured that this has led to a change of procedures to ensure that credentials are properly vetted,” said Ann Davis, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration.

Posted on December 9, 2008 at 7:22 AM • View Comments

TSA Aiding Luggage Thieves

In this story about luggage stealing at Los Angeles International Airport, we find this interesting paragraph:

They both say there are organized rings of thieves, who identify valuables in your checked luggage by looking at the TSA x-ray screens, then communicate with baggage handlers by text or cell phone, telling them exactly what to look for.

Someone should investigate the extent to which the TSA’s security measures facilitate crime.

Posted on December 2, 2008 at 2:15 PM • View Comments

1 … 15 16 17 18 19 … 37

Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.