Posted on 4/4/2009, 2:34:08 PM by marktwain
WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- A spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Transportation Security Administration employees slipped an encouraging note into an Ensign staffer's luggage.
Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola said a staffer flying into Washington discovered a note in his suitcase that was signed by six TSA employees and thanked the senator for his efforts to lift the gun ban in the nation's capital, Politico reported Friday.
"To Senator Ensign: Please continue to defend our conservative values with all your vigor, particularly our Second Amendment! Thank you," the note read.
Mazzola said it was the first time someone had used that method to contact the senator.
"People call, write, e-mail and even fax our office, but this is certainly a first," he said.
"Now we have another example comparing Capitol Hill to high school: recess, cafeterias, bells, attendance checks and now note-passing," Mazzola said.
"Senator Ensign appreciates the kind words of support, but he can't take all the credit. It's a credit to overwhelming support from 61 other senators who stood up for Second Amendment rights and voted for his bill."
My first thought: Uh-oh. I hope these guys don’t get fired or punished now.
My second thought: Cool. Do you think they were FReepers?
It’s worrying that people think it’s OK for TSA staffers to insert anything into somebody’s suitcase.
This time it was a note: why not a bag of cocaine next time? Might make for an interesting time if the Senator’s connecting to an International flite.
--Sen's Ensign and Thune (R., SD) are turning out to be two real Second Amendment supporters--
A kid gives another kid a aspirin. Next time they might give them heroin!
You caught his arm to steady him, next time you might break it.
You gave away a sandwich, next time it might be poisoned.
This kind on mindset is dangerous because it leads to our being divided rather then unified. We regard one another with dark suspicion rather then open good will. We make no distinction between actions that are benign and the lethal.
While I agree in general with your point, it is important to acknowledge Customs agents the world over do tend to adopt a Zero Tolerance approach to drug smuggling, and rightly so. Having systems in place that permit baggage handlers access to the interior of travelers’ suitcases is folly at best.
Moreover, America is at war with an enemy whose number would be well represented in the baggage handlers’ profession: if they can get notes inside suitcases, why not explosives?
It’s OK to nurture a good healthy dark suspicion in some environments and to adopt Zero Tolerance to certain infractions. Bags in an aeroplane would be one such environment, I suggest. They should be sacrosanct.
A kid gives another kid a aspirin. Next time they might give them heroin!
But if a young girl wants an abortion, her parents are not notified. The double-standard is glaring.
TSA are slightly more then baggage handlers. TSA can be anything from a baggage screener (the guy who opens your bag to check it) to the Air Marshall (armed) on the flight
By the by, I have gotten notes from the TSA myself. Every time they open a bag to search it they must, by law, leave a printed form saying that they did so.
> By the by, I have gotten notes from the TSA myself. Every time they open a bag to search it they must, by law, leave a printed form saying that they did so.
If I were drafting their security policies they would not do this. They would instead seal your bag with a wide band of scotch tape with words to the effect that they had opened and searched your bag. This would mean that everything within the bag behind the tape had been checked by TSA. (and, presumably, if there is a 2 kg bag of cocaine in your luggage, it was obviously placed there after you checked it by the TSA).
If they find something they must remove it and you need to be questioned.
Note or tape, same thing.
> And that would be better, how?
Ever notice on your baggage declaration you’re asked to sign off that you personally packed every bag that you are carrying?
Under the current method, there would be a defense that your bag may have been tampered with by the TSA, and that is why there is 2 kgs of cocaine in it.
If the TSA instead were to seal with tape every bag that they opened, the only way that defense could work is if the cocaine were to be found in a bag that had been sealed. And, naturally, the search-and-sealing would be done by the TSA staff working in pairs: one searches, the other seals, both sign off. Unsealed bags would, by definition, be unsearched and thus last accessed by the traveler.
A few years ago I flew back from the east and had a couple of antique ammo reloading tools as well as some old-time bicycle wrenches. As a CYA, I noted that when I checked the baggage.
When I got home I found a note from TSA that they had inspected the items. I found it interesting that they left the ammo tools alone but wrapped up the wrenches and put an "inspected" sticker on them.
When I flew back West last year, I had a little handy-dandy keychain combo tool (about the size of a half-dollar - knife and scissors) that had gotten past the Las Vegas guys get confiscated in Baltimore. The guy said I had the option to ship it back if I wanted to but I had no envelope and didn't want to mess with it. He said aloud to somebody, "The passenger doesn't want the tool" - I guess as a CYA on his part.
I fly as little as possible because I don't like the inspections but have to say that the TSA people I have run into have been courteously professional. Next time thoug, I will bring a pre-paid padded envelope with me.
Tape or note there just needs to be a sign that it has been opened.
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