Free Republic

The COVID-19 virus is remaking society in ways both large and small. Did we all shake our last hand in March, for example? How many people, now that their employers have them working from home, will be willing to endure the daily grind of a commute when they’ve seen how life is like away from the cubicle farm? Also, will we ever again be willing to join a long, tightly packed line or bunch up in front of a TSA security checkpoint? Let’s not forget, as well, the TSA security screening process, one in which you and your luggage may...

Inattentional blindness occurs when you fail to notice an object or even a person that’s right in front of you because your attention was focused on something else, such as a task or an event or some other object. In aviation security, for example, an airport police officer might fail to discern a fully visible traveler who’s accidentally crossed through an equally visible portal into a non-public area because the police officer is engaged in another task. Both activities – the traveler entering a non-public area and the task the officer is performing – are plainly evident to him, but...

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol’s facial recognition technology program has now arrived at Detroit’s international airport. Known as ‘Simplified Arrival,’ CBP’s biometric-based system matches the faces of arriving international travelers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport against the images contained in their travel documents, enabling the agency to quickly verify their identities. Detroit also joins a growing list of top US airports using the Simplified Arrivals system, where at least 20 of them will offer the facial recognition technology to speed through the Customs process by the end of 2020. Systems like Simplified Arrivals and its brother facial recognition program, Biometric Exit...

In the U.S. and Europe most especially, recognizing a threat posed by an individual flyer and then managing it so that his civil liberties aren’t infringed until necessary is important to the security process. Assigning flyers a score based on the risk each poses to commercial travel – a score which may increase or decrease based on many factors – is one way to effectively security screen each traveler. In other words, the depth and comprehensiveness of the aviation security screening you might receive prior to boarding your flight could depend on a ‘risk score’ based on data collected about...

No sane person enjoys standing in an airport security line. In some cases, especially when you’re late for your flight, the wait to get through security can seem like hours or even days. And wait times to make it through airport security have indeed gone up over the last 20 or so years in response to terrorism threats. Fortunately developments in artificial intelligence (AI) are beginning to make it easier to get through airport security. Airports, airlines and government security agencies generally must balance two competing objectives. The first is to ensure that robust and effective aviation security programs are...

A federal judge on September 4th ruled unconstitutional the government’s list of “known or suspected terrorists” – formally known as the Terrorist Screening Database. The ruling for plaintiffs, who may or may not even be on the ‘terrorist watchlist,’ was delivered by Judge Anthony Trenga of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and is a blow to federal government efforts to combat terrorism. .... The lawsuit had been brought by 23 Muslims who were American citizens and who also claimed they'd been included on the watchlist. Their complaints involved being secretly flagged and placed on the...

Israel, which has experienced much terrorism, both within its borders and against its citizens around the world, is generally acknowledged to be expert in the field of aviation security. To say that Israel takes such matters seriously, especially at its airports and onboard the planes of its flag carrier, El Al, would be an understatement. So: Can the U.S., with its gargantuan air transportation system, learn anything from Israel when it comes to aviation security? The short answer is “yes,” but with caveats. For starters, let’s look at how security at the airport level – which is where most flyers...

It’s a safe bet to say that hundreds of millions of U.S. flyers since Reid’s attempted attack have had to remove their shoes while passing through a TSA security checkpoint. TSA also says that since the screening of shoes was initiated it has screened close to 10 BILLION (with a ‘B’) of them. The security agency says the figure is a “conservative estimate,” too. This is where we must ask ourselves why we’re still taking our shoes off, given there’s never been a shoe bomb-style attack that’s originated on U.S. soil. Indeed, Reid as well as the infamous Underwear Bomber...

... [However], there are currently 22 airports -- including San Francisco’s and Kansas City’s -- which have been allowed to participate in what the federal security agency call its “Screening Partnership Program.” In fact, since 2004, all commercial air facilities falling under federal security oversight (they’re known as “federalized airports”) can apply to privatize their security screening services. .... How effective is private security screening versus the screening provided at airports by TSA? The answer is difficult to determine, but several government or government-sponsored studies say that private screeners, when properly supervised, are at least as efficient and possibly less...

Earlier this evening I posted on CNN using a demonstrably fake story to slander ICE medical staff. In that story, a woman named Maria Domingo-Garcia accused ICE of keeping her in detention even though she was needed at home to breastfeed a 4-month-old. As it turns out, she was one of the indicted illegals. "Remember Maria Domingo-Garcia – the illegal alien mother who claimed to be breastfeeding a baby and got the media to shed tears on her behalf? Not only did ICE confirm she was not lactating, but it turns out that far from being a sympathetic victim, she...

A New York airport security worker is without a job because of a two-word message she wrote on a piece of paper. In the security video of the incident Neal Strassner requested himself, as he passes through a metal detector, the TSA agent hands him a note. Not thinking much of it, Strassner continues to go about boarding his flight when the agent calls back to him to open it. Strassner says the note read, "You ugly." "You never really know where somebody is in their day or their head. The more you think about it the more you realize...

In March 2019, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general found that the Transportation Security Administration was taking far too long to hire its security screeners. On average, TSA takes 252 days to hire screeners, who are frontline employees vital to the agency's mission. In private industry, it usually only takes from a few days to four months to hire a new employee, according to the Workable human resources website. ... Given the role played by its security screeners it's, of course, essential that TSA work toward hiring only the most capable, most qualified candidates. However, by any reasonable standard,...

According to a June 12, 2019 article in the Washington Post, Transportation Security Administration security screeners are "short-staffed, poorly paid and suffering meager morale." What's also worrying, is that the situation for TSA screeners (or "Transportation Security Officers," as they're officially known) is likely to worsen by next year. And unfortunately, the chronic short-staffing issue is nothing new to the government security agency, as 2006 news reports, as well as government inspector general findings, reveal. Indeed, air travel has increased so much since TSA's creation that it's overwhelmed the agency's ability to increase staffing in response .... Solutions do exist,...

Currently, more than 1 million U.S. airport workers possess badges giving them some level of access to secure areas of the airports in which they work. These “SIDA badges” (SIDA is an acronym for “Security Identification Display Area”) are issued to airport workers after completion of a security background check. … the level of initial background check scrutiny given to prospective airport and airline employees can be a source of concern. To save money – because the background checks and security clearance investigations described above can cost a great deal – most airport workers undergo much more limited vetting. This...

The flood of illegal immigrants trying to push through the nation’s southern border is beginning to negatively affect international travel by U.S. citizens upon reentry to the country. For one, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently announced it was canceling “some” Global Entry interviews through the remainder of the current fiscal year, which ends September 30th. CBP officers who usually deal with Global Entry applicant interviews are instead responding to the migrant surge in the southwestern U.S. This isn’t a welcome development for Americans seeking Global Entry preapproval for expedited customs clearance when they return to the U.S. after traveling...

December 10, 2014: A New York man was arrested that day by Big Apple law enforcement and charged with gun running. Over several months, he’d smuggled at least two AR-15s in addition to approximately 129 handguns into the city, often while flying from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to JFK International Airport to do so. Once in New York, the firearms were believed to have found their way into Brooklyn’s criminal underworld. The above three incidents, though not alike in the crimes committed, do have common elements which bind them together. For one, airlines and their planes were the locus of...

Does anyone who flies in the U.S. look forward to going through a TSA security line? You could probably make good money in Vegas by putting all your chips on “No.” You can make the TSA security line experience easier on yourself, however, just by taking a few simple steps. 1. Even if you fly only a couple times a year, it’ll be worth it to you to apply for the Transportation Security Administration’s Precheck program. It costs $85, is good for five years and requires an application and background check, but nothing else comes remotely close to getting you...

Commercial airports are complex environments, with many airlines and thousands of employees and travelers entering and leaving them daily, so protecting them from harm is vitally important. Unfortunately, and as history has shown, airports, airlines and the flying public are attractive targets for people and organizations wishing to do them harm. And that harm comes from a variety of directions, such as from terror groups and their fighters. What’s even more worrying is that these threats sometimes come from “insiders.” According to the International Air Transport Association, an airport insider is someone who exploits their role in or their knowledge...

Okay, the call has gone out once more, troopies, and we must march to the sound of the guns. Saturday, 1200 hours, the Honorable Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is asking that anybody who can get to the U.S. Capitol Building do so in order to make our voices as plainly loud and clear as possible as it relates to so-called health care "reform." This retired military officer and his wife ("ComNavHouseMidwest") intend to be there and we intend to stay there until we get the attention of the Democrats who think they have an unobstructed field of fire to bring the...

Grayson: “You know…FOX News and their Republican collaborators are the enemy of America. They’re the enemy of anybody who cares about health care in this country, the enemy of anybody who cares about educating their children, the enemy of everybody who wants energy independence, anything … good for this country. And they’re certainly the enemy of peace, there’s no doubt about that. They ARE the enemy.”I’ve seen people like Alan Grayson, the Democratic Representative from Florida’s 8th Congressional District, before. For example, I once attended an event held by Michigan Congressman John Conyers in the southern, suburban, part of his...