Free Republic

TSA is becoming more and more like a totalitarian police force every day, above the law and beyond the reach of accountability for their acts. A Colorado woman, Jamelyn Steenhoek, was recently subjected to what she felt was the equivalent of a gynecological exam by TSA and filed a criminal complaint, only to have the Denver District Attorney’s  Office refuse to prosecute. Cherry-picking DA’s don’t want to fight the feds. Now comes word of an incident this past Wednesday in which an award-winning Jewish author, Phyllis Chesler was singled out for special attention by TSA agents in JFK Airport. Chesler’s flight to Florida...

A Transportation Security Administration agent has been accused of threatening to shoot coworkers at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, according to multiple media reports. Jeno Vernelli Mouton, 35, has been arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat, a felony, the Houston Chronicle reported. According to the Associated Press, documents say Mouton told an airport supervisor on Jan. 25 that he wanted to vent instead of “come back and shoot up the place.” KPRC-TV reported that Mouton, who has worked at the airport for five years, was disgruntled with management and made the remark with coworkers and passengers nearby.

My pained relationship with government security had started three years earlier. I had just returned to Chicago to finish my bachelor’s degree after a two-year stint in Florida. I needed a job to help pay my way through school, and the TSA’s call-back was the first one I received. It was just a temporary thing, I told myself—side income for a year or two as I worked toward a degree in creative writing. It wasn’t like a recession would come along and lock me into the job or anything. It was May 2007. I was living with a bohemian set...

The author of the TSA blog "Taking Sense Away" is feeling the pull of capitalism. He's posted scoop on the TSA during and after his employment in the cadre of paid gropers. News media have picked his material on scanners and behavior of employees. Capitalism is calling, and there's a need to promote an upcoming novel based upon the inner workings of the TSA. Jason Edward Harrington is out of the closet. Best of luck to him.

<p>I hated it from the beginning. It was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show. I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying.</p>

A former TSA officer has confirmed many of the worst suspicions about airport security screeners: they stop passengers for having an attitude, they confiscate snow globes from children and nail clippers from pilots, they profile passengers based on their nationality. And yes, they do see travelers naked in the X-ray photos. ... ‘I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying,’ he...

Over a decade of experience has shown that the nationalization of airport screening was a mistake. ... Private airport screening is the successful approach used by many other high-income nations. Indeed, all main airports in Canada use private screening firms, as do more than 80 percent of Europe’s main airports.

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A total of 21 Transportation Security Administration officers at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport have now been arrested following the investigation into stolen employee parking passes. The probe started several months ago with an undercover investigation by the airport's Department of Public Safety. The last arrests were made over this past weekend. Investigators found an American Eagle worker had stolen 129 parking passes for employee parking lots and recruited TSA officers to sell the passes to co-workers for $100 apiece.

PITTSBURGH — Channel 11 News has learned that dozens of local Transportation Security Administration workers have been fired or suspended for involvement in an illegal gambling ring. After months of investigation, officials with the Pittsburgh office of Homeland security either fired or suspended the workers involved Thursday morning. Channel 11’s Renee Kaminski reported of the 311 local workers, five were fired, 47 were suspended and 10 letters of reprimand were sent out. All of the workers involved are accused of sports gambling at Pittsburgh International Airport while in uniform. Officials said the gambling was a violation of federal regulations. Government...

ICE agents have charged a TSA agent for allegedly allowing Brazilian nationals to illegally enter the United States by not questioning them at a security checkpoint as reported by The Washington Free Beacon. The greatest vulnerabily in American security involves corrupt officials on the take from drug cartels and other crime groups, and law enforcement has ramped up investigations to root out the dirty players. For example, in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection more than 100 agents have been charged in recent years and another 600 are under investigation as reported by Bob Reynolds for Al Jazeera. And many...

A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent was arrested Friday for conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens into the country.Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers arrested David Alexander Díaz-Torres in Orlando, Fla., according to the Justice Department.Díaz-Torres and five others were charged in a 13-count indictment for bringing, transporting, harboring, and shielding illegal aliens within the United States.According to a Justice Department press release, a group of Brazilian nationals were smuggled through the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico.Díaz-Torres allegedly allowed the Brazilians through a TSA security checkpoint without questioning them.The group then flew to New York, Boston, and...

On Friday, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer for allegedly "conspiring" to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country. According to the Justice Department, David Alexander Díaz-Torres in Orlando, FL and "five others were charged in a 13-count indictment for bringing, transporting, harboring, and shielding illegal aliens within the United States. On March 24 of this year, Diaz-Torres allegedly allowed "a group of Brazilian nationals" who were being smuggled to cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia through a TSA security checkpoint without asking any questions at the Luis Munoz International Airport in San...

A TSA agent and 5 others were caught red-handed bringing Brazilian nationals across our border illegally: ... a group of Brazilian nationals were smuggled through the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Díaz-Torres allegedly allowed the Brazilians through a TSA security checkpoint without questioning them. The group then flew to New York, Boston, and Philadelphia on commercial flights. The corruption is widespread and getting worse, ushering in not only illegals, but terrorists. An ‘event’ that rocks the US is not a matter of if, but when. We are essentially borderless with no real security protecting our...

Federal authorities say they believe a former Los Angeles International Airport security screener acted alone and there wasn't a larger plot when he allegedly made threats that closed some airport terminals. FBI Special Agent in Charge David Bowdich said Thursday investigators haven't found any explosives or weapons belonging to 29-year-old Nna Alpha Onuoha (ahn-oo-OH'-hah).

A former TSA employee who worked at Los Angeles International Airport was arrested Tuesday night after he allegedly made threats to terminals and left a suspicious package at the airport the same day he quit his job, the FBI announced early Wednesday as a bomb squad conducted a search in connection with the investigation.Nna Alpha Onuoha, 29, from Inglewood, resigned from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Tuesday -- a position he has held since 2006 -- and left a package later that afternoon at the TSA's LAX Headquarters addressed to another TSA employee, according to an FBI statement. The package...

The FBI says a security screener at Los Angeles International Airport has been arrested after quitting his job and making threats that led officials to clear terminals at the airport Tuesday. A release also says a search of 29-year-old Nna Alpha Onuoha's Inglewood otherwise empty apartment turned up a note containing unspecified threats that cited Wednesday's Sept. 11 anniversary. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller says Onuoha was arrested shortly before midnight in Riverside, and he remained in custody.

Janet Napolitano’s TSA agents won’t keep their blue, latex-covered paws to themselves. The TSA is now expanding its grope to rodeos, sports stadiums, music festivals and train stations. The TSA’s signature move is like the signature move of a guy who “accidently” brushes his hand against a woman’s buttocks or chest—a woman he’s not dating; married to; or, even a friend to. Except the TSA pulls the creeper move on men and women alike, plus grandmothers and toddlers. Between 2010 and 2012, TSA misconduct increased by 26 percent, according to a report released this summer from the Government Accountability Office....

NEW YORK, - The Transportation Security Administration said a pair of shoes seized at a New York airport had fake guns for heels. The TSA posted a photo on its Twitter account of a pair of high-heeled shoes with fake revolvers as the heels, ABC News reported Monday. The TSA said the heels were seized from a woman traveling at New York's LaGuardia Airport. "Also, what not to wear through a #LGA checkpoint," the tweet read. The agency said the shoes were banned for being replica guns. They were voluntarily surrendered by the traveler, who was not arrested or fined.

A wounded war veteran has described the moment security agents treated him like a 'terrorist' on a recent trip to California because he couldn't raise his injured right arm in a full-body scanner and his dress uniform contained 'too much metal.' Cpl. Nathan Kemnitz was awarded a Purple Heart after he almost died in 2004 from an injury incurred from a roadside bomb in Fallujah, Iraq. The brave soldier recently traveled to Sacramento, California to receive another award as his district's veteran of the year. But, what should have been a celebratory experience was tainted when suspicious security workers at...