this is PURE, Grade-A, 100%, Prime Government BULLSH!T!!!
Posted on 04/20/2006 1:01:57 PM PDT by Exton1
You'll hear a lot of mottos in the military. One key phrase is "hurry up and wait," which definitely applied to the friends and families of 29 Marines returning from Iraq Tuesday.
They spent a couple extra hours waiting at Fort Snelling because one Marine had to spend a couple extra hours at a Los Angeles airport.
"My surprise was when he told me he wasn't making the flight with the rest of his unit," says Terry Brown, mother of Staff Sergeant Dan Brown.
Brown, who has now served two tours of duty in Iraq, couldn't get through LAX security.
"They took him aside and said, you need to come with us, you're on the federal watch list, you're not gonna be able to fly," says First Sgt. Drew Benson, a family readiness officer.
When Brown left the Twin Cities for Iraq last June, airport security found traces of gun powder on his boots from his first tour of duty. Brown was briefly detained then but didn't know he was placed on a watch list.
The unit had no choice but to fly out of L.A. without Brown. But they refused to drive home without him.
"They left here together as a unit, they're coming back to this site as a unit," says Cary Brown, the Marine's father.
Brown's unit waited for him at the Twin Cities airport, so they could all arrive at Fort Snelling together. They were following another motto: Never leave anyone behind.
"I wouldn't expect anything less," Brown says.
He was allowed to catch the next flight home, but he's still baffled he was held back in the first place.
"You're in uniform, you're carrying orders, you're carrying an ID card," Brown says. "Let's use a little common sense here."
He now hopes to clear his name from the list.
"I've been fighting terrorism for the last 16 months in Iraq," he says. "I don't think I should have to come home and deal with this."
Brown's parents say they understand the airport security people needed to do their jobs, too.
The Browns will now work with local politicans to get his name off the list.
(Copyright 2006 by KARE 11. All Rights Reserved.)
Unit should have threatened to not board A/C in LAX and also threatened to call local TV stations.
Problem would have gone away ASAP.
The fact that the TSA is nothing but a make-work program for people who are otherwise unemployable might have something to do with it.
"Dan Brown"
Pretty common name, huh? So, he's on the "watch list..." I wonder if all the other Dan Browns are going to get the same going over.
Like many folks, I have a common name. I can't wait until someone with the same name gets on the TSA watch list. That'll be so much fun...
In other news, Rep. Cynthia McKinney has not yet been charged for assaulting a police officer.
It was probably something understandable, like he was carrying a bible, or fingernail-clippers, or something. Or he wasn't kissing another MAN.
That's a pretty high order for TSA folks. Also, what idiot put him on the list in the first place? Let me see, US Marine, been to Iraq, has gunpowder residue on his boots... duh.
Common sense and Federal employees seldom mix well.
Painting with a mighty wide brush there my friend!
Sigh....
this is PURE, Grade-A, 100%, Prime Government BULLSH!T!!!
Read post 11...
TSA is a federal agency – and therefore totally unaccountable to the American people.
TSA was created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Although the National Guard, DOD, FBI, CIA, NSA, and FAA utterly failed to protect American citizens on that tragic day, federal legislators immediately proposed creating yet another government agency. But the commercial flying community did not want airport security federalized, and my office was inundated with messages from airline pilots opposing the creation of TSA. One pilot stated, "I don't want the same people who bring me the IRS and ATF to be in charge of airport security." But Congress didn't listen to the men and women who spend their working lives flying, so it created another agency that costs billions of dollars, employs thousands of unionized federal workers, and produces poor results.
Problems within TSA are legion. In the rush to hire a new workforce, 28,000 screeners were put to work without background checks. Some of them were convicted felons. Many were very young, uneducated, with little job experience. At Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York, police arrested dozens of TSA employees who were simply stealing valuables from the luggage they were assigned to inspect. Of course, TSA has banned locks on checked luggage, leaving passengers with checked bags totally at the mercy of screeners working behind closed doors. None of this is surprising for a government agency of any size, but we must understand the reality of TSA: its employees have no special training, wisdom, intelligence, or experience whatsoever that qualifies them to have any authority over you. They certainly have no better idea than you do how to prevent terrorism. TSA is about new bureaucratic turf and lucrative union make-work, not terrorism.
TSA has created an atmosphere of fear and meek subservience in our airports that smacks of Soviet bureaucratic bullying. TSA policies are subject to change at any moment, they differ from airport to airport, and they need not be in writing. One former member of Congress demanded to see the written regulation authorizing a search of her person. TSA flatly told her, "We don't have to show it to anyone." Think you have a right to know the laws and regulations you are expected to obey? Too bad. Get in line and stay quiet, or we'll make life very hard for you. This is the attitude of TSA personnel.
Passengers, of course, have caught on quickly. They have learned to stay quiet and not ask any questions, no matter how ludicrous or undignified the command. It's bad enough to see ordinary Americans bossed around in their stocking feet by newly-minted TSA agents, but it's downright disgraceful to see older Americans and children treated so imperiously. But any objection, however rational and reasonable, risks immediate scrutiny. At best, complainers will be taken aside and might miss their flight. If they don't submit quickly and attempt to assert any rights, they will end up detained, put on a TSA list that guarantees them hostile treatment at every airport, and possibly arrested or fined for their "attitude."
Airlines should be using every last ounce of their lobbying and public relations power to stop TSA from harassing, delaying, humiliating, and otherwise mistreating their paying passengers. They should be protecting their employees, passengers, and aircraft using private security and guns in the cockpit. After all, who has more incentive to create safe skies than the airlines themselves? Many security-intensive industries, including nuclear power plants, oil refineries, and armored money transports, employ private security forces with excellent results. Yet the airlines prefer to relinquish all responsibility for security to the government, so they cannot be held accountable if another disaster occurs. But airlines are finding out the hard way that millions of Americans simply won't put up with TSA's abuse. Wealthy Americans are using private planes via increasingly popular fractional ownership plans, while ordinary Americans are choosing to drive to their destinations and vacation closer to home. Even business travelers are finding ways to consolidate trips and teleconference. Who can blame anyone for avoiding airports altogether?
While millions of Americans undoubtedly welcome any TSA indignity under the guise of "preventing terrorism," millions more are not willing to give blind obedience to arbitrary authority. TSA creates only a false sense of security, at great cost not only financially but also in terms of our dignity. How we as Americans react to authoritarian agencies like TSA is an indicator of how much we still value freedom over our persons and effects.
Not only do I disagree, but I resent that statement. My coworkers are current and former Marines, Soldiers, Police Officers, Airmen, Sailors, Business Executives, etc. As a former Marine Corps Military Police with extensive experience in both law enforcement and security, I am hardly unemployable. In fact, I was employed when I was hired by TSA. I turned down a position with a big city police department in favor of TSA because I have allegiances to my country but not necessarily to the city that I would have been working in. I wanted to serve my country again. Females with my background and skills are in high demand in both law enforcement, private security and government agencies. I chose to work for the federal government. In my opinion, there is nothing more prestigious. 9/11 doesn't seem to mean anything to some people anymore, but I will NEVER forget and I will NEVER stop doing my job to the best of my ability. It is easy to say awful things about TSA and it's Agents, but the American public is flying and that means that they feel secure. TSA has played an enormous role in that.
This is PREPOSTEROUS!While I realize that TSA has a difficult job to do,this is WAY OVER THE TOP!!
How some people "feel" and reality are 2 different things unless you are a government employee.
I and many others have stopped flying because of TSA retards. Refusal to profile, harassment of the elderly, children, searches without warrants yet the same socialist slime are up in arms about the government tracking phone numbers to 1-800-RagHeads-R-Us.
For trips less than 10 hours, driving is the only way for me. From 80 RT flights a year to 0 for 4 years has been great. The airlines no longer know how to treat a customer and they get to use the TSA as a crutch.
Get a real job.
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