TSA Seeks Comment on ‘Identity-Based’ Screening

by Michele McPhee       Posted Mar 21st 2011 03:00 PM

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is soliciting comments about a planned program that would cut down on controversial pat-downs and full-body scanner searches at airports and instead rely on an “intelligence” system that focuses on people who have been identified as a threat.

The move would eventually allow some frequent fliers to obtain trusted status similar to what’s been granted pilots, who pushed for faster security checks and also expressed concern about being exposed to radiation at the body scanner machines. Now pilots traveling in uniform on airline business for a U.S. carrier have a streamlined process for security screening.

The TSA’s official Blogger Bob is asking for suggestions and comments about the proposed “identity-based” system as it would apply to the general public.

“Physical screening will likely never go away completely, but the idea of adding identity-based security makes good sense and it’s an idea we’re actively exploring. So, we’d like to hear your suggestions and ideas,” Bob says.

The blog comes weeks after TSA Administrator, and former FBI agent, John Pistole told a group of American Bar Association lawyers that the agency is attempting to move more into intelligence on passengers who pose a threat rather than making air travel unpleasant for all of the 628 million people who are screened in the U.S. each year.

“At the airport, numerous layers of security are in place. There are behavior detection officers, explosive-detection canines and closed-circuit video surveillance. And, of course, we do have the physical screening at the checkpoint,” Pistole told the assembled lawyers in his speech.

“We want to focus our limited resources on higher-risk passengers, while speeding and enhancing the passenger experience at the airport,” Pistole said in his remarks.

So, where do we go from here?  Actually using INTELLIGENCE to identify a threat is so unlike the TSA it boggles the mind.  Of course there are a few problems.

For example, this “streamlined process” of the working pilot in uniform.  Trust me, it ain’t so.  About the only thing we, usually, don’t have to do is take our shoes off any more.  Outside of that, even though we ALREADY HAVE CONTROL of the aircraft, we go through the same humiliations you do, much more than you do, just for the privilege of getting to our office.  So, I’m not holding my breathe.

But, it begs the bigger question; if, perhaps, most of the 628 million people screened at airports each year aren’t threats, why is General Aviation?  When there are three separate and independen studies that claim GA isn’t a threat, why are we living with LASP, SD-8G, Operation Playbook, etc. 

Why does Senator Rockefeller demand that Administrator Pistole do something about the fact we can walk to our airplane without feeling the pain he feels getting searched; apparently he won’t feel this much longer (of course, you people in WV could stop voting for him) and then will he back off?  Somehow I doubt it.

Keep writing those letters, sending those faxes, making those phone calls.  Take an electee flying, take a reporter flying.

I’ll withhold judgement for now, but this might be a good thing.  Cops catch bad guys, not straining the entire population through a sieve. 

Maybe Chertoff just made enough money by now…

What do we pay these people for, exactly?

TSA staff jet blew it

Boxcutters taken on JFK airliner

By PHILIP MESSING

March 2, 2011

A passenger managed to waltz past JFK’s ramped-up security gantlet with three boxcutters in his carry-on luggage — easily boarding an international flight while carrying the weapon of choice of the 9/11 hijackers, sources told The Post yesterday.

The stunning breach grounded the flight for three hours Saturday night and drew fury from Port Authority cops, who accused the Transportation Security Administration of being asleep on the job.

“In case anyone has forgotten, the TSA was created because of a couple boxcutter incidents,” said one PAPD source, referring to the weapons used by al Qaeda operatives to commandeer the jets they later slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11.

The two TSA agents and supervisor who completely missed the blades at a security checkpoint “will all be disciplined and undergo remedial training,” said spokeswoman Ann Davis.

The incident happened at around 10 p.m. Saturday as factory worker Eusebio D. Peraltalajara, 45, of Jersey City waltzed past the screeners on his way to a Dominican Republic-bound flight, the sources said.

Agent Ahmir Wilkerson, supervisor Anthony DeJesus and at least one other screener allowed his carry-on luggage — with the boxcutters with razor blades — to pass through the X-ray machine, police sources said.

Once aboard Santiago-bound Flight 837, flight attendant Fausto Penaloda, 40, asked him to stow his luggage in the overhead storage bin.

As Peraltalajara’s shoved it into the compartment, Penaloda saw the boxcutters fall out of the bag, according to a police report.

He grabbed the boxcutters and alerted the captain and first officer.

They called JetBlue security, which raised the alarm to PAPD Emergency Service Units, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the FBI, sparking an evacuation of the plane’s 136 passengers and five crew members.

The PAPD’s Canine Unit swept the plane for bombs and all of the passengers had to be rescreened.

Peraltalajara told authorities that he used the boxcutters for work at a Secaucus manufacturing plant and simply forgot that they were in his luggage. He was not charged with any crime.

The TSA spokeswoman Davis insisted that the traveling public was not at risk.

“There have been a number of additional security layers that have been implemented on aircraft that would prevent someone from causing harm with boxcutters,” she insisted.

“They include the possible presence of armed federal air marshals, hardened cockpit doors, flight crews trained in self-defense and a more vigilant traveling public who have demonstrated a willingness to intervene.”

The traveling public wasn’t at risk because this guy made an honest mistake.  Had be meant to get the boxcutters onboard, they probably wouldn’t have been dropped in plain sight.

Meanwhile, Senator Rockefeller feels these people should be inspecting our General Aviation aircraft, passengers, pilots, hangars, etc. because he just can’t walk out on the the ramp like we can.

Once again, this has NOTHING to do with safety or security; it has to do with control and looks.  As a GA pilot, you have a level of freedom enjoyed by few, and apparently they want to take that away from you.

LASP II is coming soon, KEEP IN TOUCH with your Congressman and Senator.