Terminal Mixup Implicates TSA Agents In LAX Smuggling Plot 255
First time accepted submitter ian_po writes "The U.S. Attorney's office has filed indictments against 7 people, including two Transportation Security Administration Screeners and two former TSA employees, after federal agents set up several smuggling sting operations. The alleged smuggling scheme was revealed after a suspected drug courier went to Terminal 5, where his flight was departing, instead of going through the Terminal 6 checkpoint his written instructions directed him to. Court documents indicate the plan was to return to Terminal 5 through a secure tunnel after being allowed through security by the accused Screener. The courier was caught with 10 pounds of cocaine at the other checkpoint by a different TSA agent. If convicted, the four TSA employees face a minimum of 10 years in Federal prison." If ten pounds of anything can get onto a plane by the simple expedient of bribery, please explain again why adult travelers, but not children, must remove their shoes as they stand massed in an unsecured part of a typical U.S. airport.
Terrible (Score:5, Interesting)
If it's possible to move ten pounds of cocaine through an airport, it's just as possible to move ten pounds of explosives. Hell, the TSA agents don't even need to know it's a bomb. If they think it's just drugs they probably won't care. Terrorists don't even need to get a bomb on a plane. They'd do far more damage setting it off in the airport, probably killing a larger number of people and likely resulting in air travel being grounded around the country for a few days while the powers that be try to figure out what happened and whether other airports are at risk.
Really, the only way to make it stop is to completely leave the Middle East alone, in which case they'll probably go bother someone else or each other. The only other alternative is to make sure they know that if they bomb our airports, we'll hit them back with one hundred times as much force and an equal disregard for human life. Either way, the TSA becomes completely pointless.
Re:Bribery, huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
TSA employees took payments of up to $2,400 to provide drug couriers unfettered access at LAX over a six-month period last year.
Up to $2,400 bucks. That's less than the cost of a first class ticket for the average Joe who doesn't want to deal with TSA. It's also well within the budget of a terrorist organization. That's awfully cheap.
Re:The Weakest Link (Score:5, Interesting)
My spouse used to work for one of the companies that fuels commercial aircraft at many of our nation's major airports. These workers have an extremely important job, and as you might expect, they have access to extremely sensitive parts of airport and aircraft. Nevertheless, their background checks are (or were) done by the cheapest contractor they could find. The results were... spotty. It seems reasonable to assume that the same goes for workers at the terminal food courts, news stands, custodial services, etc. Those poor smugglers could probably have bought the services of a Cinnabon worker for a lot less than a TSA agent.
Standing massed in unsecured areas (Score:4, Interesting)
as they stand massed in an unsecured part of a typical U.S. aiport.
And that is the biggest, most glaring, elephant-in-the-living-room hole in U.S. airport security. The last time I had the misfortune to go through Chicago O'Hare airport, there must have been 300 people packed into an area the size of a basketball court, all waiting to go through the TSA checkpoint. Never mind a nail bomb, the place was so packed that if someone had dropped a lit road flare, the panic and stampede would have caused casualties.
Not that I'm advocating dropping lit road flares in check-in lines, but if I can think of it, I'm sure someone else can.
Re:Weakest link (Score:4, Interesting)
It's even easier than that. No bribing needed. I know people that have private pilot licenses. They fly out of small airports with no security and then into major airports all the time. Their bags aren't checked by TNA... I mean TSA. They are sometimes even allowed to drive their cars up to their planes. How much cocaine, explosives, or whatever can you fit in a car?
One person flying alone in a cheap two seat airplane can carry 200 pounds of cocaine, or whatever, right into any major airport in the USA you can think of. They can then drive their car up to the plane, load the whatever into the trunk, and drive off. I know this because a pilot I know had to get a very expensive machine very quickly from one place to another. The so called "airport security" people saw a box labeled "pin ball machine parts" or something and waved it by.
My theory has been that the TSA is not about keeping us safe. It's about keeping the powers that be safe. They don't want to see another jumbo jet get landed on their lap. It happened once at the Pentagon. Next time it might be the US Capitol.