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posted by takyon on Tuesday June 05 2018, @04:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the frequent-frustrations dept.

TSA Has Been Compiling A Shitlist Of Travelers It Just Doesn't Like

The TSA is the worst. Super-secret watchlists can keep people from flying -- people deemed too dangerous to travel but not dangerous enough to arrest. This isn't the TSA's fault. Not these lists. Those are maintained by agencies who could possibly cobble together enough intel to build a flimsy case against these "dangerous" would-be travelers.

The TSA, however, maintains its own database of travelers. It can't necessarily keep them from boarding airplanes, but it can give agents a heads up that the person in the queue probably needs to be detained and hassled. [via Boing Boing]

[...] It's an agency shitlist, and only the TSA knows who's on it. This list doesn't contain people who've actually assaulted agents, but people who've expressed their displeasure with intrusive gropings through words or non-violent deeds. The agency's official statements make it clear this is an arbitrary way to punish travelers who make agents unhappy, noting that it neither requires "injury" to a TSA employee nor the intent to do so. Instead, the list contains anyone who presents a "challenge" to the "safe and effective completion of screening."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @07:15AM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @07:15AM (#688749)

    I read the article. Assuming it's true, this list is more like the list any store used to have of people who wrote bad checks or paid using fake cash. Basically, double-check what the person does and make sure someone is watching so you don't get into a he-said, she-said argument with no proof on any side. Most companies keep lists of various things like lists of people not to hire, lists of people not to do business with, etc...

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @07:43AM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @07:43AM (#688752)

    Yeah, it's not that bad that a government agency whose sole job it is to violate people's constitutional rights on a routine basis maintains lists of people that it thinks deserve extra rights violations. Not at all.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @12:53PM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @12:53PM (#688820)

      Except that it's illegal to write bad checks, but not illegal to speak up when somebody inconviences you by doing something stupid like security theater.

      The TSA's job is to stop bad guys from getting on planes.
      There is no doubt that they need help in there, but how does this new list help?

      It seems more likely to pick out grumpy passengers.
      A competent bad guy is likely to be really nice.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @01:16PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @01:16PM (#688831)

        The actual things preventing hijackings are the cockpit door and the grumpy passengers on the plane who take exception to a hijacking.

        Perhaps this list it to find some candidate good guys?

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 05 2018, @02:28PM (4 children)

        by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday June 05 2018, @02:28PM (#688869)

        The TSA's job is to stop bad guys from getting on planes.

        If that really is their job, they're doing a terrible job of it, because they've foiled exactly zero terrorist plots since its creation over 15 years ago, and routinely fail tests where a tiger team tries to sneak stuff through.

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @03:18PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @03:18PM (#688886)

          How many U.S. airliners have been hijacked since 9/11?

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 05 2018, @03:39PM

            by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday June 05 2018, @03:39PM (#688895)

            That's the "tiger-repelling rock" argument: The lack of hijackings could be for lots of reasons, but the TSA is demonstrably not one of them.

            --
            The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @04:16PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @04:16PM (#688909)

            "How many U.S. airliners have been hijacked since 9/11?"

            Since the situationally aware, active good passengers fix it system was put in place on the 4th 9/11 flight, zero successfully.

          • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @10:31PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @10:31PM (#689057)

            Even if the TSA did keep us safe, which it doesn't, sacrificing our freedoms for security would still be intolerable. The US is supposed to be 'the land of the free and the home of the brave', and yet it fails at that miserably.

            But the TSA does not keep us safe. Securing cockpit doors and passengers being willing to fight back against hijackers keep us safe, neither of which violate anyone's freedoms. The same trick likely won't work again because of this.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @10:34PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 05 2018, @10:34PM (#689060)

        Except that it's illegal to write bad checks, but not illegal to speak up when somebody inconviences you by doing something stupid like security theater.

        I don't know what this has to do with anything.

        The TSA's job is to stop bad guys from getting on planes.

        The TSA's job is to violate our constitutional rights while providing the illusion of security.

        It seems more likely to pick out grumpy passengers.

        It seems more likely that they just want to encourage submissiveness. Oppose them and be punished. They want the people of the US to be cowardly drones who just do as they are told, and they largely already are.