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Ron Nixon reports at The New York Times that facing a backlash over long security lines and management problems, TSA administrator Peter V. Neffenger has shaken up his leadership team, replacing the agency's top security official Kelly Hoggan and adding a new group of administrators at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Beginning late that year, Hoggan received $90,000 in bonuses over a 13-month period, even though a leaked report from the Department of Homeland Security showed that auditors were able to get fake weapons and explosives past security screeners 95 percent of the time in 70 covert tests. Hoggan's bonus was paid out in $10,000 increments, an arrangement that members of Congress have said was intended to disguise the payments. During a hearing of the House Oversight Committee two weeks ago, lawmakers grilled Mr. Neffenger about the bonus, which was issued before he joined the agency in July. Last week and over the weekend, hundreds of passengers, including 450 on American Airlines alone, missed flights because of waits of two or three hours in security lines, according to local news reports. Many of the passengers had to spend the night in the terminal sleeping on cots. The TSA has sent 58 additional security officers and four more bomb-sniffing dog teams to O'Hare.
Several current and former TSA employees said the moves to replace Hoggan and add the new officials in Chicago, where passengers have endured hours long waits at security checkpoints, were insufficient. "The timing of this decision is too late to make a real difference for the summer," says Andrew Rhoades, an assistant federal security director at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who testified his supervisor accused him of "going native" after attending a meeting at a local mosque and that TSA's alleged practice of "directed reassignments," or unwanted job transfers were intended to punish employees who speak their minds.. "Neffenger is only doing this because the media and Congress are making him look bad."
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @05:26AM
Dude! Obama gonna get rid of the TSA for ya. Just vote for him, yeah! And pass the bong.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by isostatic on Wednesday May 25 2016, @05:44AM
It's all just theatre. If you wanted to cause a plane to crash, take along a laptop and smash the battery.
If you want to cause mass panic and instill terror, in the US it's easy, walk to your local supermarket, buy a semi-automatic gun, then go shoot up a shopping mall, or an elementary school playground.
Fortunately 100% of people (correct to 1 in a million) don't want to kill other people.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Marand on Wednesday May 25 2016, @05:54AM
walk to your local supermarket, buy a semi-automatic gun
I have no idea where you live, but your supermarkets sound awesome. The ones here just sell food. :(
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @06:51AM
The closest thing my supermarket has to lethal weapons are cans of beans and premade burritos.
They are adequate for smaller acts of terror, like emptying a row at the theater or bookstore, or halting coffee sales at Starbucks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @06:54AM
Must be a pretty shitty supermarket if it doesn't sell kitchen knives.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @08:54AM
To be fair, while kitchen knives are single-target, beans are area-of-effect.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JNCF on Wednesday May 25 2016, @06:52AM
I can think of local (midwest US) supercenters (Wal*Mart) that carry semi-automatic guns in their sporting departments. I don't know if supercenters also count as supermarkets, Merriam-Webster has distinct entries. I'm leaning towards "yes, it's a prerequisite."
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @01:23PM
I thought Wal*Mart stopped carrying semi auto rifles after a bunch of bad press several years ago? Then again I usually only go there about once a year and then it is usually because I need something in the middle of the night so it isn't like I go down their sporting goods aisles.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2, Funny) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Wednesday May 25 2016, @02:00PM
You're thinking of Kmart (they stopped selling guns). Walmart still carries semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. That's what I like about Walmart; I can buy everything I need for grilling burgers, refinishing my deck, removing ticks from my dog and ammunition for target-practicing with exploding mannequins afterwards, all in the same go. God bless 'Murica.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @03:10PM
Shooting is fun. It is also distinctly American; I can't think of another first-world country in the world with a similar gun culture. So no Fourth of July is complete without it, so it makes perfect sense for it to be on sale next to the BBQ supplies.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Wednesday May 25 2016, @04:00PM
Precisely. Joking aside, I wish every country could enjoy a similar, recreational gun culture.
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @04:42PM
It's physical, almost. Can you hit your target? Yes, or no. Would you actually shoot at a living thing? Maybe, maybe not. But shooting at a target is free of those concerns. I like to shoot things at maximum range because it's a challenge to marry your breathing with the sights on a weapon. What you put into that shot depends on you. Would you pull the trigger on a target you wanted to hit? Perhaps, and also perhaps not. But it's good to feel like that choice is in your hands, not some other's.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday May 25 2016, @06:11PM
> a challenge to marry your breathing with the sights on a weapon
You could do both with a laser pointer. I do that with a bow (quietly and with more muscle control).
People like the gun going BOOM and/or the target being damaged. It's a fascinating feat of telekinesis.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Wednesday May 25 2016, @05:54PM
I don't know if supercenters also count as supermarkets, Merriam-Webster has distinct entries. I'm leaning towards "yes, it's a prerequisite."
I look at it as a sub- and super-set thing. Supermarkets are grocery stores and supercenters contain supermarkets, but the supermarket being part of the supercenter doesn't make the whole thing a supermarket. The supermarket is inside the supercenter in the same way the McDonalds and the bank inside is (if that Wal-Mart had them), but that doesn't mean your bank sells groceries and big macs.
Wal-Mart sells certain things in all stores. Wal-Mart supercenters sell those things but also contain supermarkets. Maybe that's a useless distinction, but it's how I've always thought of it.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday May 25 2016, @07:01PM
I totally get what you're saying. We're talking about arbitrary object heirarchies now, so nobody is really wrong; if I am my foot, I am the sun. That being said, I think that the different sections of a Wal*Mart may be more integrated with each other than they are to Wal*Mart's symbiotes (McDonalds, banks, etc.). The definition I saw for supermarket seemed open-ended enough that I don't feel comfortable saying that supermarkets can't have sporting goods sections. I can think of very small grocery stores that had toy aisles with wiffle ball bats, so sporting goods seems like a matter of scale. There may be other parts of a supercenter that are less integrated, and not part of a large supermarket (Wal*Mart's mechanics might be a good example), but I'm probably grouping sporting goods in with the large supermarket subset.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @03:05PM
In Michigan they sell fireworks, too. Alas, they're sparklers and glow worms.
They do bring unexpected delights, like the checkers who marveled at the strange item I had in my basket (it was an avocado.).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 25 2016, @08:53PM
Supermarket could mean a Walmart that includes a supermarket, along with consumer electronics, and lots of firearms.
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @06:39AM
TSA mentioned. Security theater meme evoked.
Congrats! You're a mindless idiot.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Wednesday May 25 2016, @07:12AM
That said, the processes definitely need a major overhaul and some airports need more staff and aisles, a LOT more in some cases, along with better AC in the queueing areas as the systems in place were clearly never designed for the numbers they are now dealing with; I'm actively avoiding several airports because of this. A review of the attitudes of staff towards passengers wouldn't go amiss too; there's a marked difference in the attitude the TSA staff have towards the passengers in general between the states too, so it seems unlikely there's a policy on this - although being confrontational would tend to raise the stress levels in actual security risks to the point they would be more likely to give themselves away. That, too, is dictating which airports - and as a result which airlines - I'm likely to use, so that presents the US with an interesting dilemma - chasing the almighty buck or pandering to paranoia, and so far at least the latter seems to be mostly winning.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday May 25 2016, @07:23AM
The TSA doesn't merely need an overhaul; it needs to be abolished. The government has no constitutional authority to force everyone who wants to get on a plane to submit to searches merely because some people are terrorists any more than it has the constitutional authority to bust into everyone's houses (warrant or no warrant) simply because some people are criminals.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by digitalaudiorock on Wednesday May 25 2016, @01:39PM
It all really is fucking nuts. The fear on the part of politicians of being the one in office when something bad happens "on their watch" (and when you think about what would happen to them you can hardly blame them) has causes the "war on terror" that's completely devoid of any risk assessment. Pure insanity.
Oh...and FFS...it's been 15 years since 9/11...can we go back to calling it a "terrorist attack"?...a "terror attack" still sounds like something to take Prozac for.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @04:26PM
a "terror attack" still sounds like something to take Prozac for
I found that amusing so I did a quick search just to see what would pop up. Found some resources for helping with phobia of terrorism or whatever one would want to call it.
- Hypnotherapy and NLP [justbewell.com]
- Advice from Dr. Cox of the National Anxiety Foundation [healthyplace.com]
- Hypnosis recordings for sale [hypnosisdownloads.com]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @03:18PM
God Bless you for saying so, Anal Pumpernickel. Once again, I must overcome my abashedness with your username to do so, but it's gotta be said, it's incredibly refreshing to see your clarion call for freedom & courage. "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave" lies at the very core of my identity, and the trend of the last 20 years toward supine surrender of liberty has been distressing to no end.
The day I saw metal detectors, guard dogs, and thugs with guns awaiting anyone who wanted to take the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, I realized that the Masters of the Universe had successfully turned our national raison-d'etre into a cruel joke.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @07:45AM
15 years later and you're still talking about 9/11. The terrorists have won, because of you. The TSA exists, because of you. Because you won't shut the fuck up about it. You are the problem here.
(Score: 4, Informative) by isostatic on Wednesday May 25 2016, @11:02AM
15 years later and you're still talking about 9/11
This year there'll be people voting who don't remember a time before the TSA, or before 9/11, or before the "war on terror".
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @12:14PM
And so the public has adjusted, they're now familiar with the state of things. Now we're ready for yet another deprivation of liberties. Up next: privacy!
(Score: 2) by http on Wednesday May 25 2016, @07:56PM
That was two years ago.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @07:28PM
This year there'll be people voting who don't remember a time before the TSA, or before 9/11, or before the "war on terror".
What do you mean? We've always been at war with Eastasia.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday May 28 2016, @11:12PM
Heh. I win 1 xkcd
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/feel_old.png [xkcd.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 25 2016, @12:29PM
That's not surprising, though: There are people that still won't shut up about the Kennedy assassinations either, even though they happened decades ago.
The thing is, we've already made 2 policy changes that will ensure that 9/11/2001 will never happen again:
1. Strengthened (or in some cases installed for the first time) cockpit doors so random people can't bust in and disrupt or kill the pilots.
2. Changed the doctrine of responses to hijackings from "Sit tight, go to Libya like they asked to save the passengers' lives." to "Fight back with whatever you have."
But what is true is that running around being scared of terrorism is the worst possible response to terrorism. One thing I always blame George W Bush for on that day was giving the wrong speech at the end of it. What he needed to say was "We will of course mourn our dead, but we will keep doing what we normally do. The risk of terrorism is the same tomorrow as it was any other day, but that risk is so small as to not worry about it." Of course, that wouldn't allow him to demand that US troops go on that little sightseeing tour of Iraq, like a cabal within his administration had been planning on doing since the late 1990's.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @03:25PM
Yeah, I agree with that 1000%. We had a shining moment to assert the strength of our national identity and show the world why freedom and the good will of men will always triumph over evil, and the evil people in office utterly failed that test. Jesus, we had the chance to set a golden tone for the next 200 years, and instead we got Halliburton, Blackwater, ISIS, and all its children.
We ought to "extraordinary rendition" W and Cheney to the Hague to answer for their crimes against humanity. And of course, thanks to the tone they set, we also must do the same to Obama with his drone strikes.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mhajicek on Wednesday May 25 2016, @08:22AM
Yes, it's all bad. How many thousands of lifetimes have been lost to this useless process?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @12:34PM
Lost? No, we know where the lifetimes went: they were stolen at the point of government guns.
Anything I don't have the authority do myself, I can't delegate to a government of to do on my behalf.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @05:33PM
> it's not their fault they have to do these dumb things
No. It literally is their fault, they signed up for it. What did they think the job of security screener would be?
You can argue that they need the job more than they need to be decent to strangers. And since most flyers are at least middle-class and many TSA peons are underclass, it might be fair in the way a starving man stealing a loaf of bread is fair. But it is still a choice.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday May 25 2016, @09:08PM
And since most flyers are at least middle-class and many TSA peons are underclass, it might be fair in the way a starving man stealing a loaf of bread is fair. But it is still a choice.
Yeah, we're all guilty. I don't know a single person who doesn't wear sweat shop clothing. We all pay the taxes that the government uses to build bombs for oil wars. We do it for fear of violence, because we're cowards, but we still do it. We're monsters.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday May 25 2016, @06:16PM
There is a good book [amazon.com] out there that explains how the US bureaucrats are quite literally mad. I mean really medically insane.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by http on Wednesday May 25 2016, @07:52PM
White people do this all the time, and it's not scaring much.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @07:31AM
I go through international O'Hare terminal a few times a year. It has gotten much better in the last couple of years, especially inbound. The queues used to take 1-2 hours to get out of the terminal building, now it is more like 20 minutes. Outbound I never really noticed much of a queue, not more than the usual 30 minutes.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by rondon on Wednesday May 25 2016, @12:07PM
I was just there, on a 2.5 hour layover between a domestic and international leg of my flight, and I thought I was going to miss it while waiting in line for security. The security line took me a full 2 hours of that time. The one friendly TSA agent I ran into mentioned that this was completely normal for the time of day.
I was suitably disgusted, and plan to never connect in O'Hare again in this lifetime.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @03:28PM
Seriously it's gotten to the point where, if you don't have to be there and back within a day, take the train or drive. Anything, anything, anything to avoid the TSA. When my grandmother died out West, I drove tag-team with my brother rather than fly; if I needed to go to Europe for some reason, I'd frankly rather sail.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @05:36PM
Consequently the cruise ship business is booming. [cruisingdoneright.com] And that's despite all the plague ships in the news [qz.com] You know the TSA are bad when people are choosing norovirus over the TSA.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @08:43AM
They are installing body scanners at Canberra airport. In one of the dullest off the beaten track ass backwards places in Australia. Not required. Really not required.
Scanning people for weapons / drugs when leaving Canberra when most people leave by car.
Sigh.
We lost the war on terror.
Next up: The war on logic, reason and sanity
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 25 2016, @10:52AM
Canberra being the political capital of Australia, where their parliament is, and far from "one of the dullest off the beaten track ass backwards places" in the country, hell, even Alice Springs isn't that.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @03:35PM
I agree with you there. For a country whose origins lie with convicts, its people have been remarkably ready to kowtow to authority. Australia, a strong country from strong stock, ought to do better than that.
If anything, Australians ought to lead the world in thirst for freedom. I hope they may yet.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 25 2016, @08:55PM
> Next up: The war on logic, reason and sanity
If you haven't noticed, that war is already in progress.
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 26 2016, @12:26AM
I'll be in the US for a holiday soon, and I have to say that the shenanigans of the "war on terror" have me just a little concerned - for reasons like this. So how early do I have to arrive at LAX in order to be fairly sure to catch my flight? Coz I sure don't want to be stuck there in limbo waiting to get home again because of some stupid extra-slow security check.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 26 2016, @04:14AM
At least 4 hours.
But call your airline and ask them because you can't really trust some rando on soylent.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday May 26 2016, @05:36AM
I'll be in the US for a holiday soon, and I have to say that the shenanigans of the "war on terror" have me just a little concerned - for reasons like this. So how early do I have to arrive at LAX in order to be fairly sure to catch my flight?
Is it too late to change to a flight going to SFO? Been through there a couple of times and it was quite civilised.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.