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Former TSA Agent: Groping Scandal Is Business as Usual

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TSA Screens Passengers At Denver International AirportThe recent story of two Transportation Security Administration screeners at Denver International Airport manipulating full-body scanners in order to grope men’s crotches is disturbing, but it came as no surprise to me.

Over the course of my six years with the TSA, the leveraging of rules and surveillance tools to abuse passengers was a daily checkpoint occurrence. Has the TSA screener searching your luggage suddenly decided to share with you the finer points of official bag-search procedure just as your final boarding call is being announced? There’s a good chance that he or she just doesn’t like you. Or in some cases, as we’ve seen, it may be that the screener finds you attractive and wants to use the TSA rules as an excuse to get his or her hands on you.

Amid all the jokes in comment sections, it’s easy to forget that the groping of these dozen or more male passengers by two conspiring TSA screeners is sexual assault, plain and simple. And while it’s easy to focus all the blame on the two unsavory screeners who are now no longer with the agency, perhaps the bigger issue here is a systemic one: There are far too many federal hands on people’s private parts in airports.

(The TSA agents involved have been fired, and a spokesman for the agency has said: “All allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated by the agency. And when substantiated, employees are held accountable.”)

What most people don’t realize is that the full-body scanners the two agents used to assault those passengers — the scanners that millions of people pass through each day — are practically useless. The TSA, in its rush to replace the controversial “nude” radiation scanners that they phased out in 2013, swapped out one poorly functioning line of machines for another. The current millimeter wave scanners, with their outrageous false-positive rates, regularly cause unnecessary pat-downs: The agent running his or her hands over you after you pass through the scanner is almost never doing it for a good reason. (Read more from “Former TSA Agent: Groping Scandal Is Business as Usual” HERE)

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Investigation: Male TSA Screeners at DIA Manipulated System to Grope Other MEN

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TSA (1)A CBS4 investigation has learned that two Transportation Security Administration screeners at Denver International Airport have been fired after they were discovered manipulating passenger screening systems to allow a male TSA employee to fondle the genital areas of attractive male passengers.

It happened roughly a dozen times, according to information gathered by CBS4.

According to law enforcement reports obtained during the CBS4 investigation, a male TSA screener told a female colleague in 2014 that he “gropes” male passengers who come through the screening area at DIA.

“He related that when a male he finds attractive comes to be screened by the scanning machine he will alert another TSA screener to indicate to the scanning computer that the party being screened is a female. When the screener does this, the scanning machine will indicate an anomaly in the genital area and this allows (the male TSA screener) to conduct a pat-down search of that area.”

Although the TSA learned of the accusation on Nov. 18, 2014 via an anonymous tip from one of the agency’s own employees, reports show that it would be nearly three months before anything was done. (Read more from “Investigation: TSA Screeners at DIA Manipulated System to Grope Men’s Genitals” HERE)

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Thanks Alot: Your Forgotten Change Gave TSA Another $675,000 Last Year

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

What, you people like the TSA grope sessions at the airport? Jeez, at least when that goes down at the “gentlemen’s club” you tip with a crumpled twenty.

Instead, at the airports, we are leaving behind enormous amounts of loose change at the security stations, and TSA gets to pocket it all. You know what happens. You strip off your shoes, pull out your laptop, take off your belt and watch, expose your little dangerous toiletries and feel pretty smart about yourself and then WHAM, or maybe, BUZZ. You trip the metal detector. The culprit is the 73 cents in your pocket from that watery twelve dollar coffee you just bought.

So what do you do? You throw the coins into the TSA wash bucket and sail through. In the process of putting on your shoes, you forget about the money. You plane gets called and you’re out of there. (Read more from “Thanks Alot: This Item You Left Behind Gave TSA Another $675,000 Last Year” HERE)

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This Is How TSA Decides if You’re Acting Like a Terrorist

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Do not enterBy Dustin Volz. Next time you go through airport security, do your best to avoid yawning, whistling, or complaining too much: Any of those behaviors could make you look like a terrorist in the eyes of a Transportation Security Administration screening agent, according to newly disclosed government documents.

A secret 92-point checklist, obtained and published Friday by The Intercept, reveals for the first time what kind of passenger behavior can merit a red flag for TSA agents responsible for pulling possible terrorists and criminals out of airport security lines.

The checklist reveals a step-by-step process for assessing whether passengers deserve additional scrutiny. Those deemed suspicious under “observation and behavior analysis” are pulled aside and searched for “unusual items” such as almanacs and prepaid calling cards. During the inspection, TSA agents are also instructed to look for “signs of deception,” which can include a fast rate of eye-blinking.

Other suspicious signs listed include exaggerated yawning, gazing down, a pale face due to a recent beard shaving, widely open staring eyes, wearing of “improper attire,” and arriving late for a flight.

The program, known as Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, has been in use nationwide since 2007 and has cost taxpayers upwards of $1 billion dollars. (Read more from “This Is How TSA Decides If You Might Be Acting Like a Terrorist” HERE)

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TSA Terror Checklist Includes Body Odor, ‘Exaggerated Yawning’

By Nick Gass. You might want to clear your throat before going through the airport security line. And avoid “exaggerated yawning” and “repetitive grooming gestures.” And mind your body odor.

Those are just a few of the signals that you could be a terrorist, according to Transportation Safety Administration documents obtained and published by The Intercept on Friday.

The program, which began in 2007 and has cost the TSA $1 billion, is called Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT. The checklist tasks “behavioral detection officers” with assigning varying levels points based on stress factors (one point), fear factors (two points) and what it calls deception factors (three points).

Stress factors include: avoiding eye contact with security personnel, a pale face “from recent shaving of beard,” an “obvious ‘Adam’s Apple’ jump” when asked to go through screening procedures, among others. Fear factors include: a “cold penetrating stare,” “bulges in clothing,” “individuals who are seemingly unrelated but display identical dress or luggage,” and showing an “unusual interest” in security officers and their routine. (Read more from this story HERE)

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After Attempting to Attack TSA Agents With a Machete, Man and TSA Agent are Shot by Officer

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Photo Credit: KHOU

Photo Credit: KHOU

A machete-wielding man who slashed at TSA officers and sprayed them with wasp spray was shot by a non-TSA officer Friday night at Armstrong International Airport.

The incident sent passengers and airport employees scrambling to safety and affected flights arriving from and departing from concourse B.

​​The suspect, 63-year-old Richard White, was taken to the hospital and was last said to be in surgery, according to Sheriff Newell Normand.

Normand said eyewitnesses reported that White approached a TSA agent and sprayed that person in the face with wasp spray from a can. Normand said White got past the first agent and headed for the second TSA agent, again spraying the wasp spray, before pulling out a machete and striking another agent, who grabbed a piece of luggage for protection.

Normand said the third TSA agent called a JPSO officer on duty for help. As White continued to chase the agent while swinging the machete, Lt. Heather Slyve, who was assigned to the gate, showed up on the scene and fired three times, striking White. The TSA agent who had been fleeing White’s attack was also struck by a bullet, but her injury was not life-threatening. (Read more from “After Attempting to Attack TSA Agents With a Machete, Man Gets Shot by Officer” HERE)

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TSA Issues Secret Warning on ‘Catastrophic’ Threat to Aviation Industry Which Terrorists Can Use to Cause the Death of Every Person Onboard

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Thermite — a mixture of rust and aluminum powder — could be used against a commercial aircraft, TSA warned in a Dec. 2014 document, marked secret [PDF here]. “The ignition of a thermite-based incendiary device on an aircraft at altitude could result in catastrophic damage and the death of every person onboard,” the advisory said.

TSA said it is unlikely to spot an easy-to-assemble thermite-based incendiary device during security screening procedures, and the use of currently available extinguishers carried on aircrafts would create a violent reaction. The TSA warning is based on FBI testing done in 2011, and a subsequent report.

A thermite device, though difficult to ignite, would “produce toxic gasses, which can act as nerve poison, as well as a thick black smoke that will significantly inhibit any potential for in-flight safety officers to address the burn.”

TSA warned federal air marshals not to use customary methods of extinguishing fires — the water or halon fire extinguishers currently found on most aircraft — which would make the reaction worse, creating toxic fumes. Instead, air marshals are told to “recognize a thermite ignition” — but TSA has provided no training or guidance on how to do so, according to multiple sources familiar with the issue.

TSA circulated these Dec. 2014 materials through briefings, according to sources familiar with the issue, but did not offer up guidance on what to do with this information, and equipment that could mitigate this threat, like specific dry chemical extinguishers, has not been provided. According to the TSA advisory, federal air marshals and other on-flight officers should: recognize a thermite ignition, advise the captain immediately, ensure the individual who ignited the device is “rendered inoperable,” and move passengers away from the affected area.

“We’re supposed to brief our [federal air marshals] to identify a thermite ignition — but they tell us nothing,” said one current TSA official, who asked not to be named because the official is not authorized to speak to the press. “So our guys are Googling, ‘What does thermite look like? How do you extinguish thermite fires?’ This is not at all helpful.” (Read more about the threat to aviation industry HERE)

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TSA Grabs Dozens of Guns in October at U.S. Airports

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Photo Credit: ReutersDozens of guns were confiscated in October from the carry-on bags of pistol-packing passengers trying to board planes at major U.S. airports.

Last month the Transportation Security Administration screeners found 181 firearms in carry-on bags at airport screening points around the country. A total of 157 were loaded and nearly a third of those had rounds chambered, according to the TSA Blog.

The October confiscations also included a 13-inch cane sword discovered at the airport in Charlotte.

The TSA Blog tallies the number of confiscated firearms each week. The blog also said screeners continue to find inert grenades and other weaponry on a weekly basis.

Read more from this story HERE.

No Criminal Charges Against TSA Agent Over Pat-Down At DIA

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Photo Credit: CBSThe Denver District Attorney’s Office has declined to file criminal charges against a female Transportation Security Administration agent at Denver International Airport after a passenger complained the pat-down she received amounted to sexual assault.

“I felt sick to my stomach,” said Jamelyn Steenhoek, 39, when she learned Wednesday that Denver prosecutors were no longer pursuing her complaint and would not be filing criminal charges.

“Those TSA agents were purposely abusive to me,” said the Highlands Ranch mother. “And there isn’t any recourse. I still feel as if a crime was committed, and as an individual American I am powerless to do anything about it.”

Steenhoek was at DIA on Dec. 26 escorting her 13-year-old daughter to a flight. Steenhoek herself was not boarding a flight that day, but she still had to clear security to take her daughter to the concourse and gate.

Read more from this story HERE.

Confessions Of An Ex-TSA Agent

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Photo Credit: Politico Once, in 2008, I had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming home from Afghanistan. It was celebration champagne intended for one of the men in the group—a young, decorated soldier. He was in a wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be taken away in the name of national security.

There I was, an aspiring satire writer, earnestly acting on orders straight out of Catch-22.

I quickly discovered I was working for an agency whose morale was among the lowest in the U.S. government. In private, most TSA officers I talked to told me they felt the agency’s day-to-day operations represented an abuse of public trust and funds.

Charges of racial profiling by the TSA made headlines every few months, and working from behind the scenes we knew what was prompting those claims. Until 2010 (not long after the TSA standard operating procedure manual was accidentially leaked to the public), all TSA officers worked with a secret list printed on small slips of paper that many of us taped to the back of our TSA badges for easy reference: the Selectee Passport List. It consisted of 12 nations that automatically triggered enhanced passenger screening. The training department drilled us on the selectee countries so regularly that I had memorized them, like a little poem:

Syria, Algeria, Afghanistan
Iraq, Iran, Yemen
and Cuba,
Lebanon-Libya, Somalia-Sudan
People’s Republic of North Korea.

Read more from this story HERE.

TSA Spent $900 Million on Behavior Detection Officers Who Detected 0 Terrorists

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Photo Credit: APThe Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spent approximately $900 million over the last 5 years for behavior detection officers to identify high-risk passengers but, so far, according to the General Accountability Office (GAO), only 0.59% of the passengers flagged were arrested and among those not one was charged with terrorism – zero.

In 2003, the TSA started testing its Screening of Passengers by Observation Technique (SPOT) program, which was then fully deployed in 2007. About 3,000 behavior detection officers (BDO) “had been deployed to 176 of the more than 450 TSA-regulated airports in the United States” by fiscal year 2012 (Oct. 1, 2011 – Sept. 30, 2012), according to the GAO.

Those BDO officers are trained to “identify passenger behaviors indicative of stress, fear, or deception and refer passengers” and their baggage for additional screening, reported the GAO in its Nov. 8, 2013 report, Aviation Security: TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities.

Since 2007, the TSA has spent approximately $900 million on the SPOT program, said the GAO.

During the SPOT screening, the TSA’s behavior detection officers are supposed to look for and identify “high-risk passengers based on behavioral indicators that indicate mal-intent,” said the GAO. The BDOs can refer the passengers to a law enforcement officer (LEO) for further investigation. From there, if warranted, a passenger (or passengers) can be arrested.

Read more from this story HERE.