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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.

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TSA Agent Killed During LAX Shooting (+video)

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Photo Credit: Grant Wickes/Flickr A gunman armed with an assault rifle entered a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport today, killed a TSA agent, and penetrated deep into the terminal before he was captured by police.

Five other people, including three other TSA officers, were injured in the incident.

The shooting sent hundreds of passengers streaming out of the terminal with many fleeing onto the airport runway. Dozens of flights to and from the airport were delayed or cancelled. It also triggered a “tactical alert” for the Los Angeles Police Department.

The shooting began around 9:20 a.m. in the usually crowded terminal.

The shooter, initially identified as Paul Ciancia, pulled an assault rifle from a bag and blasted his way past airport screeners, said Los Angeles World Airports Police Chief Patrick Gannon.

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Man Tries Checking Rifles, Handguns and Ammo at JFK Airport- Things Didn’t Go So Well for Him

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Photo Credit: NBC New YorkPolice arrested 23-year-old Keenan Draughon at New York’s Kennedy International Airport Saturday morning after he tried to check two defaced rifles and two handguns.

Both rifles were missing their serial numbers and one had a round in the chamber. Police spokesman Joseph Pentangelo says the Tennessee man also tried to check two magazines capable of holding 15 rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition.

These magazines are illegal in New York.

Draughon was arrested trying to board a flight to Charlotte, N.C., after Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police found the weapons.

Police said the 23-year-old told a United Airlines attendant that he wanted to check two cases containing firearms for his flight to Charlotte, a spokesperson for the Queens County district attorney’s office said in a statement.

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TSA Loudspeakers Threaten Travelers With Arrest For Joking About Security (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube Travelers who crack jokes about the TSA’s ludicrous security procedures could face arrest, according to a new loudspeaker warning being broadcast at airports in the U.S.

While traveling through George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Matt Miller heard a security announcement repeatedly aired on the airport intercom that left him disturbed.

“You are also reminded that any inappropriate remarks or jokes concerning security may result in your arrest,” the loudspeaker message states.

These new loudspeaker warnings remind us that the TSA continues to excel at indoctrinating Americans to be well-behaved prisoners via obedience training – reminding them that they can be disappeared if they dare speak out of turn, even in a humorous way.

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Dozens Of TSA Employees Fired, Suspended For Illegal Gambling Ring At Pittsburgh Int’l Airport (+video)

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Photo Credit: KDKA

Photo Credit: KDKA

Dozens of local Transportation Security Administration workers have been fired or suspended after they were caught in an illegal gambling ring at Pittsburgh International Airport.

TSA sources tell the KDKA Investigators that the officers were fired or suspended Thursday morning.

The investigation took a few months. TSA took a look at more than 300 of its employees who work at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Sources confirm TSA employees on the job set up an office betting pool of sorts, employees betting year-round on all of the big sporting events, the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, the World Series, the Stanley Cup and more.

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Disabled Marine Hero IN UNIFORM Forced to Undergo Humiliating Screening by TSA, Capitol Guards

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Photo Credit: Patricia MartinWearing the uniform of the Few and Proud doesn’t rate preferential treatment from the Transportation Security Administration or California capitol security officers, retired Marine Cpl. Nathan Kemnitz recently found.

Kemnitz, severely injured in 2004 in a roadside bomb attack in Fallujah, has limited use of his right arm and cannot lift it above his head. So when security guards at the state capitol building in Sacramento, Calif., asked him to remove his dress blue blouse “because he was wearing too much metal,” and TSA asked him to raise his arms above his head for the full-body scanner at Sacramento International Airport, he could not comply.

“My right arm doesn’t work. It’s a lot of hassle for me to do that,” Kemntiz said.

At the state capitol, the Marine’s refusal to remove his uniform top grew into a heated exchange between Kemnitz, a friend who was accompanying him and security officers.

At the airport, bystanders stared as the TSA security screener looked under Kemnitz’s medals, ran his hands under the Marine’s waistband and swabbed his shoes for explosives.

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TSA Drops Plan to Allow Small Knives on Planes

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Photo Credit: Mobile Edge Laptop Cases

The Transportation Security Administration has abandoned a plan to let passengers carry small knives on planes, following a steady outcry from lawmakers and industry advocates.

The TSA announced on Wednesday that it would stick with its current policy on carry-on baggage. The agency said it “appreciates the varying points of view shared throughout the review process.”

Those points of view were largely negative.

Skeptical lawmakers, airlines, labor unions and some law enforcement groups complained that the knives and other items in the hands of the wrong passengers could be used to injure or even kill passengers and crew.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., praised the decision to back off the policy change.

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TSA Employee Caught in DHS Sting, Suspected of Theft in Other Cases

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Photo Credit: jurvetsonColumbia Police Sergeant Joe Bernhard said the arrest took place after what he called a Department of Homeland Security honesty check. As part of the honesty check, a DHS official posed as a traveler gave [TSA Agent] Dunlap a bag with $500 inside, claiming he found it at the airport.

Bernhard said officials then saw Dunlap leave the airport Thursday morning with the bag and arrested him.

Columbia Public Works Public Information Specialist Steven Sapp said the arrest came after reports from passengers at Columbia Regional had notified TSA and Department of Homeland Security officials that they believed items were missing from their bags. Officials then identified Dunlap, the employee suspected of removing the items from their bags, after reviewing video surveillance footage.

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TSA Agents ‘Humiliated’ Marine Who Lost Both Legs To An IED

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Photo Credit: Jim Urquhart

Transportation Security Administration officers “humiliated” a Marine who lost both legs to an Improvised Explosive Device by requiring the wheelchair-bound Marine to stand and walk. They also had him remove both his prosthetic legs, according to a letter from Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California).

In his complaint to TSA Administrator John Pistole, Hunter described the Marine as being “humiliated” by the TSA’s actions, based on accounts of the incident last week in Phoenix, Arizona.

“The individual escorting this Marine asked the TSA officer which of the two checkpoints to enter and received the response, ‘either one,’ only to be told moments later they should have entered a different way. As a result, a TSA officer asked the Marine to stand and walk to an alternate area, despite the fact that he physically could not stand or walk on his own,” Hunter explained in his letter.

“With numerous TSA officers sitting and unwilling to assist, an officer then made him remove his legs, then put them back on,” Hunter continued, “only to advance to a secondary screening location where he was asked again to stand, with extraordinary difficulty, while his wheelchair was examined for explosives.”

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TSA Allows Knives On Planes, Flight Attendants Union Calls Decision ‘Dangerous’

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Photo Credit: Reuters The Transportation Security Administration announced Tuesday that U.S. airline passengers will soon be allowed to carry small knives in their carry-on bags, a move that prompted swift condemnation from a flight attendants union.

The union for Southwest Airlines flight attendants called the decision “dangerous” and “designed to make the lives of TSA staff easier, but not make flights safer.”

The changes were made public by TSA Administrator John Pistole during an aviation conference in New York. Starting April 25, passengers going through U.S. airports can bring on board Swiss Army-type knives — specifically, ones with blades no longer than 2.36 inches.

This marks the first time such knives have been allowed on board since security was heavily increased in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Pistole told the audience that TSA screeners at the Los Angeles International Airport alone seized roughly 47 such knives a day over the last three months of 2012, according to Air Transportation World. “Frankly, I don’t want TSA agents to be delayed by these,” he said.

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