FROM MSNBC NEWS


Airports toy with the idea of tossing the TSA

*SEE OPINION POLL REVEALING AMERICAN COMMITMENT TO BEING FONDLED BY BLACKWATER LOL

A new year has brought new resolve for airport managers who are fed up with the Transportation Security Agency.

"The TSA has grown too big and we're unhappy with the way it's doing things," said Larry Dale, president of Orlando Sanford International Airport. "My board is sold on the fact that the free enterprise system works well and that we should go with a private company we can hold directly accountable for security and customer satisfaction."

Dale isn't alone. Airports in Los Angeles, the Washington, D.C. metro area, Indianapolis, and Charlotte, N.C., are also considering tossing the TSA.

Full-body scanners and enhanced pat-downs have spurred a loud outcry from an angry public, as well as some big hitters on Capitol Hill, and airports are looking at moving away from federal TSA workers and moving toward private contractors.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), recently named chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has encouraged the nation's 200 biggest airports to opt out, calling TSA a "bloated, poorly focused and top-heavy bureaucracy."

Same cost, same procedures
This despite the fact that opt-out airports realize no cost savings. "TSA issues the RFP [request for proposal] and selects and manages the contractor" that steps in, said Michael McCarron, director of community affairs at San Francisco International, one of the first airports to adopt private screeners.

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From Dailymail trash news

Why pick me for a 'nude' security scan?: Ex-Baywatch star claims airport staff were leering at her contours


The airport security man could have chosen any one of the queue of passengers to undergo a ‘nude’ security scan.

Surprise, surprise, he picked blonde ex-Playboy model Donna D’Errico.

The former Baywatch beauty claims she was singled out although her bearded boyfriend Roy J Bank actually looks like a ‘stereotypical terrorist’.

She adds that she saw officers from the Transportation Security Administration ‘leering’ at her scan, which reveals every contour of the body.

Miss D’Errico, 42, was flying from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh with Mr Bank and her 17-year-old son Rhyan.

She said she was pulled aside and told she would have to go through one of the full body scans which have caused much controversy since being introduced at US airports.

The screening officer can see an image of the unclothed body, while the passenger’s face is blurred. Once the passenger has been screened the ‘naked’ imagery is deleted.

Miss D’Errico said she felt ‘overexposed’ at being chosen to go through the scanner.
She said she asked why she had been chosen from a long line of passengers. ‘In a very sarcastic tone, and still holding me by the elbow, the agent responded, “Because you caught my eye, and they didn’t”.’

She added: ‘My boyfriend sailed through with no problems, which is rather ironic in that he fits the stereotypical “look” of a terrorist when his beard has grown a bit.’

‘After the search, I noticed that the male agent who had pulled me out of line was smiling and whispering with two other agents and glancing at me. I was outraged.’

Officials have faced widespread criticism in recent weeks over increased security measures.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336331/Baywatchs-Donna-DErrico-picked-nude-TSA-body-scan-airport-staff-leered.html#ixzz17VvLHWIB

Fadthrashers- Nov 19th

The TSA is now hinting that they are going to be makiing some concessions to the outlandish screening policies  that were recently implimented. This is the most commonly used and nearly fullproof method of incrementally getting what you want out of people, and they use it on us all the time. Essentially it involves them taking 2 steps toward their agenda and 1 step back to appease us.

Door-in-the-face salesman technique (from Thierpedia)

The door-in-the-face (DITF) technique is a persuasion method. Compliance with the request of concern is enhanced by first making an extremely large request that the respondent will obviously turn down, with a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader's face. The respondent is then more likely to accede to a second, more reasonable request than if this second request were made without the first, extreme request.


FROM POLITICO

TSA chief: Screening may evolve


Heeding a sudden furor, John Pistole, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, said in a Sunday afternoon statement to POLITICO that airport screening procedures “will be adapted as conditions warrant,” in an effort to make them “as minimally invasive as possible, while still providing the security that the American people want and deserve.”

TSA's new flexibility comes as the government gears up for a flood of travel over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Administration officials say any changes are more likely to be in the implementation of the security procedures than in the security measures themselves.

Pistole’s statement to POLITICO modified his vow a few hours earlier on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the procedures were "not going to change." Both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said over the weekend that the administration was continually looking for ways to refine the screening to make it less intrusive and frustrating.

Here is the full text of the statement from Pistole, a former deputy director of the FBI:

"We welcome feedback and comments on the screening procedures from the traveling public, and we will work to make them as minimally invasive as possible, while still providing the security that the American people want and deserve. We are constantly evaluating and adapting our security measures, and as we have said from the beginning, we are seeking to strike the right balance between privacy and security.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45460.html#ixzz160T6V1mS