Bare-handed passengers better deterrent to terrorism than TSA

After the federal government spent an unbelievable US$56 billion in airline security, there are two notable results, according to a US Congressional panel:

1. Flying is no safer than before the 9-11 attacks.
2. The bare hands of passengers might be the best defense against a terrorist.

“Americans have spent nearly $60 billion, and they are no safer today than they were before 9/11,” said Rep. Paul C. Broun (R-Ga.). “We need to make travel safe in America, and right now it’s not.”

"TSA has lost its way," said U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Orlando, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. "It is time for reform."

Broun joined House Transportation Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.) at Reagan National Airport to present a harshly critical report on the TSA’s performance.

Both criticized the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as a bloated bureaucracy that recruits security personnel with ads on gas pumps and pizza boxes. They have called for various reforms.

The agency created after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 has grown from 16,500 employees to more than 65,000, yet it has allowed more than 25,000 security breaches, according to a joint report by two congressional committees.

“We never intended to have TSA grow into this massive bureaucracy,” Mica said.

Broun said a terrorist bomb could be put aboard an airliner “very easily” at his home airport in Atlanta. “TSA has not prevented any attacks,” he said. “It’s just been very fortunate that we’ve had no attacks.”

Mica and Broun ALSO challenged the need for 3,986 employees at its Washington headquarters, saying they earned an average of $103,852 .

The two House Republicans said the TSA needed to undergo almost a dozen reforms.

They included:

• The TSA should set standards for airport and airline security and be open to using private contractors to carry them out.
• More personnel should be stationed abroad to intercept terrorists.
• More attention should be paid to ensuring that passenger screening and baggage inspections in foreign airports are up to US standards.

TSA predictably did not agree.

TSA spokesman Greg Soule denounced the report, according to the Washington Post.

“TSA has developed a highly trained federal workforce that has safely screened over 5 billion passengers and established a multilayered security system reaching from curb to cockpit,” Soule said.

The report cited data released this year showing that there had been 25,000 airport security breaches in the past decade. Given the leaky security network, it said, “passengers and crew offer our first and most effective line of defense.”

The report said that the TSA has wasted money on ineffective equipment and programs. Their report says it has also been slow to install explosive-detection devices at the nation’s largest airports, among other defects.

Soule responded that the risk-based approach was “designed to maintain a high level of security, while improving the overall travel experience, whenever possible.”

“Each of these initiatives moves us away from a one-size-fits-all approach and enhances our ability to provide the most effective security, focusing on those who present the highest risk, in the most efficient way possible,” Soule said.

The TSA faced a public outcry last year after it introduced the new scanners, which critics thought were overly revealing, and procedures for vigorous pat-downs of those who refused to use the scanners.

But they are no longer the biggest issue for regular travelers, according to the U.S. Travel Association. Their report said the biggest objection voiced by frequent fliers was that other passengers delay security lines with too much carry-on baggage. They said passengers also dislike requirements that they remove their shoes, belts and jackets.

By David Wilkening