Build it and they will leave.
Amid concerns over radiation from scanners, civil lawsuits over pat-downs, and general ineptitude on the part of TSA airport personnel, one Florida airport has thrown in the towel. Orlando Sanford International Airport has announced that it will opt out of the TSA’s screening program.
How, you may wonder, can an airport get away with this? Suffice it to say the law is on their side. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act, created after 9/11, contains an opt-out clause. Under it, any U.S. airport is free to hire its own private contracting firm to conduct screenings so long as it used Federal screeners for a period of two years.
The Washington Examiner reports that Rep. John Mica, who will soon chair the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, wrote to the heads of more than 150 U.S. airports to remind them they can and should opt out. He wrote:
When the TSA was established, it was never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees. As TSA has grown larger, more impersonal, and administratively top-heavy, I believe it is important that airports across the country consider utilizing the opt-out provision' and use private screening.
In the wake of recent controversies over airport screenings, Orlando Sanford has taken the congressman’s suggestion to heart. The airport’s director, Larry Dale, is quoted at the website of WDBO, a central Florida radio station, as having said:
All of our due diligence shows it's the way to go. You're going to get better service at a better price and more accountability and better customer service.
The private sector doing a better job for less money? What a crazy idea. Just look at the snazzy job the federal government has done at stimulating the moribund economy and fixing our broken health care system.
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Comments
I used to think Orlando was a useless city with just a bunch of theme parks. Now I find that it is perhaps the most rational and intelligent place to travel from. I hope this trend continues.
Even though they want to go private, the rules state that the private screeners MUST follow the same search criteria laid down by the govt. This changes nothing.
Not a fan of the TSA, but let's not forget that private security contractors let the 9/11 hijackers through...
Yeah, but the TSA let both the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber through, as well as known terrorists. The shoe bomber was stopped by passengers and the known terrorists were stopped by the FBI before they made it on their plane.
@Dave: the two you mentioned were international flights coming into the US. They are not subject to TSA screening - instead, it is the fault of the screeners in foreign countries and of American intelligence agencies.
The private security companies:
1) Did not let them on with a gun
2) Did not let them on with a bomb
3) Did not let them on with a knife longer than 3 inches
Those are FEDERAL GOVERNMENT guidelines. That's right - the guidlines failed, not the screeners, and folks like you blindly accepted that government workers would equate to better workers. Incorrect.
-Shea
The private security contractors followed all of the federal regulations. That the regulations were mis-directed and inadequate is not the fault of the private security contractors.
Also keep in mind that the 9/11 hijackers had valid drivers licenses (Yes Virginia, there are suicide-bombers).
hey lets not forget the CIA, FBI, members of the executive branch were all given early warnings of the 911 attacks...
At last, someone is rational about it. I just wrote a column about a GOP Representative who is worried about tampon bombs.
One is tempted to wonder how these might be detected if the tampon is in use.
What ever happened to the portals that can detect explosives directly?
You almost made it all the way through and then DERP the last paragraph...
Agree with Justin. Too heavy on the last paragraph. Also, I'm pretty sure KBR and Halliburton prove that contractors aren't always cheaper.
As no one else is capable of performing the missions they were tasked with, you're wrong.
I served overseas with both. Great people, mostly professional, with obviously a few idiots in the mix.
Yes. Private doesn't mean better. Real competition means better. Governments and Private Corporations, when given a monopoly, will flagrantly abuse it.
Orlando Sanford is SFB, not MCO
Birdbrain, thank you for that nugget.... but where did anyone call it MCO?
Well, all we need is one plane out of SFB (Simpler, Faster, Better) to blow up. Anybody want to get into my pool? I'm betting "never".
And they host IcelandAir servicing most major European capitals via Reykjavik. Hurray!! I can go back to Paris!
What better ideas for less money does the private sector have about catching the people who will hide explosives around their junk?
They can hire new contractors under this BUT the contractors must still follow TSA procedures
and the underwear bomber did not get through a TSA checkpoint
But, according to you, they must have been using TSA procedures. Duh.
No because the underwear bomber went through an international checkpoint subject to their regulations, nice try
The last sentence of your article was almost completely irrelevant to the rest of the piece. Health care isn't being fixed because half the government is fighting tooth and nail to insure it isn't. Economic woes can't be solved overnight, but I have heard some signs of promise. Neither of these things are comparable to a single organization losing sight of personal rights.
On a different tangent.. "do whatever you have to do as long as we're supersafe!!!!" is a common argument among a certain segment of the population. There's media outrage now, but you can bet a section of the population is going "....meh. Better than being blown up"{ and going on about their business.
Bottom line is that the TSA is useless.
There are 2 options if you want real security on planes:
1. armed guards on every flight
2. treat the passengers as the last line of defense. 19 guys with box cutters can never hijack a plane again, the passengers won't allow it. The only reason they went along on 9/11 is because up till that point hijacked planes landed safely with most if not all the passengers surviving.
IT CAN NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN EVEN WITHOUT THE TSA, THE PEOPLE ON THE PLANE WON'T LET IT.
want proof? what did the passengers of the 3rd plane do after learning the first plane was crashed? think about it.
why don't people get that?
I've got an idea. Terrorism is as old as the cave man. Let's stop worrying about who is going to blow up the next flight or bomb the next building. Eventually someone will succeed in blowing up something despite the security measures.
History assures us of that. History also shows us that Sept. 11 was a fluke event quite unlikely to happen again. We are more likely to see the next terrorist attack from someone within our own borders, likely a middle-age to older white male, disenchanted with the government or economic policies.
Not a Muslim from the Middle East.
Instead, lets focus on getting back to the American way of life.
Don't worry folks, I guarantee I fly more than anyone on here; I am on a flight, five out of seven-days a week.
I also have fifteen years of military service to include active duty Army, Army Reserves and Army National Guard.
You can implement all the draconian measures you want and bomb everyone back to the stone ages and terrorism will still continue.
Until we address the root of the problem, life will continue this downward spiral and people will become ever more cynical.
Dave has it right. The best line of defense is never security measures. It's the passengers; and no, profiling a Muslim is not the option. Some Muslims are terrorists, the majority are not.
Just like some Caucasians are terrorist, most are not.
Profiling odd behavior is the correct method. Pay attention to nervous individuals, usually sweating, maybe even mumbling to themselves, anxious to get out of their seat once the seat belt sign goes off. Reluctant to part with luggage, even to put it in the overhead bin. They usually pull that luggage from the overhead bin immediately upon the seatbelt sign going off.
Remember, terrorist eventually have the same access to technology as the government and it is a never ending game, because technology is always made available for a price.
It wasn't to long ago a young Caucasian girl in Maine killed her Caucasian boyfriend because he was in the process of building a dirty bomb. While he still had a ways to go, he was certainly on the road to success and given time, he may very well have created a device that could have caused extensive damage.
Yes, that is right folks; not a Muslim or a foreigner, an American citizen barely distinguishable from you and I, except perhaps for some odd behavior in some cases. In others, they simply blend right in.
No amount of security is going to catch them. It will always be the people closet to them that have to pay attention.
What our society needs is education and to learn people skills, not more security.
This is perhaps the most reasonable, measured, and quite frankly realistic comment I've seen on this whole situation. Thank you Kenneth.
The fact is, security agencies will ALWAYS be one step behind the threats since theirs is a position of reaction. Intelligence agencies, on the other hand, by their very nature must be in a position of action and prevention.
Growing up in Northern Ireland, believe me I understand what it's like to live in an environment where terrorist threats are very real, but I also understand that one cannot allow these threats to upset one's basic freedoms.
This couldn't be said any better... =)
Very well said. Thank you.
Very well said.
Well said and exactly what I belive. I'm not willing to give up my liberties for some spurious safety delusion. We are NOT safe. We are all going to die someday and there's no way to prevent it. Groping won't make us safe any more than wearing a seatbelt (which is minimal invasion in comparison) will prevent accidents, or good brakes will make us immortal. S*** happens.
Why are so many willing to give up so much for a simple delusion?
I agree, we need to watch for odd behaviour, not strip search babies and old men with artificial limbs or women with breast reconstruction. Or me. Or you.
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Are they kidding? Are they so clueless? We are staying away from the airports in droves because we do not want to be subjected to unregulated, cancer-causing x-ray machines. Who cares if this airport switches from TSA goons to private goons. I don't want them touching me. I don't want them subjecting my children to nude photographs and radiation. If Tampa was really serious, they would ban these machines. And BTW, none of this is about air security or evil terrorists wanting to blow up honest Americans. What nonsense. These same machines and pat downs are going to be \routine in venues all over the Country - any place where the public gathers. You are about to be scanned to death.