TSA security breach according to the Daily Show

As we have already reported, bloggers discovered a major TSA security breach earlier this week. There is a lot of posturing going on in Washington with Senators, Representatives and media all expressing outrage. And well they should. Leaks of confidential material are never good, but this one, after examining the material is more of an example of over-classification of material.

That being said, this TSA segment on the Daily Show, seems to put things into perspective and certainly elicits a few chuckles. At least it did for me.

Washington is abuzz with posturing and TSA is in full CYA mode. Committees are being formed. Study groups are forming. Employees are being saddled with administrative leave.

When Senators see their ID cards show up on the Web, they seem to get excited. It seems to make no difference to them that every American’s driver’s license design is up on the Web (as is theirs) and that is the main ID used for domestic flights. However, this gives them good talking points and seems to be an easy-to-understand danger of the TSA security breach.

In the meantime, this breach begs the question, are all of these machinations worth it. TSA officials rightfully claim that the SOP (standard operating procedure) is old and has been changed several times already. Heck, this manual, it turns out, was up on the Web since the spring and no one noticed. Well, we don’t think anyone noticed until an intrepid blogger tested the document redaction techinques employed by TSA. It doesn’t seem that security was all that threatened.

Others claim that we are fighting the past threats and not the coming threats.

It’s this fetish-like focus on tactics that results in the security follies at airports. We ban guns and knives, and terrorists use box-cutters. We take away box-cutters and corkscrews, so they put explosives in their shoes. We screen shoes, so they use liquids. We take away liquids, and they’re going to do something else. Or they’ll ignore airplanes entirely and attack a school, church, theatre, stadium, shopping mall, airport terminal outside the security area, or any of the other places where people pack together tightly.

This TSA episode is somewhere between comedy and tragedy. I’m putting my money on comedy winning the reality game and tragedy for some of the hapless bureaucratic players.

Charlie Leocha

Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.