New TSA Screening Requirements Violate their Own Requirements
There seems to be a lot of “confusion” lately about what exactly the proper screening requirements are of TSA employees and the new regulations governing domestic flight and travel.
The TSA has announced new requirements that claim to be for “increased security”. The requirement goes on to say:
Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining their identity.
This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.
Note my emphasis in the above quote. This reads that you are required to show identification when requested, but not if you have lost your ID and cooperate with officers.
So basically this has nothing at all to do with security. Let’s also not forget that the alleged 9/11 hijackers had valid, legally-issued credentials when they boarded those planes. They did so within perfectly legal guidelines, without violating any laws or regulations.
What would stop someone else from doing the same? Answer: NOTHING!
Incidentally, you can’t “show identification”, because “identification” is an act or process. Showing “credentials” would have been a proper way to express that… but perhaps these are more examples of “Doublespeak” from US.gov.
In his bestselling book Doublespeak, William Lutz notes that doublespeak is not an accident or a “slip of the tongue.” Instead, it is a deliberate, calculated misuse of language.
Lutz provides several defining attributes of doublespeak:
- misleads
- distorts reality
- pretends to communicate
- makes the bad seem good
- avoids or shifts responsibility
- makes the negative appear positive
- creates a false verbal map of the world
- limits, conceals, corrupts, and prevents thought
- makes the unpleasant appear attractive or tolerable
- creates incongruity between reality and what is said or not said
Sound familiar?
This is yet another example of “Security Theater” from a corrupt government that continues to propagate lies to uphold their agenda.
There is even one detailed account from travel author Edward Hasbrouck that explains how he was asked to present his ID from neither an airline representative or a member of the TSA, and nearly arrested for simply asking the question “Who are you?” to the person demanding he present his credentials.
In fact, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that you don’t have to present ID if you are willing to subject yourself to a more-thorough search at the security checkpoint. This was part of the Gilmore v. Gonzales ruling.
But it seems that the TSA is going back on their own documented regulations, by making it a requirement to present photo ID when asked, even though you are legally not required to do so.
And lastly, does this banner, emblazened on many TSA webpages seem a bit ominous?
“Behavior Detection Officers are Looking Out for You”:
It seems almost… familiar.
Don’t they realize that the book 1984 by George Orwell almost 60 years ago was meant to be a warning, not a guidebook on how to run this country?
The TSA shouldn’t be allowed to use the eagle (representing freedom) and the stars and stripes (representing the sacrifice to achieve that freedom) in their logo.