I don’t much like DHS, and I really don’t like TSA, but I’m cool with DHSOIG because it seems to be genuinely trying to get TSA to shape up, even if TSA just ignores it.
That’s the DHS Office of the Inspector General, which has released report after report pointing out TSA mistakes and buffoonery, my favorite of which is now OIG-15-45, “Allegation of Granting Expedited Screening Through TSA Pre[Check] Improperly [Redacted],” even if it is redacted. This is a remarkable document.
Here’s what happened (sorry if this is hard to read—the document appears to be “secured” against cutting and pasting):
Just to be clear, although the identity of Sufficiently Notorious Convicted Felon (hereinafter, “Felon”) has been redacted, the federal government believes this about him/her: “The traveler is a former member of a domestic terrorist group. While a member, the traveler was involved in numerous felonious criminal activities that led to arrest and conviction. After serving a multiple-year sentence, the traveler was released from prison.”
These criminal activities included “murder and offenses that involve explosives.” We know that because TSA concluded that Felon was not actually a member of TSA Pre[Check]. Or, at least, TSA did not find a record of this person applying to be a member. Nor was Felon just in the Pre[Check] lane because they weren’t busy or something like that; Felon’s boarding pass actually had Pre[Check] marking on it, including an encrypted barcode. It appears, although most of the relevant stuff is redacted, that Felon was somehow cleared through the Secure Flight program, which allows such people to print their own boarding passes.
Exactly how this happened is, of course, redacted, but may have to do with the various “no-fly lists.” I infer that from the fact that OIG made a recommendation that had to do with these lists (the recommendation itself is redacted), and TSA told it to get lost. Had the relevant intelligence/law-enforcement communities felt this person was a risk, TSA responded, they’d have put him/her on a list (so this person clearly was not on such a list). So it’s the list-makers’ fault, according to TSA.
Tag: TSA
TSA Issues Secret Warning on ‘Catastrophic’ Threat to Aviation
The Transportation Security Administration said it is unlikely to detect and unable to extinguish what an FBI report called “the greatest potential incendiary threat to aviation,” according to a classified document obtained by The Intercept. Yet despite that warning, sources said TSA is not adequately preparing to respond to the threat.
Thermite — a mixture of rust and aluminum powder — could be used against a commercial aircraft, TSA warned in a Dec. 2014 document, marked secret. “The ignition of a thermite-based incendiary device on an aircraft at altitude could result in catastrophic damage and the death of every person onboard,” the advisory said.
TSA said it is unlikely to spot an easy-to-assemble thermite-based incendiary device during security screening procedures, and the use of currently available extinguishers carried on aircrafts would create a violent reaction. The TSA warning is based on FBI testing done in 2011, and a subsequent report.
A thermite device, though difficult to ignite, would “produce toxic gasses, which can act as nerve poison, as well as a thick black smoke that will significantly inhibit any potential for in-flight safety officers to address the burn.”
TSA warned federal air marshals not to use customary methods of extinguishing fires — the water or halon fire extinguishers currently found on most aircraft — which would make the reaction worse, creating toxic fumes. Instead, air marshals are told to “recognize a thermite ignition” — but TSA has provided no training or guidance on how to do so, according to multiple sources familiar with the issue.