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TSA hires 73 people from its terror watch list

TSA hires 73 people from its terror watch list

“Staggering incompetence” doesn’t sufficiently describe this level of derp

I hate the TSA. Hate, hate, hate. Not just because they reached into my purse while I was waiting to board a plane. And not because they’ve lectured me about tooth paste on five, yes — five separate occasions. My hatred of TSA is not even a result of their oft pervy-handed ways. I hate the TSA because they’re painfully incompetent.

Last week, the acting head of the TSA stepped down after a, “news reports that undercover security agents had penetrated airport security on 67 occasions,” according to the Washington Post. That amounts to a 96% failure rate.

As if a 4% screening success rate wasn’t bad enough, a new audit found the TSA accidentally hired 73 workers who were listed on their own terror watch list.

“This is totally unacceptable… we need to revamp the TSA process,” said Texas Representative Michael McCaul in an interview with Fox News. “Most importantly, it puts Americans at risk.”

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

The 73 individuals identified in the latest report “were employed by major airlines, airport vendors, and other employers,” but the TSA failed to identify any link to terrorism during vetting because of gaps in access to the interagency terrorism watchlist database.

The individuals represented “a potential transportation security threat,” according to the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general report.

Surely there has to be a good reason for missing 73 people with connections to terrorism, right? There is and it’s the tangled web of federal government bureaucracy. You see, the TSA doesn’t have access to some terrorism-related category codes when it comes to screening prospective employees:

“This occurred because TSA is not authorized under current interagency watchlisting policy to receive certain terrorism-related category codes” as part of their vetting process, the report explained. The redacted report did not disclose what category codes were excluded from TSA’s vetting process.

The TSA is now coordinating with DHS to ensure it has access to all necessary terrorism watchlist information.

When it came to the criminal vetting process, the TSA relied on airports and airlines to carry out criminal background checks, but did not sufficiently oversee or verify the process, according to the DHS Office of the Inspector General’s report.

“TSA did not have an adequate monitoring process in place to ensure that airport operators properly adjudicated credential applicants’ criminal histories,” the report reads.

Part of the problem is that current FBI policy prohibits the TSA from conducting recurrent criminal checks on aviation workers.

Incompetence aside, consider the billions we’ve pumped into TSA. The payoff? Sacrificing fourth amendment rights to blue-gloved “security” agents who couldn’t fail harder at the whole “security” part if they tried.

[Featured Image from Wikimedia Image Commons]

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Comments

Sammy Finkelman | June 10, 2015 at 6:15 pm

TSA hires 73 people from its terror watch list

None of them have ever done anything meriting suspicions, have they?

This is further proof that the terror watch list has too many names on it.

Sammy Finkelman | June 10, 2015 at 6:17 pm

You get the saqme thing with all thes epeople who are prevented form ourchasing guns. they annoubnce, everyt so often: X number of opeople were stopped from purchasing guns. like it actually means something besides that the list incorates a lot of non-dangereous people it doesn’t need to.

    Yep. There are a lot of false denials and delays (NOT denials) included in that number.

    The Brady Act has not, as reported, “prevented 2.5 million (or whatever number) sales to prohibited persons”. The vast majority of those are temporary delays or false denials based on similar names. A few — very few — felons have been stopped from buying retail guns, but most know they can’t get one at retail and don’t even try.

    They have to include the temporary delays and false positives to inflate their number, just like they have to include suicides and self-defense shootings to inflate the “gun violence” numbers. It’s all a lie.

    The question is, “If their cause is so righteous, why do they have to lie?”

      Henry Hawkins in reply to Archer. | June 10, 2015 at 10:03 pm

      The thing about felons is they know much cheaper and easier ways to acquire a firearm than trying to outsmart the system and paying full retail. Why, I’ve heard that some felons are thieves.

    sjf_control in reply to Sammy Finkelman. | June 10, 2015 at 10:20 pm

    Huh?

Henry Hawkins | June 10, 2015 at 6:27 pm

Tell us how you really feel, Kemberlee. lol

I fly as little as absolutely possible.

Yeah but if you empty your purse/pockets and submit to being felt up we’ll be safe. Right?

It’s about training the people to submit to the State.

With friends like these, who needs enemies? 😉

Conservative0317 | June 10, 2015 at 7:15 pm

Add to this:
TSA failed to detect mock explosives and weapons 95% of the time during airport security tests

http://www.businessinsider.com/tsa-failed-to-detect-mock-explosives-and-weapons-95-of-the-time-during-airport-security-tests-2015-6

Un-friggin’-believable.

Did they have a letter of recommendation from Rev.Wright or Wm. Ayers?