ICB: Jilted By The TSA

By: Idaho Conservative Blogger

Last week I took five flights and went through Two TSA security checks, one check at the Boise airport and one at Reagan International Airport. To my surprise I was not asked if I wanted to walk through the TSA x-ray and I was not patted down at either airport, just a walk through the metal detector and off to my flight.  I felt so jilted.  All this build up to nothing.  Like going out on a date expecting to score and getting the cold shoulder at the end of the night.  Not even a kiss goodnight.

Or could it have been reverse profiling?  ICB is a bit dark complexioned and has dark hair. Could it have been TSA political correctness?  As I got a pass at Reagan International I noticed some elderly folks being x-rayed and a younger all American looking young man (blond hair and blue eyes) getting the pat down treatment.

I would gladly have traded my pass to take the place of the elderly or some of these young kids we have seen on news reports.  And what are we getting out of this? How many terrorists plots have we foiled with these checks?  None!  And now Big Sis says that these intrusive checks are going to be expanded to train stations, bus terminals, and others.  How crazy is this thinking, if Big Sis wants to expand this security how about expanding it to the U.S. Mexico border?  If I were a terrorist that’s the way I would come in. But, no, that wouldn’t be politically correct now would it?

What Israeli security could teach us"

The Boston Globe points out, “The safest airline in the world, it is widely agreed, is El Al, Israel's national carrier.  The safest airport is Ben Gurion International, in Tel Aviv.  No El Al plane has been attacked by terrorists in more than three decades, and no flight leaving Ben Gurion has ever been hijacked.

The Israelis check for bombs and weapons too, but always with the understanding that things don't hijack planes, terrorists do -- and that the best way to detect terrorists is to focus on intercepting not bad things, but bad people.  To a much greater degree than in the United States, security at El Al and Ben Gurion depends on intelligence and intuition -- what Rafi Ron, the former director of security at Ben Gurion, calls the human factor.

Israeli airport security, much of it invisible to the untrained eye, begins before passengers even enter the terminal. Officials constantly monitor behavior, alert to clues that may hint at danger: bulky clothing, say, or a nervous manner. Profilers -- that's what they're called -- make a point of interviewing travelers, sometimes at length.

They probe, as one profiling supervisor told CBS, for ``anything out of the ordinary, anything that does not fit."  Their questions can seem odd or intrusive, especially if your only previous experience with an airport interrogation was being asked whether you packed your bags yourself.

Unlike in US airports, where passengers go through security after checking in for their flights and submitting their luggage, security at Ben Gurion comes first.  Only when the profiler is satisfied that a passenger poses no risk is he or she allowed to proceed to the check-in counter. By that point, there is no need to make him remove his shoes, or to confiscate his bottle of water”

This is not rocket science, its common sense, not politically correct but correct.  The U.S. should take a closer look at the Ben Gurion model. It could not only make us safer, less intrusive for the traveler, and keep some of us from feeling jilted before our flights or worse yet victimized by invasive pat downs.

For some time Americans have asked for the Government to get out of our pockets, now we would feel better just to have the Government out of our pants.


Email:  Idaho Conservative Blogger


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