This funny video mocks the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) heightened security measures, following the December 25 incident. While the video is hyperbolic in parts, it contains a powerful message. TSA screening methods, despite being ineffective at preventing foreseeable terrorist attacks, such as the December 25 incident, are becoming increasingly unbearable for ordinary travelers.
Instead of perfecting the art of harassing ordinary travelers, our national security system should refocus its efforts on containing attacks by known suspects. It is outrageous that a failure to share crucial information between the federal agencies, whose purpose it is to keep us safe, nearly killed 289 people on Christmas Day, when …
… a 23-year-old Nigerian on a comprehensive terror watch list – whose father warned U.S. authorities of his radical religious views and who paid cash for his ticket and checked no baggage – boarded an international flight for Detroit, apparently without so much as a second glance.
This could happen, because…
… the Transportation Security Administration – the front line of airport security – does not have access to the most comprehensive terror watch list, which contained Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name. (Baltimore Sun)
Excuse me?! What is the purpose of the federal agencies who collect data on suspected terrorists, if not to share it with the TSA, whose ultimately responsible for stopping reported subjects from boarding passenger planes? No matter how many more demeaning screening procedures the TSA will impose on us, as long as crucial information between federal security agencies is poorly shared, attempted attacks will not be effectively contained.