Via daughter Xenia.

TSA is really A Security Theater so its just common sense that a four year old on his way to Disney World would get treated like this:

SECURITY officers at a US airport have come under fire for forcing a disabled boy to remove his leg braces and walk through a checkpoint.

Four-year-old Ryan Thomas was flying from Philadelphia to Disney World in Orlando with his parents Bob and Leona when the incident occurred.

At the time Ryan, born 16 weeks prematurely with malformed ankles and low muscle tone in his legs, had only just begun to walk.

His parents wheeled his stroller to the security checkpoint then broke it down and put it on the conveyor belt.

They then walked Ryan through the metal detector. The alarm went off and the screener told them to take off the boy’s braces.

“I told them he can’t walk without them on his own,” Bob Thomas told the Philadelphia News.

“I said this is overkill. He’s 4 years old. I don’t think he’s a terrorist.”

Security also demanded Ryan walk through on his own.

I guess this shows the terrorists how determined we are… or something.

Chet sent me an email to this article about swabbing peoples hands for explosives. They decline to say what sort of explosives they are looking for but I’d be willing to bet they don’t pick up on wheat flour or powdered sugar (which could make great dust explosions on an airplane) so the benefit from this is asymptotically close to zero.

Chet also notes that even the ID requirement is false security since you don’t really need ID to get on the plane.

Via Glenn Reynolds (via Say Uncle), I found out that TSA let a guy with a gun and a convincing demeaner put his “prisoner” on an airplane.

How can people put up with the security theater at the airport without a look of disgust and anger at the people pawing through their stuff and putting their hands all over them? It’s all to make some people feel better.

If someone had the help a dozen people or so who knew what they were doing (here is a hint) the TSA could be thrown out on the street. It’s wouldn’t be pretty for a week or two, it wouldn’t be legal, but I think it could be done.

TSA, A Security Theater.

From Fan Security Will Be Tight At Super Bowl:

Bomb sniffing dogs and bomb experts will be fanned out around the stadium trained to spot the smallest explosive anywhere. “These K-9’s, they have been trained in over 19,000 explosive components,” said Hugo Barrera of the ATF. “They can detect almost anything.”

If they actually did that the dogs would be worthless for the task at hand. So many ordinary things can be made to explode (matches, powdered sugar, flour, anti-freeze, fertilizer) that dog alerting on “the smallest explosives anywhere” would have so many false positives that probably a quarter of the people coming into the stadium would be searched.

All the bad guys already know the following so I’ll tell you what many people don’t want to know–the truth.

You can’t make a stadium (or airplane) full of people safe from harm in this manner. What security experts call “The Threat Surface” is just too large. And it’s trivial to overload the system with false positives which gives the security guys two options. 1) Shut down operations by investigating each “alarm” by doing a thorough investigation of each “alarm” (do you have a latex allergy sir?) or 2) After the backlog of impatient and irritated customers gets too grumpy they let them bypass the security protocol.

If you want to get something past security in these types of environments you can intentionally create false positives. False positives can bring down almost any security system where there is a modest amount of anonymity and backlog of “angry customers”.

For example: The main ingredients for a common suicide bomb in the mid-east are acetone and hydrogen peroxide (both available at your local drug store in the “beauty” section). Covertly spray one or both of these chemicals in “the smallest” amounts on the ground/floor where people will walk on it prior to being screened. Everyone who walks on it instantly becomes suspected shoe bombers when they are screened. What happens then? Sometime before the 100^th false positive in a row the security people ignore that particular “alarm” and let people on through. The 110^th person actually does have a bomb in his shoe and walks through security without incident.

Another example: A car alarm that goes off every couple of hours every night without apparent cause will probably have the alarm turned off by the third night.

Super Bowl Security is just Security Theater.

A week ago I received an email from a TSA worker asking how to better be able to detect bombs and explosives. I considered the possibility that the person might actually be trying to get something by TSA rather than working for them. But as the conversation progressed it seemed less and less likely. I gave him a few links and apparently he read quite a bit on both my blog and others because he specifically mentioned Breda’s adventures with the TSA.

In one long email he defended the TSA and the job they were doing. I asked if he would like for me to post it so it could get a little more exposure and he said he would like that. I then said:

Before I post it I would like to ask you a few questions. Let’s start with:

So given that I’m pretty sure I could get a few cups of flour in my carryon bag, and an ounce or so of black powder and matches on via a body cavity if nothing else. You know that I can bring down the plane with it, right (http://www.joehuffman.org/FlashTek/06-FFFFgFlour.mpeg)?

So if you can’t stop that then what is the point of doing 90% of the other searches and tests?

He responded with:

[Stuff that was apparently identifying — so I deleted it.–Joe]

Obviously that doesn’t really answer the question–what is the point of TSA if there is an easy way to defeat it? Security is a like a chain. It’s only as strong as its weakest link.

I haven’t heard back from him and that was over two days ago. So, even though I didn’t get my questions answered I’m posting his defense of the TSA:

Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 6:19 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: Re: Hey Joe

I’ve been reading through the blogs about TSA. A lot of it seems to be first-hand experience taken to another level with speculation about motives, means, and why we do what we do.

Like ammo, for instance, our ETD’s don’t detect ammunition or residue. Come to us after a week of shooting and making home-made ammo and you’ll only look dirty, but pass all of our security, as long as you don’t have the ammo or the gun. We just work harder every day with testing and training to detect prohibited items and IED’s, whether whole or in part.

Doesn’t feel so good to see a lot of crap posted about you and your job without people being there to understand, and like I’ve said in the past, the only fully secure air travel is none at all, but while Americans travel the skies we’ll be there to make sure they make it home to their families in one piece.

It is rewarding, because nothing blows up or goes down. Those kind of professions aren’t suited for everyone because there is no actual number to be put up for security, and at the end of the month you can’t see results unless you understand that the quiet is the result, however TSA isn’t perfect (which is an understatement, as threats evolve we must evolve to detect and deter) but while there have been no major, or for that case, minor hijackings, shootings, killings, etc, that I know of and no terrorists on flights what-so-ever, I can see results.

It may not be easy, but while there are people on flights to or from my airport, I’ll be giving 100% to make sure they get there safely. I could never live knowing something went wrong because I didn’t screen people doing everything according to the SOP and then some. And while you work with the traveling public who will you hear the most, people who are satisfied, or those who have a bone to pick?

Want to be pissed because you have to take off your shoes? Thank Richard Reid.
Want to be pissed because you can’t take your water? Thank those terrorists in England.
Most of what we can’t say isn’t because we don’t want to, it’s not that we don’t trust you or want to talk down to you like a parent, like no-answers or ‘because it has to be’ or ‘because we say so,’ it’s always a matter of security. Ask the troops where they are, what kinds of weapons they have and where they store them, how many people they have on guard at night, what the sensitive parts of the bases are, etc, and what will you get? Answers that don’t make sence or no answers at all. Same thing. If we have an open forum where all of what we do comes out, who wins? The Americans who whine and complain, and the terrorists who just got all of our methods, sizes, and modes on a silver platter.

Doesn’t mean we don’t want to tell you everything, like why we have to screen your prosthetics, or what the ETD’s look for, or what types of metal alarm the MD, etc. It’s not up to us, and the ones who make the decisions say people will get hurt if we do talk freely, just like the military. We can’t be armed with weapons, so we’re armed with as much knowledge and electronic tools as the government can standardize and ship. Some of the best X-Ray and ETD machines in any country, and the world finest training for such a large force.

But, just when you hope we can do better, TSA accidently releases our Screening Management SOP, not ecactly how we do everything, but what to do with everyone. More like where the battles were and not how they were armed, but still damaging.

Should be hitting the web today or tomorrow, very not cool.

But anyways, I’m going to bed, try to have a nice day Joe.

Sincerely,

I’m almost overcome with the temptation to comment on and tear apart what he says but I somehow don’t see that as quite fair.

I think the question I posed to him about bringing down a plane with materials found in nearly every kitchen (substitute ground match heads for the black powder) is sufficient rebuttal in the present context.

What can you really say to someone that demonstrates how to defeat $2 Billion a year spent on security with $2 worth of materials you can find in grandmas kitchen?