Byron York
Washington Examiner
11/15/2010
Did you know that the nation’s airports are not required to have Transportation Security Administration screeners checking passengers at security checkpoints? The 2001 law creating the TSA gave airports the right to opt out of the TSA program in favor of private screeners after a two-year period. Now, with the TSA engulfed in controversy and hated by millions of weary and sometimes humiliated travelers, Rep. John Mica, the Republican who will soon be chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is reminding airports that they have a choice.
Mica, one of the authors of the original TSA bill, has recently written to the heads of more than 150 airports nationwide suggesting they opt out of TSA screening. “When the TSA was established, it was never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees,” Mica writes. “As TSA has grown larger, more impersonal, and administratively top-heavy, I believe it is important that airports across the country consider utilizing the opt-out provision provided by law.”…
…In a May 2010 letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Mica noted that the GAO “discovered that since the program’s inception, at least 17 known terrorists … have flown on 24 different occasions, passing through security at eight SPOT airports.” One of those known terrorists was Faisal Shahzad, who made it past SPOT monitors onto a Dubai-bound plane at New York’s JFK International Airport not long after trying to set off a car bomb in Times Square. Federal agents nabbed him just before departure.
Mica and other critics in Congress want to see quick and meaningful changes in the way TSA works…
Read the entire article at the Washington Examiner
H/T GatewayPundit. Follow the link to see the video of a former TSA official saying, yeah, this violates your 4th Amendment rights, but they’re going to do it anyway. Now…fill in the blank: “Yeah, we know this violates your ___ Amendment rights, but we’re going to have to do it anyway.” See a problem with this?
Update: At Instapundit, A foolproof way to end the screenings: “Have Arizona pass a law saying that illegal aliens will be subject to these procedures as well! The federal government would immediately ask a judge to ban full-body scans.”
Update 2: We look forward to seeing your next vacation “photos“.
Update 3: From The Lonely Conservative: Oh this is rich. CAIR is asking for an exemption for hijab wearing Muslim women. They want them exempted from the full body scan, and only want the pat down above the neck. In the alternative, they suggest the women pat themselves down.
Good grief!
Update 4: Via HotAir.com, Hmmmm: Minneapolis airport considering private screeners instead of TSA?
