|
Post by jspnrvr on Dec 3, 2009 21:51:17 GMT -5
I saw that one, too, Mike. A year or so ago on tv, it was teamed up with another John Wayne aviation movie, something about some guys who crashed and were in a survival situation in the frozen North, or mountains or some such. Also religious references in that movie time capsule, remember John Wayne praying out loud as they're trying to make the runway at San Fancisco Airport? I enjoyed them both.
|
|
|
Post by doctork on Dec 4, 2009 4:57:56 GMT -5
I don't think I remember the movie, odd because I thought I had seen them all (John Wayne movies that is). Maybe we can rent it, if there is a rental place here, or maybe it is time to sign up for Netflix.
I sure agree about the changes in air travel. My aunt was a flight attendant in the 40's, maybe early 50's. She was a Registered Nurse, as I believe that was a requirement for "stewardesses" then, being as how air travel was so dangerous and all.
When I was little we traveled from Manila to San Francisco by air (we had moved out there by ship)and it took several days because we had to stop at Guam, Wake, Midway and Honolulu for fuel. No jet engines, all propeller planes.
Traveling to and from college was usually on Eastern Airlines, and I was the proud possessor of a WHEAL button - We Hate Eastern Air Lines. "Seat assignment" consisted of checking in, looking at a diagram of the plane, picking the seat you wanted, and the agent pulled the sticker off the diagram and put it in your ticket envelope.
It wasn't that long ago that someone could go to the gate with you to see you off, or be there to greet you when you landed.
However, on some flights I take, the price in dollars is exactly what I paid 30 years ago; it is a lot cheaper.
|
|
|
Post by doctork on Dec 9, 2009 10:19:20 GMT -5
Y'all know how I luv the TSA ( : and a number of us frequent flyers have complained for years about the way they keep secret "the rules" we travelers are supposed to follow. Yes there is info posted on the website, but repeatedly the TSOs are allowed to make up any rule they feel like at the checkpoint, and then threaten with DYWTFT (do you want to fly today?) if one questions their made-up-on-the-spot rule: taking away baby foods and formula, saying you have "too much medication, more than needed for your XX flight, you have to go back and check this. After much pressure and many requests under FOIA, TSA finally posted their "redacted" SOP (standard operating procedure) on the internet. Ooops - the "redacted" portions that are deemed super-secret security information are easily read. Just C&P the blacked out portion to a Word doc or notepad, and all the information appears intact. Some of the information is silly and you wonder why they redacted it. However, a lot of the info is indeed sensitive and should never be available to the public, especially terrorist-leaning folks. But even a 5th grader could read the SSI (Super Secret Info, no really it's "security sensitive information.") I find it frightening that TSA is so incompetent, and has to be held accountable by an internet group instead of Congress and the Sec of DHS. (What was that Jerry Garcia quote about "it's pathetic it has to be us"?) I really wish they would spend their $7 billion on real security (screen all cargo, screen everyone who enters the secure area, don't hire people with criminal records, don't allow fencing rings to operate with impunity in the baggage areas), instead of a workfare program to harass innocent travelers by attempting to locate explosive shampoo. Here's a portion of the Washington Post article, quoting the FlyerTalker who outed the TSA. Seth is the guy who posted the live blog about the Star MegaDO, and he is also helping me get to the 50,000 mile mark this year on Continental (really nice guy!): // Seth Miller, 32, an information technology consultant in Manhattan, first publicized the manual's ineffectual redactions Sunday on his travel blog, WanderingAramean.com. He said he learned about the document while chatting with other fliers on an Internet bulletin board. Miller said it made him question TSA secrecy rules, saying the agency has withheld even mundane operational rules from public view rather than clarify its practices.
"After getting over the initial shock of how stupid it seemed they were for putting out a document like that," Miller said in a phone interview, "I think the most significant risk is that when . . . you see some of the things that are marked as security sensitive information, you have to sort of smack your hand on your forehead and say, 'What are they thinking?' "
The TSA learned of the failure that day and has begun an internal review by its Office of Inspection, an official said. It also checked other procurement documents to correct similar vulnerabilities.// Your tax dollars at work, folks. ETMMP Don't you feel secure!
|
|
|
Post by gailkate on Dec 9, 2009 11:43:07 GMT -5
CNN interviewed a former TSA agent and a former deputy director at Homeland sec. Both were Stunned, Appalled, Beyond Speechless. They pointed out that the 9/11 guys had done several trial runs to be certain of what they'd encounter, so this is a playbook for anyone who wants to outsmart the system.
TSA has said this was an older version (I might have this a little mixed up) and Cooper asked his experts just how much different could the new procedures be? They both agreed with him that there are only so many things to look for and so many ways to look. Astounding - there was even a copy of the pass an official security person could show to get whisked through the line.
|
|
|
Post by doctork on Dec 9, 2009 17:25:09 GMT -5
CNN interviewed a former TSA agent and a former deputy director at Homeland sec. Both were Stunned, Appalled, Beyond Speechless. They pointed out that the 9/11 guys had done several trial runs to be certain of what they'd encounter, so this is a playbook for anyone who wants to outsmart the system. TSA has said this was an older version (I might have this a little mixed up) and Cooper asked his experts just how much different could the new procedures be? They both agreed with him that there are only so many things to look for and so many ways to look. Astounding - there was even a copy of the pass an official security person could show to get whisked through the line. Exactly right, gk - they should be stunned beyond belief, as (some of) this is incredibly dangerous info to let out. The entire manual is now readily available on the internet. It includes the procedure by which CIA escorts and their dangerous passengers are to be screened. Wannabe terrorist who wishes to free someone being transferred out of Gitmo (or any other variation of undesireable escortee) - it's all right there so you can pick the best point to spring the passenger and plan your attack. And yes, detailed photos of many diplomatic and Congressional IDs are there too, affording the opportunity for anyone to photoshop a counterfeit. Management of the WTMD (walk-through metal detector) settings are explained - it should detect 25 gauge wire (I think that was the description); all an Evil Doer needs to do is check his WEI (weapons, explosives, incendiaries) himself to be sure it "passes," now that he knows the level. Also detailed are the percentages of each type of item that will be screened, so the Evil Doer can pick the best odds for smuggling forbidden items. TSA is in dire need of adult supervision, ideally by competent security experts and experienced managers who can insist that the work force perform, but there doesn't seem to be any effort to hire such employees. They are now backpedaling and trying to minimize the damage by saying "it was nothing, it was old, blah blah blah," but that doesn't change the fact that the SOP Manual is indeed a playbook for bad guys. The manual has been on the internet since March and was only publicly outed by FT et al this past weekend. How many terrorists have read it and made their plans in the interim 9 months?
|
|
|
Post by BoatBabe on Dec 10, 2009 9:44:48 GMT -5
This is so cool, Doc! You outed this story before John Stewart. Clearly you hang with the Cutting Edge.
|
|
|
Post by gailkate on Dec 10, 2009 10:36:37 GMT -5
I've been forgetting to watch John Stewart. I wish I'd seen his take on this to give me some balance. All the minor cases of disaffected teenagers wanting to earn their manhood with terrorism have seemed just minor to me. But with this information, those teenagers could do real damage. Why bother going off to Pakistan or Somalia to train - they've got a written manual right here at home.
The 9/11 guys were barely out of their teens. The profile is the same, but those guys had to plan and learn complex skills. Now all the modern Jets and Sharks can whip up home-made explosives and blow themselves to Glory - along with hundreds of innocent victims.
Cripes, K, is it really true they don't do background checks? In MN you have to pass a background check just to be a typist or janitor. Surely airport security requires a higher clearance.
|
|
|
Post by rogesgallery on Dec 10, 2009 11:11:41 GMT -5
Here in Spokane you have to pass a background check just to rent an apartment outside of the slumlord domain.
|
|
|
Post by doctork on Dec 10, 2009 21:06:00 GMT -5
If the TSO's would do their job of detecting Weapons, Explosives, and Incendiaries (WEI), no Jets, Sharks or OBL would be able to board a plane with expolsives and blow it up. However, while the smurfs (so-called because of their tens of million of $$ worth of new blue uniforms which allow better impersonation of Law Enforcement Officers) are busy doing "Amber Alert" checks of children's faces, checking ID with their loupes and magnifying lenses (they do not understand that ID does not = security), and cruising the airport doing "Behavioral Detection" after a 4 day training course they believe equals a PhD in psychology, they miss 60 - 80% of WEI, their basic task. And of course they don't screen all cargo (the mostly likely way to attack an aircraft), and they themelves are screened only once daily (at most) and are then free to enter the secure area with whatever they want.
Theoretically background checks are done prior to hiring, but either they are skipped in the rush to hire, or they are poorly done. Literally hundreds of TSOs have been fired when their criminal backgrounds come to light. And Alvin Crabtree, a TSO who brought a gun to work with him (an offense for which he should have been fired), still works for TSA three years later on the front line at Denver International Airport. Maybe he was disciplined, maybe not, as that is a "personnel matter," to which we the public who pay his salary are not entitled.
It's very easy to circumvent the TSA already, as the "layers of security" have more holes than Swiss cheese. I'd be happy to have a discussion offline about just how easy it is. But TSA is so busy performing Security Theater, that they don't appear to do anything pro-actively and effectively. The vaunted "Secure flight" now requiring the airlines to obtain your birth date and gender and hand it over to the TSA before flight is costing the industry hundreds of millions of $$$ (hey, hasn't anyone noticed the airlines are already hemorrhaging red ink) but the info goes nowhere and does nothing. But they persist in the waste of valuable security $$ that shold be protecting us, not annoying us.
And don't get me started on the biggest problem with TSA - daily assault on our precious Constitutional Rights.
Roges, I'd greatly prefer to sit next to one of those slumlord tenants on a plane than any random TSO. Frankly I'd rather sit next to OBL, providing he had been properly screened for OBL. But his name isn't on the Terrorist Watch List!
"Suspected terrorists" like Ted Kennedy and Drew Griffin (and now probably Seth B Miller who publicly outed the faulty redaction that was a clear violation of federal protocols) are on the list, but not the real terrorists. They can't go on the list, because we don't want them to know that we know who they are! Honestly!
Still I'm getting on a plane tomorrow at 6 am. I know that my risk remains vanishingly small, despite the Security Theater that isn't - mainly because 1) cockpit doors are reinforced, and 2) passengers now know to fight back.
|
|
|
Post by doctork on Dec 10, 2009 21:28:54 GMT -5
I spoke too soon. The Honorables Bennie Thompson and Peter King (representatives on the Committee on Homeland Security) are now wanting to take legal action against those who have posted the (non-secret, available legally by FOIA to any citizen, with appropriate redaction) Management SOP on the web. They would like financial penalties applied. OMG - what was that silly little thing about freedom of speech?
Acting Director of TSA Gail Rossides (holdover idiot from Bush 43 after Head Idiot the Kipster left) is blaming the problem of improper redaction in "a private contractor" and "software problems"! Always convenient to blame anyone else but the person responsible, and even better to blame software, because then you don't have to go to all the trouble of firing an incompetent government employee.
|
|