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Old 04-27-2016, 09:49 AM   #341
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Wedgie, noogie, pushup: Life inside TSA’s intelligence office

https://www.revealnews.org/blog/wedgie-noogie-pushup-life-inside-tsas-intelligence-office/

An accusation of a wedgie. Forced motivational push-ups. Speculation about what a cohort looked like naked. Exile for reporting misconduct. Even a noogie for a job well done.

This is not 1950s fraternity-house hazing or high school locker-room Tom Foolery. These are accounts of life inside the intelligence office of the Transportation Security Administration.

Since the March 22 airport and subway bombings in Brussels that killed 32, the top U.S. transportation security official has scrambled to quell fears about the risk of similar attacks on domestic soil by highlighting the agency’s intelligence-driven approach to security.

Already facing multiple congressional inquiries into senior-level misconduct, internal complaints of retaliation and the ire of the aviation industry over hour-long security checkpoint delays, TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger earlier this month told reporters that the “vast national intelligence network” helped bolster transportation security. His comments came days after he testified to a Senate commerce committee that under his leadership TSA has enhanced how it shares threat information.

But the agency’s own Office of Intelligence and Analysis, plagued by near-constant turnover at its top levels and often in turmoil, has struggled to reach its potential, insiders say. The office’s track record includes leadership battles that have fostered a toxic culture, produced intelligence that frequently is of little value and mishandled classified information that jeopardized the agency’s direct access to useful intelligence, interviews with current and former intelligence officials, court records and other documents show.

One internal photograph, obtained by Reveal, even shows an employee held in a headlock, getting a noogie from a senior government executive at an awards ceremony.

The office has repeatedly mishandled sensitive information, including a leak related to the Boston Marathon bombing investigation. That has rankled intelligence agencies, which in turn temporarily restricted TSA’s access to classified records.

These issues and others are likely to arise during a House oversight committee hearing Wednesday as lawmakers continue to investigate management practices and misconduct at TSA amid concerns about security gaps in the nation’s transportation systems.

Mark Livingston is one of three current TSA managers the oversight committee has called to testify. He was the intelligence office’s deputy assistant administrator from July 2013 until October 2014, when he was reassigned after raising concerns about discrimination against women and inappropriate behavior. In an interview, Livingston described a culture of harassment and retaliation for reporting misconduct. TSA has major management challenges that result in the agency’s failure to perform effectively, which poses a risk to national security and economic stability, he said.

“The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior of its senior leaders. I keep seeing these examples – there seems to be no bottom to this failed leadership abyss,” he said. “The environment at TSA among senior leaders is like ‘Lord of the Flies’ – either attack or be attacked. Even with changes in leadership I haven’t seen a change.”

Livingston said he refused to brush aside another top official’s inappropriate comment directed at his female assistant. He also reported a manager who hazed employees, including women wearing skirts, by making them do pushups in the office. He made those claims and others in a discrimination lawsuit filed recently in U.S. District Court.

“We ask the public if they see something to say something, but we can’t ask our employees,” Livingston said, referring to the Homeland Security Department’s campaign motto to report suspicious activity. “No one is safe at TSA who reports issues. I am concerned that employees fear their supervisors more than they fear a potential terrorist threat.”

Lax security protocols for handling classified or sensitive information shook the broader intelligence community’s confidence in the agency. Livingston said he reported some of these security blunders. While he did not face retaliation for calling attention to those incidents, others did not fare as well, he said.

“Intel is happening in spite of leadership, not because of it,” he said. “TSA needs intel professionals running the intelligence office, not program managers or specialists.”

TSA declined an interview request. In a written statement emailed to Reveal, an agency spokesman said the agency recently was given expanded access to a sensitive terrorist identity database and regularly meets with officials from intelligence agencies and the aviation industry.

“TSA currently has complete and immediate access to the intelligence it needs to effectively conduct its counterterrorism mission,” the spokesman wrote.

Debra D’Agostino, a Washington-based attorney who represents multiple TSA employees, said the TSA intelligence office’s type of mismanagement is “juvenile, frat-boy nonsense.”

“This is not what one would expect to hear of an office that has such an important role in our nation’s security,” D’Agostino said. “It’s been very disappointing to hear about what is going on in that office.”

D’Agostino has fought the agency over false allegations, hostile work environment and retaliation. One of her female clients who works in the intelligence office was accused of giving a male employee a wedgie, among other allegations of inappropriate conduct. The accused woman denied she had ever pulled or even attempted to pull his underwear up his buttocks. She did not even know what a wedgie was, and had to look up the definition of the word, D’Agostino said.

The agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility nonetheless investigated and proposed removing the woman from her job, which she challenged, D’Agostino said. The woman admitted that she had called an employee a vulgar word, albeit in jest, and later apologized. Instead of removing her, the agency gave her a letter of counseling.

Livingston, D’Agostino and others say the agency shuffles senior leaders who come under fire, rather than addressing the underlying problems. That creates even more issues, especially when top managers don’t have the relevant experience to lead. Intelligence officials say that continues to be the case in the office.

The harassment extends to gender discrimination and sexually offensive language, according to several current and former employees. Raechell Bailey, a former executive advisor to Livingston and others, said that several women tried to speak to TSA’s top leaders about specific issues, but were largely ignored.

In one instance, a male manager wondered aloud to a female employee what another co-worker looked like undressed. In another example, Bailey, who served in her role from 2013 to 2015, said a supervisor spread a false rumor while she was on maternity leave that her newborn daughter looked like her boss. She said she left TSA when she saw little support from top officials in addressing the harassment issues.

“There may be intel issues but more importantly to me there are people issues and they are not concerned about remedying it,” she said. “We’re saying women are being sexually harassed at all levels – directors to analysts – every day. Every other branch of government has a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment. TSA does not enforce that policy.

“Behind the SCIF doors is a boys’ club, and they know it,” she added, referring to intelligence jargon for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, a secure area where classified information is stored and handled. “It’s a stretch to call TSA ‘intelligence-driven’ based on how they manage people.”

For some career intelligence officials, several of whom came from the National Security Agency, the office became a government career graveyard if they fell out of favor with top leaders, current and former officials said.

When it came to mishandling sensitive information, instead of identifying the breakdown that caused the errors, senior leaders instead went looking for a scapegoat, several officials said.

Cindy Farkus, who ran the office after decades at the National Security Agency, refused to fire one official, Andrew Colsky, who was blamed — wrongly, she and others said — for one such mishap. Farkus was then reassigned to another unit of the Homeland Security Department, and eventually left government.

“I’ve seen weird things in the intelligence community over the years … but I’d never seen anything like that,” she said.

Although the TSA intelligence office had made progress, the intelligence community reportedly balked at TSA after that incident. Instead, the nation’s spymasters saw the TSA office as clowns with whom they didn’t want to share any information, said Michelle Farr, who quit as Farkus’ deputy after her reassignment. After leaving TSA Farr consulted for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She now works in private industry.

But with the Brussels attacks, Neffenger, the TSA administrator, has a new opportunity to put the office back on the right track. Otherwise, the traveling public – and the director of national intelligence – should be concerned, she said.

“People die when we’re not all (working) together,” Farr said. “To be intel-driven, you have to have a good intel shop.”
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Old 04-28-2016, 05:21 AM   #342
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Minnesota T.S.A. Manager Says He Was Told to Target Somali-Americans

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/us/politics/minnesota-tsa-manager-says-he-was-told-to-target-somali-americans.html

A Transportation Security Administration manager here said he was instructed by his supervisor to provide the names of Somali-American leaders visiting the agency’s local office so they could be screened against national security databases for terrorist ties, a disclosure that quickly drew accusations of racial profiling.

In a midyear performance evaluation, David McMahon, the supervisor of Andrew Rhoades, an assistant federal security director, wrote that he had advised Mr. Rhoades to check potential visitors to the agency’s offices with the field intelligence officer to determine “if we want them in our office space or meet elsewhere.”

Mr. McMahon, a deputy federal security director, wrote that he “reminded employee that with our current world affairs that we need to be mindful of those we interact with.”

Mr. Rhoades, who works with Somalis in the Twin Cities area, said he considered the remarks racial profiling and reported the incident to the T.S.A.’s Office of the Chief Counsel and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He has also contacted members of the Minnesota congressional delegation and the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency that protects federal employees from reprisal.

“I have never been asked to give the names of anyone else who visited the office to the intelligence officer,” Mr. Rhoades said.

The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties said Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into the allegations.

In a statement, the T.S.A., an agency in the Department of Homeland Security, said it did not tolerate racial profiling.

“We are reviewing this complaint and will take appropriate action if there is evidence that any T.S.A. officer acted inappropriately,” the agency said. “However, it would be unfair and irresponsible to infer or conclude that profiling is a common T.S.A. practice based upon a single interaction between one employee and his supervisor.”

The disclosure by Mr. Rhoades has prompted accusations of racial profiling from some members of the Somali community, who say they have a long history of mistreatment by T.S.A. at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. It also threatens to undermine efforts by the Obama administration to fight against the recruitment of Somali youth in the United States by the Islamic State and other extremists groups.

Dozens of young men have left Minnesota to join terrorist groups, according to law enforcement officials. Several men who were accused of trying to leave the country to join the Islamic State were indicted by a federal grand jury here in October.

Somali leaders acknowledge that the arrest of young men trying to join terrorist groups like the Islamic State is a cause for alarm, but they say that law enforcement agencies should not use that as an excuse to subject the entire community to additional scrutiny.

Minneapolis is one of several pilot cities for the Obama administration’s programs to counter violent extremism by providing money and training to help communities whose youth are targeted by terrorist groups.

Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, visited the city in 2014 and met with Somalis to discuss, among other things, the issue of racial profiling. Many shared stories of their experience while traveling through the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

T.S.A. officials here say they try to strike a balance between properly screening for security threats while at the same time avoiding the perception of racial profiling.

Officials said they have hosted Somali elders at the airport to explain how the agency carries out its mission and attended community meetings to resolve grievances. T.S.A. officials say they have also recruited Somalis as screeners and for other jobs. And the agency has assigned people like Mr. Rhoades to help address problems like people having trouble getting on a flight, or those who feel they have been singled out for extra screening.

Somali leaders give the agency credit for its outreach, but they say the instructions by a T.S.A. manager to pass on the names of those seeking redress at the agency’s offices to an intelligence officer is a setback.

“Why would you want to check the terror watch list for people who are coming to your office to seek help?” said Sheikh Sa’ad Musse Roble, president of the World Peace Organization in Minneapolis, who has spoken at the White House and serves on several local law enforcement task forces to counter violent extremism, including one led by the United States attorney for Minnesota, Andrew M. Luger. “You are assuming that they have done something wrong.”

Other leaders say the disclosure will only fuel the anger many Somalis feel toward law enforcement agencies. And, they say, it will create even more skepticism about the federal government’s multimillion-dollar community outreach programs to fight terrorist recruitment.

“It’s damaging,” said Jaylani Hussein, a Somali-American who is executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “They want Somali leaders to be a part of task forces and have conversations about countering extremism, but they treat everyone like a suspect.”

Minnesota’s growing Somali-American population has received increased attention from law enforcement and intelligence agencies in their counterpropaganda battles with the Islamic State, which has aggressively recruited young Somalis.

Representative Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress, said he found troubling the local T.S.A.’s suggestion to potentially screen people who visit its office seeking help. He has written a letter to Mr. Johnson calling for an investigation.

“The Somali-American community, and all Minnesotans, deserve to know if T.S.A. officials are engaging in racial, ethnic or religious profiling,” Mr. Ellison said.

The Minneapolis episode is not the first time the T.S.A. has been accused of racial profiling by employees. In 2012, more than 30 federal officers at Logan International Airport in Boston told officials that a behavioral detection program intended to spot potential terrorists by observing their mannerisms had relied on racial profiling, targeting not only people from the Middle East but also blacks, Hispanics and other members of minority groups.

The latest accusations come as the T.S.A. is under fire from Congress for retaliating against whistle-blowers at the agency who have spoken out about security lapses at a number of airports. Dozens of employees have been reassigned, demoted, investigated or fired for reporting lapses or misconduct by senior managers, charges that were later upheld by whistle-blower protection agencies, records show.

On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing to examine misconduct at the agency. The committee has spoken with several former and current T.S.A. staff members and has requested hundreds of documents. Mr. Rhoades was one of three T.S.A. officials who testified.

While most of the hearing covered security lapses, long airport lines, and alleged retaliations against whistle-blowers, several members of the committee, including Representative William Lacy Clay, Democrat of Missouri, raised the issue of racial profiling by T.S.A. personnel.

In Minnesota, Mr. Rhoades is being praised by some Somalis for making the exchange with his supervisor public.

“It is what many of us have long suspected,” said Omar Jamal, a community activist. “Now we have confirmation.”
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Old 04-29-2016, 01:09 PM   #343
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TSA at MSP Airport failed 9 of 12 tests by undercover Red Team

http://www.fox9.com/news/134259040-story

On Monday, a Homeland Security undercover unit called Red Team tested passenger screening at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It did not go well.

Source tells Fox 9, TSA agents failed 9 out of 12 tests, passed two tests and one test was inconclusive. Sources say the inconclusive test involved the full body scanner, the one where passengers lift their arms, known as Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT). Those sources say the machine wasn’t calibrated properly and failed detect simulated explosive material that was strapped to an undercover agent’s leg.

A separate Red Team tested MSP cargo, and MSP passed both tests.

What the Red Team found at MSP wasn’t unusual. In June 2015, a classified Inspector General’s report revealed that undercover testers at some of the nation’s busiest airports were able to get weapons past TSA agents in 67 out of 70 tests – a 95 percent failure rate.

The Red Team test at MSP is believed to be the first since passenger screening was reconfigured with consolidated screening at the north and south end of the ticketing concourse. The redesign led to 90-minute wait times during the spring break travel season and calls by Minnesota Congressional leaders to improve wait times.
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Old 05-11-2016, 12:58 PM   #344
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U.S. air traveler patience with TSA at 'breaking point'

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/11/aviation/airport-frustration-tsa-passenger-screening-lines/index.html

Get ready, America, for a summer full of long security lines at major airports, missed flight connections and millions of grumpy passengers.
That's the warning from authorities at the nation's most congested and busiest airports and the Transportation Security Administration.

Airports are starting to take matters into their own hands.

In an unusual, strongly worded letter to the TSA, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- which oversees the New York City area's three major airports -- has essentially threatened to fire the TSA by privatizing their passenger screening process.

The letter mentioned the "inadequacy of TSA passenger screening," fears of widespread "customer dissatisfaction" and described wait times as "abysmal."

From mid-March to mid-April, there were hundreds of times that passenger waits lasted more than 20 minutes -- and sometimes more than 55 minutes, the letter said.

"The patience of the flying public has reached a breaking point," said the letter from Port Authority Aviation Department Director Thomas Bosco and Chief Security Officer Thomas Belfiore.

The airspace surrounding New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport ranks among the most congested in the nation. About 126 million passengers passed through those airports last year.

Airports in other cities, including Seattle, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Atlanta have expressed similar frustration with the TSA.

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport -- which handled more than 100 million travelers last year -- sent a similar letter to the TSA threatening to privatize passenger security lines.

It's partnering with Delta Air Lines and the TSA to figure out a better passenger screening procedure.

They're calling these experimental lines Innovation Lines -- or I-Lines.
Two I-Lines are expected to debut at Atlanta's south domestic terminal checkpoint on May 24, the TSA said. Here's how they'll be different:

Baggage bins automatically move to a separate conveyor belt if a TSA agent IDs them as suspicious.
Baggage bins automatically recirculate after they move through the security machine.
The I-Line includes special "divestiture" areas where passengers can take off shoes, belts, etc. at their own pace.

The TSA has been talking about these ideas for years, said Chad Wolf, a former TSA assistant administrator.

"All of these things will save time," he said. "We just don't know how much time."

The biggest time saver, Wolf said, likely will be re-routing suspicious bags.
"Re-routing bags to a different conveyor is a big deal," he said. "Once that belt stops, the whole line stops."

The X-ray machine that screens passenger bags is a "big time suck," Wolf said.

The decision that goes into stopping the belt and flagging a bag for extra scrutiny takes time and holds up the line.

The new equipment is similar to systems employed at London's Heathrow and Amsterdam's Schiphol, the TSA said.

The I-Lines will operate side-by-side with two regular lanes. Officials will gather data to compare and analyze the two systems.

The results will help the TSA create a pilot program that could be replicated at other airports..

The TSA has already warned that staffing issues might create long waits at the nation's big airports during the upcoming summer travel season.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh C. Johnson said he has called on Congress to approve more money to pay overtime for TSA officers working at airports across the nation this summer.

So far, that hasn't happened.

Factors like relatively lower fuel prices and fares are likely to drive passenger traffic higher this summer.

As for the carriers, American Airlines has blamed missed flights by thousands of its passengers on the TSA checkpoints.

The airline lobbying group Airlines for America has kicked off an aggressive social media campaign asking people to share photos of long security lines and post them with the hashtag: #iHatetheWait.

But what happens after passengers pass through the metal detectors and put their shoes back on and get on the planes and settle into their seats?
Apparently, a lot of us are able to put that unpleasantness behind us, according to a recent survey.

That's what we can surmise from the 2016 J.D. Power and Associates North America Airline Satisfaction Study, released Wednesday.

Satisfaction with North American airlines rose for a fourth straight year, measuring at a record high 726 points on a scale of 1,000.

On the other hand, airline customer complaints are at their worst level in 15 years, according to the 26th annual national Airline Quality Rating report, which was released in April. From 2014 to 2015, complaints rose by 38%.
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Old 05-21-2016, 01:12 PM   #345
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Having flown many times in my life, I'm accustomed to the occasional "frisking". However, I've been frisked every time the last 3 times and today was frisked by a male. If I'm not mistaken, that's illegal...
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Old 05-25-2016, 11:46 PM   #346
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Former Arkansas TSA inspector pleads guilty to child porn charge

http://swtimes.com/news/former-arkansas-tsa-inspector-pleads-guilty-child-porn-charge

A former Transportation Security Agency inspector pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Little Rock to distribution of child pornography.

Raymond Kinney, 54, of Jacksonville was arrested in January 2015 and indicted in February 2015. He will be sentenced at a later date, according to a news release from Chris Thyer, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

As part of a plea deal, federal prosecutors have agreed to recommend a 20-year sentence, the maximum allowed by law, and not charge Kinney with enticement of a minor and other offenses, Thyer said.

Prosecutors say Kinney went to a motel in January 2015 to meet a person he thought was a 10-year-old girl for sex. Kinney had arranged the meeting through a social networking site and had sent several pictures and videos of child pornography over the Internet.

When Kinney went to meet the person he had been chatting with — in reality an undercover officer — he took sex toys and children's clothing with him, according to prosecutors.

The statutory penalty for distribution of child pornography is five to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
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Old 06-03-2016, 08:34 AM   #347
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Alleged war criminal worked for TSA

http://www.abc10.com/news/nation-now/alleged-war-criminal-worked-for-tsa/230069213?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitte r

An alleged Somali war criminal is on leave from his job at Dulles International Airport in Virginia after a CNN investigation discovered him working for the Transportation Security Administration there.

Yusuf Abdi Ali was dubbed Colonel Tukeh in the Somalian army, known for his violent acts during that country’s civil war.

Ali has been the subject of an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporationsince 1992, when journalists discovered him working in Toronto as a security guard.

During the Somali Civil War, which began in 1991, Ali was commander of a region of Somalia where unspeakable violence unfolded. Tens of thousands of men, women and children were killed there by government forces.

According to CNN, Ali is accused of terrorizing the Isaaq people. The actions included mass executions and burning villages, CNN reported.

Canada deported Ali, who eventually made it to the United States. After a series of security jobs, he ended up working for TSA as an unarmed security guard at Dulles International Airport.

Government contractor Master Security hired Ali and confirmed this week he’s now on administrative leave. His access to the airport has been withdrawn.

Master Security confirmed Ali passed a criminal background check by the FBI and a security threat assessment by the TSA.

According to ABC News, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which runs Dulles airport, said in a statement: "We have verified that all of these processes were followed and approved in this instance."

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Ali was trained in the United States in 1986, as part of a Pentagon program for foreign military officers.
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Old 07-21-2016, 01:09 PM   #348
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Seattle TSA Worker Arrested on Voyeurism Charge

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/seattle-tsa-worker-arrested-voyeurism-charge-n613711

A Transportation Security Administration agent in Seattle was arrested after allegedly being spotted using a phone to take video up a woman's skirt at the city's airport, according to authorities.

Nicholas Fernandez, 29, was arrested on a charge of voyeurism Tuesday, Seattle police said in an arrest report. The incident occurred on an escalator, and not in a security line.

"TSA does not tolerate illegal, unethical or immoral conduct," a spokesperson for the TSA said in a statement.

"When such conduct is alleged, TSA investigates it thoroughly. When appropriate, TSA requests that it be investigated by a law enforcement authority. When an investigation finds that misconduct has occurred, the appropriate action is taken."

Fernandez has been removed from screening duties and he has been suspended without pay, the agency said.

According to an arrest report, the TSA was investigating information it received that Fernandez, who works at Seattle Tacoma International Airport, might have taken inappropriate photos of women.

A TSA special agent saw Fernandez take a break from a checkpoint at around 11:15 a.m. and follow a woman up an escalator, where he activated a cell phone flashlight and appeared to take video of the woman.

Fernandez is jailed in lieu of $7,500 bail, according to jail records. Court records online did not list an attorney.
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Old 07-24-2016, 10:55 AM   #349
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Mercury News editorial: TSA looks even worse in Congress' report

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_30154509/mercury-news-editorial-tsa-looks-even-worse-congress

Critics of the stepped-up security presence at American airports since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have always said that while it looks good, it isn't really making travelers much safer.

Now, more and more, it doesn't even look good.

After a series of scandals marred the image of the Transportation Security Administration, a congressional committee investigated the TSA's efforts to head off employee misconduct. The result is a new report from the staff of the House Homeland Security Committee whose title does further wonders for the agency's reputation: "Misconduct at TSA Threatens the Security of the Flying Public."

Of particular concern in the 29-page report is that the instances of misconduct have grown at an alarming rate in the last six years, even after a watchdog investigation revealed substantial misconduct.

For example, the report noted that in December a federal grand jury charged a TSA officer at Oakland International Airport with using her position to facilitate drug smuggling through the security checkpoint. The officer allegedly helped smuggle more than 100 kilograms of marijuana over a two-year period.

The report notes this is a problem everywhere, which is troubling because everywhere is where we all fly.

The eye-popping statistic is a 28.5 percent increase in reported misconduct by TSA workers nationwide from 2013 to 2015, when the annual number of allegations climbed to 17,627, equating to about one for every three full-time employees.

The biggest category of misconduct was "neglect of duty," which doubled in the two years ending in 2015, to 1,206 incidents nationwide. Neglect of duty is described as "inattention to duty resulting in a loss of property or life; careless inspection; negligent performance of duties; failure to exercise due diligence in performance of duties; failure to follow procedures."

Another of the eight categories of misconduct that saw increases is "integrity and ethics," which covers accepting bribes and other criminal conduct. Try not to think about that the next time you're standing in a long checkpoint line.

The misconduct ranges from salacious (federal air marshals spending government money on hotel rooms for romps with prostitutes) to downright dangerous (an officer in Orlando taking bribes to smuggle Brazilian nationals through a checkpoint without questioning).

The House report says that while allegations have been rising, the TSA has taken fewer disciplinary actions against employees. A faulty disciplinary system contributes to low morale. As the report says, "Employee misconduct of all types corrupts TSA's core mission to protect the traveling public and poses serious security vulnerabilities."

The TSA's job is to make airline passengers feel safer and, not incidentally, actually make us safer. It's failing on both.
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Old 07-25-2016, 08:00 AM   #350
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Security Video Shows Man Breach TSA Checkpoint

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2016/07/22/security-video-shows-man-breach-tsa-checkpoint/

For one year, the Transportation Security Administration has refused to say how a man managed to get around a security checkpoint and on a plane at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

It was called a bad romance that broke through security barriers.

Last July, Damarias Cockerham of Garland managed to move around the security checkpoint at gate D-16 and board a plane to confront his girlfriend who was leaving him.

Cockerham is seen walking up to an unused and unguarded metal detector that had a cloth security belt in front. Cockerham simply moved the belt and walked through the metal detector and blended in with everyone else who had gone through screening.

Seconds later he’s seen walking down the jetway where he boarded the plane without a ticket. A gate agent is seen chasing him, then getting off the plane… then going back and eventually escorting Cockerham off the plane. The agent walks Cockerham to the general public area and manages to stall until police arrive — 14 minutes after breaching security.

Neither the TSA nor DFW Airport has commented on the incident.
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Old 07-26-2016, 04:32 PM   #351
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Unplugged TSA scanner allows travelers to pass airport security

http://nypost.com/2016/07/26/unplugged-tsa-scanner-allows-travelers-to-pass-airport-security/


At least 15 travelers strolled through a TSA checkpoint at La Guardia Airport without being searched because someone forgot to plug in the security scanner, The Post has learned.

“Our nation’s security is dependent upon whether or not a TSA screener plugs in the screening machine,” a furious law-enforcement official said.

“There has to be a better way.”

The snafu was discovered at about 8 a.m. Sunday inside Terminal D by TSA Agent Eva Cocoli, according to sources.

Delta Air Lines supervisor Deborah Trapani quickly ordered the checkpoint closed, while Port Authority cops tracked down nine of the unscanned fliers.

Finding them took about an hour, and they all had to be brought back to the checkpoint to be properly inspected.

“It was a big inconvenience,” said a woman who was among the nine who were rescreened.

After checking surveillance footage, authorities determined that at least six other passengers who went unscanned were not located and were assumed to have boarded planes, police officials said.
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Old 08-30-2016, 06:29 PM   #352
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PHX federal air marshal accused of selling, making drugs

http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/phx-federal-air-marshal-in-accused-of-selling-making-drugs

SAN TAN VALLEY, AZ - The latest arrest of a federal air marshal is part of a much bigger picture.

Kristopher Hanks, a federal air marshal whose current employment status is unknown, is facing several different charges for allegedly making and selling bath salts and spice.

A judge is allowing Hanks to be released from jail on his own recognizance until his trial in October.

However, Hanks had very little to say when ABC15 confronted him about the charges.

"No comment," Hanks said.

Court documents show DEA started to investigate Hanks in 2010 after he was accused of working with former police officers Shelly Worthley and her husband, Ronald Worthley .

Shelly was with the Salt Lake City Police Department before she and her husband moved to Arizona. Ronald got a job with the Gilbert Police Department. He worked there between 2007 and 2010.

Court records show Shelly mixed the drugs at her San Tan Valley home.

Hanks and the couple opened several businesses together selling the drugs. However, the DEA didn’t waste time shutting the Worthleys’ business down.

But last May, Shelly insisted that she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Everything I purchased was through the UK and I made sure it wasn't on a federal ban list," Shelly said.

Court documents reveal emails, lab reports and thousands of dollars worth of cash exchanged between Hanks and Shelly Worthley. The pair is accused of knowing that people were buying their products to get high.

"It was labeled: ‘Not for human consumption,’” Worthley said. “But people want to get high and there is nothing you can do to stop that.”

Worthley is now taking responsibility and is slated for sentencing in October.

"I justified it by saying people are going to get high,” Worthley said. “It was a bad decision. I got caught up in the money. A lot of people were doing it. But it affected my husband and family and I regret it.”

Hanks is not saying much.

When ABC15 asked him, "Do you know how dangerous those drugs are?” He simply responded, “No comment. Thank you."

Court documents show that the drugs were distributed all over the nation.

ABC15 reached out to the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees the Federal Air Marshal Services, to find out Hanks' history with the department and the status of his employment. ABC15 is waiting to hear back.

Two other people were convicted in connection to this operation as well. They received probation.
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Old 09-08-2016, 01:23 PM   #353
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Default A must read for anyone that feels TSA is keeping us safe

The 9/11 legacy: Airport security still largely a matter of faith


http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/transportation/article100626637.html

Year after year, more Americans attempt to board planes with concealed firearms in their carry-ons. They also come with hidden swords, hatchets, sharpened ninja stars and even gunpowder.

Invariably, the response from passengers when officers from the Transportation Security Administration seize the weapons is: Oops, I forgot I had it.

“It’s always astonishing to me that people can forget they have a weapon in their carry-on,” said TSA Administrator Peter V. Neffenger. “I’m not sure why people continue to do this.”

Not everyone buys the excuse of forgetfulness.

“They didn’t forget their pants. It’s beyond me,” said David Borer, general counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents the nation’s 42,000 or so transportation security officers.

Whether the reason is memory lapse or a desire to be prepared should armed terrorists once again try to commandeer an aircraft, the seizure of a record 2,653 firearms last year at airport checkpoints is but one aspect of an evolving security panorama as the nation passes the 15-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The security ritual now has a familiar rhythm: Shoes off. Laptops out. Everything through the X-ray machine. Nearly 2 million passengers endure the drill each day. Many hate it. A few get unruly.

The tools deployed by the security agents – including full-body scanners – get ever more sophisticated while the most basic of questions goes without a satisfying answer: Do all the security measures work? Are terrorists truly deterred? Are we safe?

Experts agree on only one thing. Heightened airport security is here to stay.

“It’s going to take a long time before we stop taking our shoes off,” said Bruce Schneier, a security technologist and fierce critic of the TSA.

It’s going to take a long time before we stop taking our shoes off. Bruce Schneier, security technologist

It’s hard to pick apart the security procedures the federal government has adopted and not arrive at the conclusion, as Schneier has, that much of it is “security theater.”

Seeming failures abound. An audit last year found that TSA officers found weapons only three times when undercover investigators passed through airport security checkpoints 70 times with weapons or mock explosives, a failure rate of 95 percent. The then-administrator lost his job.

“We are not safer than before 9/11, regardless of the money and energies spent to change airport security,” said Michael Boyd, an aviation consultant and longtime former airline executive based out of Evergreen, Colorado. “The TSA approach is a dud. It is a giant bureaucracy with zero accountability for failure.”

Events in the past month underscore how TSA officers, who are unarmed, behave in the face of potential terror. On the night of Aug. 14, when false reports circulated of gunshots at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, TSA officers and civilian security guards abandoned their posts and joined a stampede of hundreds of travelers. It raised questions about readiness in the event of a real terrorist attack.

The TSA approach is a dud. It is a giant bureaucracy with zero accountability for failure. Michael Boyd, aviation consultant

Two weeks later, panic broke out at Los Angeles International Airport when loud noises led to rumors of an active shooter. Several terminals were evacuated, and passengers and TSA officers alike breached security doors to flee to the airport tarmac.

Panicked people, Boyd said, were “chasing off in all directions like a herd of gazelles running from thunder. TSA has no plan in the event of an incident, except to tell people to run away from the noise, or dump them into the street in a nice tight crowd for a terrorist target.”

The hassles of slipping off shoes, pulling laptops out of bags and emptying coins from pockets has spurred applications for expedited security screening. Known as TSA PreCheck, the program lets low-risk travelers ease through checkpoints without removing shoes.

Some 12,000 applicants a day pony up the $85 for five-year memberships, after waiting six weeks for appointments, and total numbers have surpassed 3.5 million. According to Secretary Jeh Johnson of the Department of Homeland Security, 96 percent of PreCheck passengers spend an average of five minutes or less at security checkpoints.

“We’ve turned security into have and have-not,” Schneier said: the PreCheck passengers who’ve paid their money and the rest of the traveling public.

Rudeness and the occasional too-intimate pat-down have led to combative encounters.

“There’s just this sort of general hatred of TSA, and some people go off,” said Borer, the union general counsel. “All this scorn gets heaped on them. It’s all the people coming through and saying, ‘Screw you. Don’t touch me.’ It’s awful.”

All this scorn gets heaped on them. It’s all the people coming through and saying, ‘Screw you. Don’t touch me.’ It’s awful. David Borer, American Federation of Government Employees

Passenger anger has occasionally flared. In 2013, an unemployed motorcycle mechanic killed a TSA officer and wounded two other officers and a teacher in a rampage at Los Angeles International Airport. A notebook he left behind referred to the TSA’s “Nazi checkpoints.”

In 2015 in New Orleans, a taxi driver attacked TSA officers with a machete and wasp spray, injuring one of them, before being shot by a sheriff’s lieutenant. The assailant later died.

Rating the effectiveness of security procedures is a divisive endeavor. Experts disagree.

“The two things that have improved security since 9/11 – and there are only two – is one, reinforcing the cockpit doors, and two, teaching passengers that they have to fight back,” Schneier said.

Some airline pilots, protected by the reinforced locked cockpit doors, now maintain handguns at arm’s reach in case of intruders.

Awareness among passengers of their own potential roles in thwarting terrorism soared after Sept. 11, 2001, when courageous passengers aboard United Flight 93, bound from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, took on the four hijackers. The passengers and crew tried to regain control of the flight, leading to its crash in a field in Pennsylvania but preventing the hijackers from slamming the airliner into a still-unknown target, perhaps the White House or the U.S. Capitol.

Fighting back now seems ingrained in some passengers.

Certain airports present a better ideological target for terrorists: JFK, LaGuardia, LAX, San Francisco, Atlanta. Anthony C. Roman, former pilot who is a security consultant

“Go to an airport and pick 10 random people, and they’ll tell you, ‘We know we have to do this, 100 percent,’ ” Schneier said.

Indeed, passengers have averted several terrorist incidents. Richard Reid, a Brit whom al Qaida had recruited to board a Paris-Miami flight with explosives in the soles of his shoes in late 2001, was tackled by passengers and crew members before he could ignite the explosives.

Travelers also subdued a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, after he attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear on a Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit in 2009.

“Ultimately, it’s going to be fellow passengers and alert citizenry who create a better defense for Americans than a government monopoly like the TSA,” said Chris Edwards, an analyst at the Cato Institute, a research center that advocates for minimal government intrusion.

Even the famed air marshals, whose numbers soared after Sept. 11, have come under fire. The program, which puts armed agents on high-risk domestic flights, costs more than $820 million annually. In theory, the marshals are the last line of defense before a terrorist hijacking. In practice, more air marshals appear to have been arrested for felony crimes they themselves have committed than make arrests in the line of duty.

When the bureau responded to a freedom of information request earlier this year by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative newsroom, more than seven years after the request was made, it acknowledged that air marshals had been arrested 148 times from 2002 through the early 2012 for various crimes unrelated to their work.

While air marshals attended to “thousands” of medical emergencies and non-terrorist incidents involving unruly passengers, they apparently carry out few arrests of real terror suspects. A Federal Air Marshal Service spokesman, Thomas H. Kelly, did not address a request for a breakdown of incidents.

A Tennessee Republican U.S. lawmaker, John J. Duncan, said in 2010 that the air marshals service had made an average of 4.2 arrests per year from 2001 to 2010, adding that “we are spending $200 million per arrest.”

Even with the travails of the TSA and the air marshals, one fact since Sept. 11 can gladden the heart of any traveler.

“There haven’t been any (successful) terror attacks since 9/11, knock on wood,” said Borer.

That may make passengers feel better, but not experts who see shortcomings.

Some foresee airports with concentric rings in the approaches to terminals, with facial recognition software in active use, pushing a security perimeter outside terminal buildings.

“Our back doors are wide open at airports,” Boyd said. “Ground security for airliners is really weak: things like catering carts, cargo pods, et cetera, have no security.”

“Certain airports present a better ideological target for terrorists: JFK, LaGuardia, LAX, San Francisco, Atlanta,” said Anthony C. Roman, a former pilot who is a security consultant. “We have to be hyper aware – not frightened, but not with our heads in the clouds.”

“Should there be a successful attack on a U.S. airport, I think we’re going to see more intense security procedures,” he said.
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Old 09-15-2016, 10:00 AM   #354
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NBC 5 Investigates: Records Show TSA Funded K-9 Teams Failed Annual Tests More Than 50 Times at Large U.S. Airports

http://www.nbcdfw.com/investigations/NBC-5-Investigates-Records-Show-TSA-Funded-K-9-Teams-Failed-Annual-Tests-More-than-50-Times-at-Large-US-Airports-393493421.html

NBC 5 Investigates has learned several K-9 teams at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport failed important certification tests that check how accurately they can detect explosives, calling into question whether those teams are training enough to stay at the top of their game and keep passengers safe.

The mission of explosive detection K-9 teams is to keep bombs out of airports and off planes by screening baggage, cargo and passengers for potential threats.

New records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request raise questions about the top dogs at some of the nation’s biggest airports.

The records show K-9 teams funded by the Transportation Security Administration have failed annual certification tests at large U.S. airports, including D/FW Airport and Love Field, more than 50 times between Jan. 1, 2013, and June 15, 2015, the most recent detailed numbers TSA provided. Some teams failed to find explosives, while others had too many false alarms that could cause unnecessary airport evacuations.

NBC 5 Investigates obtained data from the Transportation Security Administration through the Freedom of Information Act concerning the agency’s explosive detection canines. TSA provided a list showing 52 instances where K-9 teams were de-certified after failing certification tests from January 1, 2013, to June 15, 2015, at 10 large U.S. airports. The map above was created using that data. Some K-9 teams that failed are managed by TSA and others by local airport police.

K-9 teams that fail are pulled out of service and cannot work in airports again until they can pass the test, but experts NBC 5 Investigates spoke with say clusters of failures at some airports raise concerns about how well those teams are being managed.

The TSA said the failures are just a normal part of upholding high standards. But multiple failures at D/FW Airport and Love Field raise questions about whether those teams have been training enough to maintain the highest level of readiness.

In a statement, the TSA tells NBC 5 Investigates, “If a team does not meet TSA’s rigorous guidelines, it is decertified and restricted from working.”

“The team must successfully meet certification standards before returning to search duties. Dog teams that are unable to return to TSA’s high standards are subject to removal,” the TSA said.

The agency said teams performed better in the latter half of 2015 – with a 93-percent passing rate nationwide. But the agency would not share any detailed records for that time period or for 2016, so it’s unknown if there are still some airports with clusters of failures.

“We rely on K-9 teams a lot more now than we ever have in the history of aviation security,” said airport security consultant Jeffrey Price.

Price said the lives of passengers depend on how well the dog teams perform.

“Dogs have always been considered the gold standard in explosive detection. So when you’re considered the best, you better be the best,” said Price.

At Love Field, K-9 teams assigned to protect the airport failed four out of 14 tests with a failure rate of nearly 30 percent over two-and-a-half years. In 48 tests over the same time period, teams at D/FW Airport failed five times, or 10 percent of the time.

The nation’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, did better than those in Dallas with only two failures in 75 tests (3 percent) over the same two-and-a-half year time period. All K-9s managed by the Atlanta Police Department passed while two TSA managed teams failed.

To better understand why more K-9 teams failed at airports like Love Field and D/FW Airport, NBC 5 Investigates went to Alabama to one of the nation’s top K-9 training centers at Auburn University and AMK9.

AMK9 works with the university training dogs in explosive detection for agencies across the country.

“You need to convince that dog that there’s a reason to work,” said John Pearce, who used to help oversee training for the TSA.

Pearce said the main reason some dogs fail certification tests is the people in charge of those K-9 units don’t always set aside enough time for constant training. He sees a direct relationship between the quality of the training and the success the dogs have on tests.

“Our primary job is to find an explosive, as a dog team, but that dog believes its primary objective is to get that toy that’s in the handler’s pouch,” said Pearce.

In airports, dogs rarely find explosives, so unless they practice locating test explosives frequently, they may lose interest.

In addition, handlers also need constant practice to accurately recognize the dog’s cues.

Pearce said handlers need to train daily.

“Train, train, train and train as you’re going to work,” said Pearce.

NBC 5 Investigates wanted to know if the people in charge of the K-9s at Love Field and D/FW Airport are spending enough time training.

Some of the teams are managed directly by the TSA, but many are run by D/FW Airport police and Dallas police that get their dogs, training and funding from the TSA.

Dallas police declined an on-camera interview and would not answer any questions about their teams at Love Field.

When asked about the teams decertified at D/FW Airport, a spokesman sent a short statement saying, “All of the canine teams maintained by the D/FW Airport Department of Public Safety are currently certified and active.”

In 2013 the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, found “some K-9 teams were repeatedly not in compliance with TSA’s monthly training requirement.”

Since then, the TSA has made changes, including a new program starting Oct. 1 to hold local airport police departments more accountable for training and to enforce higher training standards.

With multiple failures at airports including D/FW Airport and Love Field make some experts wonder if supervision and training is needed in a business where there may not be a second chance.

“Lives depend on the proficiency of the teams,” said Price. “You don’t get a do over in real life. If that team misses an explosive, then that’s a device that can end up on a plane.”

The TSA’s records have shown nearly a dozen teams failed at Washington Dulles International Airport and more than 20 at Los Angeles International Airport from January 2013 to June 2015. NBC 5 Investigates will be on NBC’s Today Show Thursday morning with the national part of the report and on NBC 5 News at 6 p.m. with what other major airports are doing to pass tests and make sure their teams are ready.
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Old 09-23-2016, 09:16 AM   #355
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Father who allegedly killed family worked at Metro Airport; had TSA clearance

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/father-who-allegedly-killed-family-worked-at-metro-airport-had-tsa-clearance

After the horrific murder of four children took place in Dearborn Heights, questions arose about the identity of the man behind the murderous acts.

Gregory Green allegedly killed four children and attempted to murder his wife on Wednesday. Police say after the murders, Green sat on his porch and awaited police.

After some investigating done by Local 4’s Shawn Ley, it was found that Green is actually an employee at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and has TSA clearance.

"While TSA and the FAA are taking my water bottle from me before I enter the airport, a convicted murderer was cleared to work for the food company that supplied the planes," said Local 4 legal analyst Neil Rocking. "In this day and age, with all of the concerns about airport security, etc, it is shocking to learn that a convicted murderer was working at the airport with security clearance and just as shocking to learn that the law and regulations may have permitted it."

Given Green’s history - he was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in 1991- it was alarming to know that a man with such a brutal criminal history was able to be around aircrafts and possess security clearance. But his employer says that it wasn't aware of the crime.

Sky Chefs sent Local 4 this response to our inquiry:
"We are shocked and saddened by this tragic event that involved Gregory Green. Mr. Green has been an employee of our company for approximately one year. We follow all local, state and federal guidelines on employment records accordingly.

"Our employees are subject to background checks by our company and the TSA. Our checks go back for a ten-year period and did not indicate any issues with Mr. Green during that time frame. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of this tragic event." -LSG Sky Chefs

Green’s murder conviction was more than 10 years ago, and though FAA regulations list ‘murder’ as a disqualifying factor for airport security clearance, Green was able to get by because of the amount of time that has passed since his conviction.
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Old 11-05-2016, 08:41 AM   #356
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i was delayed for a couple of 6 oz containers of yogurt *sigh* i had to throw them away *cries*
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Old 11-05-2016, 09:22 AM   #357
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i was delayed for a couple of 6 oz containers of yogurt *sigh* i had to throw them away *cries*
If these were medically necessary, TSA should not have required you to toss them.
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Old 11-05-2016, 10:27 AM   #358
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If these were medically necessary, TSA should not have required you to toss them.

they were not medically necessary...i just love yogurt
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Old 11-19-2016, 01:19 PM   #359
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‘Creepy’ Airport Security Embarrasses New Mom Over Breast Milk

https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/creepy-airport-security-embarrasses-new-mom-over-breast-milk-144833718.html

A nursing mom’s Facebook post went viral after airport security made a spectacle of her breast milk.

Juliana Barrett recalls the screening officer “squishing [her breast milk] in his hands, holding it up and commenting on how many ounces it was.”

“People were walking by and staring,” she wrote.

The traveling mom had done her research; she knew she was allowed to bring prepackaged breast milk on a plane. But no amount of careful planning could prepare her for an insensitive, poorly trained staff member.

In a now private Facebook post, Barrett shared her experience:

It started with the TSA guy yelling about “everything out of your pockets” to everyone. I held the cooler bag and told him what was inside. He told me to put it on the belt anyways. It went through the scanner and I watched it sit. Patiently, I waited for the TSA screener guy to grab it. He ignored it until I finally pointed it out. He grabbed it and after I told him what was inside, he asked me where my baby was because “I don’t think you can bring this on without your baby present.” Uhhh, what?! Why would I have all of this if my baby was with me?!

I let him know I was traveling for work. He then opens the bag and proceeds to pull my cold breast milk bags out (ALL 21!). Squishing them in his hands, holding them up and commenting on how many ounces they are, people are walking by and staring. … I begin to tear up as he’s handling my son’s food and throwing them into a bin to be RESCANNED! He makes comments that he’s not sure I can bring all of it on the plane.

Finally, a lady TSA agent comes over and tells him he doesn’t need to do that. She tells him I’m good to go. I’m dying. The milk is warming up. I still have six hours until I get home. … His touching my breast milk was uncomfortable, creepy, and upsetting. That’s such an intimate, private thing to me. I’d heard horror stories of milk being poured out. This is my son’s food.
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Old 12-07-2016, 10:02 PM   #360
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Media personality battling breast cancer posts 'humiliating' TSA search on Facebook

http://abc7ny.com/news/radio-host-battling-breast-cancer-posts-humiliating-tsa-search/1641467/

A New York woman battling breast cancer says that what happened to her during a TSA search while traveling should never happen to anyone.

Denise Albert says she has never felt so violated.

"It's a feeling that I just never expect to ever experience," Albert said.

The mother of two, who has been quite public about her battle with breast cancer, posted that humiliating experience on Facebook. For the past three years, she's been the host of show called "The MOMS with Denise and Melissa" on radio and TV.

She says Sunday night at LAX, TSA agents aggressively tried to do a body cavity search - in public.

This all happened after she informed them of the metal port on her chest and the medical cream in her bag.

"Her hands were shoving up me, and she went around me and down my pants in the back. And then when she tried to put her hands in my shirt is when I said, 'enough,'" Albert said.

Albert complied with the agents request to take off her shoes, but she didn't want to put her bare feet on the floor because of open sores and rashes from her cancer treatment.
"After having looked at the TSA website, they were not allowed to ask me to take my shoes off because I had a medical condition that I told them about," Albert said.

At one point, out of sheer frustration, she took off her wig, a move she rarely does in public.

Albert says the whole ordeal could have been handled so much better.

"I actually want those people fired because they didn't follow any protocol and I think it was really a game for them," Albert said.

The 42-year-old has filed a formal complaint with the TSA. The agency informed her the matter will be investigated by supervisors at LAX.

The TSA released a statement Monday night saying, "The Transportation Security Administration takes reports of alleged impropriety very seriously. TSA is currently looking into the specific details as to what occurred during the screening process to ensure our security protocols were followed. We regret any discomfort the security screening process may have caused the passenger. We will work with the passenger directly to address her concerns."

On Tuesday, Albert announced that the TSA called her. "I'm very pleased with our conversation. They apologized for my experience and at this point there is an LAX investigation into what happened. They very aggressively train their agents on how to screen medical / disabilities. This was not at their expectations and a lot of disappointment they didn't get it right. They are going to refresh training at LAX 3000 employees," Albert posted on Facebook.
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