It was, strangely, the TSA.
That’s right, the agency assigned to protect America’s transportation systems was patrolling the Metrodome. Nathan Hansen, a North St. Paul, Minn., attorney, snapped a few photos of the agents before the game, and broadcast them on Twitter.
“I don’t think any federal law enforcement agency needs anything to do with a football game,” he told me yesterday.
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It’s been almost three years to the day since Special Agent Robert Flaherty knocked on my front door and handed me a subpoena.
The Department of Homeland Security order — which would have forced me to reveal the name of a source who had sent me a “secret” TSA security directive — was dropped a few days later after I told the feds I’d see them in court. It also turned me from an aviation security skeptic into one of the TSA’s most vocal critics. Every week I take the agency to task on my consumer advocacy site.
So you’d think that when it comes to the subject of airport safety, I wouldn’t have one nice thing to say. But that would be wrong.
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And laugh they do. How could they not? We’ve given them a lot of material, thanks to the Transportation Security Administration.
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One of the more interesting reactions to last week’s post arguing that the TSA as we know it is dead came from a publicist for one of the airline trade associations.
In a polite but insistent email, he claimed I’d misunderstood the congressional testimony by one of his executives. The airline industry rep was criticizing government regulations — not the TSA — for being expensive, inconsistent, and reactive, he said.
It made me wonder: Why would airlines not want to be seen as criticizing the TSA? Everyone else is.
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If you don’t believe the TSA is doomed after watching yesterday’s House Aviation Subcommittee hearing, then you’ll have to at least agree that the agency as we know can’t continue to exist as it does.
For starters, TSA Administrator John Pistole refused to testify before the committee on the innocuous subject of “common sense” improvements to America’s airport security, reportedly because the committee has no jurisdiction over his agency. (That’s odd — I always thought Congress funded the federal government, but maybe I wasn’t paying attention during government class.)
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To absolutely no one’s surprise, the mainstream media last week ignored a legitimate grassroots protest against the TSA’s allegedly invasive full-body scanners.
Oh sure, there were whispers of National Opt-Out Week here and there. The trade publication Government Security News reported them, although it left readers with the impression that this action would fizzle. A lone op-ed in a New Jersey newspaper recognized the protest and supported it.
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Next week is one of the busiest of the year for air travel. And the last thing you probably want to see at the airport when you fly home for Thanksgiving is a long line — especially one that’s preventable.
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