Has TSA ever caught a single suspected hijacker?

[smoogatz]

I'm genuinely curious. Is there a reason we put up with this police-state bullshit every time we get on a commercial flight? Is there a reason we tolerate out-of-control TSA agents humiliating, imprisoning and even killing air passengers (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23185937/), at the same time they fail to catch DHS agents carrying guns and bomb parts? It seems pretty obvious that the government no longer takes the threat of domestic hijacking very seriously (http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/03/25/siu.air.marshals/index.html), so what's the deal? Why do we let this third-rate goon squad push us around?

[leftofthedial]

1. TSA has nothing to do with "security"

It exists to make travel less convenient and enjoyable for the masses and to accustom us to the loss of our civil liberties.

[smoogatz]

2. Right. So why do we put up with it?

[leftofthedial]

11. why do we put up with no habeas corpus?

why do we put up with illegal wiretapping?

why do we put up with stolen elections?

why do we put up with illegal invasions and occupations of foreign countries?

why do we put up with concentration camps?

why do we put up with the superwealthy stealing trillions from the rest of us?

why do we put up with corporations owning our privatized electoral process and system of "government"?

why do we put up with substandard, grossly overpriced insurance and pharma control of the medical industry instead of actual modern health care?

why do we put up with defense contractors owning our government and a budget larger than the rest of the world combined?

why do we put up with multi-billion-dollar profits for Exxon and no real investment in alternative energies?

why do we put up with a third-world-level education system?

why do we put up with crumbling infrastructure?

why do we put up with capitalists offshoring middle class jobs to the lowest bidders?

why, why, why?

[opihimoimoi]

3. It has turned into a means of Control...sumpthin the PUBs LOVE

[leftofthedial]

12. naked, purposeless authoritarianism

[opihimoimoi]

22. Also a fake means of employment.....how many more are employed

in the security business since 9/11??

Fear is the driving force of the Pubs

[DFW]

4. No. Why, were they supposed to?

I thought their major purpose was to insure greater sales by vendors
of Evian water in the airport kiosks located beyond the security checkpoints.

[bluestateguy]

5. TSA is far from perfect, but I don't want the incompetent private "security" people back

They were just a bunch of losers who couldn't do anything right: uneducated, untrained, in some cases with felony convictions. They were paid minimum wage with no benefits, and when you pay like that, you will get what you pay for.

[burythehatchet]

10. I think they just changed uniforms, non?

[Laughing Mirror]

6. No, never

The sole purpose of TSA is to scare people into compliance with the National Security State. Gotta keep the ignorant masses terrorized if the war on terror is to be believed. Terror terror terror!

[Sal Minella]

7. We thought we had a hijacker the other day, but the Magic Decoder Ring turned out to be a

Nipple Ring instead.

The TSA knows there are Magic Decoder Rings out there, however, and will keep checking.

[KG]

8. massive pork project.

yea, tho repooks and conservative wail for less, and for less intrusive gov't, they sit with their thumbs up thier butts while the opposite happens under repook presidents. almost amusing actually. almost.

[Freedomofspeech]

9. Obviously the TSA is more obsessed with boobs...

or are they a bunch of boobs?

[Demeter]

13. If TSA ACcomplished ANYTHING, We Surely Would Have Heard About It By Now

Other than stripping grandmas in wheelchairs, banning toddlers, and making people drink their urine samples, I mean.

[LibDemAlways]

14. The premise that these moronic goons operate under is that

every person with an airline ticket - from the smallest child to the most frail, elderly Alzheimers patient in a wheelchair - is a potential terrorist - a notion that defies all logic and reason. The only possible explanation for their tactics is that the American people must be kept fearful in order to be kept in control under the government's watchful eye. It's all part of the Big Brother shit that's been flourishing under the chimp.

[Echo In Light]

17. "..a notion that defies all logic and reason." That needed to be said

:headbang:

[kestrel91316]

15. Nah. But they caught ME red-handed with my beautiful brass and

walnut pocketknife, that JUST once I forgot to stash in the suitcase instead of my purse where it lived for 30 years. I was bereft. It was a gem. I hope they're happy, knowing they made the world safe from me.

[Echo In Light]

16. "..no longer takes the threat of domestic hijacking seriously." - Likely never did

Collectively ...at least not for any of the pre-packaged reasons.

[kentuck]

18. Didn't they catch that moron with the firecracker in his shoe?

He was trying to bum a lighter or something? Couldn't light the fuse?

[Mz Pip]

19. Nah,

No TSA involvement with that. The passengers and crew grabbed that guy. RIchard Reid, terrorist wannabe, is in prison where he will spend the rest of his days, as he should.

But TSA had nothing to do with it.

[smoogatz]

20. He was subdued by passengers and flight attendants

on a trans-Atlantic flight originating in Paris. TSA wasn't involved.

[Muttocracy]

21. You can take a cig lighter and 3 oz of alcohol on a plane

Don't know about matches. Anyway, there's no credibility there.

[BlooInBloo]

23. We're ALL "suspected hijackers". That's the beauty of it.

[Ilsa]

24. I've heard that Europeans are not putting up with it either.

I read somewhere here on DU that Europeans aren't coming to the US as tourists even though the exchange rate is beneficial for them. Even CNN reported that they don't want to put up with our travel hassles and risk being humiliated, publicly or privately, or having their rights violated by the TSA thugs that need a little entertainment.

[trof]

25. Sorry, that's 'classified'.

;-)

[genie_weenie]

26. No. But GLORIOUS COMMANDER GUY has single-handedly stopped 79

terrarist attacks on the Homeland. I'm not so sure we should be voting him out of office. :shrug:

[NV Whino]

27. No, but

They're real good at catching babies and grandmas.

[mike_c]

28. no. but they've controlled the actions of millions of Americans....

That's really the point, isn't it?

[ConcernedCanuk]

29. Of course they have!, - don't you read the news?

.
.
.

They caught this obvious terrorist/hijacker and now we are all safer