TSA FAILURES A TERRORISM WIN

I am not one to complain about measures necessary to insure the safety of passengers and crew at Americas airports and on commercial airlines. After the attacks of 9/11 airport security and the protection of the millions in our country who use air transportation has and continues to be a top priority when combating terrorism and as a vital part of national security.

But when it comes to the Transportation Security Administration, (TSA), using full body scans which produce an image for a complete stranger to see boarding passengers in all their glory and/or the groping of everyone even Nuns and children, terrorism has won and airport security under government supervision has run amok.

All of these unnecessary, "security," measures are a result of a politically correct system which refuses to do what airport security all around the world does and has done for years, profile potential problem passengers based on terrorism activity and those who are typically associated with terrorism acts. Rather than stopping potential terrorist acts on airliners, the TSA practice of scanning and groping makes passengers prisoners and objects of embarrassing, insulting and invasion of privacy security checks that punish all passengers and arrests those who do not want their bodies violated.

Israel which has been involved with terrorism far longer than The United States has a very successful security program that is not an invasion of privacy and does not needlessly grope or scan passengers but thwarts potential terrorism problems consistently. Ticket takers at Israeli Airports are trained to spot potential problems based on a profile that spotlights terrorism and not groping Nuns, children and the elderly like the TSA program does.

As a result Israel without ridiculous invasion procedures has the ability to prevent possible terrorist boarding without keeping passengers prisoners of a failed system like TSA does here in the States. The TSA system did not even catch Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomber before he boarded a plane at New York's JFK airport even after a bulletin had been issued describing him and why he was to be held for questioning.

Now Janet Napalitano, Homeland Security Secretary is taking this unnecessary and failed politically correct security to a new level by considering issuing a search waiver to all Muslim woman because of religious beliefs. While the waiver is understandable to a point it is ONLY the liberal PC toward Muslims which is considering this and NOT a respect for their religion. If a waiver because of religious reasons were true and PC was not involved then the wavier would be issued to the Catholic Church whose Sisters in robes have as much a right to not be groped as any Muslim woman wearing their robes.

TSA has been a total failure and should be disbanded. When it was decided by Democrats that TSA become a government entity rather than run by the private sector, its failure as a security agency was inevitable. In airports where TSA is managed by the private sector as an experiment problems that exist in those run by government are far less and the boarding procedures are not only less obtrusive but managed better than the government run security system. Neither though come close to the success of the Israeli system which does not punish the passenger as TSA does.

When the new Congress convenes, Republicans are already discussing addressing the problem with the incoming House Transportation Committee Chairman reminding airports they have the legal right as stated in the TSA contract to opt out of TSA airport security in favor of better managed and less obtrusive private security companies. The ridiculous practices of government controlled TSA cannot be allowed to continue. TSA's over kill under the direction of Janet Napalitiano is a victory for terrorism and punishing the American people rather than those responsible for the need of security measures in the first place.

Ken Taylor