GurBlogs - tsa

When You Know You're Screwed

admin — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:13:50 -0800

Here's how to tell if you're about to get some good 'ol fashioned lovin' from the TSA:

1. You hear people saying weird and wacky things to you.

2. Every airport official you meet tells you how you've been selected for some "special screening".

3. Ticket counter agents take a highlighter to your boarding pass, thusly:

Fool Me Once, Shame On Me...

admin — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 22:13:01 -0800

Looks like my wife and I have landed a permaspot on the TSA's selectee list. We both got the full rub-down at Houston's Hobby Airport before our flight back to JFK on Monday. And by rub-down, I mean two random Texans rubbin' us up and down. Uh huh... bet you didn't know the TSA was like that ;-)

Interestingly (uhhh ... or not), here's what being on the selectee list means, according to the TSA website:

[The “Selectee” list is a list of individuals who must undergo additional security screening before being permitted to board an aircraft. After 9/11 the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) was created through a Presidential Directive to be administered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, in cooperation with the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, State, and Treasury, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency. The purpose for the TSC is to consolidate terrorism based watch lists in one central database, the Terrorist Screening Center Database (TSDB), and make that data available for use in screening. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies nominate individuals to be put on the watch list based on established criteria, with the list maintained by the TSC.]

A JetBlue Selectee

admin — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 23:57:22 -0800

So my wife and I flew from JFK to Houston today via JetBlue, which was great. Flight was smooth ... yadda, yadda ... no problems.

Problem was ... at JFK.

My wife and I pulled up to the terminal and were fully prepared to drop our baggage at JetBlue's curbside check-in. But were immediately informed by the agent that checking in curbside was in fact not going to be an option for us. Turns out, we were on the TSA's selectee list.

"Wuzzup with that?" I asked the agent; and I quote: "It means that you share a name with someone who has done something bad."