Oh D'Oh They Didn't! TSA Posts Airport Screening Manual On Web

Love that picture....a wand by his wand.

i say bring back mayor dinkins!

theres been plenty of studies about how people like to claim victim on blogs to feel part of something.

coupled with the fact that people microblog every minutiae of their lives in real time with tweets, videos, cell phone pictures, and facebook updates.

add in that the TSA has made official public statements about lesser claims.

your crazy story is just too crazy without some co-ob.

thats not humor, thats a sober rational third party objective opinion.

to (48) potsmoker

Your snide remarks are uncalled for, even for an anonymous invention such as yourself. You are not the humorist you imagine yourself to be. Link yourself, try to prove you exist. That's the only news you'll get from me today: There are pigs a plenty in the world.

a TSA guy once sold my friend a kilo of confiscated cocaine right there at the metal detector.

they once made me drink the contents of my colostomy bag to prove it wasnt an explosive.

link it or else its BS. sounds outrageous, but they blog lady with a baby getting searched was called BS when they released the video from all angles.

so wheres the news in this cancer patient story?

I didn't get through all of their top secret document. If you did, was there a section on how TSA personnel are to pull terminally ill cancer patients out of their wheelchairs and drop them on the floor of the airport? And how not to apologize? That's what they did in Hawaii to a friend of mine, on her way to the hospital for the last time. I just want to be certain the TSA personnel were "just following orders" to the absolute letter of their prescribed duties and really, really protecting national security in so doing. Otherwise, I'm afraid they showed themselves to be inept, cruel, and callous bunglers.

Good. This will now lead to heads rolling (hopefully), and/or greater scrutiny and/or revamped procedure.

TSA stands for Those Stupid Assholes

Newsflash: if your security measures rely on secrecy & surprise, they are shitty security measures. Especially...ESPECIALLY...in an information saturated culture. Why not try this wacky experiment-- make GOOD screening guidelines?

15 of the September 11 hijackers were Saudi Arabian citizens. And they are not on the list of mandatory secondary checks? This sounds political to me.

The only reason most of us come to Gothamist is to see the American Apparel ads.

I hear THAT.

Word. Which one's Josh?

Did anyone flying with an Afghani passport really think they wouldn't be secondarily screened?

I'm sure the TSA has prevented a few crimes, but in reality its an impossible job to prevent every plot and screen every passenger effectively. I always laugh when they pat down some guy in a robe or a turban. The dude who wants to blow up the plane is wearing gucci and standing in the first class line.

blame gothamist for weakening our security?

hahha, thanks but gothamist is not a news site,

its a site about whats IN the news.

now where can i get my download link?

is it on wiki leaks, 911 truffers?

no getting around those black boxes is not a violation of that ridiculous law!

As WanderingAramean points out, it's all theater. There was a good expose in The Atlantic last year (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc... about the flaws and pointlessness of TSA practices. This quote stuck out for me:

“Counter terrorism in the airport is a show designed to make people feel better,” he said. “Only two things have made flying safer: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.”

It doesn't matter what someone has in their shoe or their purse, 9/11 could only happen once. It didn't even work the fourth time that day (Flight 93). These security procedures are just the government trying to look busy.

I disagree. Imagine if they had not changed screening procedures at all. Yes it seems like it is mostly psychological but that is a deterrent nonetheless.

I've been saying those exact words for years. Thanks for pointing out that article, nice to see some mainstream validation.

+1. 8 years too late though.

Oh noes! Somebody released the big ultra-secret TSA screening manual! Now their super-effective, 100% terrorist-destroying methods are ruined, ruined! Damn you Web 2.0!

Thank YOU Gothamist. You are the best blog ever. I just saved the screening manual on my hard drive.

For those who are interested see below link:

http://www.cryptome.org/

Or see the link in the Gothamist post above.

LOL :D

no it has page not found now. it has been removed.

I'm the Wandering Aramean, not Armenian, but that's only a minor quibble. ;)

For those who think that having this document in the open is jeopardizing anything I strongly urge you to read it. Head over to cryptome.org and pick up a copy. And read what things the TSA feels are so important that the general public must be protected from them. Here's a hint. Very little in there is actually stuff that the bad guys haven't figured out already. Or it is simply irrelevant.

It is stuff like washing the table and changing gloves after a positive swab test. Or which 12 countries have citizens on a mandatory secondary screening list. These are not things that are critical or even really important to our national security.

The TSA is security theatre, not security. This document continues to bear out that sad reality.

Haha, I'm sorry for calling you the Wandering Armenian. No offense meant :)

Mentioning this snafu in the national media calls far more attention to it that contacting the TSA directly and tactfully. It's like saying that you discovered that the metal detectors don't pick up certain types of metal, and told the press. If tomorrow someone gets through, it's your fault, not the metal detectors'.

Loose lips sink ships.

Nope, the media focus will force security to have alternative means to search for those items undetectable by the screens in your example.

You guys, fanatics trying to blow up airplanes are way more on top of this shit than you give them credit for. They don't need the blogs to give them the links; they're scouring the web 24/7 for this info. The horse was out of the barn as soon as it went up on FedBizOpps.

You know the terrorists could just have one of their own with a clean record get hired at the TSA and learn this stuff as part of TSA Screener Class 101. I'm sure the TSA affirmative action hires some arabs, or some Bosnians or Chechens that look white.

Now they'll have to screen everybody. You ruined it.

fanatics trying to blow up airplanes are way more on top of this shit than you give them credit for

And you just might be giving them too much credit. This kind of excuse of "oh they probably already know" is COMPLETELY unacceptable. There are hundreds of terabyte of information out there and to sort it out require HUGE computational and human efforts. Terrorists probably don't have the computing resources of the NSA. And you (and other people with your mentality) might have just given them the lead they really needed.

If the terrorists are relying on Gothamist and other such blogs for leads then MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. The War on Terrorism has been won. Victory is sweet.

And why not? Gothamist's many writers help filter out information. Although in my previous post, when I wrote "you", I didn't mean specifically Gothamist.

I just skimmed through the manual and believe me there is no security breach. I just learned though that I am permitted to take pictures of the screening area as long as I don't impede the TSA's work functions.

+1, It's true, why should only the terrorists have this manual and not American citizens as well. Those terrorists probably already has this manual translated and bounded for their recruits.

plus, has the TSA ever been synonymous with efficacy?

Wow what a horrible mistake. But in addition to that mistake, it really doesn't help the situation if you (Gothamist) are also posting blurbs from that said document. It was stupid on their part to put it online and equally as stupid for your site to do the same. :(

Obama Administration government transparency?

I'm not criticizing Gothamist for reposting this, because it was on Gawker and probably a gazillion other blogs this morning...

...but I don't feel like going to the Wandering Armenian blog just to ask: is breaking some interesting news really worth jeopardizing our security?

You could argue that someone would have posted about eventually, no matter what...but that doesn't really excuse it. And you could argue that terrorists could have found out about it anyway. But so what? Making it easier by drawing attention to it is still pretty bad.

No?

Good points, all. I'm not entirely stubborn. I'll concede when people present good arguments.

But Man Bat, being an ass really diminishes otherwise good points.

I'm sure Obama Bin Laden reads Gothamist for all his anti-terrorism news.

HAHAHAHA! OBAMA bin Laden! Nice Freudian slip on that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVvKBC6ZGDk

bama - Osama!! Freudian Slip?

No. You couldn't be more wrong. The TSA are supposed to be security proffesionals. You had better believe that We The People need to call them on their bullsh*t wherever and whenever.The TSA is all just "security theatre" anyway.

"supposed to be security proffesionals"

now that is a good point (albeit misspelled).

Sticking our heads in the sand doesn't equal good security. If the govt fucks up it's the citizens' duty to point it out immediately.

Agreed!

Is that photograph real? If so, LMFAO!

MT: you've never seen Spinal Tap?

this is spinal tap, bud

getting around those black boxes is a violation of the DMCA.

this. is. incredible.