Original Post-September 11th Bill Allows Airports To Hire
Private Security
In the midst of all the controversy over pat-down searches that
are regarded as intrusive and privacy concerns stemming from the
use of backscatter scanners, Congressman John Mica (R-FL) is
reminding airports that there is an alternative to TSA
screening.
The Washington Examiner reports that, in a letter sent
to the managers of more than 150 airports around the country, Mica,
who is the likely chair of the House Transportation Committee when
Congress convenes in January, said airports can opt out of security
measures provided by TSA in favor of a return to private security
companies.
Mica was one of the authors of the 2001 legislation which
created TSA in the wake of the September 11th terror attacks on the
U.S. In the letter, Mica said "When the TSA was established, it was
never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy
which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees. As TSA has grown
larger, more impersonal, and administratively top-heavy, I believe
it is important that airports across the country consider utilizing
the opt-out provision provided by law."
Mica said the security measures now in use in most of the
nation's airports are little more than "security theater." "It's a
big Kabuki dance," he said.
Mica told the paper that, according to a recent GAO report, the
Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program
created by TSA was implemented before there was any scientific
validation of TSA's process of identifying suspicious passengers.
He said the program was far from the El Al program which profiles
and questions suspicious passengers before they are allowed to
board an airplane. Mica noted in a previous letter to the
Department of Homeland Security that, according to the GAO, "at
least 17 known terrorists ... have flown on 24 different occasions,
passing through security at eight SPOT airports." One of those was
the person accused of attempting to detonate a car bomb on New
York's Times Square.
Mica and some others in Congress say that there needs to be
meaningful changes in the way TSA works, and that those changes
should come quickly. When the agency was created, there was a major
debate over whether the employees of the new agency should be
government workers or private contractors. The federal government
pays the costs of the program regardless, and tests conducted in
five airports reportedly showed that contractors performed
marginally better than the federal employees.