Hat tip to Bill St Clair for finding this one.
Unanswered questions at Dulles Airport
Go and read the whole thing, please. I found it rather chilling.
The summary is that a person that writes columns on traveling likes to keep a good eye on the differences between various airports in the post 9/11 era so other travelers know what to expect. When stopped by somebody not wearing a TSA uniform demanded ID he questioned who they were and inquired as to why he was supposed to show them ID.
After that the writer was given a nice reminder of what a free country we live in:
“I see, sir. Thank you for clarifying that. So do these people with the badges that say ‘Airserv’ work for the TSA?”“No.”
“That’s what I thought, sir. But this man claimed that they work for the TSA, and said that’s why they have the TSA logo on their badges.”
“TSA logo? There’s no TSA logo on their badges. That’s the logo of Customs and Border Protection [another division of the Department of Homeland Security]. That shows that they are authorized to be in the secure customs area of the airport.”
“Then are you concerned, sir, that he claimed to be a TSA employee, when he’s not?”
“No, sir. That’s not my concern.” I thought that impersonating a Federal officer was a serious crime, but Mr. Graham didn’t seem to care.
“Sir, does any TSA regulation or other law or government order require me to open my passport for them?”
“No, we [TSA] don’t.”
“I don’t want to do anything wrong, sir. If you as a TSA employee order me to open my passport for you, or for these other people, I will do so. But I’m trying to clarify who these people are, and whether they, or you, or the government, are making a request or giving an order that I show them my passport.”
“No, sir, the TSA doesn’t require you to do anything.”
Take note of that last line.
I’d gotten only a step before Mr. Graham called out, “Wait.”I stopped immediately, still several steps away from the checkpoint.
“Where are you going?”
“I was going on to the checkpoint, sir, since you told me I didn’t have to show these people my passport.”
Can you smell the freedom?
“If you don’t show your passport to these guys [gesturing toward the group of Airserv employees], I won’t allow you through the checkpoint.”“Sir, may I proceed through the TSA checkpoint as a ‘selectee’ without showing them my passport? I understand that as a ‘selectee’ I will be subject to a more intrusive search.”
“No, sir, you may not.”
“So do I understand you correctly, sir, that as the TSA supervisor you categorically refuse to allow me to proceed to the checkpoint unless I first show my passport to these people, even though they don’t work for the TSA?”
“That is correct, sir.”
Look, I know that showing ID isn’t a big thing for most people. It certainly isn’t an issue for the writer here, either. He was fully willing to as long as somebody explained the rules and told him why he had to show ID.
One would think that a government employee, or a contractor to a government agency, would explain how and why this was a legal requirement for him to get to the checkpoint. Unfortunately that is not the case. The writer actually voulenteers to go through the extra screening process when he is told he doesn’t have to show ID to the non-TSA folks, but that is refused.
It gets worse from there. The writer eventually gets to his plane but not after being harassed by local police that keep their hand on their pistol the entire time.
I’m curious. How many terrorists question government authority when they’ve got proper identification creditials on them? Do we have a metric on this one? I would hazard to guess none.
It seems that you’re labled a possible terrorist threat these days just because you want to find out why some drone that isn’t wearing an official uniform wants to look at your credentials.
The US government took control of airport security to make it consistent. Obviously it is not.
We don’t even know all the rules with regards to who can and who cannot get onto a plane.
We don’t know the procedures.
We don’t know who is on the “no-fly” lists. Hell Edward Kennedy, a United States Senator, wasn’t allowed on flights for a while.
This is the land of the free? Where we snivel at the feet of some schmuck making $10 an hour in an attempt to make us secure? If we have the audacity to question them we are confronted by police with guns? For trying to travel? Domestically? As a US citizen?
I am fully aware that such actions seem rather childish to some people. As a young tyke I probably asked “Why?” more than anything else. It wasn’t always “Why should I do that?” — I just asked “Why?” about everything.
Is that really wrong? To keep doing that when you’re confused by what is going on around you? When your adult brain can’t make sense of the situation and nobody around you can explain their own actions is it really that nutty to question why you should conform to their requests when they’re not sure about themselves?
As a working adult I rarely ask why management is doing something, unless I have a pretty good idea that they’re asking me to do the wrong thing. In that instance I don’t question them, even when I’m unsure of things, because I trust them to be doing the right thing. I willfully submit to their authority because the entity that pays me has deemed them responsible enough to manage me.
This is not the case when it comes to dealing with government agents. Government agents work by rules that, presumably, a majority of the population agrees with. When the rules are unknown it is only natural to question them.
It makes you wonder. If you dressed up in a cheap black suit, carried around a clipboard, and started asking people for ID an an airport, how many people would just hand it over without ever thinking about it?
This isn’t security, this is compliance. Compliance to almost anonymous individuals that haven’t a clue what they’re actually doing and presume that you will mindlessly submit to their every demand.
I’ve gotten a response from the TSA, although it avoids the most important issues, and raises at least as as many new questions as it answers. See my follow-up article, Dialogue with the TSA Privacy Officer.