The TSA has 43,000 employees. One of them leaked a pre-Christmas internal memo to me. In it, the author — who appears to be TSA Chief Kip Hawley — reveals how upset he is with the recent Associated Press poll, one which says the TSA is as unpopular with Americans as the IRS. The author likens the Associated Press to the Grinch.

The memo refers to Americans as "disgruntled passengers" and "amateur security experts." And the TSA wonders why the flying public dislikes this agency so much? It's exactly this kind of arrogance that makes the TSA so unpopular. Leadership is supposed to start at the top. If you think of the people you're appointed to serve as nothing more than disgruntled amateurs, chances are they're not going to like or trust you very much.  

It's also interesting that the memo's author and his boss "Secretary Chertoff" express frustration that the public didn't fall for the agency's propaganda piece which aired on Good Morning America on December 21. In this piece, "Inside TSA's Secret Command Center," the TSA invited cameras into its "secret location." (One which I've written about previously and, in my forthcoming book, interviewed on-duty individuals for. If that makes this place secret, then we're all in trouble). Americans didn't fall for the Good Morning America piece because Americans understand the difference between propaganda and news.

But what's most interesting about the memo is the "suspicious incident" that's discussed, one that apparently took place at the Detroit airport. "A checked baggage TSO [Transportation Security Officer] in Detroit identified a truly suspicious item and the situation was immediately contained and resolved with the FBI, CBP, ICE, and TSA working together," the memo reveals. Bomb experts were involved.

Why wasn't Good Morning America invited to report on that?

For as long as the TSA refuses to tell the truth about what's really going on in airports and on airplanes, the flying public will refuse to trust the TSA. And that's going to continue to be revealed in the public's opinion. 

Date:          December 21, 2007

To:             All TSA Employees

Subject:        100.0 - Message from Leadership Regarding AP Poll

The Grinch must have gotten loose a little early this year.

In a poll reported by the AP, they showed us down at the bottom of the
public's satisfaction, hanging in there with FEMA and the IRS. The AP
further reported on some of the complaints we get at our Contact Center,
quoted a few disgruntled passengers, amateur security experts, and
wrapped a headline around it to greet the millions of travelers flying
home this weekend. Kind of sounds like Thanksgiving.

This morning, my first meeting was with Secretary Chertoff.  As soon as
he sat down, he expressed his frustration that today, the anniversary of
the attack on Pan Am 103 and the height of the holiday travel season,
the news coverage is an undeserved poke in the eye given the great work
again over Thanksgiving.  (Ironically the day also started with a great
piece on Good Morning America, live from the TSOC. www.tsa.gov )

Skip ahead to my last meeting of today, a TSOC bridge call about a
suspicious incident in Detroit this evening. We had a TSAR in Europe
(who had been up all last night on another matter), FAMs, bomb experts,
our FSD in Detroit, and high level people from around the Department and
TSA. A checked baggage TSO in Detroit identified a truly suspicious item
and the situation was immediately contained and resolved with the FBI,
CBP, ICE, and TSA working together. Not a ripple for the flying public.
No poll numbers on that.

This does not compute: we're in a high threat environment, the peak
travel season, consistent good flow at our checkpoints, and doing the
tough job of security on the ground and in the air, around the world –
but the news reports on an impromptu popularity poll in which we appear
to be unloved. Huh?

Fortunately, people who live for poll ratings don't work for TSA.

(Photos by David L. Ryan from Boston.com)

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According to an Associated Press poll, "TSA has tied with the perennially unpopular tax collectors in a favorability ranking of a dozen executive branch agencies."

One person's complaint seems to sum up the conundrum:

"I am so frustrated with TSA that I am ready to stop flying," one traveler wrote in a Sept. 7 complaint filed with the agency. "I'm sure this doesn't matter to you because my tax dollars are already paying you."   

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The following incident took place on November 14th at the Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI). From the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database — an information system run by the FBI:

On 14 November 2007, an identified individual on the public side of the (BWI) airport reportedly asked a behavior detection officer questions regarding security procedures, training, and security cameras. Additionally, the subject was caught photographing a motorized room freshener located near the ceiling in the men’s room. Law enforcement officers (LEOs) responded and interviewed the subject, who stated he was a college student doing a project for his American Studies class. LEOs located the photo of the aerosol container, as well as a security camera from an unknown location. A search of the subject’s vehicle resulted in negative findings.  

In my analysis, there are a few important things to consider. For starters, the fact that the "identified individual" was able to himself identify TSA behavior detection officers is cause for concern. Behavior Detection Officers are supposed to be undercover.

Behavior Detection Officers are TSAs "high performing" screeners who have earned "merit-based promotions" as part of TSAs "Career Progression Program." If said "college student" was able to identify TSA's undercover agents –  tasked with spotting terrorists at airports based on how people behave — as easily as mentioned above, it becomes clear that TSA "layers of security" are nets with scary holes. Who's watching whom? 

The TSA agents made the decision not to blow their cover (further) and called Law Enforcement Officers to the scene. The LEOs discovered the "college student" had photographs of the aerosol container in the men's bathroom. Aerosol containers dispense pressurized substances into an environment in a fine spray or gas. Said "college student" also had a photograph of a security camera "from an unknown location."

Of the incident, my law enforcement source noted that this is the second incident involving an air freshener at a major east coast airport — in the last three months.

Note:
On 25 September 2007, (Boston) while conducting weekly maintenance, a worker discovered a vandalized restroom deodorizer. Some of the deodorizer’s internal components were removed, to include the timing mechanism, two D-cell batteries, and the actual de-odorizer container. It should be noted that the internal components removed from the deodorizer could all be used in the construction of an improvised explosive device.

I can be reached at Annie@TheAviationNation.com

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Read about why Iris scans should be part of U.S. passport technology: Iris scans let law enforcement keep eye on technology. From USA Today:

"More than 2,100 departments in 27 states are taking digital pictures of eyes and storing the information in databases that can be searched later to identify a missing person or someone who uses a fake name, says Sean Mullin, president of BI{+2} Technologies, which sells the devices."

Passport fraud is going unseen, State Department Officials warn — with Europe's burgeoning counterfeit passport business making it easier to get a fake passport and enter the United States.

In December 2006, BBC reporter Shahida Tulaganova bought 20 fake and stolen passports with which she was able to enter, and re-enter England. In an expose called "Me and My Passports," Tulaganova revealed how she purchased all 20 fraudulent passports in Europe:

"They ranged in price from just $250 to more than $1,500. Some were provided within several days, while others took weeks.

She found her first illegal passport dealer in the centre of London - through an advertisement in a Russian language newspaper.

The dealer - Henry - provided her with a genuine Czech passport, by getting someone who looked like her to apply for one, using her photo."

An Iris scan would have stopped Tulaganova at England's gates.

In July 2007, British police seized 1,800 fake passports in a two bedroom flat in North London. For further reading: How Terrorists Use Fake Passports, Visas, and Other Identify Documents. (Orianna Zill, PBS Frontline.

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Last month, TSA Chief Kip Hawley evaded questions for Congress about why Congress' oversight arm, GAO, was able to sneak real live bombs (IEDs=Improvised Explosive Devices) and real live fire bombs (IIDs=Improvised Incindiary Devices) onto airplanes — yet again.

Hawley down played the results of this year's undercover tests by suggesting the bombs smuggled onto aircraft by investigators — made for less than $150 and from technology available on the Internet — were hardly "catastrophic" and in fact, were more like "firecrackers." Not according to these videos prepared by GAO they're not. 

GAO's Explosion Demonstration Videos are a must see for anyone who wants to press their Congressperson for holding TSA's feet to the fire before the next US aircraft explodes over an American city.  

Find out how to write to your Congressperson by visiting Congress.org and typing your zip code into the search window. As a point of reference, use the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing from November 15, 2007: One Year Later: Have TSA Airport Security Checkpoints Improved? Its chairman in Henry A. Waxman.

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The Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress's oversight arm, released a report yesterday telling the public what they already know: TSA's bomb detection programs are all for show. Undercover agents posing as suicide bombers got through security with bomb components in 19 out of 19 airports tested. The Washington Post has some of the better commentary on the grim subject, as well as some choice quotes. 

"These findings are mind-boggling," said the committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.). "In spite of billions of dollars and the six years TSA has had to deploy new technology and procedures, our airlines remain vulnerable. This is unacceptable. The American public deserves better."

"Two years ago, TSA officials said they needed more time, more resources and better technology to provide adequate security," Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), the panel's ranking Republican and former chairman, said in a written statement. "Unfortunately . . . TSA still cannot consistently detect or prevent prohibited items from being carried onto aircraft." 

TSA Spokeswoman Ellen Howe's response included this shameful analogy: 

"It's [i.e. Homeland Security/aviation security] like a combination lock. If you get through one layer of security, it doesn't mean you get through all layers of security." 

Howe's analogy is shameful because it assumes all passengers are stupid, or not paying attention, and don't realize the obvious: that TSA's security checkpoint for bombs is the last line of security. After that, you're on the plane! Perhaps Howe was trying to suggest the country's ever-dwindling number of Air Marshals (approximately 2,000 for some 25,000 flights a day) might be a useful bomb-detection tool? But then Howe hasn't brushed up on Air Marshal protocol, or is at least hoping that you haven't either. Air Marshal's can't deploy "unless there is an actual event." And in the case of a bomb built in an aircraft bathroom and detonated, the "event" makes it a little too late for an Air Marshal to deploy.

If you'd like to read about what happens when a group of mala fide travelers gets through all layers of security (State Department: bogus P-3 visas; ICE: expired visas; FBI: tagged in system as mala fide airplane travelers but allowed to fly; TSA: tagged in system as mala fide travlers but allowed to fly; Air Marshals: too many missteps to list here) please read my book "Terror in The Skies, Why 9/11 Could Happen Again."

The state of aviation security was volatile when I boarded a plane with my family and 13 Syrians posing as musicians back in 2004. And, billions of dollar later, aviation security remains just as volatile today.

As for today, President Bush took to the podium to talk about a "Thanksgiving express lane" for airplanes, one previously reserved for the military. Perhaps he's trying to deflect passengers' concerns away from the the real issue: that 27 million people are about to take to the skies for the Thanksgiving holidays — starting tomorrow. And GAO studies have shown us the grievous truth: that the bomb parts have been cleared for boarding.

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The British government has announced plans to ask all airline passengers — those entering and leaving England — the following 53 questions as part of an "e-border" system to monitor and track who's in the country. "Anybody about whom the authorities are dubious can be turned away when they arrive at the airport or station with their baggage," reports the Daily Mail.

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UPDATE 11.14.07: The Associated Press reports "authorities said the flames were likely caused by heat from a conveyor belt. Phoenix police Lt. Rick Gehlbach said the backpack likely began to smoke after it got jammed between two larger pieces of luggage on a conveyor belt." If they say so, it must be true.  

In what sounds like a farce, but has been reported by Reuters as verifiable, a baggage handler at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was loading bags onto U.S. Airways Flight 200 this morning around 10:00 a.m. when he spotted a smoking suitcase. According to airport officials, the bag did not contain explosives. 

No explosives were found in the luggage and the owner of the suitcase was questioned by authorities, an airport spokeswoman said. Terrorism was not suspected. 

So how does a piece of luggage catch on fire by itself? I myself have toured the TSA's baggage inspection facility here in Los Angeles and am somewhat familiar with how long of a journey each piece of luggage makes after it's relinquished by its owner to the airlines but before it's loaded onto a plane. 

The airline enters each individual piece of luggage into a federalized, baggage screening system for an individual x-ray. So how — and when — did this bag catch on fire, exactly? 

Phoenix Police Detective Stacy Derge did not return calls.

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