TSA Hands Al-Qaeda Its Playbook
Terrorists love details. Al-Qaeda’s U.S. embassy bombers knew the thickness of the embassy walls — a key detail in figuring out how much explosives were necessary to take the buildings down. The Mumbai terrorists had copies of the floor plans to the Taj Mahal Hotel before beginning their three-day siege. The 9/11 hijackers took no less than 33 test runs in the months leading up to America’s worst terrorist attack; they cased airports and watched how flight attendants did their jobs. Terrorists do homework. They conduct intense reconnaissance missions so as to maximize the death toll on the day of their actual attacks. Practice makes perfect, so the saying goes.
This week the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) — the agency tasked with keeping you and your family safe on airplanes — literally handed al-Qaeda its playbook. In a blunder of astonishingly poor judgment, the TSA allowed one of its most sensitive documents, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) manual, to be posted online. And then, instead of admitting the seriousness of its security breach, the TSA tried to take the position that the information wasn’t that important. Only after Congress got involved did TSA take any action. “Some” TSA employees were placed on administrative leave, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary David Heyman told senators on Wednesday.
One of the more troublesome exposures that must be addressed is the publication of undercover agents’ ID cards — including those for CIA officers and federal air marshals. The TSA claims the information is outdated, yet I confirmed with an air marshal and a CIA officer than their ID cards have not changed in the past 18 months. Sadly, I doubt anyone reading this is surprised. America long ago lost confidence in the TSA. Despite billions of taxpayer dollars, the agency consistently proves incapable of doing its job. And yet one question remains: will it take another terrorist attack using airplanes to reform the TSA?
The largest group of federal law enforcement officers in the country wants action, not backpedaling. John Adler, spokesman for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA), told the House Homeland Security Committee, “Both TSA’s posting of sensitive security information and their unwillingness to grasp the seriousness of this are unacceptable.” Adler asked for closed-door congressional investigations, including a “meaningful damage-control assessment.”
Senator Susan Collins, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, also saw through the TSA’s attempt to downplay the incident. “On the day before the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s hearing on terrorist travel, it is alarming to learn that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inadvertently posted its own security manual on the Internet,” Collins said.
Here are a few highlights from the TSA’s SOP manual, which unfortunately reads like a how-to-breach-airport-security manual for terrorists:
TSA = Terrorist Subjugating Americans
Golly-gee, Janet – is this a man-caused disaster? This frumpy, feckless, floundering, fool is a tremendous encouragement to our enemies. Resign NOW.
Janet N. was the governor of my state, and we were glad to get rid of her. It is not unexpected that her incompetent leadership has lead to this. Our country is in the best of hands.
Americans need to face facts. The fact of the matter is that such monumental stupidity is usually NOT as mindless as it initially appears.
In the same manner in which ClimateGate did not magically appear online, so too didn’t these highly sensitive TSA documents. SOMEONE within the agency wanted them out.
If it smells like treason it IS treason, albeit deep within the underbelly of Washington’s bureaucracy.
The terrorists already use our freedoms against us. It’s hard to fathom the gross incompetence that allowed this information to be made public. Heads should roll at the TSA for this.
Can’t wait to hear how the trolls will deflect and/or defend this…..nowandwhenever, mofo, peaceguy, where are you???
I am continually dumbfounded by the level of stupidity displayed by our government and I am not just referring to the current regime. I find it increasingly impossible to believe that this type of occurence is “accidental”. Either the United States employs numerous saboteurs or Darwin’s theory is playing out on a national scale. Either way, it is time to get right with God and lock & load.
What a bunch of boobs. Idiots. How many people work — I mean are present — in the TSA bureaucracy? How many millions do the taxpayers waste for this incompetence? What do TSA employees do, beside leak their most sensitive document, inconvenience Americans, sit around in their offices, drink coffee, surf the internet, and complain? Unbelievable.
Much of the discussion of this incident centers around the attempt to redact some of the text using an easily removed screen in PDF. But a more important question is why any part of the document was posted online. The whole thing is page marked, top and bottom of every page, with SENSITIVE SECURITY INFORMATION
It was posted by “accident”? There are NO accidents.
This is one of the few outrages of this administration that probably wasn’t deliberate. The dead hand of bureaucracies do this sort of thing all the time. But wait till they start scheduling doctor’s appointments for you and removing growths.
Want your own copy? It is on The Pirate Bay this very minute. Looks like a very popular download.
7. Jim Rockford:
What do TSA employees do, beside leak their most sensitive document, inconvenience Americans, sit around in their offices, drink coffee, surf the internet, and complain?
I suspect that you are describing the higher-ranking bureaucrats in the agency. The ones in the airports seem to be doing their jobs, and will probably be the ones to take the eggs and tomatoes for Janet Napolitano.
The TSA blog is certainly on damage control duty!
i don’t see much harm in what was accidentally let out actually. most of this info could be had by simple observation and doesn’t really have much to do with the unmentioned other very real holes and cracks in security.
Before these scum attacked America on 9/11, we were able to reasonably enjoy air travel. Now people who look like terrorists sail through the TSA line, while grandmothers are subjected to body searches and all manner of abuse. We can do this a lot better. Now that the terrorists have our TSA procedures, lets change them to be more effective and less onerous to our citizens.
Janet Napolitano, ~I do not like her, so there is little she can do to rectify anything in my eyes.
She is the real “accident” and Obama is the “accident” maker.
Okay you’re right…there are no accidents
Please wake me when the Obamanation appointee nightmare is over.. that is if we are not all dead or wearing burka things and robes or in concentration camps.
***Narrow minded me.
Is this the transparency that the Obamesssiah promised?