Time to get rid of the TSA
08/12/2013 19:25Source: Washington Examiner
Federal airline security oversight has a long track record of failure. Few people know that prior to Sept. 11, 2001, four different federal agencies -- the FBI, CIA, FAA and INS -- were entrusted to protect commercial airlines. They clearly did not do their jobs. Why, then, has the federal government further nationalized the process?
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress rushed to create a new agency to protect America's planes, trains and trucks. The Transportation Security Administration enabled the federal government to control the screening of passengers and baggage at all but five of the 429 U.S. commercial airports. Eleven years and billions of dollars later, the TSA has mastered the art of the grope but falls short on increasing security.
Throughout the TSA's existence, the 62,000-employee bureaucracy has been constantly inundated with complaints about its performance. Several reports from support travelers' concerns. In July, the Government Accountability Office reported almost 10,000 cases of employee misconduct at the TSA between 2010 and 2012. Outrageous anecdotal stories -- like tales of TSA agents frisking teary-eyed children, forcing travelers to remove prosthetic limbs, and even interfering with elderly passengers' feeding tubes -- fuel discontent among jet-setters. But do the TSA's invasive methods even make us safer?
