Comments on: Congressional hearings about the TSA SOP debacle

By: Wandering Aramean

Wandering Aramean — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:04:46 +0000

@Tristram: I hear you about trying to get real action from quietly reporting the problem rather than making a big stink about it. Unfortunately, however, the TSA has proven time and time again that unless the media gets involved and makes noise about their inane policies and inappropriate actions they will simply ignore the issues presented.

My goal is to make it abundantly clear to as many people as possible that the TSA is not capable of actually performing the duties with which they have been charged and try to motivate people to push for real change rather than blindly accept the double-speak that the TSA provides. Getting incidents like this out into the public discussion is the best way I’ve come up with to make that happen.

By: Tristram

Tristram — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:01:51 +0000

I think that too many people who are involved with security that has multiple layers, have come to believe that security through obscurity is an important element of that. I would disagree on the importance of keeping any information labelled SSI secret from the public and I think you might also. A good democracy is dependant on an informed public and SSI has become a convenient excuse to hide malfeasance or incompetence. At best, keeping this document off the internet would just make it slightly more inconvenient in attempting to launch a terror attack. However, I don’t quite understand your rational for making their redaction mistake public right off the bat. Was it because you believed the entire document should have been made available to the public in the first place? Alternatively, was it just to get TSA to realize and fix the fact that their personnel don’t know how to properly redact an electronic document? If the latter, it seems to me that informing DHS, FBI, a particular congressman or senator, or some government watchdog agency might have been the route to go. The end result, so far, has been this knee-jerk reaction by the TSA to lockdown all SSI. That is not particularly helpful for anyone.

By: Papers, Please! » Blog Archive » He’s got a little list (and we’re on it)

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:44:07 +0000

[...] There’s more about the hearing on Flyertalk, where the unredacted SOP first came to light, and from a Flyertalk regular and blogger who spread the news further afield, and attended today’s hearing. [...]

By: Getting called out by a Congressman » The Wandering Aramean

Getting called out by a Congressman » The Wandering Aramean — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:05:23 +0000

[...] sat through about 90 minutes of hearings from the Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection on Wednesday, hoping [...]

By: Seth

Seth — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:28:33 +0000

Thanks for the thoughts, Katie.

I was not in this for 15 minutes of fame. I honestly figured it would be like pretty much all my other posts: read by a couple folks and then promptly forgotten. Have you read through the document yourself? Do you really find that it is exposing serious secrets or details that make air travel less safe? I do not. This was certainly an embarrassing mistake for the TSA but hardly does it create a playbook for terrorists or anything of the sort.

As for how to report it, I’ve been called out by a member of Congress on that front as well. He suggested that such things be handled “internally” just as you have. If I believed that there was any chance the TSA would actually be held accountable through such channels I would go that route. The fact is that they willfully ignore any number of rules and requirements whenever they feel it appropriate. They are accountable to no one. When the government can no longer manage itself it is up to the populace to fight back. Consider this just one small battle in that fight.

By: KatieK

KatieK — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:42:34 +0000

I find this point interesting:

“Patriotism means acting for the good of the country, not for the good of a few folks who have made mistakes in running an organization which seeks to deny basic liberties covered by the Constitution when it is convenient for them.”

When you found the document, was that seriously what went through your mind? Or is that a conveniently high-minded philosophical statement you have since come up with?

Somehow, you came across what appeared to be a sensitive document on the web, and your first thought wasn’t to protect it from bad guys – instead, you posted it for everyone to see – including terrorists. If you didn’t like TSA, you could have called the DHS or the FBI or even just let the website it was on know about it.

Maybe I’m a patriotic sap, but I wouldn’t have taken the route you did, especially after 9-11. You had the opportunity to do something that could, even in a small way, safeguard your country, and you didn’t. Instead you went for the 15 minutes of fame route. It’s a common route these days, which is a sad reflection on our society.

Let’s hope you never have to come to regret it.