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Hide and Seek
by Art Kosatka - Wednesday May 16, 2012A recent investigation issued jointly by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure reports that TSA bought $184 million in screening equipment that it stored in warehouses and tried to prevent Congress from learning how many machines were there. TSA attempted to hide unused machines from visiting investigators: when asked why so few workers were at warehouse at 3 p.m., a manager said he had sent them home because they had been working since 6 a.m. to remove 1,300 pieces of equipment. Some of the key findings: 85% of the current inventory had been stored for longer than six months; 35% for more than one year. One piece had been in storage more than six years... -
Do K-9s Profile Passengers?
by Art Kosatka - Wednesday April 11, 2012No, the dog doesn’t discriminate by religion, odd clothing choices, or nervous facial tics, but the dog team might mixed-metaphorically bite you on the rear. The value of canines in explosives detection has been hotly debated in recent years, and I, for one, [full disclosure: being related to a highly experienced police K-9 trainer], have always been a believer in their capabilities, even with their real-world operational limitations. Some new recent research in animal behavior suggests another potential weakness may reside in the relationship of dog vs. handler. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, wondered whether small unintentional signals from a handler might affect the dogs’ response. Seems like... -
Street View from TSA’s 10th Floor
by Art Kosatka - Wednesday March 14, 2012TSA’s 10 th Floor In a recent GAO report #12-264, the DHS and TSA senior leadership vacancy rates were the subject of attention, as they have been almost since the very beginning of both agencies, and through at least five TSA Administrators in just over 10 years. Each successive leader has sought to put his own brand on TSA with structural reorganization, as well as internal departmental desk shuffling and name changing, as if the problems can be resolved by where they sit and what they call it, rather than what they actually do. Some interesting staffing statistics, according to Rep. John Mica, Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure: TSA is larger than the Departments of Labor, Energy, Education... -
There's always room for one more in the clown car
by Art Kosatka - Wednesday February 8, 2012We’re told that the No-Fly list has slightly more than doubled in the past year, from about 10,000 to around 21,000 names, apparently not because more terrorists suddenly sprang from the bushes, but because we’ve figured out a better way to identify them. Stated another way, up until now, about half the known bad guys were incognito, but the intelligence community has now seriously stepped up its game. That’s a good thing, although it remains unknown, or at least unreported, how many of them may have actually been apprehended. Presumably, if they can’t fly, they’re on Amtrak or Greyhound, and we must always remember that TSA is a multi-modal agency, already performing random searches in some mass transit venues. Further... -
Another Year Like the Other Year
by Art Kosatka - Wednesday January 11, 2012For those of you concerned that TSA is not spending enough money to protect you, Congress is on the case. Although overall DHS appropriations are down slightly from FY 2011 (about $111M), the recently signed TSA FY 2012 budget is up $153 million from last year, to about $7.85 billion. With a “B”. That includes several hundred million for 250 additional AITs, despite a Congressional effort to cut funding while they upgrade existing devices, which at times remain unmanned due to a lack of staff. At the same time, TSA has issued a request for information about devices that could measure the amount of radiation emitted by its scanners, to determine whether agents are "exposed to ionizing radiation above minimum detectable...
