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TSA screener plants powder baggie in flier's luggage
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Not everyone gets the joke

By Dan Goodin • Get more from this author

Posted in Security, 22nd January 2010 18:17 GMT

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A screener for the US Transportation Security Administration lost his job after pretending to plant a plastic bag of white powder in the carry-on luggage of a passenger at the Philadelphia International Airport.

Rebecca Solomon was flying to Detroit on Northwest Airlines, the same city and carrier involved in the attempted underwear bombing on Christmas, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer's Philly.com. After passing through a detector, the unidentified TSA worker motioned the 22-year-old passenger toward him, presented the plastic baggie and asked "Where did you get it?"

After about 20 seconds, the screener smiled and admitted that it was all a joke. But supervisors aren't laughing. A TSA spokeswoman called the behavior "highly inappropriate and unprofessional" and said the man is no longer employed with the agency. ®

Ooooh wow, he got fired? Really? That's it? What. The Fuck. You attempt to induce a state of panic, make false allegations, attempt to frame someone for either A) a possible terrorist threat or B) an attempt to smuggle narcotics and all you get is fired? Seriously?

If any fucking else in the country tried this shit. If any random passenger did this to another passenger or did this to fuck with TSA they'd be lucky if they didn't spend the next year or more in jail getting bounced around while paperwork is 'misplaced' or worse. The epic shitstorm that would fall upon the head of any fucktard who didn't work for TSA would be legendary.

But because twiddle dumbfuck works for the TSA, he was let go. And that, I'm sure, makes it perfectly okay for the woman who is now probably traumatized or anyone else in America who reads this article and thinks to themselves as they pass through the abuses of privacy and dignity we call security screenings, 'Hmm, and we're trusting our safety to these mental giants?'

We're suppose to be rolling out with these brand new state of the art systems for scanning people as they walk through to make sure they're not concealing anything beneath their clothes. Basically full body scanners that let the screener see what's underneath the clothes that could be hidden. And we're suppose to trust them with this sort of invasion of privacy when we can't trust them not to be complete asshats.

I swear every day it seems the TSA and DHS are finding new and inventive ways to expand their entries in the Encyclopedia Retardica.

Not as bad as another country's 'test', but.

Oh, the Japanese drug sniffing dog test where the guy tossed a bag of pot into some unsuspecting passenger's bag and then they lost it?

That was amusing and at least was, while misguided and stupid, a semi-legitimate test of their anti-drug security. It did have, at its base, a legitimate use as a test.

Randomly pulling a bag of confectioner's sugar out of your pocket, pulling a young woman over and going "Where'd you get this?" has no legitimate basis.

Not that I can justify Japan's test, but I can say that it at least had some legitimate basis.

No. Slovak Air. They put 96 grams of plastic explosives into the luggage of eight people to test airport screening.

One man's surprise gift didn't ping and made it all the way to Ireland.

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Oooo! I missed that one! Thanks for the link.

Taking a trip by ship is sounding more appealing. From what I am reading, traveling on a cargo freighter can be around $100/day for a nice cabin, an entertainment system to go with it, and meals with the officers. Along with being able to roam around the boat including the bridge.

Doesn't work so much when traveling inland, though. Damnit, we need more trains. A lot more trains going a lot more places like in the old days before the car and oil companies squished them and public transit in cities.

Soontir948 wrote:From what I am reading, traveling on a cargo freighter can be around $100/day for a nice cabin, an entertainment system to go with it, and meals with the officers. Along with being able to roam around the boat including the bridge.

How long is a typical trans-Atlantic trip, I wonder? Five days? That's just $500 for the trip, very good deal if I means I don't have to deal with the TSA's bullshit.