This morning actor Alec Baldwin sent out a curious tweet to his more than one-million Twitter followers that read, “Flying from Nassau, Bahamas 2 NY. TSA “random selects” my 5 month old daughter 4 a pat down. I am not kidding. #travelinginUSAisadisgrace“ Ignoring the actor’s history of issues with the airline industry, there are…
Ten years ago the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) adopted a new concept for aviation security in the United States when it started the Screening of Passengers by Observation Technique (SPOT) Program, through the training and deployment of Behaviour Detection Officers (BDO). The theory behind the TSA implementing BDOs is that these officers are not watching…
Twelve hours ago the United States Government was shut down due to political gridlock on The Hill. As the nation’s elected representatives continue to play a game of chess using the citizens of the United States as pawns the business of airline travel must go on. This morning I awoke to a flurry of…
There are many oddities in international travel, often occurring with Immigrations and Customs. Today I ran across  Sexism at the border: A personal account by Clay Nikiforuk, which annoyed me to no end. Whether or not all the details of her story are accurate, the issues in the story bother me. The story is not…
While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created on the 25th of November 2002 and officially began operations on the 24th of January 2003, with the appointment of Governor Tom Ridge (R-PA) as the first Secretary of Homeland Security, the Department of Homeland Security didn’t become the agency as we know it today until…
Yesterday the United States’ 112th Congress’ 2nd Session passed S. 3542, the “No Hassle Flying Act of 2012” , which is now being sent to the White House to be signed into law by The President of the United States. Before you get excited that the U.S. Congress has done something to reduce the…
Travelers in the United States have come to blame everything on the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). It seems no matter what the issue, the TSA is blamed, be it parking enforcement, gate agents, police, passport control … it all seems to land squarely on the TSA’s shoulders. Does the TSA deserve to be blamed? …
On the 23rd of January two tourists from the United Kingdom arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, on board Air France Flight 74 from Paris, for a vacation in Southern California. Instead of posting their trip to Twitter, comments made on Twitter got them deported. Under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Publicly Available…
In 2005 the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began a pilot program in conjunction with the Registered Traveler Interoperability Consortium, where travelers could undergo a background check, and provide a biometric sample to the TSA’s Office of Transportation Threat Assessment and Credentialing and become a “Registered Traveler.” On paper the Registered Traveler program made sense. The…
