NYT: Screeners to Be Changed at U.S. Airports

[DeepModem Mom]

Screeners to Be Changed at U.S. Airports
By ERIC LIPTON and CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: August 14, 2006

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Sunday that he intended to replace contractors who inspect passenger identification at airport checkpoints with staff members from the Transportation Security Administration, a move that would be one of the biggest expansions of the agency’s tasks since it was set up in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks....

***

Details of the plan to replace the contractors were still being worked out. But Mr. Chertoff said the transportation agency screeners would be trained in psychological profiling under the plan, which he intends to announce in the coming weeks or months.

Currently, the contractors who handle the precheckpoint processing of identification documents are hired by airlines. Transportation agency screeners, in addition to handling checkpoint security, also do the simple, labor-intensive task of picking up checked-in bags and placing them into scanning machines before they are loaded onto planes.

Under the plan, contractors would take over the manual labor of handling the checked bags, although federal screeners would continue to interpret images for possible threats. But the switch would free up enough screeners to do the identity checks and behavior analyses of passengers waiting to go through security.

Mr. Chertoff said administration officials would have to work with the airports on any additional costs and on administrative transition. “It is going to require a larger conversation,” said Ellen Howe, a transportation agency spokeswoman. “We would like to consider shifting responsibility” of agency staff “from baggage handling to security.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/washington/14rules.html

[Kagemusha]

1. Someone pinch me. Didn't Republicans explicitly reject this after 9/11?

Come on, it hasn't been that long...

[badgervan]

4. Exactly

They fought it tooth and nail.

[salin]

10. yes, why? two reasons:

1) federal employees = union

2) crony capitalism = donors and buddies/connected folks owned the companies

[Tempest]

2. Are they going to hire additional staff?

Or are they going to add additional duties to the already stretched TSA, making them even less effective than they are now?

[Kagemusha]

3. Seems they intend to hire additional staff, train in psych profiling

and have contractors do the menial labor involved in the screening process.

Who the hell will pay for it is beyond me.

[merwin]

5. Silly! You will pay for it... and your children... and their children.

[pooja]

6. you mean training in racial profiling. n/t

[HuffleClaw]

9. like they weren't already doing that blatantly

that and selecting well-endowed women for a 'random search'

[Hekate]

7. What--replace private contractors with civil servants?

You mean hiring min-wage min-quals employees didn't work out so well? Imagine that.

At least I hope that's what this means. We'll pay for their wages no matter who their boss is, and I'd much rather havethem be civil servants.

Hekate

[keopeli]

8. More proof neo-cons are not conservative. This is a huge expansion of govt

The price tag for this will be enormous. That being said, I honestly thought we would do this after 9/11...even hoped. However, that was back when I believed in my govt. Given proclivities to ignore basic rights to privacy, assembly and speech, I now have no faith that these civil servants would serve the common good. Creating a robust security apparatus is essential for the US, but I don't trust the Republicans, or Bush, to do it.

After Iraq and Katrina, who does?

[tanyev]

11. The county I used to work for had a Road and Bridge Dept that could

never make up its mind. Every time a new director came on board, change was in order. Currently centralized? Well, we have to decentralize. That's the only way to save time and money and get the job done efficiently. Currently decentralized? Well, we have got to centralize. That's the only way to save time and money and get the job done efficiently. Centralize. Decentralize. It had been going on for years before I started there and it continued after I left.

Some people must think it's more important to look like you're doing something than to actually do something.

[symbolman]

12. Great, now we're gonna have NAZIS in the airports

instead of underpaid people who might cut you some slack.

Psychological training to figure out what the public is thinking while getting reamed and treated like criminals, bowing to authority..?

Let me save you some money you goddam crooks, the public is PISSED, there's your analysis (and remember, you can't spell "analysist" without the word "anal" :)

The nooses are tightening, the jackboots are being polished and WE are the targets of cheap thugs.

It's just that simple.