TSA Successfully Detects 2 Out of 3 Claymore Mines in Luggage
The New York Post reports on some excellent work by the nation's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees—with an assist from defense department employees!
A Defense Department employee was stopped at Newark Airport yesterday after inspectors found inert land mines in her luggage.
Roxan Hatcher, 32, of Union Township, was headed for an early-morning flight to San Francisco with two unarmed Claymore mines she planned to use in a Special Forces training exercise, law-enforcement sources said.
Hatcher, a mechanical engineer at the Army's Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County, told cops that a co-worker headed for the same destination had an inert mine in her checked baggage that TSA inspectors did not detect.
Via alert reader Bob Woolley.
Reason.tv on the TSA:
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OT: Obama has held more fundraisers than all the Presidents since Nixon combined
That's a result of campaign finance reform.
By limiting the amount a single person can donate, it turns a politician's term into one long fundraiser.
I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I mean, it's less time governing, and more time doing things that a person's financial backers approve of, instead of, you know, "doing something."
Agreed. The more time he spends fundraising, the less time he spends fucking us.
The more time he spends fundraising, the more favors he has to repay.
It is. We still pay for it. Her highness was in Las Vegas yesterday fundraising.
Each visit by one or both of the Obamas will be on their private jet Air Force One and will involve all the city disrupting activity that goes along with such a visit-no fly zones for non-scheduled aircraft, road closures and the requisite overtime for the police, etc.
That's a result of campaign finance reform.
Of course, the limits on individual giving date back to the '70s, so this doesn't really explain why Obama has had to have so many fundraisers while his predecessors, operating under the same laws, did not.
McCain-Feingold
His predecessors worked under McCain-Feingold?
And I have basic reading comprehension. Can you say the same thing?
Not only do I have basic reading comprehension, but I know basic math as well.
Limits on individuals go back to the 70s, and the amounts haven't changed.
However the cost of a campaign has. It has risen. (linky on post below)
Risen as in nearly doubling every election since 2000.
Which means that it takes double the fixed size donations to finance 2004 than 2000, and double 2004 to finance 2008 (that's four times 2000 to fund 2008 for your mathematically challenged mind), and presumably it doubles again this year (meaning eight times 2000 to fund 2012).
Get it?
More donations require more fundraisers.
Derp dee derpity derp you're stupid.
It takes a lot of money to run a re-election campaign for the most corrupt, dishonest president since Nixon. His bullshit isn't going to spread itself.
It takes quite a few more $1000 contributions to pay for a campaign now than in the past. So many that it turns a term into a continuous fundraiser.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/totals.php
You know, the commentariat here at Reason posted this shit years ago.
Speaking of shit: world's fastest toilet.
World's most unnerving toilet.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....house.html
At least you don't look into adjacent powder rooms. *That* could be unnerving.
I don't really like that penthouse. Everything is too stark and bright. Be like living in a retail store. That red kitchen would hurt my eyes first thing in the morning.
Heh. 42 year old retired NY cop robbed in Mexico by corrupt cops. He does not grok irony.
Hey, man, he earned that 100% pension fair and square with his 20 years of totally completely selfless heroism. What are you, an anarchist?
It's true. He serviced the public good and hard for 20 years. He deserves something for that. I'm thinking free colonoscopies for life.
I wonder what he was thinking. Probably something like "These people are minorities! I'm supposed to be shaking them down."
Course he isn't, he hasn't tried to blow up a bridge yet.
I want you ...
Top. Men.
Two out of three ain't bad...
Flew outta BWI (Baltimore) w/ a Leatherman tool in carry-on. Didn't catch it til I got to IND.
Heading back, went thru screening at IND and they stopped me. They made me poor my water out and swabbed my bag twice. But it was the x-ray showed an anomoly. "Oh;, $#!+"
But, no. A TSAgent and a supervisor did a hand search and, eventually gave my blues harp (always with me) the most thorough inspection I'd ever seen by someone not interested in blowin, including the 5 foot drop test *grrrrrr*
They finally realized that, unless I planned to try to terrorize the East Coasters with some Appalachian dance music, I was probably not a terrorist.
Get back to BWI, unpack some stuff in the car and there in my carry-on bag was the Leatherman tool. It made it thru both ways even after they selected me for further examination.
Putzes!
Damn dumb tags...
Based on the news photos I saw, they were blue mines. Which means it's not an actual mine, it's a mine shaped piece of plastic.
For a number of reasons, one doesn't hand live claymores to people to learn how to use them. You hand them a blue plastic fake and let them train up a bit before you let them play with real explosives.
Well if they were inert then they would small empty plastic cases so not really seeing the big deal on the no catch unless they were wired.
TSA gets excited over knitting needles and pliers...
Don't forget those travel sewing kits. You could do some damage with a sewing needle!
Yet somehow you're allowed to take freaking ice skates on board. Go figure.
you're allowed to take freaking ice skates
Good Lord! At least tell me you have to put them into a baggie.
You'll put your eye out kid.
And obviously fake gun-shaped decorations on clothing. If that's cause for alarm, then a realistic simulation of a weapon must be.
But it looks like something dangerous and the TSA is a bunch of retards.
The big deal is that there is no way the TSA knows the difference, meaning that someone saw a landmine and let it through. It's not an "actual" big deal, but it is a "big f-ing deal" that the TSA is so stunningly incompetent.
I'm the last person to defend the TSA, I agree that they are worthless. But we're talking about a rectangular plastic case that could just as easily be a make-up case, shaving kit or a first aid kit. Had it been full of explosives or even some inert material than that's a problem, but if it's empty? Would there be other distinguishing charactoristic? If so maybe the xray technology should be linked to a database of all known weapons and ordinances. Of course that's not going to stop me from filling a first aid kit full of explosive and turning it into a claymore.
According to TSA folks I've talked to, it's hard to distinguish between blocks of cheese and explosives. So when flying back from Wisconsin make sure you have your cheese out of your bags and run it through the xray separately. Caused me a 10 minute delay once.
The claymore dummies look exactly like claymores except they're blue, and not filled with C-4 and ball bearings. Even got little metal legs and everything. So if you look at it in an xray, you should be thinking 'claymore', not 'plastic box'.
Now, I don't know if TSA agents are trained to recognize land mines. It seems like an odd thing to teach them. But a claymore training kit (wire, clacker, tester, fake claymore) would look a bit suspicious to any reasonably trained person.
It's kind of pointless to have a TSA agent inspecting luggage if they can't detect a fairly well-known type of explosive.
But you can only have two deployed at a time! And they go away when you die anyways!
moar TSA whining but those damn safety's frustrate many soldiers
The safety on a claymore frustrates you? What are you, handicapped?
yea in the heat of the moment alotta guys squeeze-away before top shouts "safety" followed by "dumbfuck"
Good to know that the kid who was flipping burgers at the airport mickey D's the week before is so adept at spotting mine shaped objects in people's luggage. Maybe if they took a break from fondling 4 year olds and humiliating grandmas in wheelchairs ...
Why do you think they applied in the first place?