Monthly Archives: December 2004

Inside the TSA at MIA

This account of the goings-on at the MIA TSA branch, brought to you by the feisty local Miami New Times, is worse than not pretty. It's pretty ugly: allegations of theft from passengers' bags, sexual harassment (of other TSA employees), massive featherbedding, internal racism, and general incompetence.

Your Safety, Their Punch Line: Internal mistakes and misjudgments in day-to-day operations are even harder to root out, since the rare fool employee who might criticize, even constructively, is immediately dispatched. From the TSA's earliest days, screeners have complained of ongoing breaches of security at their workplaces, the result of improper inspection procedures. I know of several instances, both here and at other airports, in which the employees responsible for violations were never corrected or reprimanded. But the whistleblowers — who committed the unpardonable sin of not just telling the truth, but of telling the truth about bosses or co-workers — were fired. Some have also asserted that in the weeks leading up to their dismissals, their personnel files suddenly began bristling with fabricated documentation of inappropriate or illegal activities.

Repressing criticism might be a way of streamlining operations, but it conceals security problems that sooner or later, one way or another, will be revealed. Even the greenest screener at MIA knows that an alert terrorist would have little trouble slipping past a checkpoint. And passing through deadly objects? Child's play. That's partly because humans err, but also because TSA rewards those who can look efficient and do nothing, all the while punishing honesty and diligence, which can complicate things. I have to keep reminding myself: TSA management is motivated by priorities that have nothing to do with our job performance.

Teeming with sexual intrigue and power plays, TSA is more dating service than disciplined “security administration.” So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised this past week to hear a manager cryptically refer to some “investigation” of TSA employees who've allegedly been offering money to airline employees in exchange for “sexual favors,” or of the departure of two more top managers, Paul Diener and William Morrison, owing to allegations of sexual harassment.

One screener describes her checkpoint: “There's a group who's always standing around talking or going on breaks whenever it's their time to [do certain tasks]. So a few screeners end up doing everything. Whenever we complain to supervisors, they say, 'Oh yeah, I'll have to talk to him or her.' But then nothing changes. … Nobody complains anymore — we just have to accept it.”

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Posted in National Security | 1 Comment

US Reverses Unconstitutional Policy Making Editing A Crime

Crooked Timber: Editing Embargo Ends reports that the US has lifted its very likely unconstitutional rule prohibiting domestic editing of works by foreigners from embargoed nations. I wonder if it was the lawsuit or if this incident had anything to do with the sudden liberalization?

Posted in Civil Liberties | Comments Off on US Reverses Unconstitutional Policy Making Editing A Crime

The Greeks Had A Name For It

The Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman notices something important, then fails to call it by its name.

Changing for the Better — or Worse?. Throughout a two-day conference on the economy, President Bush and his allies extolled the virtues of his tax cuts and “pro-growth” policies, which they said have lifted the nation from recession and propelled it well above its international economic competitors. If Washington adheres to the path of fiscal restraint while following the president's tax prescriptions, it was suggested, policymakers could secure powerful economic growth far into the future.

Yet when the subject turned to the nation's legal or Social Security systems, the picture grew suddenly dark. Frivolous lawsuits have hobbled America's businesses and have put them at the mercy of their enlightened overseas competition, administration officials said. As for federal entitlements, a rising tide of retiring baby boomers will inevitably slow economic growth and bankrupt Social Security.

“The crisis is now,” Bush warned in his closing speech.

Such contradictions emerged repeatedly, pointing up the delicate balancing act that Bush faces as he tries to sell his economic proposals.

Sorry, Jonathan, but there's a name for political posturing that involves saying both 'A' and 'not-A' at the same time while trying to whip people up into supporting your political program..

Demagoguery.

Posted in Econ & Money | 2 Comments

CIA Has Secret Prison at Guantánamo

At Guantanamo, a Prison Within a Prison:

Within the heavily guarded perimeters of the Defense Department's much-discussed Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, the CIA has maintained a detention facility for valuable al Qaeda captives that has never been mentioned in public, according to military officials and several current and former intelligence officers.

But to the military's credit, they required the CIA to follow some of the most basic treaty obligations:

The U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay thus provided the CIA with an isolated venue devoid of the sensitive international politics. But it came with strings attached.

The U.S. military, which controls the base, required the agency to register all detainees, abide by military detention standards and permit the ICRC some level of access.

“If you're going to be in my back yard, you're going to have to abide by my rules” is how one defense official explained it.

Normally, as I've noted before, the evidence is that the CIA doesn't bother with the Geneva conventions, and indulges in “ghost detainees” and who knows what sort of physical and psychological pressure:

CIA detainees, by contrast, are held under separate rules and far greater secrecy. Under a presidential directive and authorities approved by administration lawyers, the CIA is allowed to capture and hold certain classes of suspects without accounting for them in any public way and without revealing the rules for their treatment.

You still have to wonder why exactly the CIA couldn't just lock these guys up at Langley? Is there any risk at all that they could get to a lawyer, or that if it did it would do them any good? Why does the CIA have to hold these guys abroad? Can there be any legitimate reason other than the desire to do things that our law would not allow? And if that is the reason, then I firmly believe it is an illegal motive. Our federal government is created by the Constitution. It has only those powers the constitution grants it. The power to act lawlessly abroad is not one of those powers. The Constitution constrains the CIA abroad just as it does domestically; if it's wrong for our agents to torture people here, it's equally wrong anywhere. And remember, they are formally our agents, We the People are formally their masters; what they do, my fellow citizens, they do in our names, more's the pity.

Posted in Guantanamo | 5 Comments

Croc II !

Seems like the capture of “Donna” (who turns out to have been a guy, hmm…) a few days ago isn't the end of UM's crocodile saga. Now there's a second croc in the lake at the center of campus: Crocodile hunt at lake proceeds. And, yes, rather than leave our top tourist attraction, those trappers are at it again:

Some students, passing by the scene, said they were sad to see yet another unofficial mascot on the lam from trappers. On Sunday, Hardwick bagged a nearly eight-foot male croc named “Donna” from the lake.

“I think they're probably safer here than they would be wherever they're taking them,” said Nadya Verier-Taylor, a freshman at the university.

“Nobody cared he was there until 15,000 news vans showed up. It isn't like anybody's dog's been eaten.”

Hardwick agreed UM really is a crocodile's paradise, with its calm, boat-free waters and ample food supply of Moscovy duck, turtles and fish but said relocating the scaly beast was in its own best interest.

“We wouldn't want him becoming someone's fraternity prank,” Hardwick said

Actually I think the croc may be smarter than me. UM is a great place to spend late December: warm, sunny, quiet (the students are mostly gone). Idillic, really.

But I'm leaving Saturday for Didsbury, which is at the south edge of Manchester in the UK. In December it's cold and wet and dark there. (AFAIK, no crocodiles, just family.)

Posted in U.Miami | Comments Off on Croc II !

Hair Today, Tenure Tomorrow

A study of 1800 male UK academics reveals that professors are twice as likely to have beards as lecturers:

Women in academia lose out by a whisker: While 10.5 per cent of lecturers were bewhiskered, the figure rose to 13.6 per cent for senior lecturers, 16.7 per cent for readers and 21.4 per cent for professors.

The study's authors suggest that whatever it is that makes departments like hairy faces may also contribute to discrimination against women:

One theory is that being unshorn makes men more likely to be appointed to professorships, as facial hair is linked with high testosterone and aggression.

Hmm. Does that mean that if I want to convince my students that I'm really just a pussy cat then I should shave my beard?

Posted in Completely Different, UK | 6 Comments