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xrd an hour ago

What's to prevent terrorists from going through TSA, waiting in the scanning line when everyone is still going through, and then planting a bluetooth device into someone else's bag? I never open my carryon once I have packed it.

This reminds me of the SNL sketch where TSA employees had no answer for someone bringing two separate bottles of 3.9 ounces onto the plane.

I'm sure Sean Duffy, of Real World and now Sec of Transportation, will fix this.

rayiner an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Nothing. TSA is a joke. At first, the security theater arguably had a legitimate psychological purpose. The airline industry nearly collapsed after 9/11 because people were so scared of filing. But that was a generation ago—the psychological trauma in the aftermath of 9/11 dissipated ago. But we’re still stuck with the TSA because in the meantime it turned into a massive jobs program.

We’d be better off spending TSA’s $8 billion budget on paying people to dig holes and fill them back in.

LPisGood 31 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

People accidentally sneak weapons through TSA all the time.

There are many anecdotal examples out there. More scientifically, they had a horrific detection rate in some audits.

umvi an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Seems like an effective DoS attack - ground all planes in the US by sneaking cheap bluetooth speakers into people's luggage with provacative device names

jacobrast an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why would a terrorist want to plant a Bluetooth device on someone else's bag when all it would accomplish is a minor delay of one flight and would result in a prison sentence after security camera review??

philistine 31 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Remember: Kim Jong-Un’s brother was not killed directly by North Korean goons. They hired two women they convinced they were working on a prank show to spray him with the poisons.

You’d do something like that.

Retric an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Why stop at one bag for one flight?

> would result in a prison sentence

That doesn’t seem like a significant deterrent here.

stouset 33 minutes ago | parent [-]

This is the type of prank you’d see some idiot do to try and get followers on TikTok, not something a terrorist would bother with.

Kye 22 minutes ago | parent [-]

You sure about that?

>> "All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies."

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/11/continuing-anxi...

stouset 10 minutes ago | parent [-]

They were bragging that they could provoke this type of response as a result of having flown two planes into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon, killing thousands, and causing fear, panic, and self-sabotaging outsized reactions like pouring trillions into wars that accomplish nothing.

Getting a dozen of their operatives arrested for an idiotic prank that just resulted in a handful of planes being turned around would make them a laughingstock overnight.

I am baffled that we are even having this argument.

stouset 39 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If you’re a terrorist, I’m pretty sure you can think of dramatically more consequential things to do than cause a handful of planes to potentially divert. That’s a wildly pointless prank for something that will invariably wind up with you being arrested.

Why do that when you could simply attack people waiting in the security line? That would actually cause terror and shut down an entire airport for days.

goda90 24 minutes ago | parent [-]

A saboteur might want to cause disruption without violence against people, and such cases would still likely be labeled terrorism.

stouset 4 minutes ago | parent [-]

Only because we have labeled anything and everything terrorism these days.

Even then this is an extremely lame and ineffective form of sabotage, compared to the kind of prison sentence you’d be risking.

hackyhacky 43 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is the SNL sketch in question: https://www.tiktok.com/@hamtelevision/video/7276358099089231...

lazide an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The same thing that is stopping them from suicide bombing the super crowded security checkpoint line before ID checks.

Nothing really.

bdcravens an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Or going into the baggage claim area with a bag containing an explosive device, then acting like they grabbed the wrong bag and putting it back on the carousel, and then leaving.

bruce511 an hour ago | parent [-]

As an aside, this is something I've only seen in the US. At least in my country the domestic baggage claim area is not accessible unless from an arriving aircraft.

I'm guessing that has more to do with theft though than security.

thrownthatway 27 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Do people collect their bags from the baggage claim area and then immediately reboard an aircraft to exit the terminal?

How do the arrivals exist the terminal

Are you not allowed to have a friend who is picking you up assist with baggage claim?

lazide 9 minutes ago | parent [-]

often baggage pickup is on the terminal side of the ‘one way exit’.

hvb2 36 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

No, that's because in the US they're handling the international flights separately. It's also the reason why even when you have a layover, you need to clear customs.

Domestic flights in the US are like busses/trains elsewhere. Most people fly without a checked bag

thrownthatway 26 minutes ago | parent [-]

> Domestic flights in the US are like busses/trains elsewhere. Most people fly without a checked bag

That sounds like bullshit to me.

monkeywork 4 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I don't know if we are the level of "most people" but I'd say we are defintely at a "signficant percentage of ppl". Due to cost of checked luggage the popularity of one bag carry on flying has exploded.

objclxt 3 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

> That sounds like bullshit to me.

Have you taken a US domestic flight? Everyone wants to bring their massive roll-ons into the cabin, nobody wants to check if they can avoid it.

mysterydip an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

We need to put a checkpoint before the checkpoint so that never happens!

datadrivenangel 44 minutes ago | parent [-]

In Uganda they make you get out of your car and go through a metal detector before getting to the pre-security security screening at the actual airport... 3-4 layers...

koolba an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

> What's to prevent terrorists from going through TSA, waiting in the scanning line when everyone is still going through, and then planting a bluetooth device into someone else's bag? I never open my carryon once I have packed it.

I make it a point to hold up the whole line until it is my turn to go through the xray. It gets fun when they mandate a pat down in lieu of the millimeter wave scanner but refuse to have someone available for it.

It’s the only way to honestly say you have kept your bags under watch. If anybody tries to send in my bags without me , I immediately speak up in a loud stern voice, “That is not your bag!”

stouset 27 minutes ago | parent [-]

I’m not saying this as an ad hominem and simply to throw insults, but with the hopes that it will encourage you to change your behavior.

The only thing this accomplishes is making you the kind of asshole who interferes with other people that are just trying to make their flight on time. You are not highlighting flaws in the security system. You are not taking a principled ethical stance against tyranny. You are just acting like an asshole for the sake of being an asshole and making life just a little bit worse for everyone else around you.

This is not something to brag about. This is something to be ashamed of.