TSA Demands Bizarre New Power To Test Drinks Purchased In Airports

Source
And from original,
KJCT8

In a bizarre and insufficiently explained expansion of the TSA’s power, the federal agency is now demanding the right to test drinks purchased by passengers after they have already passed through airport security.
“Passengers say their problem is not with the rules at the airport. They understand why drinks are not allowed through security, but when they buy one while they wait for their flight, they say the TSA should not ask to test it,” reports KJCT8.

Mothers are forced to drink their own breast milk in a procedure that seems to be designed to achieve little else than humiliating the traveler.
In one incident earlier this year, working mother Amy Strand was even made to pump breast milk into empty feeding bottles before being allowed through security.

Ok, if you didn;t think the personal 'reach-arounds' and organ-penetrating radiation from the body scanners wasn't enough, now this!?

I understand not bringing a drink through the security gate, but the drinks you buy afterwards?! They are potentially to be randomly tested?!

from KJCT8,

We asked the TSA about the drink testings and they said, "TSA employees have many layers of security throughout airports. Passengers may be randomly selected for additional screening measures at the checkpoint or in the gate at any time."

Passengers we spoke to also said they think the price of drinks are too expensive. If security is going to test them, it should be before they are purchased, so they do not waste their money

True! How much of a sample?! WHY are they testing it? for what? What rules are in place for pre-testing? This is ridiculous! Ugh.... yay for Freedom in America.. ha!

Thoughts?!

Best solution for this is to cease all travel for a couple of years. Nobody goes anywhere, end of story. No airlines anymore, no jobs for all of those in the travel industry. Foreign tourism, zilch. The TSA would back off entirely by then. The entire business world would demand it.

But as long as people are willing to be taken up the backside, it will continue.

I noticed a lot of TSA aren't playing along anymore, they are even turning off the metal detectors. They see the writing on the wall and have stopped harassing people as much as they used too. This new power grab isn't going to do anything when TSA personnel ignore it.

That's just crazy!!!!

after recently having to endure stupid TSA procedures, this seems beyond stupid. TSA needs to work on fine tuning their current procedures before implementing any more stupid rules.

my experience had to do with the xray machine thing they make you stand with your arms over your head to take that almost nude pic...so I faced the humilation of doing it with the instructions of the TSA guy to move my necklaces to the back of my neck so the charms are on my back because it might affect my results, only to have the machine question why my chains were on the back of my neck which then required me to go thru a pat down.... when I had requested a pat down instead of the machine initially, they said they didn't have a female readily available and I would be holding up the line, yet they found a female to pat me down immediately after the machine signal something was wrong because of the first agents instructions to move my necklaces. Yet going up to NY, the agents in FLL didn't give any such instructions and i passed thru perfectly fine. Seems there are one too many chefs in the kitchens when it comes to the TSA, left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing in that org!!

Who's going to stop them?

Everybody has already expressed out RAGE to no avail. It's going on deaf ears. We have no voice.

I travel a little bit.
Different Airports seem to have different attitudes towards US the traveler and consumer.


Reno TSA are great. No problems.

Denver
Phoenix
Vegas

Not so nice.

If they want to test the drinks then they should test random samples from machines BEFORE they are purchased by consumers.
TSA is out of control. They have less restraint and training than mall rent-a-cops and are more power hungry than the Schutzstaffel.

This has absolutely nothing to do with airline safety, and everything to do with control.

reply to post by niceguybob


I think it's less of a question as to who will stop them and more to do with what procedures must be taken to dissolve the TSA from existence.

The TSA has failed to adequately defend anyone and has caused great implicit costs on the side of the consumer in terms of air travel. Private security tends to perform far better than the TSA and at a much lower implicit cost to the consumer. The TSA was created as a knee-jerk reaction to the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The security of airline passengers should be a private concern of the airlines, not a government agency. If the airline fails to protect it's passengers heads are going to roll and the airline itself could potentially lose a LOT of business. If the TSA fails to protect passengers there really isn't a consequence due to the government's scope of power and bottomless funding.

Maybe some elected representative somewhere will begin the process to remove the TSA someday. Until then we are stuck with the TSA.

maybe there just thirsty,, it is hot out and they are working for u,, hey ,,everyone just by two of everything,,
then, u can all ,,200 plus people,, just, give the poor TSA guy who asks too test someones drink,, well , u can all rush over and say,, hey i bought this for u in case maybe u were thisty or something,,
yup,, two hundred slurrpys,, at the guys feet,,,
ohh might want too test them as well,, ,,before u leave the scene,,,well would be considered littering,, by the TSA guy,, there his slurrpys,, right.

Mothers are forced to drink their own breast milk in a procedure that seems to be designed to achieve little else than humiliating the traveler.

This stood out to me. Can this be? It can't be real...

My view is that the TSA, along with other Counterterrorism agencies within the US are truly incompetent, ineffective and a big waste of money. The leading terrorist organization within this country is the Animal Liberation Front, for crying out loud! Bet you didn't know that - It's all a big farce, yet not funny at all.

9/11 and the other isolated "Underware/Shoebomber" incidents continue to be hung over our heads and drummed into our ears, and it appears there's no end in sight. With a lack of attempted hijackings or other airport security related crimes since, it's a wonder what is driving them to increase their stranglehold on us in our airports.

The TSA and their over the top procedures may be partly to blame for the mental breakdown of flight crew members as of late. I wonder if the idiocy of it all played some role leading up to the JetBlue Airways Captain who went on a tirade about terrorists recently. I'd love to have a conversation with him about that.

S&F - If the above quote is in fact true, we have a serious problem. I dare not ask how much worse it can get.

If the TSA wants to randomly test your drink, then spill it on them first.... It's your drink, you paid for it!

Damn TSA Nazis..... I'll never fly... These bullies need to leave your drinks, and your junk alone..

What they do to people everyday is wrong on so many levels, I can't get the William Shatner TSA episode out of my head...

I have just downloaded a copy of the TSA screening procedures for reading later. I want to understand their logic and how they are meant to apply it to security. Maybe I can work out why they keep getting so much heat from the public.

Just came across The Identity Project webpage which is full of useful articles concerning the TSA.

We had a chance to ask some questions (starting at 55:00 of the video, although the entire panel is worth watching) of the TSA’s Chief Privacy Officer, Peter Pietra, when he showed up at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference to talk about the SPOT program, under which roving teams of TSA agents watch people in airports for a (secret, of course) checklist of “suspicious” behavior, question some of those people, and finger some of them for more intrusive search or further questioning when they reach the “screening” checkpoints. Papers, Please!

like i've said before, the only way this will stop is if people tell the air travel companies they refuse to fly due to the TSA.
or we tell our government we will refuse to fly until they get rid of the TSA. that is the only way they will do it, when it becomes too much of a problem for them to justify financially.

there is no way to justify getting rid of the TSA because it doesn't work, there hasn't been enough cases of terrorists getting through to make that argument.
there have been two cases the underwear bomber and the shoe bomber, they just made the searches worse. every other attempt has been domestic.

reply to post by Nspekta


I had this happen to me on my last business trip. I bought a bottled water along with my $9 basic sandwich. As I was boarding I was stopped because they wanted to test my half drank bottle. They put a chemical on a little tab of paper and waved it just above the opening of my drink. The woman who held the bottle as a guy waved the wand had been hanging around the gate and saw me eating my sandwich and drinking my drink. Stupid woman can't figure out that the drink was ridiculous to test as I'd been drinking it to no ill effect?

I chalked it as just another reason among many to hate what we have allowed this country has become.

The Atlanta TSA , Denver and even Vegas airports were pretty cool this year...BUT Orlando,,forget it...they suck. They searches a skinny yoga lady with stretch clothes on,,she couldnta hid a pack of smokes much less one smoke..They made her strip too she said later,,,I told her it was BS,,the TSA lady was being a b**ch ....But for me, I am highly turned on by humiliation and being forced to strip because im an exhibitionist,so I get off on it and put metal in my pants.But I can see how its against our rights and most would hate it.....LOL....

So, what kind of vapors are they testing for, that someone would drink?

Do they think that the terrorists are taking some sort of drug to give them "Dutch courage" right before they go postal?

I read someone on another site saying that TSA was "swabbing the drink container."

If so, then that sounds like they are getting people's DNA.....

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION

It is just a "test" to see what the TSA can get away with. The more inane, personal-space invading, intrusive acts against persons privacy that they can get away with, the more "normal" it'll all seem when they're doing it at malls, ball games, or your childs soccer matches.

reply to post by beezzer


How will any of that ever seem normal to anyone? The very idea of it seems more like it was lifted from the pages of some dystopian novel from early last century rather than something that people are actually supposed to tolerate. It's a very sick and twisted mind that could even conceive of such a thing. It's a very weak and malleable public that could accept any further reduction of personal freedom for any reason whatsoever. This game has to end somewhere. For my part, the line was drawn long ago.

reply to post by CosmicEgg
Perhaps for you. But there are millions that travel by air and see nothing wrong with what the TSA is doing.

reply to post by beezzer


The mind boggles. Surely we all remember a time when we were reasonably sovereign people. Surely we can envision a time when we will live like civilized beings.

I must say, I'm embarrassed for us all. We're quite stupid creatures, aren't we?

Things much change.

reply to post by CosmicEgg
Many are apparetly frogs.

And the water temp is About 200F right now.