NOT THE SHARPEST KNIVES IN THE DRAWER: TSA Truthiness
Earlier this week, New York Times columnist Stanley Fish explored the distinction between “the true answer and the right answer,” concluding that “[t]The right answer is the answer a system invested in its own machinery will recognize no matter what the true facts may be.”
Here is the perfect illustration of his point: When The Times asked TSA spokesperson James Fotenos to explain how 8-year-old Mikey Hicks got onto the “selectee” list at the age of 2, he answered, “there are no children on the no-fly or selectee lists.” Here are the facts, according to The Times:
The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried.
After years of long delays and waits for supervisors at every airport ticket counter, this year’s vacation to the Bahamas badly shook up the family. Mikey was frisked on the way there, then more aggressively on the way home.
“Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch - someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal,” Mrs. Hicks recounted. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked.”
It is true that Mikey is not on the federal government’s “no-fly” list, which includes about 2,500 people, less than 10 percent of them from the United States. But his name appears to be among some 13,500 on the larger “selectee” list, which sets off a high level of security screening. …
Both lists are maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center, which includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They are given to the Transportation Security Administration, which in turn sends them to the airlines.
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