Posted 6 months, 26 days ago in 
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I’m wondering if anyone is even aware of what’s happening at our airport.
The Transportation Security Administration, under Homeland Security, recently passed a “Threat Assessment Directive” that all personnel who enter the airfield must have a badge. In order to get a badge, they must register with the TSA, first having fingerprints done and then having a background check performed and then attending classes. All of this comes at a substantial cost, several hundred dollars per person.
They’ve created a whole new bureaucracy in order to accommodate the new rule, since there aren’t even close to enough personnel at the airport to handle this tidal wave of new work. When I asked what the imminent threat was, all of a sudden here at Walker Field, no one can answer that question. Homeland Security didn’t give a reason.
It was passed in Washington without anyone having any say in the matter since it fell under the clause of “directive.” The cost of this will be staggering. Unfortunately, this will affect all pilots in Grand Junction as well. They won’t be able to get to their planes or their hangars without these badges and, as it sits right now, everyone will have to repeat the process of obtaining these “badges” for each and every airport where they land their plane. Sounds unbelievable but it is true.
I hope that if enough people learn what the TSA is doing, maybe they will answer some questions as to why they’re doing it.
ED ROFFEY
Grand Junction
4 Responses to “New TSA rule create new bureaucracy”
Posted April 29th, 2009 at 9:29 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
Next thing you know, you won’t be able to get a badge if you went to T-party and extra vetting might be required if you are ex-military.
Posted April 29th, 2009 at 9:57 pm Login to Send PM Report this comment
windance,
good theory, i also think it is another government ploy to destroy all private enterprises. can you just imagine an airline owned and operated by the US government? it would rival aeroflot, the russian government owned and operated airline. always ranks at the bottom of the world’s airlines.
Posted April 30th, 2009 at 11:34 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
Hold on, one and Oliver…..
What happened to the exaggerated paranoia about the Patriot Act allegedly allowing the “gubmint” to spy on every US citizen’s private activities with no cause whatsoever? Who was it that fomented THAT paranoia? It was the ACLU’s gross misinterpretation of some of the provisions of the PA.
Not to say we all shouldn’t have been concerned, but the first thing we need to be concerned about is accuracy in the media before making up our minds about anything.
For example (from the PA):
“Section 215 amended the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act so that the relevant provision of that act
now reads:”
……
“(2) An investigation conducted under this section shall
(A) be conducted under guidelines approved by
the Attorney General under Executive
Order 12333 (or a successor order); and
(B) NOT be conducted of a United States person
solely upon the basis of activities protected
by the first amendment to the Constitution
of the United States.”
But, in 2003, the ACLU claimed it says the exact opposite:
“People who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents can be investigated solely because of their First Amendment activity – e.g., because they wrote a letter to the editor criticizing government policy, or because they participated in a particular political rally. U.S. citizens and permanent residents can be investigated in part on the basis of their First Amendment activity.”
And in that same report, the ACLU says:
“As it has done in the past, the FBI is once
again targeting ethnic, political, and religious
minority communities disproportionately”
But….. where has the ACLU been since Homeland Security issued the recent “Threat Assessment” targeting our own military vets, people who speak out against abortion and those who simply want our immigration laws enforced and don’t like the idea of easy Amnesty?
OK… I’m absolutely not saying that government intrusion into our private lives can’t or doesn’t threaten our freedoms. But I think much of the hoopla is always politically motivated on both sides of the aisle - and we’re fools if we let the media alienate us from our own neighbors. All of us “common folk” need to take a serious look at how we’re being divided and manipulated by the power agendas of politicians and political groups at both ends of the political spectrum. The deep divisions and misplaced blind trust that is created are evident in our own tiny corner of the universe.
Oliver - Contrary to the outright lies that have been floated about the “tea parties” by our far-Left politicians and the far-Left mainstream media, they were NOT attended only by far-Right radicals. Let’s get real. Was there one single report of the kind of violence that is commonplace “protest” on college campuses these days? In any of the reports, there was not one shred of evidence to support the claim of racism as “reported” on MSNBC. Strangely, the mainstream media also did NOT report police donning riot gear to face some very real violence during the protests of illegal immigrants — where many protesters unabashedly carried forward the theme of “Mexican Reconquista” (not a good thing!). Or, did the MSM report about the man that was stabbed by the shaft of a Mexican flag during the same angry protest in CA? During the Tea Parties though, the most “violence” that existed was anger towards a biased and angry CNN reporter pushing her way through the peaceful crowd looking for trouble that wasn’t there. And when their wasn’t anything to report, she still reported that her report wasn’t “fit for family viewing”. It sure wasn’t, but not because of the Tea Party.
So, how odd is it that just because we now have a different political Party in charge, the charges of “paranoia” have reversed? Wake up people. Are we to believe media bias and lies or our own observations? Nothing has changed except which extreme is getting the most positive or negative air time. Government is becoming more and more intrusive. It didn’t start with Bush and it didn’t end with Obama. Let’s not let the media and the extremes dictate over our own common sense. We’re all in this together.
Posted April 30th, 2009 at 11:49 am Login to Send PM Report this comment
Experimental Aircraft Association “EAA” Continues to Fight TSA Airport Security Directive April 23, 2009 — The June 1 implementation deadline for the controversial TSA Security Directive 1542-08F looms with no firm indication that TSA will adjust its position in response to protests and concerns from EAA and other general aviation groups.
The directive would:
* apply only to airports that have commercial airline service, even those that have only a handful of airline operations per week and those where commercial and general aviation operations are already well-segregated;
* institute background checks and require I.D. badges for all aircraft operators, passengers, and related personnel based at these airports, including general aviation airport users;
* require anyone who does not have an airport-issued I.D. to have an authorized escort, even at airports that are sparsely staffed; and
* leave specific implementation methods and details to each respective airport, resulting in a lack of standardization of airport-security policies, procedures, and protocols.
http://www.eaa.org/news/2009/2009-04-23_tsa.asp
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