What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
[guest post by JVW]
I took a quick check in the Patterico’s Pontifications archives and I don’t think we discussed this story when it broke back in June. As a follow-up to the story that Patterico reported on concerning TSA agents enjoying a pathetic 5% success rate in detecting weapons and bombs, a week later we learned that the TSA employed 73 “aviation workers” whose names also appeared on a terrorism watchlist, despite having supposedly put the workers through what we were assured was a rigorous screening process.
Remember that the next time some preening progressive tells you that you are being bigoted in not wanting, ahem, “Syrian” refugees to start making their way into this country because you do not trust our federal bureaucracy to have the wit or the will to properly screen them. I mean if they can’t even successfully screen government workers who already have social security numbers and green cards and who will be working in sensitive security situations, why should we think that they will do anything more than the most cursory and incomplete check on Tariq and Youssef coming in from Aleppo?
CORRECTION: The Newsweek article, to which the American Spectator story links, provides a bit more context. Apparently not all (or maybe even any) of the workers who were not properly screened were TSA agents, many of them were employees of the airport vendors and airlines, such as ground workers, bartenders, food workers, etc. Nevertheless, the TSA was charged with vetting these workers and they clearly failed in that task, so the main point of my post stands. I have made a slight edit in the second paragraph to make this clear.
– JVW
Now, off to high school football.
JVW (738b08) — 11/20/2015 @ 6:10 pmHope your team wins.
mg (31009b) — 11/20/2015 @ 6:47 pmMortis is a kind of rigor…
CayleyGraph (353727) — 11/20/2015 @ 7:13 pmWell, my name was on a watch list for a while. Of course about 1000 other people in the US have the same name and they had the same problem. There’s a difference between having your name on the watch list and being on the watch list.
That being said, if 73 known terrorists were actually working at airports, TSA’s management should be hanged.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 11/20/2015 @ 7:15 pmKevin M – I’ll build the gallows, if a sturdy oak branch is not handy.
mg (31009b) — 11/20/2015 @ 7:52 pmI went through the TSA screening today and it is the same joke.
Mike K (41cd72) — 11/20/2015 @ 7:56 pmKevin, if one in one thousand sharing your name is a terrorist, then the chance that there are no terrorists in a group of 73 (each having 1/1000 of chance of being a terrorist) is (1 – 0.001)^73,
which is: 0.929567
So the odds are in your favor that everything is just fine. Of course, in this Gang of 73 there could be one or more terrorists with a probability of 0.070433. And more is worse than one, just as an Obama-Kerry-Clinton is worse that an Obama.
But your WAG of 0.001 could be a little off. If the odds of someone being a terrorist whose name is in the database is 1 in 100, then the chance of there being no terrorist in the Gang of 73 is 0.99^73,
which is: 0.480141
So, are you feeling lucky??
I haven’t felt lucky since Nov. 4, 2008.
BobStewartatHome (a52abe) — 11/20/2015 @ 8:48 pmIf you happen to share the first and last name of an IRA terrorist, your name is on the list. This is not uncommon among Americans with British or Irish heritage.
NickM (63e1a7) — 11/20/2015 @ 8:59 pmKeep in mind that the point of my post isn’t that these people’s name were on a watcblist, it’s that the TSA hired them without knowing that their names were on a list. As Kevin M points out, it’s pretty easy for a regular citizen to accidentally find themselves on the list. If memory serves, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy ended up on the TSA don’t fly list (and not because of his own faults, just because there was an IRA dude by the name of Edward Kennedy as well). But if TSA isn’t carefully screening the government’s own damn lists when hiring airport personnel, why should we believe that Homeland Security will carefully screen the folks who come in from the chaos of Syria?
JVW (738b08) — 11/20/2015 @ 9:40 pmCORRECTION: The Newsweek article, to which the American Spectator story links, provides a bit more context. Apparently not all (or maybe even any) of the workers who were not properly screened were TSA agents, many of them were employees of the airport vendors and airlines, such as ground workers, bartenders, food workers, etc. Nevertheless, the TSA was charged with vetting these workers and they clearly failed in that task, so the main point of my post stands. I have made a slight edit in the second paragraph to make this clear.
JVW (738b08) — 11/20/2015 @ 9:51 pmRemember that the next time some preening progressive tells you that you are being bigoted in not wanting, ahem, “Syrian” refugees to start making their way into this country because you do not trust our federal bureaucracy to have the wit or the will to properly screen them.
The problem isn’t just insufficient screening of specific immigrants. Most of the Paris terrorists were French or Belgian nationals. How do you screen for “disproportionately likely to have children who hate the host country with murderous intensity?”
scrutineer (b7d257) — 11/20/2015 @ 10:34 pmBesides screening these muslums, can we introduce them to a bar of soap and a box of tide?
mg (31009b) — 11/21/2015 @ 2:24 amTSA doesnt protect us from Terrorism
Gil (4e1585) — 11/21/2015 @ 3:42 amYou start by not letting them in your country to begin with.
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 11/21/2015 @ 4:30 amBTW, the reason the Paris terrorists were French and Belgian nationals is because sometime earlier moslems were welcomed in and immediately began recruiting locals as the Koran dictates. Surprised? I’m not they are doing it here. What percent do you think of African Americans who do prison time are released as moslems?
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 11/21/2015 @ 4:41 amRev – 7o% back in the 70’s. and a no pork diet.
mg (31009b) — 11/21/2015 @ 4:54 amEyewitness.
Probably 90% today.
mg, I have a friend who is a pretty high up muckedy-muck in the federal system and his numbers are akin to yours so……. He also told me they make the guards cover all crosses in the chapel and have large inmates posted outside the chapel during their services as “guards”. God knows what they’re guarding. Plus they demand separate eating areas and halal food.
My friend told me the best recruiting centers moslems have outside mosques in America are the prisons. He said: “Young blacks enter pissed off at the world, feeling injustice, hating whites, hating America and leave newly minted moslem extremists who hate whites, hate America and are pissed off at the world. But now they’re organized and are part of a movement to kill their enemies.”
They say the children are the future…..God help us. After the Paris attack I watched some stupid, idiotic Asian/Frenchman telling his young son “the flowers, and drawings and peace signs and candles will protect them”. Meanwhile, in Syria a father has his kid dressed in fatigues and is learning to use a Kalashnikov. Our college age kids need “safe spaces” while their 10 year olds learn warfare. But we don’t need no stinkin’ screening!
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:04 amFrance’s Muslims come from its former colonies — Algeria, Morocco, Mali, Congo, Syria, Lebanon, and others — just like England’s terrorists come from its former colonies, predominantly Ireland and Pakistan.
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:19 am7. “I haven’t felt lucky since Nov. 4, 2008.”
I haven’t been lucky in so long I just bank it all now on being blessed, walk off grand slam or nothing.
DNF (755a85) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:26 amWhat is the significance of your observation, nk?
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:26 amYou could substitute nigeria, for ireland,
narciso (a1aef7) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:32 amBrussels is <a href="https://pjmedia.com/trending/2015/11/21/brussels-on-lockdown-because-of-serious-evidence-of-impending-terror-attack-2“>currently in lockdown as an “event” is expected. I was there in September and had to ride the subway because the taxi drivers were on strike. The subway is now also closed.
Has anyone been around TSA “workers” when they are off duty ? My previous office was a block from Orange County Airport and the TSA office was in the building. There was a little cafe in an area outside the office building and the owner finally sold out because the TSA workers crowded around his tables, smoking and never bought anything. They are minimum wage types and no story of their ineptitude surprises me. They drove him out of business. Nobody wanted to be around them.
Mike K (41cd72) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:36 amI don’t know what happened with that link.
Mike K (41cd72) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:37 amLeft out a tag, that’s why I prefer open link
narciso (a1aef7) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:41 amSo, if we have ground workers who are not screened, the chance of a repeat of the Russian plane is higher than we would like to think, I guess.
MD in Philly (not in Philly, and out and about) (deca84) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:43 amI’m not sure if I would want to take a plane out of any predominantly Muslim country.
That both France and England were stuck with their former subjects analogously to how we’re stuck with our Black Muslims; it’s not altogether a question of indifferent immigration policies such as that which gave us the Tsarnaevs and the Fort Dix Albanians.
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:46 amChickens coming home to roost and laying eggs that go “Boom”?
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:49 amThe West will be be doomed until birth rates dramatically increase. It may already be too late.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/21/2015 @ 6:54 amPerhaps, but their former subjects started out moslems, ours were Christians until prison. Ours are being brain-washed, propagandized and converted right under our noses with they the willing help of the federal prison system.
Either way, understanding that terrorism is not always from immigrants is why I keep asking why are there moslems here at all? What could an Islamist who believes in theocratic dictatorship possibly want in the United States and what possible use could a moslem who does not believe in a constitutional republic be to us?
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 11/21/2015 @ 7:08 amOurs are being brain-washed, propagandized and converted right under our noses with they the willing help of the federal prison system.
Yes, the black prison population, which is now being released to the streets, is about 80% Muslim now.
Mike K (41cd72) — 11/21/2015 @ 7:24 amThe RFRA is responsible for that. There’s nothing the prisons can do to prevent it. And Muslim ministry is like Gunny Hartman, very kick-ass, that gets through and sticks to young anti-socials.
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2015 @ 7:34 amNo it’s not. Stop parroting nonsense. The system was bending over backwards to kiss moslem butt long before the RFRA was even thought of.
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 11/21/2015 @ 8:17 amJust how many prisoners have you represented in how many prisons, Hoagie?
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2015 @ 8:25 amMalcolm X gets some credit/blame, too.
DRJ (15874d) — 11/21/2015 @ 10:19 amthe RFRA was a brainchild of chuck schumer and Ted Kennedy that perverted lifeydoodle social con trailer parkers embraced cause of it validated their deranged and hypertrophied sense of victimhood
happyfeet (831175) — 11/21/2015 @ 10:46 amneed for victimhood
happyfeet (831175) — 11/21/2015 @ 10:47 ama craving
a hunger
a void that cannot be filled
happyfeet (831175) — 11/21/2015 @ 10:47 ama need for to assert that yes yes ye4s the whole world thinks I’m trash and I need special laws i need them now on christ the solid rock i stand praise chuck schumer he’s His right hand
happyfeet (831175) — 11/21/2015 @ 10:49 amoops *yes* i mean it is not opposed to be alphanumeric
happyfeet (831175) — 11/21/2015 @ 10:50 amThey intended it so hippies could call themselves Indians and smoke mushrooms and call it communion, but God is not mocked. His followers put it to good purposes in Hobby Lobby and many other cases and, as a bonus, it gave Ginzburg conniptions she hadn’t felt since Reagan was elected.
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2015 @ 10:52 amhappyfeet, let’s be honest. You are one of the reasons religious people need the First Amendment and RFRAs.
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2015 @ 10:54 amWhat could an Islamist who believes in theocratic dictatorship possibly want in the United States
The profile of the woman who blew herself up in Paris is very disturbing because, at a glance, she apparently was more of a party girl into serial dating with no signs of being a fan of devout Islamism. Weird things are going on out there, are floating in the air like a noxious cloud.
I see the following results and in my case I have the same impression towards not just the US in 2015 but to the human species in general:
Mark (f713e4) — 11/21/2015 @ 10:56 amThe greatest strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.
Adolph Hitler
ropelight (f5f873) — 11/21/2015 @ 11:02 amnonono is not true
that hurts my feelings Mr. nk
it is hyperbole!
i need to get on a train for to assuage this hurtfulness
a train to the loop where i can go to Toni Patisserie & Cafe
why you ask?
cause of it is here you can find happyfeet’s official hot chocolate of the 2016 red cup season! it’s a gorgeously cinnamonny nutella hot chocolate with a splash of hennessy!
and it is very special
happyfeet (831175) — 11/21/2015 @ 11:03 amWell, when push comes to shove you say:
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2015 @ 11:10 amShut up about your God and let Obamacare force those nuns to pay for abortifacients!
Shut up about your God and make Kim Davis issue those Ogergefells!
Shut up about your God and make those bakers bake a cake for an Obergefell.
No, no, no?
This is interesting. My spellchecker tells me that abortifacient is not a word. And it’s done it with paraphilia, too. On both IE and Firefox. I guess they trigger the coders at Silicon Valley?
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2015 @ 11:14 amthat is not true about the nuns what i said about the nuns is boohoo stupid nuns
the socialist catholic church and its sleazy pope all had a huge hardon for some of the most vile and coercive parts of obamacare
petards and hoistings!
but I never ever said a law should be passed for to make the stupid nuns pay for anything
Kim Davis is a nepotistic sleazy bigot – I think she should be voted out of office and her momo-bigot son should be subsequently fired
that’s just good public policy
i also think she’s dishonest to the core and i think her nasty unkempt hillbilly lady parts got super moist in anticipation of her martyrdom for trailer park jesus
i think bigoty bakers should mostly be in the business of selling cakes and such to other bigots – I never said anyone should do laws on their heads
my goodness i work out extra hard somedays just for so I can have a chi fila a chicken biscuit for breakfast
ok two chicken biscuits
happyfeet (831175) — 11/21/2015 @ 11:18 amabortifacient is for sure a word it’s like picklebunny
happyfeet (831175) — 11/21/2015 @ 11:18 am*chik* fila a chicken biscuit i mean
happyfeet (831175) — 11/21/2015 @ 11:19 amWell, ok, then. Watch yourself on those wet sidewalks and el platforms.
nk (dbc370) — 11/21/2015 @ 11:25 amyes yes they’re treacherous
i almost bit it just once last year
coming down from the brown at state and lake
but i’d lapsed into complacency and was not placing my feets with care and attentiveness
but it coulda been a bad bad day
happyfeet (831175) — 11/21/2015 @ 11:32 amours were Christians until prison
I believe at most there was a veneer of Christianity
First of all, I can’t believe that that many people who knew Jesus loved them and loved Him back would end up in prison;
and I can’t believe that many people who knew Jesus loved them and loved Him back would fall to the deception of Islam, a system of belief about as contradictory to Christianity as one can be.
Christianity is about people being unable to earn God’s approval but are awestruck by His mercy and become obedient by His help and power,
Islam says one can earn acceptance by God by doing various tasks, none of major ones apparently having much to do with love or self-sacrifice, and that one can bypass those deeds by killing people and dying while doing it.
Christianity at the heart of its message would lead one to die for others,
Islam, of at least one significant variety, leads one to make others die.
FWIW, in the days of its origin, the Nation of Islam “Black Muslims” were significantly different from the “traditional” variety (but then maybe not), and Malcolm X was killed because he stood against the leadership.
MD in Philly (not in Philly at the moment) (deca84) — 11/21/2015 @ 11:53 amI guess one could say that Malcolm became a “moderate” Muslim, denouncing violence and child brides, which brought him into conflict with the the established leadership.
Krugman’s from last week says it best –
Republicans are playing into the terrorist hands by creating additional fear by calling fro greater security measures – In reality this is a manageable problem, after all only 130 people were killed in Paris out of 50million people in all of France.
joe (debac0) — 11/21/2015 @ 12:03 pmIt’s like saying only a few cancer cells can’t cause that much trouble, it is too much bother to go after them.
MD in Philly (not in Philly at the moment) (deca84) — 11/21/2015 @ 12:11 pmWait until the situation is out of control to do something.
“What percent do you think of African Americans who do prison time are released as moslems?”
– Hoagie
One more group for Trump to deport, amirite?
Trump 2016
Leviticus (73e577) — 11/21/2015 @ 2:04 pmThe National Rifle Association takes the position that there are many people whose names are on the terrorism watch list who shouldn’t be on it, and therefore it should not be used to deny any person the right to buy a gun.
They are actually correct.
Sammy Finkelman (4d9cfa) — 11/23/2015 @ 5:55 pm