Apparently a bunch of people at the Transportation Security Administration were e-mailing each other about what a bad job they were doing. Not only were they infringing on people’s 4th amendment rights*, but they weren’t even doing a good job of keeping knitting needles and fingernail clippers off planes.
Turns out, since the TSA took over airport security in 2002 there have been more than 25,000 security breaches. Now that’s a small percentage when you take into account the billions of passengers the TSA has seen in that time; but it’s certainly not something they wanted everyone knowing about. I mean, they’ve got a reputation to keep up.
Unfortunately, their incompetence for travel security spilled over into online security and they didn’t realize they were sending this embarrassing information over an unsecure network. These e-mails were eventually leaked to the Associated Press and USA Today, who subsequently reported on how awful the TSA is.
When abs-enthusiast Jason Chaffetz mentioned these findings to the Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee over national security (of which he is the chairman) the TSA wasn’t too happy**. They complained by saying, “You weren’t supposed to see that” and “You’ve put American in danger; now we’re going to have to give everyone rectal exams at the terminal.”
It’s likely this revelation won’t change anything – other than the fact that, from now on, whenever Jason Chaffetz flies, he’s going to have his nuts nestled by some sweaty, overweight rent-a-cop. But it’s good to know that we’ve got at least one representative who is willing to take one for the team.
*That’s the one against unreasonable searches and seizures; and while most would agree a metal detector is reasonable, most would also agree that taking a picture of my dong or feeling up grandmas is unreasonable.
**Since no one reads newspapers anymore, they didn’t mind the initial coverage by the AP and USA Today.