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July 19, 2004 Homeland Security I was pleased and then astonished to receive your letter of June 14th regarding the International Narcotics Interdiction Association’s position paper regarding terrorist profiling at transportation centers. You informed us that criminal profiling is outside the mission of TSA. Doesn’t TSA utilize CAPS, which is a passenger profile system by definition? You stated that the TSA mission is, “to protect the nation’s transportation centers and to ensure freedom of movement for our people and commerce.” I kept rereading your mission statement to find where it precluded you from using characteristics of terrorists (profiling) in your work. I can’t find it. You stated that “TSA screeners screen every person and item that boards an aircraft.” Please, Mr. Null, do you really believe that it is humanly possible to screen one hundred percent of the millions of passengers that travel through our airports? You don’t think that some passenger’s carry-on bags are viewed on the x-ray screen by inattentive screeners? Do you believe that with a 15-30% false positive on checked bags that some of the bags may not be thoroughly searched? Do your own tests of TSA screeners show that this will never be a totally effective system in and of itself? Maybe, just maybe, you should think about supplementing this flawed system with other methods including profiling. Regarding your statement that local law enforcement is notified when an “incident” happens, I believe our members who work at these airports would disagree. There have been incidences where both drugs and money found by TSA personnel have not been reported to law enforcement. Some TSA employees have been told by their supervisors that drugs and money are not part of the responsibility of TSA and should be overlooked. This sounds like another example of a very strange reading of the TSA mission statement. To quote Asa Hutchinson, "Terrorism and drug trafficking are entwined. One generates money, the other needs money, and both involve the extraordinary use of violence. They feed on each other." I was expecting something other than a condescending letter to a serious position paper on terrorism by INIA. Our members have been doing criminal interdiction at transportation centers for over thirty years and deserved a professional, well reasoned response directed to their professional association. I certainly hope that this letter does not represent how TSA normally responses to suggestions for improving its performance. Sincerely, Clayton Searle CC: Asa Hutchinson CLICK HERE TO READ TSA's letter >>
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