TSA Takes Nail Clippers From Soldier With Rifle

Derek

Derek

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UPDATE: I?m getting a lot of emails asking if this is actually true and is this person actually someone I know. (1) Yes it is true ? it is too absurd to be made up. (2) Yes, I know the person.

???

A friend of mine sent me this about his TSA experience. He, unlike most of us, was coming back into the country from Afghanistan on a military charter.

???

As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:

When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards.

Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That?s where the stupid started.

First, everyone was forced to get off the plane?even though the plane wasn?t refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.

It?s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren?t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.

The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through. After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo?just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.

This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.

So we?re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they?re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:

TSA Guy: You can?t take those on the plane.

Soldier: What? I?ve had them since we left country.

TSA Guy: You?re not suppose to have them.

Soldier: Why?

TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.

Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I?m allowed to take it on.

TSA Guy: Yeah but you can?t use it to take over the plane. You don?t have bullets.

Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?

TSA Guy: [awkward silence]

Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I?ll buy you a new set.

Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security]

This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns?but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.
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One more for the TSA hate-machine. :lol:

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/11/18/another-tsa-outrage/
 
Just sad.
 
"Surrender the plane or I will give you a PEDICURE!"
 
2Billion said:
"Surrender the plane or I will give you a PEDICURE!"
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To avoid a pedicure, I'd probably crash the plane into James May. He'd understand. He would.
 
In pure Tom Clancy speak I shall declare:

Those TSA bastards have no respect at all for the brave men and women who have laid their lives down in service of God and Country.

That is the result of pencil-pushers and bureaucrats being in charge of so-called national security. Having no intelligence whatsoever other than to follow "textbook protocol", they resort to harassment of the innocent to clock up time on the job, while real terrorists are up and about creating new and higher-tech ways to disrupt civilian air travel behind their backs.

end Jingoism
 
I wonder if TSA (Thugs Standing Around) realizes that a rifle butt is about a million times more effective as a weapon than a nail clipper is. Surely as humans are capable of punching, kicking or strangling just about anything living, no humans should ever be allowed to board an aircraft.

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2010/11/20/tsa-funny-military-demotivational-poster-1281237016.jpg
 
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Penn and Teller wanted to make a show on "Bullshit!" about the TSA. However, apparently doing even one second of taping of TSA employees and operations is against federal law. On that note the TSA is complete bullshit, I will never fly with their body scan hyper-security horse shit. I will not sacrifice an ounce of my freedom for this so called security. Besides, I prefer the highway and my hands behind a wheel.
 
I really hope everyone here can find the time or the means to drive to visit their loved ones. Disregarding low-cost fares from local carriers, driving across a state or two can't be any more expensive or time-consuming than taking a taxi to the airport, checking in, waiting in line during the busiest time of the traveling year, getting molested, losing your shit, spending 6 hours in an airport security lockup, calling lawyers, demanding bail, then being late to your flight and being forced to take 7 connections to Kalamazoo before you're put on the no-fly list.

If enough people duck out of Thanksgiving flying to avoid waiting around to get their junk touched, then maybe the airlines will start pressuring the TSA as well.
 
Aircooled said:
Penn and Teller wanted to make a show on "Bullshit!" about the TSA. However, apparently doing even one second of taping of TSA employees and operations is against federal law. On that note the TSA is complete bullshit, I will never fly with their body scan hyper-security horse shit. I will not sacrifice an ounce of my freedom for this so called security. Besides, I prefer the highway and my hands behind a wheel.
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Damn, a Bullshit! episode on TSA would be most epic! Maybe they can utilize those Taiwanese animators? LOL
 
There's not a facepalm.jpg big enough for this one. I know from my training that an unloaded assault rifle can make a very effective weapon. Maybe they should have spent that time training us how to attack someone with a set of nail clippers because obviously the lethal potential of them is impressive. :rolleyes:

Aircooled said:
On that note the TSA is complete bullshit, I will never fly with their body scan hyper-security horse shit. I will not sacrifice an ounce of my freedom for this so called security. Besides, I prefer the highway and my hands behind a wheel.
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Nothing personal at all because that's your choice, but that train of thought is why the airlines have been hurting financially so much in recent years. Choosing not to fly because of ridiculous "security" doesn't hurt TSA at all, but it does hurt the airlines a great deal.
 
Let's give this the name it really deserves - security theater. This isn't real security.
 
 
This is ridiculous. Hitting someone with the buttstock of a rifle or even pistol-whipping someone is going to cause a lot more damage than what you can inflict with some nail clippers.
 
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Aircooled said:
Penn and Teller wanted to make a show on "Bullshit!" about the TSA. However, apparently doing even one second of taping of TSA employees and operations is against federal law.
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That sounds very strange. Generally speaking, the first amendment is supposed to guard people's right to use a camera (for journalism and for private purposes) in public areas. On private land, it's a different deal. And inside an enclosed space (like a terminal) a ban on photography may be placed if there are good reasons for it, but generally speaking, those bans are only in the security checks themselves, and more often than not, not even there.

And as long as you get a permit, you can stand around there filming all they long (it's not like there isn't enough network footage from the security checks). If Penn and Tiller wanted to do a show on the TSA, they could. They wouldn't even need to film anything from the checks themselves, they could just use stock footage from other productions.

That said, I think a Bullshit! about the TSA would be hilarious. However, they never really convince me. Too much political punditry and rethoric. It's like reading Klassekampen (The Class Struggle, Norwegian left wing newspaper), only the other way around.

Spectre said:
Let's give this the name it really deserves - security theater. This isn't real security.
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We don't agree on much. We probably even disagree on beer. But we agree on this. This is like the ice cream you get in Greece, it's not strawberry ice cream, it's ice cream with strawberry flavor. Not security, it's security flavor.

nsx_23 said:
As much as I'd love to visit the US, it does sound like a huge PITA to actually get into the country.
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The TSA has made the Ozzies squimish about security checks... wow.
 
I just don't enjoy having my rights infringed upon in the name of "security".
 
Before 9/11 I used to take my Swiss Army knife onto the plane with me. Oh, and I sat in the cockpit on landing a few times, too. All you had to do was ask.

Economy gets plastic butter knives while first class get metal. Terrorists don't fly first class?

Which would you choose as a weapon, a pair of nail clippers or your broken wine glass from the in-flight meal?

I've taken a tripod on with me recently, I could have sharpened the hidden segments of each leg to make swords/spears that wouldn't have shown up on X-ray.
 
nomix said:
We don't agree on much. We probably even disagree on beer. But we agree on this. This is like the ice cream you get in Greece, it's not strawberry ice cream, it's ice cream with strawberry flavor. Not security, it's security flavor.
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"I can't believe it's not Security" :lol:
 
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