azscubadude
Contributor
You mean like every military commissioned officer who is already trusted with at least secret information could be treated as a trusted traveler? You do see where that could go wrong. #2, unfortunately suffers from similar problems if those who do not meet the profile get a pass. Perhaps some probabilistic selection routine might help. But I'm not sure whether it help safety or recruitment more.
I mean a program where you go through a thorough background check. You get interviewed. You get fingerprinted. And as I mentioned even a retinal scan if necessary since it would be impossible to alter or duplicate. I don't have any problems with any of these and was happy to go through them for the Global Entry program (they don't use the retinal scan).
Not everyone is going to pass the mark. Customs and Immigration has been using this program, called Global Entry, for quite some time now and there hasn't a single incident that I know of.
When I come back from traveling anywhere in the world all the major airports in the USA have kiosks that you walk up to (that are usually totally empty), you insert your passport and put your hand on the electronic fingerprint screen so it can match your prints to the filed prints. You answer four yes or no questions. Instantly the screen pops up and knows what flight you came in on and what time you came in. You answer yes or no to the four questions by tapping the screen and it prints out a slip that you take with you. You walk right past the hundreds of people waiting in the long customs line and go collect your bags. You take your bags to another special line (ahead of everyone else) where you hand the Customs agent your slip and he waives you through customs to where you recheck your bags to your next destination. No search, no hassles, no delays.. just on my way in a grand total of about 3 minutes.
When the military gives out a security clearance there are different levels of background checks that go with the different level of security. The more sensitive the clearance the more scrutiny. In general a low ranking officer gets a very low level of scrutiny if it is just for general purposes and an enlisted soldier can have a higher security clearance than an officer, it all depends on the MOS (job) of the person getting the clearance. For every level up from there they get another background check with more scrutiny. Just because they have a security clearance in the military shouldn't give them a pass at the TSA.
Even the airline pilots that are flying the plane you are riding in have to go through the TSA line and they can crash the plane into anything they want to after the TSA check so what is the purpose. A lot of pilots are also permitted to carry guns in the cockpit and they still have to go through the TSA check and after they board the plane they could walk up and down the isle and blow away anyone they want to, how insane is this.
It is a total farce from the top to the bottom !! As I said in another post, it was fine and needed right after 911 but now it is a worthless and bloated bureaucracy that wastes billions of our tax dollars every year.
At some point you HAVE to say enough is enough and put some faith in your fellow citizens (and real intelligence agencies). Lot of things have changed since 911.
As for profiling. Most countries already use it but we are to politically correct. I didn't say racial profiling, just profiling.
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