TSA gets critic booted from Congressional panel

[n2doc]

By Timothy B. Lee |

Bruce Schneier, the security expert who coined the term "security theater" to describe the Transportation Security Agency's airport screening procedures, was uninvited from speaking on a Monday Congressional panel at the insistence of the TSA.

In a blog post, Schneier reports that he had been officially scheduled to appear at a hearing sponsored by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, but received word on Friday that he had been removed from the witness list.

"The excuse was that I am involved in a lawsuit against the TSA, trying to get them to suspend their full-body scanner program," Schneier wrote. "But it's pretty clear that the TSA is afraid of public testimony on the topic, and especially of being challenged in front of Congress."

This is not the first time the TSA has engaged in brinksmanship to avoid having to appear on a panel alongside its critics. The TSA abruptly canceled a planned appearance before the same committee last year. The agency objected to sitting alongside a representative of EPIC, a privacy group that also had a pending lawsuit against the TSA.

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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/gunshy-tsa-gets-critic-booted-from-congressional-panel.ars?clicked=related_right

[saras]

1. So why is the TSA's whining elevated to the level of "objection", let alone raw power?

Just exactly why the hell is it the TSA's business who else testifies? That is so far beyond fucked up...

[GoneOffShore]

2. The TSA yet again proving themselves liars and bullies.

I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

[gratuitous]

3. I feel safer and more secure already

After all, if we just keep focusing on the deficits in the system, instead of its sterling record of detecting and stopping so many things, we're just siding with the terrorists. This is a vital program, absolutely necessary, and carping on its shortcomings is no way to make it better, since it's practically perfect now.