On Monday, Blackburn released a report titled "Not on my Watch": 50 Failures of TSA's Transportation Security Officers". The report lists 50 crimes committed by TSA agents, including two from Nashville International Airport.
Blackburn said that more needs to be done to keep bad apples out of the airport screening process.
"TSA needs to immediately remove themselves from the human resource business. This report details highly disturbing cases where pedophiles and child pornographers wearing federal law enforcement uniforms are not only patting down unsuspecting travelers, but in many cases stealing valuables from their bags. Enough is enough. It's time for Congress to step in and demand accountability from Administrator Pistole," said Blackburn.
Also as part of the report she points out that TSA employees act as law enforcement officers, but have little training, and aren't screened as thoroughly as local police departments. She says the solution is to get the TSA out of law enforcement back to what they were originally set out to do.
Two local TSA employees were mentioned in the report one of them, accused statutory rapist Clifton Lyles, who worked at Nashville International Airport. Another local TSA employee was arrested for cooking meth.
She is right about the pedophiles and criminals but there are more than 50 recent criminal arrests.
This week a TSA screener reached inside a 73 year old woman’s bra at a checkpoint in Bozeman, Montana while she was at the checkpoint in full view of other passengers.
Last week CBS 3 reported last week that a Catholic priest who was removed from the ministry over child molestation allegations now is a TSA Supervisor at Philadelphia International Airport. In is incredible that after three background checks in his ten year tenure this was not discovered.
A month ago, TSA molested an elderly couple and robbed them of $300, molested three children, a ten year old with a diabetes pump, a four year old who hugged her grandma and a seven year old with cerebral palsy, twice!
There were a total of 91 TSA workers arrested in the last 18 months including 12 arrested for child sex crimes, over 25 for theft, ten for smuggling and one for murder. Even Kip Hawley, the last TSA Director, has called for its overhaul. Check Wikipedia TSA for a partial list of crimes by TSA workers in the past two years, it’s frightening.
Where is the employee screening at TSA? They hired a known child molester, allowed him access to young children and paid him to do it.
TSA has become a threat to our children and there needs to be a National registry of TSA screeners so we know what kind of people are in our neighborhoods and touching our children.
It’s long past time to replace this agency with a sensible and effective system and prosecute those responsible for this travesty.