The Re(d)active Force of the Transportation Security Administration

Document Type

Article

Authors

George F. McHendry Jr, Creighton UniversityFollow

Abstract

This essay’s central critique is that TSA’s discourse reveals its reactive posture. TSA procedures are predicated on what it thinks terrorists might do and its privacy protections are based on outrage from passengers. The essay consists in critiques of two sets of artifacts; the first is a leaked TSA training manual that was improperly redacted and spread online. The second set of artifacts I critique are images produced by TSA’s whole body imagers, which see just beneath passenger’s clothes. I argue TSA uses re(d)active force to withhold information and blur images in the name of stopping terrorists and protecting passenger privacy, but in doing so they ignore active terrorist threats and that current passenger concerns provide constraints that limit their activities without resolving concerns posed by their techniques of observation and surveillance.

Recommended Citation

McHendry, George F. Jr (2015) "The Re(d)active Force of the Transportation Security Administration," Criticism: Vol. 57: Iss. 2, Article 5.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/criticism/vol57/iss2/5