In my travels, which are not as extensive as some of the members here, I've had the impression that many of these TSA screeners are barely literate minimum wage security guard types. Now I have no idea what the wage scale is or what the qualifications are when they hire these people but based on my own observations I can't help but wonder if the TSA is just another ineffective program and a waste of tax payer dollars.
Based on the planning, which we have seen highlighted in TV specials, that went into the 911 hijackings can we actually expect that the TSA screeners have the ability to thwart a well planned operation by highly motivated terrorists. But they have confiscated a lot of finger nail clippers.
Here's the issue....
Right after 9/11 - when the agency was formed - it attracted a lot of experienced, highly qualified individuals that saw it as an opportunity to use their skills for patriotic purposes. The agency also inherited a bunch of low-level, poor quality screeners from the private screening companies.
The agency also attracted some "flameouts" from other agencies, and folks that looked at it as a good place to retire (some retired in place). At the top levels, some SES-types were not so good or motivated.
The experienced, qualified, patriotic individuals became disenchanted and demotivated by the outright incompetance of the others, the disarray within the agency, and the seeming unwillingness/inability for top leaders to fix the problem. They were backfilled by more of the unmotivated, inexperienced, "typical government bureaurat" type. And that's where we are today.
I've heard that enough times from enough people from different perspectives that I've concluded that it's true.
I had one "former FSD" type from a major airport tell me that he got pretty disenchanted, that the job was not what was expected, and that some of the directives were pure "show". He is an ex-military and former Secret Service person who was high-ranking in his local Secret Service office. He left - and has told me that the agency and it's procedures are "the blind leading the blind".
IMHO (and it's worth what you pay for it), this is another case where the government has paved the road to hell with good intentions.