The website wewontfly.com was set up by two ordinary people as their personal endeavor to marshal opposition to the TSA's intrusive searches. They were a little bit flat-earth, anti-fluoridated water types (for example they thought re-privitization would solve the problem), but they were doing no harm, and even a blind pig can find an acorn sometimes.
Wewontfly.com received very few obscene postings, so when the following message came through, it stood out, not being drawing room fashion at all ...
at all ...
Fuck you, Fuck all you cocksuckers, you wont change anything. ride the bus, TSA is here to stay there doing a great job keeping americia [sic] safe
They traced it back to internet address which turned out to be owned by ... wait for it ...
OrgName: DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
OrgId: DHS-37
Address: 7681 BOSTON BLVD
Address: NDC I
City: SPRINGFIELD
StateProv: VA
PostalCode: 22153
Country: US
RegDate: 2005-12-05
Updated: 2008-05-22
.
As a result of the announcement of this apparent trolling by TSA, wewontfly.com receivedso much traffic that it crashed their server (There is a web cache here showing what the site looked like before it went down.)
Regarding the comment "Fuck you, cocksuckers ..." the site owners asked:
- Is this an official statement?
- If not, is it an accurate representation of the DHS position?
- Was this person on the public dime when he or she posted this?
- Who posted this and what is their position with DHS?
Site owners of wewontfly found there were 19 other comments from the same Homeland Security web address, none quite so pithy, but still quite a few other gems:
11/9/10: Funny site you have going on here, looking forward to the guest comic postings.. what a bunch of rubes you all are.. BTW TSA officers make on avg $14.50 per hour to start. Much more than your bottle collecting jobs you have.
You people are really messed up. That you sit around and put forth the hatred that you spew. If any of you are parents who have children, I feel sorry for the kids because you will raise them to be cynical, skeptical and totally paranoid. The TSA who work everyday trying to earn a living are parents, retired professionals, students, ex-law enforcement a whole diverse population of people who are trying to support their families and hope that they are doing what is necessary to protect those who travel. Give it a rest would you and if you feel that way about flying, then do me and the TSA a favor and don’t fly, that is your right, exercise it please. It makes the line at the airport alot shorter for those of us who get it.
You can refuse to fly too. Train, car, bus, boat, walk, bicycle, motorcycle,..You don’t have to fly…You know that TSA perosnnel travel by air also..and they go through security just as anyone lse does….Are you for real or just argumentative…Homeschooled your kids..makes sense now
(11/15/10) Like I said before; This is turining into one of the best comedy sites on the internet… I love the fact that you have people all wound up about this liar.. Good for your ad dollars I’ll bet.. Ohhh let me guess what you folks have in mind next to generate $$ …. Ummm oh yeah TSA “agents” are really aliens looking for food!!!!!
From “iLoveTSAandtheUSA” Do any of you really think TSA is going to care if everyone requests a full body pat down instead of walking through the metal detector or body scanners?
They get to go home once their shift is over, no matter how long the lines are.
Less passengers flying means less work for them!
TSA must be doing something right if no hijackings or attacks have occured on American soil since 9/11.
I’d feel much safer if everyone was screened thoroughly. A terrorist can be anyone.
Site owners and commenters on wewontfly.com traced back the names and URL to Facebook and other sites which they claim give reason to believe that the commenters were employed by TSA as transportation security officers. Given the tenor of the comments, that seems likely.
I have been hard on TSA. That is because they are powerful and I am not, but truth may indeed be spoken to power. But let us be fair: not every TSA agent is a asshole like these types. In fact, most are not, I would venture to say. And some of the opposition to TSA's reign of error comes from people who are crackpots.
But I argue that treating people decently is itself a matter of aircraft security, and as such it should be a matter of national policy. In fact, it is national policy to count the resistance of passengers to terrorism attempts as part of its "layered" approach to security.
There's a fine little piece that TSA has on its website from a retired (and now deceased Transportation Security Officer, Mr. Al Wong) regarding professionalism of TSA agents. It's worth reading. In fact I would recommend it to anyone who deals with people under time or emotional pressure. Some excerpts:
Your tone speaks more than your words, there is never a good reason to use an aggressive or offensive tone. Our mission is to protect the travelling public. If we are causing them distress then the other side has won the battle because we have failed in our mission -- it means we have failed to protect the public from us
....
When a person requests your name, refusals tend to support their impression that you are not confident of your own actions and you are trying to hide.
...
It's all about respect. The Federal Government, TSA, your managers, supervisors, peers and customers, all expect that you will perform your duties in a respectful way, just as you would expect each of them to respect you as well. When the customer does not keep his or her side of the equation, you have options available to bring the situation under control and these options require that you keep your professionalism high and your head clear to se if the concern is legitimate or it is a ruse to draw your attention from something else. When the concern is legitimate, do whatever you can to fix the problem. When it is not legitimate, get support from others who can help you diffuse any escalation. Please remember that disagreement is not disrespect.
In their own way, these thugs have harmed aircraft security by contributing to the wretched reputation of TSA.
In a more human sense, they let us down and they let down Mr. Wong.