Congressional Report: TSA ‘Abusively and Arbitrarily’ Using Security Designation to Hide Information

The Transportation Security Administration has been misusing its power to withhold certain sensitive documents from view under the guise of maintaining safety, according to a congressional report, while actually endeavoring to keep potentially disconcerting information from the public eye.

The House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, in an unusual bipartisan finding, determined that the TSA has “abusively and arbitrarily” used a designation known as Sensitive Security Information (SSI) to “hide information from Congress and the public about some ugly realities,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the committee chairman.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations, which held a hearing on the issue last week, asserted that the report “confirms that TSA gamed the system to use security classifications to keep Congress and the public from having access to key information in order to protect their turf.”

“TSA must end its arbitrary use of Sensitive Security Information and ensure that security and accountability to the public are its primary concerns,” he said.

The issue was raised in July 2011, when Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) disclosed information obtained at a congressional hearing regarding airport incidents involving security breaches. Chaffetz soon thereafter received a letter from Joseph Maher, deputy general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees TSA, accusing him of unlawfully releasing the non-classified information obtained at the hearing because it was designated SSI.

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Congressional Report: TSA ‘Abusively and Arbitrarily’ Using Security Designation to Hide Information

Congressional Report: TSA ‘Abusively and Arbitrarily’ Using Security Designation to Hide Information

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

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