We have a new winner!  As much as I give TSA grief for periodic lapses of sanity in the name of security, the Israelis have won this month’s title hands-down. Abdur-Rahim Jackson is an eight-year veteran of the world-renowned Alvin Ailey dance troupe, currently on a six-nation tour celebrating the group’s 50th anniversary. Due to his Muslim first name, the Israel Airport Authority forced him to perform dance steps -- twice -- to “prove” his identity, before they allowed him into the country.  One officer reportedly even suggested he change his name.

I won’t grace that with further comment, other than to note the competition for dumbest moves seems to have gotten stiffer lately. I will, however, torture the terpsichorean metaphor just a bit by noting it is bothersome that so many commenters will dance around the notion that so many idiotic things done “in the name of security” are truly just foolish in the extreme, and contribute nothing to security beyond blind performance of  pointless procedures by a bloated payroll. (There -- Is there anyone I have failed to offend?)

I don’t mean to imply that it’s all bad… much of what we do at airports is quite useful and necessary; although I further suggest that some of what exists should be considered as interim measures needing extensive improvement.

One of those is the no-fly list, addressed in more detail in last month’s column. Many security experts note that a belief in the value of the list assumes we can somehow correlate identity with intent. [See paragraph #1 above, Jackson, Abdur-Rahim].  For starters, the Internet offers information on how to beat the boarding pass and ID check, and it makes no sense to think the bad guys would send a stop-listed person to the checkpoint waving his personal red flag. So instead, 100,000 or so passengers are harassed every day in the search for the needle in that haystack.

I will quickly concede that the no-fly list is only one piece of the overall screening process where, amazingly, we still discover weapons of every imaginable description – a few of which still make it on board.  No system will ever be 100 percent perfect, which is one of many reasons why we can’t not continue the process.

But to close the rather leaky loop on this month’s discussion, an effective system requires good, dedicated, well-trained people … which I will also concede is probably the huge majority of TSA screeners. But I note that the “dedicated” descriptor is often challenged by such reports as that of a recent report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management that DHS, only in existence for seven years, is fifth highest on the list of all federal agencies reporting employees’ AWOL hours.  

It’s a fascinating report -- records from 18 federal agencies show that workers were absent without leave for 19.6 million hours between 2001 and 2007. That's the equivalent of 2.5 million missed days of work, or 316 employees skipping out for their entire 30-year careers.  Federal service ain’t what it used to be.