Top all-time · #4118
Jonathan Corbett
Personal blog · tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.compoliticssecurity
Jonathan Corbett writes Professional Troublemaker ®, a personal blog at tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com about politics and security. Since 2012, 17 different Hacker News readers have linked it 42 times, most often “$1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog ”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-11-15, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (16) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Jonathan Corbett's blog, which covers TSA body scanners, airport security and FOIA disputes, mostly as a source for claims about the TSA in threads on airport security.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 16 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Jonathan Corbett, Civil Rights Attorney
Most-linked posts?
- $1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog 6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2012-03-06
- TSA Admits In Leaked Doc: No Evidence of Terrorist Plots Against Aviation in US2 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2013-10-17
- Court: Federal Law Allows Lying in TSA-Related FOIA Requests2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-09-03
- TSA Pressures Mainstream Media Not To Cover Story2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-03-08
What Hacker News says?
Wow, this post is amazing: http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/underwear-b... If I read this right, there is a suggestion that the US authorities deliberately put a terrorist on a plane with a bomb for propaganda purposes?
Comment linking /2012/02/21/underwear-bomber-victim-us-government-intentionally-allowed-bomb-on-plane/
on “$1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog ”Submitted $1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog as a story · 1637 points
HN discussionThey have been blogging about it... http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/
Comment linking /
on “$1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog ”Submitted TSA Pressures Mainstream Media Not To Cover Story as a story · 745 points
HN discussionIsraeli security is based heavily on explicit racial profiling that is illegal in the US[0]. Their model is also great if you happen to be white and Jewish, but not so great if you're Arab[1]. In any case, we don't need to speculate. The TSA has actually been trained by former security officers from El Al, which is how we ended up with things like the "Behavioral Detection Officers", who have been accused of relying…
Comment linking /2013/10/17/tsa-admits-in-leaked-doc-no-evidence-of-terrorist-plots-against-aviation-in-us/
on “Confessions of an ex-TSA agent”Submitted TSA Admits In Leaked Doc: No Evidence of Terrorist Plots Against Aviation in US as a story · 236 points
HN discussionThank you, story is on the blog, including this post: http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/confirmed-t...
Comment linking /2012/02/01/confirmed-tsa-declares-checkpoint-tapes-ssi/
on “TSA Pressures Mainstream Media Not To Cover Story”Submitted Court: Federal Law Allows Lying in TSA-Related FOIA Requests as a story · 188 points
HN discussionThe story he's referring to is this one: http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/1b-of-nude-...
Comment linking /2012/03/06/1b-of-nude-body-scanners-made-worthless-by-blog-how-anyone-can-get-anything-past-the-tsas-nude-body-scanners/
on “TSA Pressures Mainstream Media Not To Cover Story”Submitted TSA's X-Ray Nude Body Scanners Output 50% More Radiation Than Admitted to by TSA as a story · 160 points
HN discussionhttp://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/1b-of-nude-...
Comment linking /2012/03/06/1b-of-nude-body-scanners-made-worthless-by-blog-how-anyone-can-get-anything-past-the-tsas-nude-body-scanners/
on “Viral Video About Body Scanners”Submitted Lawsuit Filed Against NYPD Street Body Scanners as a story · 121 points
HN discussionhttp://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/1b-of-nude-... and the TSA's response: http://blog.tsa.gov/2012/03/viral-video-about-body-scanners.... Draw your own conclusions.
Comment linking /2012/03/06/1b-of-nude-body-scanners-made-worthless-by-blog-how-anyone-can-get-anything-past-the-tsas-nude-body-scanners/
on “Stellar Wind (code name)”Submitted TSA Out of Our Pants -- FAQ as a story · 86 points
HN discussion> All of these findings have been reported to the Department of Homeland Security (TSA) to help them better detect these types of threats. The threats that the TSA itself admits are non-existent? ( http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/tsa-admits-... ) The best I can see coming of this is that the TSA will start to ban braided leather belts and condoms.
Comment linking /2013/10/17/tsa-admits-in-leaked-doc-no-evidence-of-terrorist-plots-against-aviation-in-us/
on “Terminal Cornucopia”Submitted Open Letter to the NY Post: Snowden is a Hero, Not a Traitor as a story · 82 points
HN discussionIt's sad that this headline (presumably) is not tautological. First, the TSA itself has admitted that there is no evidence of terrorist plots against aviation in the US[0]. Second, the circumstances under which 9/11 happened would be impossible to repeat. Plane cockpits are all but impenetrable[1] - the only reason that some of the 9/11 hijackers were successful was that the standard protocol for dealing with hijack…
Comment linking /2013/10/17/tsa-admits-in-leaked-doc-no-evidence-of-terrorist-plots-against-aviation-in-us/
on “I flew on a plane without going through security. It was amazing and no one died”Submitted Comment Period for TSA Proposed Nude Body Scanner Rule Ends; 97% Opposed as a story · 60 points
HN discussionI've been in touch with good people from the ACLU, EFF, EPIC, etc., but they're busy fighting their own battles. Others may be more knowledgeable, but no one can fight for my interests more passionately than I can. Incidentally, in a separate case already in the Court of Appeals, I have the last court battle left regarding the constitutionality of the TSA's body scanners. EPIC, a bunch of attorneys, and some Harvard…
Comment linking /2012/11/16/new-petition-tsa-removes-91-body-scanners/
on “Court: Federal Law Allows Lying in TSA-Related FOIA Requests”Submitted Want to Know Why The TSA Needs to “Touch Your Junk?” Sorry, That’s Classified as a story · 38 points
HN discussionI mentioned this as a comment on the original HN discussion about Booth's article ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6742780 ). The TSA itself has admitted that terrorist threats to aviation are nonexistent: http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/tsa-admits-... Even if we ignore the independent investigations from third parties, what more evidence could we ask for that the TSA is ineffective and superf…
Comment linking /2013/10/17/tsa-admits-in-leaked-doc-no-evidence-of-terrorist-plots-against-aviation-in-us/
on “Evading Airport Security”Submitted TSA Screener Admits Scanner Fleet Worthless as a story · 24 points
HN discussionI've opted out every time I've ever ended up in a scanner line, but the millimeter wave stuff is absolutely significantly more safe than the backscatter, specifically because it doesn't use ionizing radiation. Of course, it's also easily defeated[1][2] by anyone that knows what they're doing, so it's not like it's keeping us particularly safe. [1] http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/1b-of-nude-... [2] h…
Comment linking /2012/03/06/1b-of-nude-body-scanners-made-worthless-by-blog-how-anyone-can-get-anything-past-the-tsas-nude-body-scanners/
on “Naked-Image Scanners to Be Removed From U.S. Airports”Submitted TSAOutOfOurPants - Let the Freedom of Information Act Requests Begin as a story · 24 points
HN discussionDoesn't seem that way. The sensor revolves around the subject being scanned, but the images that have always been shown as coming from the machine are just front and back images. From L3's sales site for the ProVision MMW machine, sample images: http://storage.pardot.com/16582/23361/product_provision_L_3_... Their "ATD" model that includes image analysis to automatically flag "anomalies" only seems to show front and…
Comment linking /2012/03/06/1b-of-nude-body-scanners-made-worthless-by-blog-how-anyone-can-get-anything-past-the-tsas-nude-body-scanners/
on “Security Analysis of a Full-Body Scanner”Submitted Want to fly home from abroad? The TSA wants to ask you a few questions, first as a story · 18 points
HN discussion> It's been proven these arbitrary restrictions don't actually enhance security. Agreed. > We need to see the TSA move to behavioral analysis for them to actually make a difference. They've tried this. In practice, it ends up being a very thin cover for racial profiling[0]. Of course, when the TSA itself admits[1] that there is no evidence of a threat of terrorism against aviation in the US, it's not surprising that…
Comment linking /2013/10/17/tsa-admits-in-leaked-doc-no-evidence-of-terrorist-plots-against-aviation-in-us/
on “TSA: don't bring uncharged devices from oversea”Submitted Watch TSA Nude Body Scaners Get Defeated | TSA Out of Our Pants as a story · 11 points
HN discussionIsrael openly practices racial profiling of passengers[0], something which is not legal in the US (which must instead practice it in secret)[1][2]. I would not want to use Israel's security procedures as a model for the US for a number of reasons - the unabashed racial profiling is one, but a more basic reason is the fact that Israel faces a very real and direct threat, whereas the TSA itself admits that there is no…
Comment linking /2013/10/17/tsa-admits-in-leaked-doc-no-evidence-of-terrorist-plots-against-aviation-in-us/
on “TSA: Some on US-bound flights must turn on phones”Submitted TSA [Agent Anonymously] Admits $1B Nude Body Scanner Fleet Worthless as a story · 8 points
HN discussion
