Quote:Gun-shy TSA gets critic booted from Congressional panel
Bruce Schneier, the security expert who coined the term "security theater" to describe the Transportation Security Agency's airport screening procedures, was uninvited from speaking on a Monday Congressional panel at the insistence of the TSA.
In a blog post, Schneier reports that he had been officially scheduled to appear at a hearing sponsored by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, but received word on Friday that he had been removed from the witness list.
"The excuse was that I am involved in a lawsuit against the TSA, trying to get them to suspend their full-body scanner program," Schneier wrote. "But it's pretty clear that the TSA is afraid of public testimony on the topic, and especially of being challenged in front of Congress."
More here:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/gunshy-tsa-gets-critic-booted-fr...For those who aren't familiar with Mr. Schneier, he's a cryptography expert by trade and has written the foremost academic text on the subject, Applied Cryptography. I sincerely hope the story of this "disinvitation" is widely spread and gets some attention from chairman Issa.
I guess the thing that really irritates me is that a
government agency is forcing the hand of a congressional committee. That's not how it's supposed to work. If I ran the committee, I'd never consider dropping Schneier, and if the TSA had a problem with it and wanted to withdraw, I'd subpoena the entire administrative staff if I had to.
-b0b
(...TSA wins again. Weeee.)