Amusing as this assertion is, things are not as simple as that makes it sound. The TSA has in fact found people carrying weapons and explosives. Whether they intended them for terrorist acts is a matter for discussion. They catch a number of other criminals, such as people carrying illegal drugs.
It is true, however, that after the Department of Homeland Security spent over nine hundred million dollars between 2007 and 2013 on the TSA program, the GAO released a study indicating that there was no evidence that the program had had any impact whatsoever on uncovering or detaining terrorists.
This, however, leads to an interesting problem of interpretation. You know the joke about the guy who went outside and screamed every morning to scare away tigers? His neighbor, irritated by the noise, pointed out that there were no tigers in the area. The man smiled and said, "It's working very well, isn't it?"
So there are those who will say the TSA scares terrorists away, and the proof is that we don't find terrorists boarding airplanes.
This leaves unresolved questions about whether TSA procedures are a form of low-level terrorism on their own.
I have a patient at TSA who admits such, viz. what they do doesn't do anything really for stopping terrorists; if they were serious they would not allow tech things on board and they would do racial profiling. two no-nos.
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