With respect to the individual I will not give particulars but, a Captain at my company was denied a TWIC card by the powers that be at the enrollment center for reasons of a past legal problem. He had just recently renewed his 1600 T Oceans, the USCG was aware of this legal issue and it did not disqualify him. He applied for the TWIC last year and was denied, after the license was renewed he applied for the TWIC and was denied yet again. He will NOT be issued a TWIC credential reguardless of the USCG approving the renewal.
How is this possible? Has anyone else heard of a similar problem?
Here is a guy who has been sailing for 35 years and come April 15, 2009, if something doesn’t change he is out of a job. It’s a shame… this could be any one of us.
I guess there have also been people that have been denied their TWIC because they weren’t born in the U.S. Seems ridiculous if you ask me.
I know of an AB unlimited that was denied his card. He has a felony conviction in the past (15 years ago). He completed his 12 year probation 3 years ago. He received a letter of denial from the TWIC folks stating that he was denied because of a felony conviction within the last 7 years. I know for a fact that he did not commit / nor was prosecuted or convicted of a felony since the one 15 years ago.
He has tried to contact a human being within the appropriate organization in an effort to clear up the misunderstanding. He has been trying for over 6 months and so far has not had any luck. He hasn’t even been able to talk to anyone yet. THe only thing the people at the TWIC help hotline know how to do is give advice on applying for the card.
This whole process is by far the biggest Cluster f#@*k our government has implemented to date!
They are going to regulate all of us out of a job. Cluster f#@*k is right.
Got this today in my email, for what it’s worth, (not much I guess).
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Hello, this is a message from the TWIC program office regarding your TWIC card awaiting pickup at the enrollment center where you enrolled.
If you have already picked up your card, please disregard this message. On Oct. 21, the government facility that houses the TWIC system
experienced a building-wide power outage. Though power was quickly restored, the part of the system that facilitates card activations
was affected. While TSA works to resolve this issue, enrollment centers nationwide will not be able to activate cards until the week of
November 10th. As a result of this situation, the compliance deadline for ports with an October 31st compliance date has been moved
to December 1, 2008. Please check the TSA web site, www.tsa.gov/twic, or call the Help Desk at 1-866-DHS-TWIC for more details and
information as it becomes available.
</pre>
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The TWIC saga continues…
I went through all kinds of crap with mine because I was born in Japan. Finally got mine though.
This instance is a typical case of a behemoth government out of control, the pencil pushers want to rule the world and they are well on their way. Part of the problem is with the citizens of this country wanting the government to do everything for them up to including wiping their respective noses, the other part is the fear mongering that has been put on us, leading us to believe that we can eliminate every possible risk, which is ridiculous. As us mariners all know you cannot escape the dangling dong of destiny. We try to pare down our exposure to a minimum, but life is a risk and nobody gets out alive.
They should make candidates for public office apply for a TWIC card. Ooops… I guess Sen. Stevens is shit out of luck!! Mua-ha-ha.
I have been reading the NVIC 03-07, Guidelines for TWIC, kinda comical…
just an excerpt that I found interesting, (verbatim)
<strong>If an individual’s TWIC is lost, stolen, or damaged, unescorted access to secure areas may be
granted for seven consecutive calendar days while the individual awaits a replacement.</strong>
and then what? I go home and wait?
This whole thing is a <span style="font-size: larger;]<span style="font-weight: bold;]goatfuck</span></span>
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A replacement in seven days??!! Even the goats are saying it’s a clusterfuck.
Baa Ram Eww…
Please no flames, But i think it really does matter who we vote for in this election. Make your choice after considering how we got this mess.
Bob
The saddest thing is that Osama’s buds can fill any ratty shrimp boat or snazzy yachat with enough fertilizer and diesel to blow anything in any harbor to lots of little pieces (including loaded tankers) or even worse, take one of those boats right up under a production platform like Thunderhorse and faster that you can say “breaking news” the whole offshore energy infrastructure in the Gulf goes through the same hell that airports went through after 9-11.
and how much good is a stupid little plastic card in every truck driver’s or longshoreman’s or crewmember’s wallet gonna do to stop that from happening? THEY WON"T DO A DAMN THING!
Eff’n Dept of Homeland Insecurity!
Last I heard, it wasn’t the employees or US citizens that perpetrated the terrorist acts.
You are correct guest. Airline passegers are no safer (probably less safe) than they were on September 10th, 2001. We make a big show of ensuring security at the screening station but when I look around I see TSA (Thousands Standing Around) rousting little old ladies and uniformed pilots, and letting Musafa, Achmed and Mohammed go through unmolested for fear of litigation.
I am subjected to it it and see it every day. It’s a government clusterf**k.
I have a TWIC. It is not recognized by anyone except a few marine terminals.
Homeland Security…what a powerful joke! And I mean powerful. They’ll probably be knocking on the door…or knocking it down…pretty soon.
Our national security is a joke.
Here’s one thing most don’t know…they are going to issue TWIC cards to foreign nationals! Yes, that’s right!
If you are a foreign national working in the GoM on a OCS-B1 Visa, you qualify to be a card carrying member of the TWIC’y club!
The question here is, if a foreign national born in a foreign country can get a TWIC, how much background checks to THEY get? Probably as much as they get when they apply for their Visas, a letter from the company intending to hire them! How many Indonesians are at the Best Western at the NoLa airport on a given night? Plenty and remember the bombings that happened in Bali? That was Indonesia!
Just remember… 150 years ago it was the savages (Indians/Native Americans). Then came the communists. Guess what? Now it is the terrorists and that includes possibly you and me. Rule by fear my friend. Wake up America!
TSA inspectors have repeatedly refused to accept my TWIC as a form of identification at the airport, insisting on seeing my state drivers license instead. I have pointed out to them, repeatedly, that it is a federal biometric identification card issued to me after an extensive background check by the very same agency that they work for, to no avail. Apparently TSA has been unable to alert their people to the existence and expected use of this “new” form of identification. But that’s okay. Lockheed-Martin, they of the Coast Guard’s ongoing <strong>Deepwater Program</strong> debacle, must be laughing all the way to the bank. Amongst others, we have Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to thank for this fiasco. What a country! Now might be a good time to re-read George Orwell’s <strong>1984</strong>, or to read it for the first time if you have not already done so.
Yeah, Good idea. Read it from Russia. That would solve two problems.
?