TSA: LICENSE TO MOLEST MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN !!!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

Source: http://www.onlinecollegemoms.com/2010/1 ... -children/
Posted by LauraRatcliff on Nov 10th, 2010 in Family, Home, Kids, Politics, Rant, Travel


In this family, we talk a lot about aviation. It’s my husband’s job, and our family life has, in large part, been defined by his career. Since he’s in aviation, we do travel fairly frequently (but not as much as I’d like!), and we have gotten to be quite the experts in getting to the airport, through security, and onto the plane in the most efficient manner possible. I’m afraid, however, all of that is going to be coming to a screeching halt pretty soon. That’s because now the TSA wants to take naked pictures of me and my family with their new backscatter X-Ray machines, which have been referred to in numerous articles as “virtual strip searches.” I don’t know about you, but I think that’s creepy as Hell.

The new technology has a large number of critical issues that need to be addressed before they are widely implemented – although there are already 317 machines in use in 65 airports nationwide – including Miami, where we frequently fly in and out. First of all, the machines basically take of picture of you that “removes” your clothing. The image that is seen by screeners is of your naked body. Including your genital area, nipples, butt crack – all of it. The TSA says that the technology is now automatically “blurring” over private areas, but there is no way to verify that they are “blurring” out private areas of every image, and in fact the blurring capability is merely a programmable feature of the software that can easily be “un-programmed”. In fact, according to an article by Xeni Jardin, even though the TSA repeatedly “assured” us that the machines couldn’t save the images and that they were automatically deleted, it turns out that’s not true at all. It was a blatant lie. In August, it was reported that the machines can, in fact, be programmed to save and store images, and that the U.S. Marshall’s office has stored over 35,000 naked images of people going in and out of a court house in Orlando. However, don’t worry. Jardin reports that the TSA says that “those capabilities are not normally activated” in airport-installed screening devices. Well, I feel better, now, don’t you?



In addition to the privacy concerns, there are also health concerns. In fact, even members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs recently wrote a letter to the TSA expressing grave concern over the continued and increased use of the scanners, when they believe that TSA hasn’t done enough to clarify safety issues regarding radiation exposure. The Senators noted that “Frequent fliers, however, would receive heightened exposures from multiple AIT scans,” and that rightly concerns me greatly. My husband is a VERY frequent flier, and he’s already being exposed to higher levels of radiation just doing his job getting passengers safely to and from their destinations. In fact, the Allied Pilot Association (APA), is “urging its members to boycott body imaging machines.” [Disclosure: my husband is a member of this union.] Said Captain Dave Bates, President of the APA, in a recently published letter:

“We are exposed to radiation every day on the job. For example, a typical Atlantic crossing during a solar flare can expose a pilot to radiation equivalent to 100 chest X-rays per hour.”

Of course, the TSA does offer passengers and pilots the option of getting an “enhanced” pat down in lieu of the naked body scan, but some could argue that’s just as bad, if not worse, than the scan. The enhanced pat down involves what I would consider “invasive” groping, including grabbing and fondling a woman’s breasts, and full genital and buttocks handling (yes, they will put their hand between your legs and feel you up). More than 600 complaints have been filed in the last two months alone, according to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), which likens the screening choices to the difference between a “virtual strip search” and a grope. The enhanced pat downs are so invasive that there have been documented reports of rape survivors experiencing post-traumatic symptoms after the searches.

In fact, it seems that the TSA’s policy is to make the enhanced pat down so uncomfortable and humiliating that passengers and pilots would rather subject themselves to the radiation screening than endure the public embarrassment of being groped in front of other passengers. While the TSA says that passengers have the option to have their groping in a private screening area, the passenger has to ask for it, and not everyone knows they have that option. Captain Bates says that the APA is recommending that pilots ask for a private screening, in large part because the public pat down is a demeaning affront to the professional aviators who are charged with transporting and protecting the traveling public. Says Captain Bates:

“Our pilots are highly motivated partners in the effort to protect our nation’s security, with many of us serving as Federal Flight Deck Officers. We are all keenly aware that we may serve as the last line of defense against another terrorist attack on commercial aviation. Rather than being viewed as potential threats, we should be treated commensurate with the authority and responsibility that we are vested with as professional pilots.”

I know for a fact that my husband would give his life in a millisecond in order to ensure the safety of his passengers, and it is beyond my comprehension that the government thinks it is acceptable to treat the very people who truly are “the last line of defense” in aviation as a threat to the security of our nation. It is not only unacceptable, it is unconscionable.

The TSA seems to be very vested in making sure that as few passengers as possible opt out of the naked radiation screening. When a person chooses to opt out, the TSA workers yell loudly, “OPT OUT. WE’VE GOT AN OPT OUT,” drawing unwanted attention to the poor passenger who is uncomfortable with being photographed naked. The day before yesterday (November 8, 2010) a young lady named Meg McLain was singled out for the full body screening at Ft. Lauderdale International Airport. When she objected to being manhandled (this was even before the enhanced pat down), she was handcuffed to a chair, her ticket was ripped in half, and she was escorted out of the airport by TWELVE police officers. Why am I not surprised that she was chosen for the full body scanner? She’s young and beautiful. Numerous news reports (including the Alex Jones video below) are reporting that a disproportionate number of women and children are being asked to undergo the full body scanner. Here’s Meg’s story:


What’s even worse, it’s common knowledge that children shouldn’t be exposed to unnecessary additional radiation because of the very real and documented increased health risks, yet the TSA is asking children to go through the scanners, too. If the parents don’t want their children exposed to the radiation, the TSA will perform an “enhanced” pat down on children, even infants. There is something very, very wrong in this country if we are accepting of our children being MOLESTED in the name of security. Child pornography is against the law in all 50 states, and so is pedophilia, yet the federal government is giving us one of two choices when we fly with our children: The TSA can either take naked pictures of our children that exposes them to dangerous radiation, or we let the TSA grope and manipulate our childrens’ private areas, touching their genitals, buttocks, and developing breasts, all in the name of security. If anyone else takes naked pictures of children, or is caught fondling children in that manner, they get sent to prison; we call it child sexual abuse and child pornography everywhere else in America except in the airports.

Alex Jones recently interviewed one of his co-workers who underwent the enhanced pat-down at Denver International Airport – and so did her two daughters, who were eight years old, and twenty months old. Be prepared to be enraged:


We teach our children from an early age the difference between a “good touch” and a “bad touch,” but now when we travel on an airplane, we’re supposed to teach our children that it’s OK for the TSA guards to give our little girls and boys the “bad touch”???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? My Julie is 14 years old, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let some airport pervert feel her up.

Here’s another great little tidbit. The TSA isn’t even a real law enforcement agency. They’re kind of like Wackenhut guards. Not that I have anything against Wackenhut guards. But they aren’t allowed to feel me up, if you know what I mean. What the TSA is doing is essentially equivalent to a strip search, and only law enforcement officers are allowed to do that, and only with cause. In fact, courts have consistently found blanket strip searches are acceptable only for persons found guilty of a crime (like prisoners in prison), unless its an arrestee pending trial, in which case there must be a reasonable suspicion that they are in possession of a weapon.

There is a movement forming that is encouraging all travelers to opt out of the naked radiation scan, because if every traveler opted out, the TSA would be so overwhelmed with pat downs that it would disrupt airport scheduling enough to make the government listen. Why would they object then, you ask? Well, because the airlines would be in an uproar because of lost revenue, and we all know that the government is much more likely to be receptive to corporate demands than the demands of the people.

I think it’s time for some civil disobedience.

Edit: Captain Bates’ Letter was recently published in the Atlantic, and was addressed to Union members.