A decade after 9/11, airport security measures are constantly evolving in an effort to keeping our skies safe, while also attempting to keep passengers from losing their minds at the security gate.
The pat-down, however, has drawn particular scrutiny. So much so that the state of Texas, at a point earlier this year, considered a bill that make it a crime for federal agents to touch a person's anus, genitals, buttocks or breasts without probable cause, according to the Los Angeles Times.
That bill died after the Department of Justice threatened to cancel flights in the state if it passed.
In September, a New York woman being treated for breast cancer was subjected to a pat-down at Kennedy Airport after a body scanning machine picked up tissue expanders placed in her breast as part of treatment, according to the New York Times.
What's your take? Have you ever been subjected to a pat-down? What was the experience like? Should the Transportation Security Administration nix pat-downs as part of the screening process or are they necessary to ensure safe travel? Vote in the poll below and share your thoughts in the comments.
The scanners, most of which are manufactured by Rapiscan (how appropriate), already existed; they were discussed in the Bush administration, when, irony of ironies, the consensus was that Congress & citizens would never put up with them. Michael Chertoff, the head of DHS under Bush, who went through the revolving door to become a lobbyist for Rapiscan, pushed for their implementation right after the hyped-up Crotch Bomber episode. Quel coincidence. As many security experts have attested, the scanners and gropefests wouldn't have detected Abdulmutallab's so-called bomb, and won't detect PETN. Just one account: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8439285.stm
The Lockerbie bombing was from a bomb IN THE CARGO. Not in someone's crotch. You do realize that 60% of the cargo is still going unscreened? Oh, but that's okay, because the TSA is busy doing more important things like sticking its hands down people's pants.
TSA Under Investigation at MSP International Five Eyewitness News has learned a team of investigators from TSA's Washington office is in the Twin Cities investigating claims that large bags have not been screen [sic] properly, and that some employees have been forced to work in a hostile workplace environment. Workers claim their concerns about how large bags are screened have been ignored by TSA management in the Twin Cities. Five Eyewitness News has obtained e-mails from TSA staff which called the treatment of some employees a "horrible nightmare." http://kstp.com/news/stories/S2409898.shtml?cat=1
Flying is a means of travel, and everyone has a right to travel and to travel by a means of their choice. See Supreme Court case (U.S. v. Guest 383 U.S. 745 (1966)): "In any event, freedom to travel throughout the United States has long been recognized as a basic right under the Constitution." Another US Supreme Court case, Shapiro v Thompson, 394 U.S. 618 (1969) strongly supports the right to travel: "'The constitutional right to travel from one State to another . . . has been firmly established and repeatedly recognized.' United States v. Guest, 383 U.S. 745, 757 . This constitutional right, which, of course, includes the right of 'entering and abiding in any State in the Union,' Truax v. Raich, 239 U.S. 33, 39 , is not a mere conditional liberty subject to regulation and control under conventional [394 U.S. 618, 643] due process or equal protection standards. 1 '[T]he right to travel freely from State to State finds constitutional protection that is quite independent of the Fourteenth Amendment.' United States v. Guest, supra, at 760, n. 17. 2 As we made clear in Guest, it is a right broadly assertable against private interference as well as governmental action. 3 Like the right of association, NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449 , it is a virtually unconditional personal right, 4 guaranteed by the Constitution to us all."
It's your TSA propaganda that doesn't fly.
Had that flight originated at a US airport and since TSA still does not screen 100% of cargo loaded on commercial passenger aircraft even today, more than 10 years after 9/11, there is no guarantee that such attack would not be successful again. TSA seems more interested in Strip Searching Grannies and feeling up little children than doing what Congress has mandated.
But no matter how many times we bring up this fact -- that somebody could blow up a cafe, a garage, the checkpoint itself (where people are crowded together in an easy target), anywhere in the concourse (as in Moscow's Domodedovo), a stadium, a mall, take-your-pick -- the TSA apologists never answer. I've asked this countless times on blogs, at newspapers, of journalists, in person. They never answer. Perhaps they'll only be happy when they have to get scoped and groped every time they leave the house. Then they can preserve their fantasy of 100% Security Everywhere All The Time. (Almost 35,000 traffic fatalities EVERY YEAR in this country. Have they stopped driving? Oops -- there goes the argument that they're concerned about safety.)
Who knows? I don't. I do know when I smell something fishy. And I know that lawyer Kurt Haskell and his wife, on that plane with Abdulmutallab, also smelled -- and saw -- something fishy, as they've said in countless interviews, including interviews with the risk-averse mainstream press (in other words, not on conspiracy-theory sites).
TRANSLATION: Because it hasn't happened to me, therefore it doesn't happen. Q.E.D. Again, I refer you to empirical evidence: bit.ly/TravelUndergroundTSAabuses
The fact of the matter is that both the nude body scanners and the pat-down procedure are far from fool-proof. The nude body scanners, for example, will NOT detect a metallic object on your side (metallic objects are shown as black, as is the background -- brilliant), any object hidden under a material with similar density to human skin, any object inside of a body cavity, and any object passing through while a screener is poorly trained or not paying attention. Walk-through metal detectors have none of these issues: they detect metal regardless of where it is, what you cover it, and who's paying attention (they're pretty hard to ignore!). If we bring back the hand-held (the wand) metal detectors, use the explosive trace detection systems (the swab) more often, and train more bomb-sniffing dogs, we will *far* exceed the efficacy of the current scheme while respecting the rights of everyone. It's win-win for all -- except the body scanner manufacturers and the administration who will be embarassed of the way they treated people and wasted money. --Jon
That's okay. We have a saying at Travel Underground: 'One grope at a time. One grope at a time.'
I am actually not a TSA apologist, nor do I think the present TSA policies are effective or wise, so I am not against all of what what you say, I just think the answer lies somewhere in the middle of what we have now and some of the extremes you put forth.
I've been researching and writing on this topic for several years now, because I think civil liberties are important, and I think fighting for them is important. That's why I speak out publicly, using my real name, not a phony internet moniker, and that's why I continue to fight this battle on many fronts, using empirical evidence, statistical analysis, risk assessment, historical fact, logic. So your calling me a "troll" is especially charming. And telling.
This has culminated in TSA digitally strip searching and molesting children and adults with impunity. After a cost of over sixty billion dollars, all that they have done is harass and humiliate passengers in a ruse intended to portray airport security. Incredibly, in less than a year TSA has managed to convince millions of Americans that it is acceptable to digitally strip search and fondle the privates of their children as a condition of air travel. No one would have believed this last year and yet here we are, forced to submit our bodies to the hands of a government clerk because spineless politicians have been bullied into allowing this by power hungry bureaucrats only interested in furthering their own fortunes. There have been 62 TSA screeners arrested this year ranging from rape and child molesting to assault and theft. Despite all of this harassment, there have been 57 security breaches in the same period. No wonder TSA complaints are up 240% over last year. Under Pistole’s perverse policies, TSA has become the most despised agency in Government and he has proven incompetent. This version of security is unacceptable and those responsible must be held accountable.
Meanwhile, passengers are getting bullied, threatened, stripped, and groped, their money confiscated, their medication taken away, detained without cause, and forced to miss their flights. And I'm the one who's "extreme."
Only if you want another 9-11 to happen. Terrorists waited 8 years from the first Twin Tower bombing until 9/11/01. They have the patience to wait until something like this happens. If we let up on our guard, they will seize the opportunity we give them.
You obviously haven't read any of the information in this thread.