RAW Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/group-urges-opt-out-body-scanners/

Airborne rebellion: Group urges ‘national opt-out day’ for airport body scanners

By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 -- 10:51 pm


Pilots, flight attendants lead public opposition to intrusive new measures

TSA employee reportedly admitted pat-down involving touching of genitals meant to intimidate people into using body scanners

As public anger grows over the TSA's body scanners and intrusive new airport pat-down procedure, a Web site is urging travelers to "opt out" from the body scanners and instead choose to have a pat-down in public view, so that everyone can "see for themselves how the government treats law-abiding citizens."

OptOutDay.com declares November 24 to be the day when air travelers should refuse to submit to a full body scan and choose the enhanced pat-down -- an option many travelers have described as little short of a molestation.

OptOutDay.com declares:

It's the day ordinary citizens stand up for their rights, stand up for liberty, and protest the federal government's desire to virtually strip us naked or submit to an "enhanced pat down" that touches people's breasts and genitals. You should never have to explain to your children, "Remember that no stranger can touch or see your private area, unless it's a government employee, then it's OK."

The goal of National Opt Out Day is to send a message to our lawmakers that we demand change. No naked body scanners, no government-approved groping. We have a right to privacy and buying a plane ticket should not mean that we're guilty until proven innocent.

According to SmarterTravel.com, the Web site is the brainchild of Brian Sodegren, who describes himself as "an ordinary citizen who is concerned about what is happening" and who "wanted to provide an educational platform and outlet to highlight what is going on."

Sodegren is by no means the only air traveler to be upset at the TSA's new procedures. But his recommendation that travelers instead choose the pat-down may be too much for the faint of heart, given the allegations of sexual impropriety being leveled at some TSA agents who carry out the procedure.

Numerous first-person accounts have emerged of parents outraged at their children being "groped" by TSA employees, or individuals attempting to avoid irradiation instead being traumatized by a TSA pat-down.

In one incident now becoming famous online, a woman at Miami International Airport had her ticket torn up and was confronted by 12 Miami police officers after questioning the new procedure.

The Atlantic's Jeffery Goldberg reported in late October that a TSA agent admitted to him that the point of the intrusive searches was to acclimate people to being body-scanned at airports.

I asked him if he was looking forward to conducting the full-on pat-downs. "Nobody's going to do it," he said, "once they find out that we're going to do."

In other words, people, when faced with a choice, will inevitably choose the Dick-Measuring Device over molestation? "That's what we're hoping for. We're trying to get everyone into the machine." He called over a colleague. "Tell him what you call the back-scatter," he said. "The Dick-Measuring Device," I said. "That's the truth," the other officer responded.

UNIONS LEAD OPPOSITION

Pilots and flight attendants are not exempt from the new screening procedures, and unions representing them have begun urging their members to resist. The head of the American Airlines pilots' union stated last week:

There is absolutely no denying that the enhanced pat-down is a demeaning experience. In my view, it is unacceptable to submit to one in public while wearing the uniform of a professional airline pilot. I recommend that all pilots insist that such screening is performed in an out-of-view area to protect their privacy and dignity.

The pilots' union at US Airways has also come out against the new policy. US Airlines Pilots Association President Mike Cleary said in a statement:

Let's be perfectly clear: the TSA procedures we have outlined above are blatantly unacceptable as a long-term solution. Although an immediate solution cannot be guaranteed, I can promise you that your union will not rest until all U.S. airline pilots have a way to reach their workplace ... the aircraft ... without submitting ourselves to the will of a TSO behind closed doors.

This situation has already produced a sexual molestation in alarmingly short order. Left unchecked, there's simply no way to predict how far the TSA will overreach in searching and frisking pilots who are, ironically, mere minutes from being in the flight deck.

As we all know, it makes no difference what a pilot has on his or her person or in their luggage, because they have control of the aircraft throughout the entire flight. The eyewash being dribbled by the TSA in this instance is embarrassingly devoid of common sense, and we will not stand for it.

A flight attendants' union in Tempe, Arizona, representing mostly US Airways staffers, says its membership is "concerned" about the screenings. ABC 15 in Arizona reports:

A flight attendant who contacted ABC15, and asked not to be named because they are not authorized to be speak about the issue without union approval, says there have been more complaints from flight attendants filed Wednesday morning.

"They've already contacted the ACLU," said Volpe when referring to some members of the union. "We don't know if somebody may have had an experience with a sexual assault and its (pat-down) going to drudge up some bad memories."

The American Civil Liberties Union has opened a web page where members of the public can file "report abuse."

"The ACLU is collecting individuals' stories in order to determine the scope of this problem and evaluate future action," the page states.

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Backlash grows over TSA’s ‘naked strip searches’


Declan McCullagh
CNet
Nov 11, 2010

Two months ago, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the federal stimulus legislation would pay for the purchase of hundreds of controversial full-body scanners.

“Through the Recovery Act, we are able to continue our accelerated deployment of enhanced technology as part of our layered approach to security at airports nationwide,” Napolitano said at the time.

The number of scanners has roughly doubled since Napolitano’s announcement and are now found in 68 U.S. airports, and the Transportation Security Administration says the controversial devices have proven to be a success.

“We have received minimal complaints,” a TSA spokeswoman told CNET yesterday. She said that the agency, part of DHS, keeps track of air traveler complaints and has not seen a significant rise.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20022477-281.html#ixzz14zty3f2S


Docs Note: In addition to refusing to go through the full body scanners...EVERYONE should refuse to be groped by a TSA thug. If these wannabe NAZI's attempt to molest you in public, hose them down with pepper spray or better yet introduce them to a tazer. If you see these thugs attempt to arrest "granny" for resisting their efforts...don't just stand there like a dumbass...swarm them, intervene and kick the living dog shit out of them. And no I'm not joking.

Furthermore there should be a nationwide boycott of ALL airlines until this bullshit comes to a screeching halt.

THIS!!!!!

Pilots and passengers rail at new airport patdowns



By Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:16pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stepped-up security screening at airports in the wake of foiled terrorism plots has provoked an outcry from airline pilots and travelers, including parents of children who say they are too intrusive.

With the busiest holiday travel season nearing, fliers face long security lines and new rigorous patdown checks begun in recent weeks aimed at discovering hidden explosives. As a result, some travelers are questioning whether to fly at all.

The Transportation Security Administration has ramped up airport security after two plots by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. A Nigerian man hid a bomb in his underwear last Christmas and the group tried to send package bombs via U.S. cargo carriers but none of the explosives detonated.

To thwart such attacks, TSA is deploying body scanning machines to U.S. airports but travelers and pilots have complained about potential health risks and that they are too intrusive. The alternative is a physical patdown by a TSA officer.

"Pilots are not the terrorist threat," said John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association and a veteran pilot for United Continental. "Seeing scarce security resources being used on pilots makes absolutely no sense."

Some pilots, male and female, have complained the patdowns make them feel uncomfortable. The group urged any pilot who feels unfit for duty afterward to "call in sick and remove themselves from the trip."

That has prompted urgent talks between the pilots' group and TSA Administrator John Pistole. The two sides hope to resolve the matter in a few weeks, Prater said.

'GATEWAY TO COMMERCE'

Executives from the travel industry, including online travel sites, theme parks and hotels, were set to meet Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Pistole on Friday to discuss their concerns that security is crimping travel.

"We have received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from travelers vowing to stop flying," said Geoff Freeman, an executive vice president of the U.S. Travel Association, which set up the meeting with the Obama administration officials.

"You can't talk on the one hand about creating jobs in this country and getting this economy back on track and on the other hand discourage millions of Americans from flying, which is the gateway to commerce," he said.

Privacy groups have challenged the new body scanners in court, saying they are a violation of privacy and illegal. Lawmakers plan to hold hearings on aviation security next week when they return to Washington.

Some travelers are also livid about how children are being screened. During a trip last Sunday by a father and son through Orlando airport in Florida, the 8-year-old boy was selected for extra screening by TSA after going through the metal detector.

The father said the officer described the procedure before conducting it. Then he patted down the boy in the open security area, using the backside of his hands to check his genital area, he said.

"I didn't think it was going to be as horrible as he was describing," said the boy's father, Bill, who works as a lobbyist in Washington and did not want his full name used.

"We spend my child's whole life telling him that only mom, dad and a doctor can touch you in your private area, and now we have to add TSA agent and that's just wrong," he told Reuters. "At some point the terrorists have won."

TSA defends the body scanners as safe and says the devices and friskings are key tools to help detect hidden explosives.

"While for security reasons we can't get into the specifics about our security procedures, our officers are trained to work with parents to ensure a respectful process for families and we are reviewing our policies for children," the agency said.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

Very few people actually need to fly or even travel to where they want to go, they do it because they want to.

NO one Needs to Fly for a Vacation. If you can't drive don't go.

No one Needs to Fly to their Parents for Thanksgiving or Christmas or any other holiday. If you can't drive don't go.

Very few Business Trips are actually necessary. With Computers and the Internet most things can be done via computer. And if it is a large Company, Charter a Jet if the company does not already own one.

If you need to travel to Europe or some other place out of the Country, drive to Canada and Fly out of there. At least you will not have to deal with the TSA and will cost an American Airport some money.

If enough people stop flying the Airlines will lose money and if people refuse for long enough most of the Airlines will go Bankrupt or at least out of business.

And if an Airport closes because of no Flights there is no need for any TSA goons at that Airport, and there will be some former TSA goons flipping Hamburgers for a living if they are that lucky.

Each airline should be responsible for their own security, and arming pilots is arguably the best solution.

I will fly after the full-body scanners are unplugged, and the TSA molesters have been terminated.

Interesting word terminated, it has a couple of connotations that could be applicable to the TSA Goons, I wonder which one you were thinking of when you posted it.

No need to mention which one since some things are best left to the imagination.

I can imagine a TSA Goon screaming at the Pilot as he does a run-up on the Number 2 Engine on a 747 or maybe No. 1 on a 737

I can still at least dream.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-hit-with-lawsuits-as-revolt-explodes.html

http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-targets-tyner-in-effort-to-chill-nationwide-backlash.html

Standing Up to the TSA: Don’t Fly


Becky Akers
Campaign For Liberty
Nov 17, 2010

Almost overnight, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has gone from national joke to national nightmare. Passengers used to laugh when screeners so inept they missed 60-75% of the fake bombs undercover investigators smuggled past them nonetheless proclaimed themselves gods. No one’s laughing now, though, as the TSA ogles us with carcinogenic technology and sexually assaults anyone who objects.

Over 300 of the agency’s “naked” scanners lurk in 60-some airports nationwide, with more on the way; eventually, the agency will irradiate every passenger on every flight. These gizmos peer through clothing to photograph bodies in graphic detail. The TSA makes much of offering a “choice”: if you dislike posing nude for the government, its perverts will grope you instead — “prob[ing],” “prodding” and pushing “up your thighs and between your legs until we meet resistance” (and they don’t mean a slap in the face). You also suffer this indignity, even if you submit to the scan, should it reveal “anomalies” such as piercings or prostheses.

Are you still flying? Why? For your own protection and that of your children, for liberty’s sake, stay on the ground until Congress abolishes the TSA. No destination on earth or convenience in reaching it, no vacation, Thanksgiving dinner, meeting or sales trip, is worth the degradation the TSA is dishing out.

Its new “pat down procedures … allow security officers to touch passengers of the same gender in sensitive areas such as the breasts and genitals…” These attacks have been “likened to ‘foreplay’ pat-downs … [screeners are] using the new front-of-the-hand, slide-down screening technique for … over-the-clothes searches of passengers’ breast and genital areas.”

Such mass mauling is unprecedented. No regime anywhere at any time, however totalitarian or brutal, has ever routinely denuded and molested citizens.

Don’t underestimate the trauma of such aggression nor succumb to the TSA’s bland assurances that a screener “of the same gender” will paw you. We’re talking sexual assault here, not a few moments of discomfort you’ll quickly forget. Feelings of rage and helplessness, depression and worthlessness, can plague victims for months.

Most pilots are veterans of the Air Force; they’re pretty tough cookies who may even have survived combat. Yet one of them “experienced a frisking [from the TSA] that has left him unable to function as a crewmember. Words used to describe the incident include ‘rape’ and ‘sexual molestation,’ and in the aftermath of trying to recover this pilot has literally vomited in his own driveway while contemplating going back to work and facing the possibility of a similar encounter with the TSA.”

It’s one thing for a predator to force your submission at gunpoint; it’s another to voluntarily enter an airport and endure the TSA’s onslaught. Knowing that you could have avoided it entirely but instead cooperated with your assailants and even paid them to violate you will cripple you with despair.

Meanwhile, a former cop points out that the TSA no longer inflicts “pat-downs” but something far worse: “A ‘pat-down’ search by definition is ‘a frisk or external feeling of the outer garments of an individual for weapons only. … anyone who watches cop shows knows what a pat-down search is. The words are part of the American lexicon, and the public’s image of a pat-down search by police is something that isn’t all that bad.” Shame on us that we didn’t consider it “all that bad” for the TSA to defy the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on “unreasonable,” warrantless searches, though previously with the “backs of their hands.” The cop continues: “… In police work, [the TSA's current method is] called a custody search [and] includes everything short of a cavity search. The TSA needs to be honest about what they’re doing. It’s not nice to lie to the American people.”

Ah, but lying is the TSA’s forte. Despite the hundreds of passengers wailing about molestation, despite the videotapes popping up on the internet to document their stories, despite infuriated pilots’ unions and flight attendants’ lawsuits, the agency blithely denies what millions have witnessed: “there is no fondling, squeezing, groping, or any sort of sexual assault taking place at airports,” asserts its website. “You have a professional workforce carrying out procedures they were trained to perform to keep aviation security safe.” Imagine if they trying to keep aviation security dangerous.

The TSA lies about everything, all the time. But it surpasses even its own astounding record of deception when it comes to naked scanners. For starters, it implies it foisted them on us to counteract the Underwear Bomber. Yet it was already testing them years before Umar Farouk Abdullmutallab oh-so-conveniently emasculated himself. Indeed, as long ago as 2006, the agency was touting porno-scanners as “likely future replacements for the metal detectors now in use.” Nor will these contraptions stay in airports. Cops may already be peering through your curtains and bathrobe with portable versions.

But perhaps the TSA’s biggest whoppers whitewash the hazards to our health from the two technologies with which it strips us. Experts in medicine, biochemistry, and biophysics warn that one, backscatter X-ray, concentrates in the skin rather than diffusing through the body as medical radiation does; therefore, the dose you receive is shockingly high — far higher than the government admits. Dr. Jeff Zervas, a surgeon in Montevideo, Minnesota, told me, “As far as living tissue is concerned, the less exposure to ionizing radiation, the better. Zero is best.” Dr. Zervas also worried about the TSA’s legendary incompetence: “What happens, for example, if some clown leaves the machine on, and a passenger’s standing in the field? And who calibrates these things? I wouldn’t trust a bureaucrat or anyone else without a stake in its safety to do it properly.”

Dr. David Caskey, a cardiologist who was also teaching at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans when we spoke, seconded that: “In the medical industry we try as hard as possible to avoid even the smallest dose of radiation. Here you will be subjected to a rather significant amount. The result can and will be an increase in cataract formation, thyroid cancer, bone marrow suppression, etc.” He was especially concerned for female passengers. “Even low level radiation can adversely affect a woman’s ovaries. There’s the potential for later birth defects. That risk increases if the woman is pregnant in the first trimester when she would likely be unaware of the pregnancy.”

Millimeter waves may be even worse. No one knows their exact effects on human flesh, but one study concludes that they “unzip double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the double strand that could significantly interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication. … a new generation of cameras are set to appear that not only record [millimeter] waves but also bombard us with them…”

You might suppose that bureaucrats who constantly prate about protecting us would fret over the consequences of irradiating two million passengers per day, day after day. Nope. Instead, they insist against all evidence that the “technology is safe and meets national health and safety standards. … the radiation doses for the individuals being screened, operators, and bystanders were well below the dose limits specified by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). … Advanced imaging technology screening is safe for all passengers, including children, pregnant women, and individuals with medical implants.”

As you value your life, as you value liberty, don’t fly. We must boycott aviation until the TSA dies. Nor should we settle for a mere suspension of the agency’s ogling and groping. Our goal is nothing less than the TSA’s complete abolition; so long as it survives, it will await its chance — or create one — to molest us again. Another “terrorist” attack, and we’ll fight this same battle.

Indeed, we already did, in 2004: TSA was manhandling passengers then, too, though only women and above the waist. Its excuse? Two airliners had crashed within moments of one another in Russia that August. A Chechan woman had boarded each flight, and though the wreckage was so scattered authorities on the scene could not determine what caused the disasters, the TSA pronounced the ladies rebels who’d obviously hidden bombs in their bosoms. Hence, Americans screeners would molest female passengers.

TSA got away with this for three months before the public’s outrage forced it to desist. But this time must be the last. This time we stay on the ground until Congress disbands the TSA. Let’s evict politicians and bureaucrats from aviation’s security so that experts who understand the industry can design systems as unobtrusive and effective as those securing our homes, email accounts, cars.

But don’t waste your time begging Congress. Why bother after it went deaf to our cries on the bail-out and Obamacare? Hit its corporate cronies instead. Given the incest between the Feds and Big Business, boycotts are probably our most effective tactic. The American colonists tried one just before the Revolution exploded: under their “non-importation agreement,” Patriots refused to buy British goods. Much of the despotism afflicting the colonies was due to mercantilism, to the government’s favoring wealthy and influential merchants at everyone else’s expense. Sound familiar? Just as the British East India Company benefitted from subsidies, the granting of monopolies, and protective laws, so do airlines today. But when the colonists refused to play their role as consumers, the whole rotten mess collapsed.

So don’t fly, or at least don’t buy any more tickets until the airlines and allied industries press Congress to abolish the TSA. Educate your family and friends; infrequent travelers may not know of the TSA’s newest, literal grab for power.

If your job requires travel, talk to your boss about alternatives. Tell him how much productivity the TSA sucks from the American economy, that his interests, too, require this vile agency to disappear. Ask if you can “meet” with clients via teleconferences or iChat.

If you’re already holding tickets for the upcoming holidays, demand a refund and tell the airline why. Advise it you won’t fly again until TSA is dismantled.

If you absolutely must fly — if you’ll lose your job otherwise or the airline refuses you a refund (remember: the point of the boycott is to hurt the airlines’ bottom line, not hand them free money for no services) — prepare yourself mentally. Determine the point beyond which you will not permit the TSA to proceed — “if he touches my thigh, if he seems headed below my waist” — and leave when that seems imminent. Ergo, pack lightly or not at all so you don’t worry about a checked bag continuing to Des Moines while you head home.

Reports conflict about what happens to those who cut short the TSA’s fun. The Ninth District Court of Appeals ruled in 2007 that once your bag hits the conveyor belt at the checkpoint, you may not depart: in effect, you become the TSA’s prisoner. In practice, screeners may permit you to escape without much fuss, or they may “detain” you, threaten, browbeat and intimidate you, call the cops, or “escort” you from the airport.

While grounded, write the CEO’s of airlines, hotels, and tourist attractions that you’ll patronize them only when the TSA vanishes. Cut up your frequent-flyer card and include it in your letter to the airlines; let hotels know how often you once travelled and how you’d love to do so again. Folks already using these tactics have succeeded so wildly that “executives from the travel industry, including online travel sites, theme parks and hotels” demanded a meeting with “Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and [TSA chief John] Pistole [last] Friday to discuss their concerns that security is crimping travel. ‘We have received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from travellers vowing to stop flying,’ said Geoff Freeman, an executive vice president of the U.S. Travel Association … ”

You can also join groups like wewon’tfly.com and National Opt-Out Day. But these organizations object to the TSA’s current insults rather than the agency itself. That’s not only short-sighted, it betrays a profound ignorance of government’s nature — which the TSA is working overtime to reveal. Stripped of its marble monuments and fluttering flags, the State exposes its utter evil each time a screener torments a toddler or “groin-checks” another citizen.

As the TSA denudes us, government is nakedly on display.

The backlash continues. Exercise the power of NO.


Sanford Airport to opt out of TSA screening

By Marva Hinton November 18, 2010 6:25 AM

Reporter: Ken Tyndall

The backlash continues over those new TSA screening measures, and now one Central Florida airport has decided to go with a private security screening firm.

Orlando Sanford International Airport has decided to opt out from TSA screening.

"All of our due diligence shows it's the way to go," said Larry Dale, the director of the Sanford Airport Authority. "You're going to get better service at a better price and more accountability and better customer service."

Dale says he will be sending a letter requesting to opt out from TSA screening, and instead the airport will choose one of the five approved private screening companies to take over.

Congressman John Mica, who's expected to lead the powerful Transportation Committee next year, says the TSA is crying out for reform.

"I think TSA is overstepping its bounds," said Mica.

Dale says, if all goes as planned, the private security firm could take over in about 12 months.

The TSA points out that even if an airport decides to use a private firm for security, the screeners still must follow TSA guidelines. That would include using enhanced pat-downs and the full-body scanners if they are installed at the airport.


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Man arrested after punching TSA screener in Indy


John A. Christina, 51, Simsbury, Conn. was arrested Tuesday after allegedly punching a TSA screener in the chest during an examination at Indianapolis International Airport.


A Connecticut man has been arrested after exchanging words and punching a TSA screener at a security checkpoint at Indianapolis International Airport.

According to a report from airport police, John A. Christina, 51, Simsbury, Conn., was charged with battery as a misdemeanor in connection with the incident about 2:50 p.m. Tuesday at the Concourse B checkpoint.

Christina, who could not be reached for comment today, was released from jail on $150 bond and scheduled in Marion Superior Court 10 on Dec. 13.

Jim Fotenos, spokesman for the Transportation Security Agency, said in an airport police report, "Our transportation security officers work on the front lines to protect the nation from a terrorist attack and physical violence against them is shameful. TSA will work with local authorities to see that appropriate action is taken."

Airport officials declined further comment while the incident is under investigation.

Similar security checkpoint incidents at other U.S. airports have drawn concern and protests the past two weeks since TSA instituted search and pat-down procedures that some fliers believe are too personal and intrusive.

It is not completely clear from the police report why Christina punched TSA agent Gregory J. Hutman, 28, Vandalia, Ohio.

The report does not indicate that Christina refused to be screened before entering the concourse and boarding an airplane. He had already stood and been scanned in a full-body advanced imaging machine before the incident.

After he stepped from the machine, the men talked, but full details of the exchange are not in the police report.

But it indicates that Christina said he has a history of medical issues, including two metal implants, a colostomy bag and a fused right wrist.

According to the report, as Christina stepped from the scanner, he asked Hutman a question, though the report doesn't provide details.

Hutman responded, according to the report, "He's not from the Indianapolis airport and was not familiar with the process you are talking about." The report doesn't explain further.

"After the conversation, Christina punched him with his right closed fist in the middle of his chest," the report said.

When Hutman asked why Christina hit him, Christina said, "I was only kidding with you," according to the report.

Call Star reporter Bruce C. Smith at (317) 444-6081.


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GOP lawmaker: Full-body scanners violate Fourth Amendment

By Elise Viebeck - 11/17/10 10:29 AM ET

A GOP lawmaker said Tuesday the full-body scanners now employed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) violate the Fourth Amendment to the constitution, which protects against "unreasonable searches and seizures."

During a one-minute speech on the House floor, Rep. Ted Poe (Texas) also blasted former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as a "political hack" and accused him of profiting from the proliferation of the devices.

"There is no evidence these new body scanners make us more secure. But there is evidence that former Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff made money hawking these full body scanners," Poe said.

He went on to explain that Chertoff, who served under President George W. Bush, had given interviews promoting the scanners while he was "getting paid" to sell them.

"[T]he populace is giving up more rights in the name of alleged security. These body scanners are a violation of the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures ... There must be a better way to have security at airports than taking pornographic photographs of our citizens, including children, and then giving apparent kickbacks to political hacks."

Chertoff has advocated for the use of full-body scanners since he took his post at DHS in 2005.

As of January, his consulting agency, the Chertoff Group, counted among its clients one of the machines' manufacturers.

The group responded with a statement on Wednesday.

"The Chertoff Group played no role in the sale of whole body imaging technology to TSA," said spokeswoman Katy Montgomery. "Further, Secretary Michael Chertoff was in no way compensated for his public statements, in which he has consistently expressed long held beliefs in the deployment of effective technologies and techniques that eliminate security vulnerabilities such as those illustrated last year during the terrorist attempt on Christmas Day. Any statements to the contrary are false."

DHS Source: TSA Infuriated With Coverage Of Nationwide Backlash


No Grope, No Fly: TSA Refuses To Back Down: But lawmakers and local authorities prepare to take on feds

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A Department of Homeland Security source has told CNN that the TSA is infuriated with the attention the media has given to the nationwide backlash against naked body scanners and aggressive new airport pat down procedures.

During an appearance on CNN’s Anderson Cooper, TSA chief John Pistole attempted to downplay CNN’s Homeland Security source who told them that the TSA was “angry” with the media’s coverage of the issue and also fuming at the portrayal of the “don’t touch my junk” guy as a “folk hero”.

Pistole also ludicrously claimed that TSA workers were “professionals in terms of how they carry out their business,” despite a deluge of stories about TSA officials abusing, sexually assaulting and humiliating travelers, including a case currently the subject of a lawsuit where TSA goons pulled down a 21-year-old woman’s blouse before laughing and joking about her exposed breasts.

Pistole also parroted Janet Napolitano’s discredited claim that Johns Hopkins University declared the naked radiation scanners to be safe, despite the fact that just three days ago Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at the Johns Hopkins school of medicine told AFP that “statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays”.

As we documented, Big Sis’ USA Today editorial was a tissue of lies from start to finish.

Pistole also lies to Cooper when he claims that people who clear the traditional metal detector are not being subjected to invasive pat downs, in an effort to dismiss the fact that people who refuse the scanner are being punitively punished for their disobedience. As we documented with the case of radio host Owen JJ Stone, who had a TSA agent put his hand inside his pants and touch his backside and genitalia, Stone cleared the metal detector without a problem but was still made to endure a humiliating pat down that amounted to sexual molestation.

Pistole points to the example of underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as the reason why Americans need to submit to “groin checks” and have their testicles squeezed by goons in uniforms.

However, it was the US State Department that allowed Abdulmutallab to board Delta Flight 253 despite the fact that his father warned the US State Department about him a month before, he was on a terror watchlist and was aided through security by a sharp-dressed Indian man.

Pistole has indicated that the agency will not back down on radiation body scanners or invasive pat downs despite nationwide outrage and a plethora of lawsuits amidst new cases of travelers being sexually molested and humiliated by TSA goons.

“Pistole told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that his inspectors at 453 of the nation’s airports are not going to back down in the face of complaints that techniques are invasive,” reports the Washington Post.

Pistole said that agency wanted to “strike a balance between privacy and security needs,” and yet the TSA isn’t interested in striking any kind of balance whatsoever.

Groping 3-year-old children, pregnant women and the physically disabled does not represent the “risk-based” or “professional” approach that Pistole and Napolitano claim they are enforcing.

Amidst the backlash, many are calling for the TSA to be abolished and the current security-theatre to be replaced with something more effective, safer, and more respectful of privacy rights.

As Isaac Yeffet, the former head of security for El Al, told CNN, real terrorists are a giveaway for people professionally trained to spot them. Using human intelligence and rationally-based profiling is a far more successful and Constitutional method of providing airport security. Using minimum-wage low grade morons to feel up toddlers and pregnant women is not.

Pistole, Napolitano and the TSA are praying that the resistance withers away, but it is only growing stronger, especially now that local governments are warning TSA workers that they will be prosecuted for groping travelers and with state lawmakers in different areas of the country moving to terminate use of the body scanners entirely.

*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.

Ron Paul Unleashes On TSA: “Enough Is Enough”


Congressman introduces legislation to block immunity for federal goons who ‘treat Americans like cattle’

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, November 18, 2010

In perhaps his most impassioned and irate speech to date, Congressman Ron Paul unleashed a tirade of vilification at the TSA and their security procedures that have stoked nationwide outrage, stating “enough is enough” as he introduced new legislation to that would open the way for TSA employees to be sued for groping Americans or putting them through dangerous naked body scanners, preventing travelers ‘from being treated like cattle’.

During a speech on the House floor last night, Paul said that the treatment Americans were being subjected to at airports proved that the country as a whole needs to stand up and tell the federal government, “enough is enough”.

“Imagine if the political elites in our country were forced to endure the same conditions at the airport as business travelers, families, senior citizens, and the rest of us. Perhaps this problem could be quickly resolved if every cabinet secretary, every member of Congress, and every department head in the Obama administration were forced to submit to the same degrading screening process as the people who pay their salaries,” roared the Congressman.

“Something has to be done,” Paul implored. “Everybody’s fed up. The people are fed up. The pilots are fed up. I’m fed up.”

Visibly infuriated, Paul said the traveling public were being treated like farmyard animals.

“If this doesn’t change, I see what has happened to the American people is we have accepted the notion that we should be treated like cattle. Make us safe, make us secure, put us in the barbed wire, feed us, fatten us up, and then they’ll eat us. And we are a bunch of cattle and we have to wake up and say we’ve had it…. It’s time for the American people to stand up and shrug off the shackles of our government at TSA at the airport,” he raged, encouraging people to support the national opt out day planned for November 24.

Paul’s legislation, the “American Traveler Dignity Act,” is expertly crafted because it gives the feds no room to maneuver. If he had merely called for an end to certain pat down techniques, the government could have weaseled out of it by invoking terror threats or changing semantics. However, once it is established that TSA employees are not immune to assault and harassment lawsuits, they will avoid groping Americans for fear of being sued. Numerous lawsuits of this nature are already in motion.

Paul also addresses the use of naked body scanners, similarly opening the way for the TSA to be directly sued for producing images that are tantamount to pornography, and pedophilia in the case of children.

The bill is brief and gets straight to the point.

A BILL

To ensure that certain Federal employees cannot hide behind immunity.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. NO IMMUNITY FOR CERTAIN AIRPORT SCREENING METHODS.

No law of the United States shall be construed to confer any immunity for a Federal employee or agency or any individual or entity that receives Federal funds, who subjects an individual to any physical contact (including contact with any clothing the individual is wearing), x-rays, or millimeter waves, or aids in the creation of or views a representation of any part of a individual’s body covered by clothing as a condition for such individual to be in an airport or to fly in an aircraft. The preceding sentence shall apply even if the individual or the individual’s parent, guardian, or any other individual gives consent.

Indeed, the district attorney’s office in San Mateo County, California has already promised to pursue charges against TSA employees whose behavior equates to sexual battery.

“If it is skin to skin, if someone were to take their hand and put it underneath somebody’s blouse and touch someone inappropriately and go skin to skin, that’s a felony, and if it’s done simply over the clothing, according to California law, that’s a misdemeanor,” said DA Steve Wagstaffe.

As we documented in the case of radio host Owen JJ Stone, the TSA is now ordering its workers to stick their hands down people’s pants and touch genitalia. In another case, TSA agents pulled down a 21-year-old woman’s blouse and started laughing and joking about her exposed breasts while other TSA workers expressed their wish to obtain video of the incident, presumably so they could masturbate over the naked woman.

TSA abuse is now so wildly out of control that new cases are emerging on a daily basis. In the latest example, a woman from Ohio had her breasts and vagina aggressively groped by a TSA worker at Dayton International Airport last week. Read about her experience here and watch the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm9_Pt0fO_g&feature=player_embedded

Napolitano, Pistole, and the rest of the feds hoped that they could lie and deceive the American people into backing down on this issue. Now the revolt against the TSA is growing bigger every day and shows no signs of abating. Indeed, some are even speculating that we could be witnessing the embryonic stages of a new rebellion that will lead to a fundamental shift in America’s political landscape, just as the end the fed rallies in 2007 and the town hall fury we witnessed in 2009 led to the creation of the Tea Party and the wider move against big government.

We need to throw all our support behind Ron Paul’s bill and hold lawmakers’ feet to the fire on this issue until the TSA’s power is completely rolled back if not the organization abolished altogether and airport security handed back to professional and credible organizations whose main concern is rational and successful security and not the ritual humiliation and degradation of the American people.

*********************

Watch the Ron Paul video here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-N5adYM7Kw&feature=player_embedded

At least 23 TSA officers have been fired for stealing from passengers since 2007. Added with other incidents of "practical jokes" played on passengers, drug use, leaving a security post, and falling asleep on the job, it's clear why TSA officers get little respect from the public.

And TSA does not perform psychological evaluations on their officers . And their "background checks" are designed to find out if the employee is friendly with terrorist, not to find out if they have a history of sexual assault.

Gee, what could possibly go wrong here?

Onward and upward,
airforce

These minions of the UNITEDSTATES OF AMERICA Inc are not public servants. They are plain and simple security guards. They are hired to enforce the rules set down by the Corporation. They could care less about mine or yours opinions of them.
They are selected on that basis.
I just went through airports from Raleigh NC to Rome via Toronto Canada and back. It is only in the United States that these draconian measures are needed.
If the Air travelers are willing to put up with this stuff they will continue. When the Airlines stop being able to make their money because of this stuff we will see a change. This is step 1.
Step 2 will be everyone getting a biometric card or implanted chip that will prevent their having to endure this.
Enter the mark of the beast. Millions of tagged cattle rushing about till they are no longer needed.
Personally if I need to fly I will eat a lot of beans and have a beer, then when they search I will fart. Probably shorten the lines too.

I'm a security guard, in my second job. I had to pass a background check and a drug test before I was employed, and had to pass a psychological exam to get my gun ticket. That's more than these guys had to do. I regularly deal with gangbangers, drunks, and assorted other folks that most others would prefer not to have to deal with--and I've done it without ever feeling up some 3-year-old.

So please, don't call these guys "security guards." I find that personally insulting.

Onward and upward,
airforce

airforce
As I said they are selected for their willingness to do what they do. Here in Fayetteville we have Whackenhutt Security. The same mentality they had when at Area51 that allowed them to shoot kids.
Makes you wonder what the new Armed Forces are like.

My family and I have to fly next week. This will be the last time and I wish we didn't have to go this time. It has to be done as we are visiting a mortally ill relative. We had plotted our trip around the scanners so we could avoid the poison but now the pat downs are happening. I'm nervous as I often get pulled into secondary when I fly. For "some reason" my ticket often gets tagged as a risk.

Does anyone know, can I legally video tape the TSA "working" on my family? Do I need to inform them verbally they are being recorded due to weird wiretap laws even though the cam is in plane sight?

I would have no trouble suing the individual agent in civil court and ruining their life if they molest my kids.

I keep thinking someone will do a massive dump of TSA agent names/addresses.

To answer your question.

Considering the way the Country is now and what has been happening to some people who record cops I will take an educated guess that if you do Videotape the TSA goons, there is a very very good chance that you will either: get arrested, or have your Camera taken and either it or it's tape will be destroyed, or at the minimum you or you and your family will miss your flight.

If this trip is really important to you I suggest that you not make any waves.

Now there may be one other option. You posted that you had to fly next week. When do you actually have to be where you are going and how far is it from where you are located.

If you left now you should be able to drive to just about anywhere in the United States in four days and get there by Tuesday.

With two people driving getting there in even three days is doable.

I am planning on driving with a co-driver to Arizona from Rhode Island and It will take us three days including one 12 hour stopover to get a little rest.

I even rode my Motorcycle nonstop to just south of Ocala Florida from Massachusetts in 27 hours and the trip was app 1400 miles.

So unless you need to travel to Europe etc you should be able to drive there, and even then you can drive to Canada and depart from there.

sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-airport-scans-pat-downs-refual-20101121,0,5604032.story

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

$11,000 fine, arrest possible for some who refuse airport scans and pat downs

By John Lantigua

Palm Beach Post

8:59 AM EST, November 20, 2010
Advertisement

If you don't want to pass through an airport scanner that allows security agents to see an image of your naked body or to undergo the alternative, a thorough manual search, you may have to find another way to travel this holiday season.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.

That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the TSA and possibly by local law enforcement. Anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest.

"Once a person submits to the screening process, they can not just decide to leave that process," says Sari Koshetz, regional TSA spokesperson, based in Miami.

Koshetz said such passengers would be questioned "until it is determined that they don't pose a threat" to the public.

Palm Beach Sheriff's Office spokesperson Teri Barbera said PBSO deputies stationed at the airport would become involved when requested by the TSA.

"We will handle each incident on a case-by-case basis," she said.

No one will be forcibly searched or arrested "just because they refuse to go through the security procedures," Barbera said. "That may rise to the level of suspicious behavior for the TSA, but it wouldn't rise to the level of suspicious behavior for a deputy," she said.

But Barbera said that if a person is judged to be a possible threat, deputies are legally permitted to detain and search that individual. "The deputies will do it at the airport just as they would do it anywhere else," she said.

Once cleared by the TSA and deputies, the people will be allowed to leave, she said.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union was urging Americans to petition the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, to change the new policies.

"All of us have a right to travel without such crude invasions of our privacy," the ACLU said in a statement. "Tell DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to put in place security measures that respect passengers' privacy rights. You shouldn't have to check your rights when you check your luggage."

The ACLU outlined ways for citizens to respond to TSA demands at checkpoints and also provided a form letter for filing complaints.

But the TSA stuck to its guns. Testifying before Congress Wednesday, TSA Administrator John S. Pistole said inspectors at the nation's airports would enforce the new policies despite complaints that the search methods are too invasive.

"We have to ensure that each person getting on every flight is secure," Pistole said.

Asked by U.S. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) about groups that objected to all forms of bodily search on religious grounds, Pistole didn't waiver: "While we respect that person's beliefs, that person's not going to get on an airplane."

In March, the TSA introduced AIT scanners -- also known as "nude body" or "whole body' scanners -- and now uses them in more than 60 airports, including South Florida airports: Six each at Palm Beach International and Miami International and 10 at Hollywood- Fort Lauderdale.

The machines project a black and white image of a passenger's naked body to a screen in a separate, private room where it is studied by a TSA agent.

No face is visible and the agent never sees the person being scanned.

TSA officials say the new technology is necessary because it detects not just metal but other potentially dangerous materials, including plastic explosives.

Koshetz said the TSA goal is for as many passengers as possible to pass through the AIT machines, rather than the less revealing traditional metal detectors.

A recent CBS poll found that 81 percent of people questioned did not object to the AIT system. But some do and an online group called National Opt-Out Day is encouraging passengers to refuse the AIT screening on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, which would force TSA to perform many more manual searches and probably cause long delays.

They may be letting themselves in for more than they expect. A policy enacted in the past month allows agents to perform manual searches of passengers, including their private areas, which are much more invasive than the back-of-the-hand technique most often used in the past. Some critics have referred to the technique as "groping."

One critic of the TSA is Jon Corbett, 26, of Miami Beach, who this week requested that a U.S. District Court judge in Miami grant an injunction to block the new security methods. Corbett said he plans to fly to New York Thanksgiving Day and had hopes the court would respond before that.

"But I'm not sure that will happen," he said.

Personally, I think we should apply some common sense to this matter.
1. If you don't want some minimum wage asshole playing with your dong go through the x-ray machine. I went to Europe last month and the machine is much better than the search.
2. It is their airport, and it is your money. If everyone opts out of flying and calls and tells the Airlines, who are already feeling the pinch and are screaming about this BS, that you have opted out of air travel until TSA gets it's head out of it's ass.
3. Plan your trip using small planes, trains, and the bus.
The whole thing in M_O_P is to get everyone to take a special RFID card with their Biometrics or a microchip so they can walk by this BS. 666

Sure, this situation, combined with the border problem and the economy is leading everyone into the beast system.

But, we won't play by their rules regardless.

Opt out and risk a fine of $11K FRNs, plus jail time.

Might be significantly cheaper to simply charter a private plane for that Thanksgiving visit.

TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine and humiliated. He told TSA he was a bladder cancer survivor, but they ignored him.

Onward and upward,
airforce

If the American people continue to submit to this violation of their rights...they really are a bunch of stupid retards who deserve to be made slaves.

You know, this may be the turning point. This may be the point where the people finally rise up and say, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" And if this isn't that turning point, it will be something quite like it that is.

What's amazing is that the mainstream media is still defending the TSA. It sort of shows you just how out of touch they are, and why they are losing readers and viewers to the internet.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Avoid These 68 Airports If You Don’t Want An X-Ray Body Scan


Gus Lubin
Business Insider
Nov 21, 2010

If you think the airport scanner fiasco is big now, wait till Thanksgiving.

Advanced Imaging Technology People traveling in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other major cities will have to choose between a revealing body scan and a very thorough pat down.

Here are 68 airports with the scanners:

* Albuquerque International Sunport Airport
* Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
* Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
* Boston Logan International
* Bush Houston Interncontinental Airport
* Boise Airport
* Bradley International Airport
* Brownsville
* Buffalo Niagara International Airport
* Charlotte Douglas International
* Chicago O’Hare International
* Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International
* Cleveland International Airport
* Corpus Christie Airport
* Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
* Denver International Airport
* Detroit Metro Airport
* Dulles International Airport
* El Paso International Airport
* Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
* Fort Wayne International Airport
* Fresno Airport
* Gulfport International Airport
* Grand Rapids Airport
* Harrisburg International Airport
* Harlingen/Valley International Airport
* Honolulu International Airport
* Indianapolis International Airport
* Jacksonville International Airport
* John F. Kennedy International Airport
* Kansas City International
* LaGuardia International Airport
* Lambert/St. Louis International Airport
* Laredo International Airport
* Lihue Airport
* Los Angeles International
* Luis Munoz Marin International Airport
* McAllen Miller Airport
* McCarran International Airport
* Memphis International Airport
* Miami International Airport
* General Mitchell Milwaukee International Airport
* Mineta San José International
* Minneapolis/St.Paul International Airport
* Nashville International Airport
* Newark Liberty International Airport
* Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
* Oakland International Airport
* Omaha Eppley Field Airport
* Orlando International Airport
* Palm Beach International Airport
* Philadelphia International Airport
* Phoenix International Airport
* Pittsburgh International Airport
* Port Columbus International
* Raleigh-Durham International Airport
* Richmond International Airport
* Rochester International Airport
* Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
* Salt Lake City International Airport
* San Antonio International Airport
* San Diego International Airport
* San Francisco International Airport
* Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
* Spokane International Airport
* T.F. Green Airport
* Tampa International Airport
* Tulsa International Airport

These airports are getting them soon:

* Chicago Midway International Airport
* Houston William P. Hobby Airport
* Saipan International Airport

Thanks for the thoughts. Driving was contemplated but due to the remoteness of where we live we run studded snow tires in the winter (now) that are illegal where we are going, so that would require bringing an extra set of tires/rims and an expensive stop at a tire shop or bringing the tools to do it on the road. Our passes can get so snowed in too that they literally close for a period of time and I can't miss work.

I guess it will be playing the part of the good little sheep and never fly again until this changes. Picking my battles and all that...

Photographer David Vincent Wolf has created this photograph to protest those nudie scanners. Feel free to use it as you see fit.



Onward and upward,
airforce

Here's some bumper stickers. When I find out where to get these, I'll let you know.



Onward and upward,
airforce

Does this mean that all Transportation Safety Agents are going to have to be registered on their local Sex offenders lists?

LOL!!!!

More Lawmakers Demand TSA Probe


Raven Clabough | The New American
23 November 2010


Utah’s Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz and Maine’s Republican Senator Olympia Snowe have each undertaken the task of probing the security policies of the Transportation Security Administration.

Representative Chaffetz, who is expected to become the chairman of the House oversight subcommittee responsible for the federal workforce, addressed a letter to President Obama demanding him to conduct an investigation of the procedures taken by the TSA, particularly as it relates to an incident involving a little boy. According to the letter, a Utah Valley University student, Luke Tait, recorded a young boy having his shirt removed to prove that the father was not carrying any dangerous substances.

In an interview between Tait and the Associated Press, Tait explained that he felt behooved to take the video of the now notorious incident at the Salt Lake International Airport because he “realized something crazy was going on.” In an effort to avoid allowing the TSA to touch the little boy, the child’s father complied with the TSA by removing the boy’s shirt.

YouTube - Young Boy strip searched by TSA (Original w/ Full Story Description)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSQTz1bccL4


Fox News writes, “While the kid and his father were allowed to go through security, TSA agents came over and questioned Tait about his videotaping the incident and ordered him to delete the video. He refused, but was allowed to go to his gate, where, Chaffetz says, TSA agents sat near him and communicated through walkie-talkies until he boarded his flight.”

In the letter to Obama, Chaffetz wrote that the actions “do not speak well” of the TSA.

He added, “Surely it is possible to secure an airplane without sacrificing individual liberties or privacy. We can utilize bomb-sniffing dogs, AIT machines as a method of secondary screening, and behavioral profiling to accomplish the shared goal of safe and secure air travel.”

TSA responded to the incident in a blog saying that travelers will no longer be “asked to and should not remove clothing (other than shoes, coats, and jackets) at a TSA checkpoint. If you’re asked to remove your clothing, you should ask for a supervisor or manager.”

Chaffetz’s letter bears strong similarities to those concerns cited by Senator Snowe in a letter she addressed to TSA Administrator John Pistole. In her letter, Snowe stated that she wants further information on the procedures taken at airport security to confirm that there is in fact a “careful balance between protecting individual safety and preserving individual privacy.”

According to Fox News, “Snowe said she was concerned about the training methods after hearing reports that the pat-down process was being implemented differently across the nation.”

In the letter to Pistole, Snowe wrote, “These new searches are a novel procedure both for the traveling public and your front line TSA officers, and I am not convinced the Transportation Security officers have received adequate training in what is clearly an invasive procedures.”

Snowe also insisted that Pistole respond to her later no later than December 13.

Chaffetz and Snowe are not the first lawmakers to stand up to the TSA.

Similarly, lawmakers in New Jersey have teamed up with local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union to stand up to the TSA. The legislators asked Congress to review the procedures taking by TSA workers to screen passengers for flights. They have also called upon the state Senate and Assembly to confront Congress to review the constitutionality and effectiveness of the invasive procedures.

New Jersey state Senator Michael Doherty is leading the effort and asked New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to have Attorney General Paula Dow to evaluate the use of the naked body scanners and enhanced pat-downs to determine whether the procedures violate New Jersey’s privacy laws.

Doherty emphasized, “When you buy an airline tickets, you do not give up your constitutional rights.”

Last week, Florida’s Republican congressman John Mica wrote a letter to 100 of the nation’s busiest airports urging them to opt for private security screeners instead of those of the TSA. Mica asserts that the quality of customer service would likely improve under the private sector, and views the transition to private companies as a step in the right direction, as private companies could best determine how to provide adequate security.

Chaffetz would likely agree with Mica’s recommendation, as he asserts that the TSA has become too big to run efficiently.

“They’re now a big personnel agency. They’re trying to manage tens of thousands of people. When they implement things like the pat-down and this new technology, it’s been a disaster. Everybody’s complaining about it. And they never consulted Congress — it wasn’t properly done,” reports Chaffetz.

Perhaps the best example of lawmakers taking a stance against the TSA is the introduction of the “American Traveler Dignity Act” by Texas’ Republican Congressman Ron Paul.

According to Paul, “[The Act] establishes that airport security screeners are not immune from any US law regarding physical contact with another person, making images of another person, or causing physical harm through the use of radiation-emitting machinery on another person. It means they are subject to the same laws as the rest of us.”

Paul declared, "Something has to be done. Everybody's fed up. The people are fed up. The pilots are fed up. I'm fed up … Enough is enough."

Despite the public outcry by both American citizens and politicians, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs continues to defend the procedures. He claims that the introduction of the new procedures has only affect about 1 percent of the 34 million people who’ve been through TSA screening since the implementation of the new rules.

He also claims that children under age 12 will be put through modified screenings, though he admits that the new rules have not been implemented in the best way.

“If somebody feels as if they have been unduly subjected to something that they find to be far more invasive than the line of convenience and security, they should speak to a TSA representative at the airport. TSA is trying desperately to strike that balance. That will evolve … the evolution of the security will be done with the input of those that go through the security,” says Gibbs.


SOURCE:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index....mand-tsa-probe

**************************************************

[QUOTE] Here is the Administrations response...
Crackdown.

DHS & TSA: making a list, checking it twice

Canada Free Press

By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director

23 November 2010: Following the publication of my article titled “Gate Rape of America,” I was contacted by a source within the DHS who is troubled by the terminology and content of an internal memo reportedly issued yesterday at the hand of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. Indeed, both the terminology and content contained in the document are troubling. The dissemination of the document itself is restricted by virtue of its classification, which prohibits any manner of public release. While the document cannot be posted or published, the more salient points are revealed here.

The memo, which actually takes the form of an administrative directive, appears to be the product of undated but recent high level meetings between Napolitano, John Pistole, head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA),and one or more of Obama’s national security advisors. This document officially addresses those who are opposed to, or engaged in the disruption of the implementation of the enhanced airport screening procedures as “domestic extremists.”

The introductory paragraph of the multipage document states that it is issued “in response to the growing public backlash against enhanced TSA security screening procedures and the agents conducting the screening process.” Implicit within the same section is that the recently enhanced security screening procedures implemented at U.S. airports, and the measures to be taken in response to the negative public backlash as detailed [in this directive], have the full support of the President. In other words, Obama not only endorses the enhanced security screening, but the measures outlined in this directive to be taken in response to public objections.

The terminology contained within the reported memo is indeed troubling. It labels any person who “interferes” with TSA airport security screening procedure protocol and operations by actively objecting to the established screening process, “including but not limited to the anticipated national opt-out day” as a “domestic extremist.” The label is then broadened to include “any person, group or alternative media source” that actively objects to, causes others to object to, supports and/or elicits support for anyone who engages in such travel disruptions at U.S. airports in response to the enhanced security procedures.

For individuals who engaged in such activity at screening points, it instructs TSA operations to obtain the identities of those individuals and other applicable information and submit the same electronically to the Homeland Environment Threat Analysis Division, the Extremism and Radicalization branch of the Office of Intelligence & Analysis (IA) division of the Department of Homeland Security.

For “any person, group or domestic alternative media source” that actively objects to, causes others to object to, supports and/or elicits support for anyone who engages in such travel “disruptions” at U.S. airports (as defined above) in response to the enhanced security procedures, the [applicable DHS administrative branch] is instructed to identify and collect information about the persons or entities, and submit such information in the manner outlined [within this directive].

It would appear that the Department of Homeland Security is not only prepared to enforce the enhanced security procedures at airports, but is involved in gathering intelligence about those who don’t. They’re making a list and most certainly will be checking it twice. Meanwhile, legitimate threats to our air travel security (and they DO exist) seem taking a back seat to the larger threat of the multitude of non-criminal American citizens who object to having their Constitutional rights violated.

As I have written before, it has nothing to do with security and everything to do with control.

Ron Paul: Crotch Groped by TSA, Calls for Boycott of Airlines


Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Appearing on the Alex Jones Show today, Texas Congressman Ron Paul expressed his outrage and disgust with the TSA and its unconstitutional naked body scanners and genital groping under the transparent pretense of protecting the American people from terrorists in distant caves.

“If we tolerate this,” Paul said, “there’s something wrong with us.” He added that the American people deserve to be humiliated and demeaned by the government if they refuse to stand up and resist.

Paul predicted Americans will eventually boycott the airlines to put an end to the intrusive searches and the unconscionable use of dangerous backscatter radiation naked body scanners. “Maybe the Congress will get off their duffs and do something in January,” he said, “and insist we reign in the TSA.”

Responding to Alex Jones’ assertion that the TSA’s actions are akin to what the Nazis did in Germany during the 1930s, Ron Paul said that we long ago capitulated on “showing our papers” and now routinely provide Social Security numbers to employers and show our government issued driver’s license as an accepted form of identification. “Now the government wants us to show them our genitalia and they want to take pictures of us and put their hands into our pants,” he said.

Paul said due to pervasive coverage of TSA abuses by the corporate media, the American people are now beginning to ask serious questions about government conduct.

“I think it’s a healthy wake-up call to a lot of Americans,” Paul told Jones. “I just hope they can work that in to the whole concept of what’s been going on with our country for a long time – the government is too big and intrusive and abuses our rights and they do the things the shouldn’t be doing and they forget about the things they were instructed to do.”

Congressman Paul said in the course of his work representing the people of Texas he has to endure TSA abuse, including the latest “enhanced pat down” that verges on sexual molestation. “I have to go through that all the time because I have metal in my knees,” he explained. “I get prodded all the time and it is disgusting and I tell them so.”

When asked by Alex Jones if the TSA had subjected him to an “enhanced” screening, Ron Paul answered yes.

“Specifically,” Alex asked, “have you had the enhanced pat down, sir? Have they touched your crotch?”

“Yes. Absolutely, and like I said, absolutely disgusting,” Paul responded.

He said he believes a boycott of the airlines will be necessary if we are going to force the government to back down and stop acting like a sexual predator. “I am going to be doing everything conceivable to try to change these rules because they are not making us safer, they aren’t better for us – it’s just to enhance the power of the state.”

Just don't pay it. Of course, you will have to be willing to defend it...

TSA turns off naked body scanners to avoid opt-out day protests



Mike Adams
Natural News
Nov 25, 2010

Anticipating a nationwide grassroots surge of protests against naked body scanners and aggressive pat-downs, the TSA simply turned off its naked body scanners on Wednesday and let air travelers walk right through security checkpoints without being X-rayed or molested.

All across the country, air travelers are reporting that the TSA simply deactivated the naked body scanners and let people go right through without a scan. “Backscatter scanners are off. No scan. No patdown.” reported a traveler from the Seattle airport. “Backscatter machines aren’t being used at LAX,” reported another traveler. “They’re all roped off.”

Much the same story is being reported all across the country.

The TSA is desperate to avoid protests

Shutting down the “National Opt-Out Day” by turning off the machines is the only logical move for the TSA, of course: The agency needed a way to defuse the growing grassroots resistance to its criminal violations of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights. So instead of facing what was sure to be widespread protest, the agency simply decided to turn off the machines for a day.

This action tells us all sorts of fascinating things about the TSA and its fabricated security excuses. Perhaps most importantly, it proves that the naked body scanners are not needed for air travel security in the first place. When it wants to, the TSA can just turn the machines off and resort to baggage X-rays and metal detectors. That’s worked for years, and it apparently worked today, too.

And yet, up until today, the TSA has insisted that the naked body scanners are absolutely essential to detecting hidden bombs, and that “travelers won’t be safe” unless they use the naked body scanners. So all of a sudden today it’s okay for the TSA to put air travelers at risk of being blown up?

The TSA can’t have it both ways. Either the naked body scanners are vital for air security and they need to be running 24/7 to keep everybody safe, or they’re just another security con game being played out for the financial benefit of Chertoff and others who profit from the sale of such machines.

How can the TSA — with a straight face — say that naked body scanners are vital for air security but not on the busiest air travel day of the year?

As you can see, there are some serious holes in the TSA’s mythology, and interestingly, this National Opt-Out Day indirectly exposed them by getting the TSA to turn off the naked body scanners. This is effectively an admission that they aren’t important to air security.

Trying to avoid any challenge to its power

This action by the TSA also shows that the TSA is desperately trying to avoid being publicly embarrassed by the national-opt-out day protests. Lots of local and national news film crews were out at the airports today, hoping to catch something interesting on camera. But by turning off the naked body scanners, the TSA was able to stage a “calm looking” day at the airport.

As soon as the TV cameras leave, however, they can turn those machines right back on and start molesting people once again. This is classic behavior of police state tyrants: They present a calm, professional image to the media, but once the cameras leave, all of a sudden their hands are back down in your pants.

I predict the TSA will have the machines turned right back on by Friday, and more reports of sexual molestation and inappropriate pat-downs will continue to emerge.

Many people just skipped the airports altogether

The other big travel news today was that lots of travelers decided to simply skip the airports altogether. NaturalNews received emails from several travelers who described major U.S. airports as “nearly empty.”

Meanwhile, traffic was terrible on the freeways. The Massachusetts Turnpike played host to a 30-mile traffic jam today http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/2… .

A new Zogby poll indicates that 43% of the American public will seek alternatives to flying due to the TSA’s aggressive pat-downs and naked body scanners (http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews….). That’s going to add up to a huge financial hit for the air travel industry in the months ahead. The TSA could end up destroying much of the air travel industry altogether!
Learn more about freedom, security, American history and the Bill of Rights

For a full discussion of the issues that really matter here, check out my new commentary audio / video about the Don’t Touch My Junk song.

The first 13 minutes or so are about the song itself. After that, it’s mostly a discussion about freedom and the Bill of Rights. You can watch that video commentary for free at:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=F69DE…

Thank you to all who participated in the National Opt Out Day. In getting the TSA to turn off its naked body scanners, we exposed the TSA’s “big lie” about air travel safety.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and travel safely, no matter what method of transportation you choose.

Did TSA cave on scanners for Thanksgiving rush?

By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 -- 5:28 pm


'Noticeably subdued' airports suggest people opting out of flying altogether

News reports on Thursday declared the National Opt-Out Day protest against TSA screening procedures a bust, noting short wait times at airport security screening and TSA reports that there wasn't any spike in passengers opting out of body scanners.

But reports from travelers and local news sources suggest that at some of the busiest airports in the US the TSA has backed down and resorted to using the old screening procedures -- metal detectors and less-intrusive pat-downs.

And anecdotal reports from airports across the country suggest lighter-than-expected passenger traffic, suggesting that some travelers may have decided to "opt out" of the screening procedures by not flying at all.

"One day before the the pre-Thanksgiving wave crests, Atlanta's airport was notably subdued, vendors and travelers said, with minimal wait times and limited, if any, use of the controversial full-body scanners," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Atlanta-Hartsfield, a Delta hub, is the busiest airport in the nation.

Many of the scanners at the main security checkpoint were roped off at mid-day Tuesday. Transportation Security Administration spokesman Jonathan Allen said travelers should expect the enhanced security measures, such as the scanners, to operate "just as they would any other day." He didn't address why the full body scanners appeared to not be in use Tuesday.

Twitterers around the country have made similar claims about Los Angeles International as well as the airports in Seattle, San Jose and Columbus, Ohio.

Several travelers reported on social networking sites that Lambert Airport in St. Louis also appears to have abandoned body scanners for the holiday, at least for some security line-ups.

"Metal detectors only and I watched them pat down an elderly woman and it was using the old methods, and a TSA agent stands between the line and the pat-down to block pictures and people being able to clearly see it," reports a Reddit user. KMOV in St. Louis reported that passengers arriving from Dallas appeared to be under the impression that the TSA had stopped using the body scanners.

But the St. Louis Post-Dispatch quotes a TSA spokesman who said seven people opted out of body scanners during the course of the day.

Whether the opt-out protest was successful or not, it appears air travel officials and travelers alike were surprised by the lack of passenger traffic on what is typically the busiest flying day of the year.

A restaurant manager at Atlanta-Hartsfield said she'd never seen traffic so sparse on a holiday.

"Most of the tables on the restaurant's second floor were empty through lunchtime, and servers said on a day when they should have seen between 1,200 and 1,500 customers Tuesday, they served fewer than 500," the AJC reported.

Kim Zetter at Wired.com reports that, at San Francisco's airport, people in one security line-up were sent through a body scanner while those lined up at another were sent through regular metal detectors.

Passengers in one checkpoint queue were directed randomly to pass through either a standard metal detector or a ProVision millimeter wave body scanner. In a second queue, the type of screening depended on which conveyor belt the traveler lined up at: The right one went through a body scan, the left, with rare exception, put passengers through the metal detector.

If the TSA has indeed reduced the use of body scanners, at least for the busy holiday period, it's something the agency is unlikely to admit to publicly, as it would be seen as a security risk to do so.

NO CHOICE BUT TO OPT OUT?

However, at some airports, it appears that the new, intrusive pat-down isn't an opt-out at all -- but the only choice available to travelers.

The Naples Daily News reports that at the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, passengers in some lines were being given a pat-down due to a lack of the new body-scanning machines.

Steve and Carol Rohletter ... flew to Fort Myers early on Wednesday morning to spend Thanksgiving with family ... and were both subjected to the new up-close and personal pat-downs being used by the Transportation Security Administration because the line they went through happened not to have body scanners. They saw other people going through the scanners, but said they saw no problems with either security method.

http://erratasec.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-was-just-detained-by-tsa.html

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

I was just detained by the TSA

Posted by Robert Graham at 9:22 PM

Today, I was detained by the TSA for about 30 minutes for taking pictures while going through security. Taking pictures is perfectly legal.

I took pictures of the "advanced imaging" machines that see through your clothes – the machines that are the subject of so much controversy lately. I was quickly besieged by TSA agents shouting at me to stop taking pictures. I was then detained while they tried to figure out what to do with me.

I should point out that (as far as I know), taking pictures is perfectly acceptable. The following is a section of the 2008 TSA Screening Manual:

2.7. PHOTOGRAPHING, VIDEOTAPING, AND FILMING SCREENING LOCATIONS
A. TSA does not prohibit the public, passengers, or press from photographing, videotaping, or filming screening locations unless the activity interferes with a TSO’s ability to perform his or her duties or prevents the orderly flow of individuals through the screening location. Requests by commercial entities to photograph an airport screening location must be forwarded to TSA’s Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs. Photographing EDS or ETD monitor screens or emitted images is not permitted.
B. TSA must not confiscate or destroy the photographic equipment or film of any person photographing the screening location.


I wasn’t trying to cause trouble. I frequently take pictures of the screening area when I pass through airports. I work in the (cyber) security industry, so I’m interested in such things. In this case, I saw something I wanted to photograph and blog about (which I describe at the bottom).

Some sort of manager (old grizzled guy) was summoned to deal with me. He was dressed like the rest in a blue TSA shirt, but must’ve been one level more senior than the TSA employees who were shouting at me to stop photographing.

The old guy, with a couple other agents, escorted me through the normal process of putting my bags through the x-ray and going through the "advanced imaging" scanner. I was planning on asking to get groped instead, but I didn’t want to push it, so I meekly complied.

When I finally got through the machine, my computer and iPhone had been taken off the belt, and had been in possession of the old guy for several minutes. He was holding them at a station at the far end of the conveyer belt.

I asked him to return my items and let me go. He said no, and told me that I was to take a seat while they called people to figure out what to do. Several agents surrounded me preventing me from leaving, while there was a buzz around the main desk as they called people.


Over the half hour, people kept arriving, and we’d go through the following script (these aren’t exact quotes, of course, just my impression of what happened):
TSA: Why are you taking pictures? What’s your motivation?
Me: I find it interesting, and I want to post the pictures to my blog.
TSA: You can’t take pictures in this area.
Me: Well, I read the TSA guidelines on the web a few months ago, and they clearly state that people can take pictures in this area.
TSA: You can’t take pictures in this area.
Me: Can you show me the rules that say that I cannot?
TSA: (Nodding over to the main desk) They are checking on that now.

Some added the following:
TSA: You have to show us your pictures and delete them.
Me: I’m not going to delete my pictures.

Others added:
TSA: Show us the pictures you took.
Me: If I unlock my phone, I want assurances that you will give me the chance to relock it before you take it from my control.
TSA: We can’t give you any promises.
Me: So I’m not going to unlock my phone.

One random question was:
Q: When is your flight?
A: 4:30 (in roughly two hours)
The implied issue was that if I didn’t comply with their demands, they could detain me long enough to miss my flight. On the flip side, they weren’t happy having to deal with me, which was disrupting their routine. They certainly weren’t going to be happy detaining me for 2 hours to make me miss my flight.

I tried to act nonchalant, as if I didn’t care about the time, but I certainly did. This is Thanksgiving, the flights are full, so it’s unlikely the airline would be able to book me on another flight. If I missed that flight, it would mean missing Thanksgiving. On the other hand, it would be a better blog if the TSA forced me to miss my flight for doing something that is perfectly legal. So I decided I was willing to miss my flight, making me as calm on the inside as I was trying to project on the outside.

Another discussion I heard between a TSA agent and a police officer was something about escorting me back out through security (i.e. denying me access). I didn’t actually talk to him. I feel stupid now; I should have pointed out to him that I felt I was being illegally detained by the TSA.

While sitting there, I was drawn into other conversations, like this one with a higher level manager (she was dressed I in a suit rather than a uniform):
TSA: Don’t you have normal operating procedures at your work?
Me: Yes
TSA: How would you like it if somebody came to your work and disrupted your procedures? How would you like it if people took pictures of you at your work?
Me: I don’t work for the government. Government agencies need to be accountable to the public, and therefore suffer disruptions like this.
TSA: Not all parts of the government are accountable to the public, especially the TSA.
Me: Wow. No, ALL parts of the government are accountable to the people, especially the TSA. I’m not sure what type of country you think we live in.

This made me angry. Up to this point, I was trying to project a calm, relaxed attitude. I don’t want to be like those hippy douche-bag activists that try to provoke the TSA with their passive-aggression or belligerence. I wanted to be the calm, relaxed, easy going guy that while standing for principle, was nice about everything else. At several points, I pointed out to the guards that I wasn’t upset, that I understood their job, that I supported their work, and that I was willing to comply with anything that didn’t infringe my rights.

The final guy was "Duty Manager Jerry Estes" (finally, I remembered somebody’s name). We went through the standard script. He then claimed that the reason photographs aren’t allowed is because of the controversy over the images taken by the "advanced imaging" machines, and that absolutely NO images are allowed of the people in the machines.

This was bogus, of course. It actually would be a valid reason if I had photographs of the console showing naked people, but that was locked away in a back room somewhere. My guess he was just looking for another excuse to see the pictures I had taken.

He offered a compromise: if I were to delete pictures of people inside machines, then he would allow me to keep the rest of the pictures. I agreed (I was getting bored, and truly, I didn’t have a lawyer, so I didn’t know how far I could push this). So we reviewed the pictures, and he forced me to delete one. That one didn’t show a person inside of a machine, just a person in front of a machine, but I didn’t argue – it’s nearly identical to another picture.

After that, they let me go as if nothing happened.

Why I took the pictures

The reason I took the pictures was to blog on a typical security issue that, in the industry, is called "security theatre". Screening techniques are chosen to make the public feel safe, not to stop terrorists.

The "advanced imaging" machines that see through clothing are a good example.

First of all, terrorists can get around them pretty easy, but either putting C4 in a body cavity or surgically implanted.

Secondly, terrorists are not deterred by "random selection". The goal of the terrorist is to blow themselves up. Getting caught means not dying, but still has a (lesser) terror effect because people will get scared from the attempt. It’s a win-win for them.

Sure, random selection will deter us from bringing contraband (like nail clippers [well, allowed now]) onto a plane, but I doubt it’s a big deterrent to a suicide bomber.

So, I wanted a picture of the L3 Provision machine in order to include with my blog describing this.

Here all the pictures I took, minus the one I was forced to delete.


Postscript

According to (right-wing conspiracy theory) http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/30286, the Obama administration is labeling people like me a "domestic extremist". Ok, I'm being a bit melodramatic here, I believe in accountability and am not trying to protest the security measures, but I'm not sure that law enforcement can understand the difference (especially since this post has been linked from posts labeled Resources for National Opt Out Day).

Ken Murray points out this link of TSA jokes http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-boston/tsa-tsa-tsa-oh-lord-almighty-tsa.

@eileenludwig points to TSA's own blog post clarifying that I can take pictures http://www.tsa.gov/blog/2009/03/can-i-take-photos-at-checkpoint-and.html.

My ornery curmudgeon of a father makes the recommendation that I look at their tag and speak to them using their names. It's easy for them to hide behind the character of a faceless bureaucrat when you don't know their name. But when you make it clear you know their name, they are more likely to fear that they will be held accountable for their actions. Intimidating as all hell.

Hey, I just remembered. I don't remember them looking at my identification (other than the normal check further back in line). I think the incident will be attributed to "annoying passenger" than "Robert Graham".

Here is another guy detained for taking pictures http://boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish/2010/11/17/so%E2%80%A6i-got-detained-by-the-tsa-at-the-airport-today/. He points out that video cameras probably recorded the entire incident.

Apparently, I could have called TSA public affairs at (571) 227-2829, and they would have told the TSA agents that yes, I can take photos.

Here is how senile hackers work:

* Google for how to to recover deleted images on iPhone.
* Google harder
* Google "iPhone undelete"
* Find page that says to start by jailbreaking phone
* Doh! Phone already jailbroken many months ago.
* "It's a UNIX system! I know this!"
* ssh to iPhone (no, the password isn't alpine).
* Robs-iPhone:~ root# dd if=/dev/disk0 | ssh root@192.168.1.2 'dd of=/tmp/dump.dmg'
* (wait 3 hours to transfer 8-gig iPhone image across slow 802.11b 11-mbps network)
* Ran PhotoRec on the iPhone disk image, wasn't able to recover image (or any thumbnailes)
* ....hunting for other recover software to run on the image...

This TSA Blog brags how the "Opt Out Day" was a failure, because wait times were actually lower than normal. But they are being disingenuous. Wait times are less because the TSA staffs up with a lot more people during Thanksgiving and Christmas high travel days. That's been true the last several years, which likewise had shorter lines on November 23 as well. In addition, according people I know on Twitter flying today, the TSA simply stopped using the controversial AIT machines in order to prevent the protest from working. That means the protest was a success, not a failure. Lastly, protesters wouldn't cause longer lines -- traffic would simply be redirected through the metal detectors. The protesters would simply cause fewer people to be imaged/groped.