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As if the experience wasn’t humiliating enough – and expensive, for missing his flight – the TSA has decided to make an example of John “Don’t Touch My Junk” Tyner. The TSA announced yesterday it would investigate, and may prosecute, Tyner for declining the porno scanners and groping.
But it’s worse than that: Tyner was told he could be fined $10,000 when he was at the airport – “that was the old fine,” according to TSA. Turns out it’s now $11,000. And TSA is going for it:
The transportation Security Administration has opened an investigation targeting John Tyner, the Oceanside man who was ejected from the airport Saturday morning after refusing to undertake a full body scan and, subsequently, an invasive body search.
Tyner recorded the half-hour long encounter on his cell phone and later posted it to his personal blog, along with an extensive account of the incident. That blog and a subsequent story on signonsandiego.com posted Saturday night and gone viral, attracting hundreds of thousands of readers, and thousands of comments.
Michael J. Aguilar, chief of the TSA office in San Diego, called a press conference at the office Monday afternoon to announce the probe. The investigation could lead to prosecution and “civil penalties” of up to $11,000, he said.
That’ll show the terrorists!
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Thanks, Michael.
What the fuck for?
they REALLY wanted to grab a hunk of that junk
me, I’m asking for a screener I’m attracted to, then I’m good to go
Compliance.
It’s time for a NO-FLY DAY when everyone just stays home. Or how about a FLY NEKKID DAY when we all show up and strip. The beleaguered populace is going to have to stand up to these idiots. My understanding is that the ban on carrying cigarette lighters was dropped not for safety but because it cost the friggin’ guvt so much to dispose of the lighters it confiscated. Safety, indeed!
I promised myself in 2003 that I would NEVER fly again and absolutely NOTHING will get me to change me so-called mind
With what?
Was watching one of the videos of these exams and I was astonished. I’ve had less thorough breast exams from my doctor. How large a bomb can a person carry in their bra?
These abuses are
the result of Republican ruleall about conditioning people to live in a police state. If we elect a Democratic President and a strong majority in Congress, they willput a stop to these abusescontinue and enhance the abuses, with no end in sight.Hey, Teabaggers, this is what the government taking your freedom looks like, not health care.
I quit flying years ago. I might start again if the TSA is disbanded.
this is really an absurd policy.
Under normal circumstances, this would be called sexual molestation. And now it’s done in public?!
Security theater-open auditions-how is your junk?
Where are the Tea Partiers and other Right Wingers on this stuff?
Good grief, they howl about “intrusive government” and all. If this isn’t Example # 1, I don’t know what is.
Crickets.
Asking questions is a form of non compliance.
Failure to accept no answer for an answer is resistance.
Asking for the rules is active non compliance. It also is probable cause to expect future noncompliance, possibly in conspiracy with others.
Mr.Tyner? Nail meets hammer.
They are ranting at Drudge. They call Napolitano “Big Sis”. Yes, I check out that site to see what they are up to….no, I’m not a troll. ;)
Tyner’s blog has 5000 comments.
Tyner is being interviewed on Alex Jones. I guess Homeland Security will not let him be on any other tee vee or radio show.
It has nothing to do with safety, the working class must be taught to accept subjugation and humiliation from corporate authority. Once the indignation from this episode has quieted down, they’re just going to walk it forward with more of the same.
Game, set, and match…
Digby has this figured out:
Ha – you’re just trying to get them to climb on the slippery slope that leads away from absolute certain safety and not questioning a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g having to do with national defense down, down, down to the terrorists winning. Why do you hate America?
/s
Yep, and taser anyone who does not instantly obey.
LOL
When you have given up the privacy of your own body, you’ve already lost the game. This is clearly assault under the definition of “touching without consent.”
This may well be an issue that crosses political boundaries.
Unreasonable search and seizure seems to apply, since it’s not possible to know the rules from day to day. Can I bring a lighter? Toothpaste? How large a container of shampoo? Yknow that oversized belt buckle could thwack somebody real hard and leave quite a knot, so it probably ought to be disallowed as well. Basically all one can do is to not take anything with you, and hope for the best.
Morality and religious grounds seem to apply. I don’t know of too many religions that are ok with institutionalized groping, in public, of children.
“Big government” arguments would seem to apply. Talk about government intrusion, how about they intrude their mitts right onto your hoohoos?
All in all, this is a prime symbol of uncontrolled authority – and only those in power like uncontrolled authority. This may be the largest test case of public-versus-authority we’ve seen in a while, depending upon how much media coverage it gets.
Trying to guess about the media coverage is difficult, because the media will instinctively want to keep quiet, but reporters have to deal with this daily. I can see the media going either way.
That makes two of us. I’ll rent a stinkin’ car and pay for out-of-state driving.
Now they’ve started iris scanning “suspects” in New York (not at airports):
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/11/15/nypd-commences-use-of-iris-scans-of-suspects/
They’ll probably bust you for sexual assault if you get arroused. This whole thing is bullshit.
Whenever bipartisan issues actually occur, things both parties could possibly agree on, Obama seems to do nothing when you would think he would be springing into action. I really think it’s time to encourage Obama not to seek another term and encourage Elizabeth Warren to fill the void.
If even 50 percent of people who fly regularly were to stand up to this ridiculous crap, the airlines who force the TSA to change their policy in about a week.
They took a lighter from me that my best man had given me at my wedding. The gentleman promised to send it to me, never got it. Sad, sad day for me.
The boys and girls of both parties having their public dick-sizing arguments are wrecking our economy one industry at a time, of course they’re just following the commands, ‘er advice, of their Lobbyist Overlords who are simply filling the role of bagman for TMOTU, our Wall Street Giants.
What imbecilic, narcissistic sociopaths. Looking forward (but only to the horizon), not backwards! Forever War. Don’t eff with the wrong guy! (the Great Petreaus)
If I didn’t think I might end up in Bulgarian gulag with my testicles being tasers, I might think about that.
Hell… I’m a 9/11 truther. They can’t wait to get ahold of my silly butt.
Sabre-Toothed Critter: “…I’ll rent a stinkin’ car and pay for out-of-state driving.”
Remember “the establishment” would really rather not travel with us. They’d be just fine paying coach, but flying on practically empty aircraft.
Blue Texan’s regularly scheduled post is up: Tea Party FAIL: GOP’s Historic Ban on Earmarks Already History
Psycho America:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vR5FUzPDhb8
The threat of prosecution is a non-starter given that Tyner was both forced out of the airport and required to stay under the same TSA authority. They got their private eyes crossed.
Pick a date: Triple Depends Day! Let’s fuck with ‘em by all wearing multiple depends and maybe doubly padded bra so the fuckers have to grope significantly. Someone be filming it. Shut ‘em down.
I watched a program on Discovery the other night where they discussed new technology that flashes an image at you (on a mounted screen, like an advertising board) as you’re walking through the mall, an airport, etc. Sensors guage your reaction. They claim that by your response to this image, they can tell if you have criminal intent in your mind, or if you’re psychologically disturbed. Then authorities can act accordingly.
Yep. TSA = legal petty theft. But what could we expect? This program was begun under Bush and those positions are extremely low paid ones. Probably half of them got fired from retail jobs also for petty theft. Now they are able and even encouraged to do it.
What would happen if everyone concealed something silly and inexpensive (like popsicle sticks) that would be noticed? They’d get all excited only to find worthless stuff, hopefully with nasty messages on them. Is there some way they could fine (or jail) a person for messing with them?
Popsicle sticks with corny jokes on them =D
On a serious note, they’d probably call it obstruction of justice and arrest your ass.
And the upside is that if you aren’t psychologically disturbed when this system gains widespread use, you will soon be!
12 Monkeys here we come!
If there isn’t now, there would be immediately afterward and probably applied retroactively.
ayfkm ?!?! do they fit these guys for clown shoes right away or do you have to wait 30 days ?
surprised they aren’t calling it “enhanced” pat downs
No it’s not just like assault – your medical dr touches those same parts. The circumstances must be considered.
The reason they want to fine him is that they have a rule that if someone in line refuses the scanner they must be physically examined. Otherwise, a terrorist would get in line and wait to see what type of scanner is being used, then leave the line and try at another one if it was the new, more thorough scanner.
We are forced into this solution by the concept of the underwear bomber. I have been through the new scanner and I don’t give a fig that someone in another room was looking at my parts.
wear sunglasses?
aren’t you concerned about the extra radiation? you could lower your sperm count or get cancer
and it may not be “assault” but it is an invasion of privacy, and one that is very cost-ineffective as a way to deter attacks. there are many easier targets to hit
I’d prefer a teeny swimsuit day. The kind I have in mind doesn’t leave much to the imagination. They could search what little of it there was, if they REALLY wanted to, I suppose, but being as I’m a sorta largish boy (~310#), they might decide “EWWW!!!” instead… :)
Enahnced patdown techniques. Heh.
It’d be really funny if it wasn’t so fucking true.
To the hope of security, we remain devout.
lotta terrorists wearing Brooks Brothers suits and flying private jets, when they’re not on Air Force One winging their way to India
Well good for you. But some people do care if a porn-o-scan is used on them. And they will stay home as long as the only options to plane travel are invasive for people not suspected of a crime.
Some people who may not want to be scanned or groped:
People that care about their 4th amendment rights against unreasonable searches
Rape survivors
Children
People with conditions like austism or PTSD who will react negatvely to being roughly touched
Transgendered people who should not have to reveal their personal condition in order to fly.
Compliance with The Man, as my Dad used to say. He’d be shocked at the pre-eminent position that a bunch of sick bullies have attained (many voted-in) here in the US.
Frequent travelers have probably seen crying toddlers wanded at TSA checkpoints, but now apparently they can be groped as well. This from the current frontpage of the San Francisco Chronicle
SICK.
Ok, so the next logical step for the terrorists is to put a bomb in someone’s body cavity (anus, vagina, throat/stomach).
Your move, TSA! You can either cavity search every single passenger, or do a cancer-causing full body X-ray on them.
Once we get to that point the absurdity of TSA’s security theater will become obvious. I just hope the bomber is as incompetent as his or her predecessors have been.
Al Capone was brought to justice on tax evasion charges. Maybe the peace process will begin with a few naked bodies turning up in airports and folks just refusing to fly, which would be a great thing for the environment. Fitting, so poetically fitting, that the skies should empty in such a noble cause!
I’m flying with my 5 year old and my 9 year old daughters next month. Starting to reconsider…
I think the TSA is buying themselves a lot of grief, politically obviously and legally. The reason airport searches are exempt from 4th Amendment protections is choosing to fly on commercial aviation is a voluntary act and you choose to go through the security process. Once he had his ticket refunded (and good for American Airlines for buying back his nonrefundable ticket), he was no longer an airliner passenger and so TSA had no grounds to search him unless they had probable cause (which they did not).
That he may be a terrorist who backs out of security screening in order to find a weaker link is absurd argument. 1. Its not a passenger’s fault if there are weak links, that’s the TSAs fault. 2. Actual terrorist groups can easily do intel by having one member who’s “clean” go through first to collect intel and report back to other members on the security procedures.
Why not just use bomb sniffing dogs (detecting gun powder is part of their training) as a preliminary screening tool before selecting people for the “scan or hand” line? The courts have determined that trained police dogs who smell drugs (and presumably explosives as well) are reliable enough to be the equivalent of a police officer seeing contraband in plain sight and can justify what would otherwise be an illegal search. It would be certainly be faster and less intrusive.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-01-25/news/17355589_1_drug-sniffing-dogs-drug-detecting-illegal-drugs
It seems t6o me that those who have suffered sexual molestation or rape could be genuinely traumatized by this new approach. I believe I heard that Nap0olitano was unsympathetic to a consumer group who met with her recently to complain. Not everyone has the choice of simply not flying.
So basically once you get in line, no matter what surprises they have in store for you, that you have no choice in the matter whatsoever. Since different airports have different standards and you basically never know what you’re going to face, that seems a bit extreme. But I guess those are the rules as they’ve been written.
At this point we need to have a broader discussion and reach a national consensus about what’s appropriate. I understand that you don’t mind being scanned. Frankly, I’m not sure I do either. But this seems to be wildly unpopular and maybe we need to discuss that, too. The TSA rules have been unilateral and there’s been no public input or deference to what the public does and doesn’t want to put up with. I’m willing to take my chances with nail clippers, bottled water and hair gel in abundance. It seems a lot of people are willing to go to metal detectors and no further. Since we’re never going to be able to detect every little thing, maybe we need to develop security policies we can all live with and leave it at that.
I’d like to know what the charges are going to be. The guy was fairly soft spoken and despite the silly euphemism he used, he was polite to the officers. He made no physical move toward the TSA agents, so there’s no assault. They didn’t try to arrest him, so there’s no resisting arrest. He didn’t get on the plane or try to get on the plane. He simply refused and explained why. Seems to me that the so-called crime here is the disagreement itself. Perhaps it’s going to the be public disagreement, but what about free speech? Target has free speech. Whole Foods has free speech. Goldman Sachs has free speech. Don’t human beings have free speech anymore? Will it soon be illegal for any of us bloggers who disagree with the TSA searches to fly, even if we submit to the search? This will probably only be settled when people stop flying because of the search policy. Those who have bought into the fear keep telling the rest of us not to fly if we don’t like it. Maybe we shouldn’t and give the airlines some economic stimulus.
The next logical step is for them to start demanding DNA swab samples ,along with the pat down.
Imagine the harm that would be done to a child victim going through one of these…scanner or pat down.
Could last a lifetime.
Yeah, I’m fresh-off a brief but gloomy chat about this crap with the preschool director. Horrific authoritarian lessons at a very sticky age.
I’m sure the overlord-pretenders in TSA-DHS monolith are betting on the news-cycle quickly dropping pornoscanner outrage down the memory hole. And that’s not a dumb bet, really. But the Thanksgiving holiday travel burst may well keep this one alive beyond the usual 3-day buzz window.
Screw him. No one HAS to fly. If he gets away with it, what’s to stop someone with a bomb in their underpants doing the same thing? You don’t want to be scanned or patted down, drive or take the train. It’s pretty simple.
Too bad we’ve become a nation of tv stoned cowards. That should have been the defacto response.
Ah,
We have been visited by a “we let the terrorists win” mindsetter.
are you sure the undies bomber was incompetent? if he blew up the plane the TSA might not have figured out it was hidden in his undies, and then they wouldn’t have the justification to buy all this new equipment to hasten the bankrupcy of our country
Using the fastest and most convenient means of transportation falls under “pursuit of happiness” in my book and I should not forfeit any of my other rights when using it. Under your theory, since I don’t have the explicit right to travel by train or car, they could search me there as well. Therefore if I don’t want to have my person, papers or effects searched I need to walk wherever I go, and only on public thorougfares?
That seriously inhibits my liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Make sure you visit his website and listen to all his video footage. The police officer traveling with his sons talks to the agents and explains in his 30 years as a cop, he never did anything like the TSA was doing.
The cop was quite reasonable.
Why screw him? He didn’t try to fly. He said “if this is what you demand for me to get on the plane, then I’ll go ask for a refund.” So I don’t get what your beef is.
Though he has revealed that this policy is wildly unpopular, so the TSA should probably reconsider it.
Congratulations citizen TEBB. This is the proper response. You may go about your business. Have a nice day.
Quite imncomprehensible that passengers are subjected to these inmdignities, yet the cargo receives little or no screening.
Maybe the public needs to form a lobby,so that their voices can be heard .
Of course,flying less will drop airline revenues-that should get some bottom line attention.
Gitcheegumee – I agree that we are not spending enough money scanning cargo. Something like 3% of it gets scanned. We should cut our military spending by 75% and use some of that money on technology to scan cargo at airports, ports and road borders.
Well whoever made the bomb apparently wasn’t competent. Or the bomber failed to activate it properly. The shoe bomber decided to light the fuse in full view of everyone rather than go into the bathroom and do it.
All I’m saying is I hope the next bomber, who will be hiding the bomb in the last place TSA has left to them, is no more successful. I have little doubt someone will make the attempt.
So how do we stop them? We almost caught the underwear bomber before he got on the plane. So some minor improvements to that screening process should catch the next such individual.
But you do the kind of screening they do in Israel…which simply involves greeting and speaking to people as they enter the airport. You only search those who fit a suspicious (non-racial) profile.
He also did his homework and checked their website to see if the scanners were being used, it erroneously said they were not.
klynn – in that cop’s 30 years of work he never had to worry about someone walking around with a bomb in their underwear.
I understand that this scanning and these pat downs are upsetting to a lot of people. However, that doesn’t make it the wrong thing to do. I bet a lot of people, if asked, would say they think we should have limits on the annual deficit or total national debt. However, if you ask the same person if she thinks we should extend the term of unemployment compensation during a severe recession you’ll hear “absolutely, yes we should.”
Not really. TEBB is no safer for having allowed someone to peek into his/her underthings electronically. The fact is the next bomber is still going to get a bomb on a plane. Only that plane will be filled with people trying to forget what TSA just did to them.
TEBB’s next comment is right on, though. Luggage and cargo scans are a much better way to improve security than 100% nekkid scans and feelup patrols.
Read here, here, here and here. How do you know some sales guy hasn’t already staked out every transit point on public byways and common carriers to sell these damn things?
Knives and guns fit in underwear, too. The cop’s point is valid as far as it goes. You only need to get so personal for a pat down. Case in point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3n8tJmq_mQ (not entirely SFW).
Flyer’s Rights dot org
The scanners are virtually useless and mainly operating as something to make it look like TSA is doing something. It is security theater designed to make it look to be something positive while actually being used as a scam to rip off the tax payers. A similar item to big ticket weapons systems.
As others have mentioned, hiring real, honest to doG people, training them on proper techniques, is far more effective a means for security. But that isn’t a good option for the shareholders of the firms that hire a Chertoff as a “consultant”
And still does not address the need for scanning and inspecting cargo, the are where the real security hole exists.
I don’t see how any of this would stop or even slow down terrorism. Someone made the suggestion that it’s a counter to the “concept of the underwear bomber”. But as others point out, next time it won’t be an “underwear bomber”. It’ll be an anal cavity bomber or god knows what. And airlines are hardly the only target of opportunity.
The only positive that I see is that people will avoid air travel unless it’s absolutely required. No one wants to experience the iron fist in the latex glove. And that might be a slight plus for the environment if it results in fewer flights.
I just wish we still had decent passenger trains in this country. It’d be a lot harder to scare people into accepting this nonsense with trains. Sure, someone could bomb a train but… it’s not like they could drive the train into a skyscraper or a nuclear power plant.
November 24th — National “Opt Out” Day. If you’re flying, ask to “Opt Out” of the porno scanner. If everyone does, it’s going to make such a mess of the biggest travel day of the year, that airlines will make TSA change their tune.
As a gay guy, I am looking forward to the groping. I wonder if I should be wearing underwear. I will be tempted to say “can you go a little higher? That feels really good.”… but I don’t want the fine…. you can buy alot of handjobs with $11,000.
I heart you. High Speed Rail would be fantastic. I don’t think people have thought through this scenario or we’d have it by now:
You leave your house and take a short cab ride or drive to the train station. You get on a superfast train fifteen minutes later with no security check. You speed across the beautiful countryside in a large comfortable seat. Whenever you like you can get up and wander up and down the train. You can go to a diner car and get food and drinks. When you arrive at your destination you are at your destination not fifteen miles away from it.
For medium-distance trips a fast train is much faster than a plane due to the lack of security buffer time and proximity to origin and destination cities.
BINGO!! As a frequent flyer, I can tell you that TSA is pretty much useless. Again, I sort of don’t mind these people having a job, now that our wealthy overlords have off-shored nearly everything else to the third world. But anyone who flys regularly can tell you that it’s a big fat joke.
And then as many have stated: TSA is constantly playing this “catch up” game, whereby they “invent” the next best thing AFTER someone does something new – such as the undie bomber. That’s HISTORY now, but what we get a FULL YEAR LATER is the porn scanner.
It’s almost too stupid for words, but unfortunately too large a segment of the population “buys into” the bullsh*t that this all so “necessary” and it’s all “for your own good.”
Just more corporate rip-offs of the US taxpayer, while intimidating the rubes into believing that the “terrorists” are overseas, rather than the wealthy overlords who are ripping us all off.
As a gay guy you’re going to love TSA’s security procedures after the Rectal Bomber strikes.
Yes, exactly. Yet here we are 9+ years after 911, and what is the main focus?? It’s because the TSA screenings of whatever nature are so visible, so they get more US tax dollars allocated to them.
That’s all it’$ about is the money$$$$. Believe me. The rubes wouldn’t see the cargo & baggage scans, so there’$ no money to be ripped off from that… even though cargo & baggage scans probably would make us safer.
This is bullshit. It’s TOTALLY too stupid for words! Figuring out the terrorists are just going to hide the bomb in the next-most-convenient place you aren’t looking requires the kind of pattern recognition that most three year olds have mastered.
But since there’s a ton of money in NOT knowing this…the people who count are happy to not know it.
Choose which you prefer:
1. Your child is exposed to radiation, thanks to neo-Nazis.
2. Your child is groped by a stranger hired by neo-Nazis.
3. You choose another form of transportation to protect your child from neo-Nazis.
4. You stay home to protect your child from neo-Nazis.
5. You fight neo-Nazis.
Those are the only options available. Were my son still a minor, he absolutely would not fly now. Period.
It’s the 16th (here in US). Anyone want to bet that “opt-out” is still an option on the 24th?
In one of the other threads I pointed out how there are a lot of online polls that show about 4-1 against. CBS claims it is 4-1 in favor. But their sample is smallish, about half of Americans haven’t flown in the last year, and there is no indication that the respondents had a clue what the dangers and nature of these scanners is. Then, when you look closer at the CBS poll, they do not even supply the whole poll. The link the provide says “Read the complete poll”, but when you click on the link, they only show you two of the thirty plus questions. But bam, they got every news outlet repeating their numbers. What a joke. There is plenty of reason to believe that this is a totally corrupt fraudulent poll put together by MSM mobsters to lie to the American people.
Good luck with this… Airline passengers WORLDWIDE now believe you are some of the stupidest people on the planet…
I got $10 to contribute if this guy ever gets fined. I think the TSA would be overwhelmed by the number of air travelers who would contribute to such a fund
THANK YOU so much!
It is now in my favorites file….imho,should be in everyones’.
Seconded!
Would that image they flash be Mickey Mouse with a boehner?
If it came to that, they’d create a giant screening hub in the middle of every airport so people could see their tax dollars at work, screening baggage. I’ll bet that would cost a fortune, too.
Fact: They’d rather scan you naked or order grunts to grope your genitals than protect you from anything. It’s perversion masquerading as security.
Our neo-Nazi ruling class suffers from a sadistic sexuality with pronounced separation anxiety coupled with a need to project this aberration and dominate others. I can hear their collective response to our trepidation. “Why would any patriot even consider disagreeing with our underpaid, poorly educated worker bees implementing our sado-erotic legislation?” they’d say, if only we would listen.
“Why would any American ever complain over something so completely impersonal as mandated sexual molestation in exchange for transportation on carriers operated by for-profit corporation acting in the interests of our multinational investors who additionally lobby our government to gut regulations and further reap untold profits from our nascent police state technology you all have no reason to fear (and if you do, or object to being molested, you shall be heavily fined and branded a terrorist, thus placing you on a no-fly list you can never, in all likelihood, be removed from)?”
I asked myself the same question just this morning, as I noted the market was falling, falling, falling, thanks to our brave patriots on Wall Street. I think I’m about to cry…
Sniffle. If only GWB were President. He’d set everyone straight right from the first tee at some donor’s private country club and links.
“Heh. Heh. I mean, what’ve y’ got t’ fear if yer not a terr’ist lackey? ‘Merica. Love it… Leave it… Love it or… Or we gonna m’lest yew! Heh. Heh. Now watch mah shot.”
Once upon a time the only no-fly zone was in Iraq.
I guess the U.S. Constitution is null and void at airports now.
It’s not a criminal case. It’s a civil suit based on a statute that authorizes TSA to collect a civil penalty up to $11,000 against someone who refuses to be searched.
I’m going to try and find the statute and analyze it. I may write a diary, depending on what I find.
I’m a retired law professor and former criminal defense attorney for 30 years.
We’ll see.
My friend recently had skin cancer and refused to go through the body scanner. The TSA disrespectfully argued with him about the radiation emitted by the scanner and repeatedly rolled his eyes. My friend opted for the “pat-down.”
They took him to a private room and strip-searched him!
I originally said that I would opt for the pat-down over the body scanner, but after hearing his story I am done flying, unless it is an absolute necessity or emergency. As it is, I’ve only flown twice since 9/11.
But I love the double Depends idea.
Sounds like something out of Minority Report.
Please come back and tell us if you care when the side effects of the radiation start showing up during your doctor’s exams.
That’s because you and your ilk are part of the problem here, giving up liberties for the sake of ‘security’. You sincerely believe that going through these ridiculous steps is making you/us safer…? Good grief.
Think about it – you have to take off your shoes at the security checkpoint specifically because of Richard Reid, the failed ‘shoe bomber’. So this reactive policy is only effective against someone who is no smarter than to retry what Reid failed to do… and for years now we all submit to this ridiculous procedure in the hopes that it will catch that one idiot terrorist who wants to retry the shoe bomb.
I must say, I am a huge fan of FDL, and this is the very first time I find myself vehemently disagreeing with their stance on an issue. This new technology seems to be very promising and useful. It can keep us safe from people like the underwear bomber. The images are not stored, so no one can view them after the passenger passes through.
The ONLY valid complaint as I see it, is the question of radiation. It is understandable that pilots don’t want to be subjected to radiation every work day. The health ramifications need to be well studied. Aside from this concern, I don’t see why people consider this a loss of their freedoms. When you get on a plane, people must be subjected to extraordinary scrutiny. To deny that there are many people obsessed with attacking airplanes is to put your head in the sand.
It must be dealt with. Racial profiling is wrong and reprehensible. These scanners would appear to allow people to board more quickly, without resorting to ineffective methods such as racial profiling. Terrorists are not gods. They don’t have the ability to overcome every single obstacle our security professionals put in front of them. These scanners will make it much more difficult for terrorists to carry out attacks on airplanes.
I insist on the opportunity to be brave and to travel in spite of terrorism. I want to be courageous and proud that my fellow passengers and I did not have to tolerate such abuses caused by terrorists.
“the TSA doesn’t provide security. It provides security theater”
The TSA has announced that every major airport in the nation now has a body scanner. Most only one. Which means they will have to further concentrate screening to that one location.
Which means terrorists will no longer have to be extremely clever to get explosives on planes. They can just strap a hundred pounds of dynamite under their clothes and put another 100 pounds in their carry-on luggage, and detonate it in the middle of the crowd waiting to get through TSA screening. Unless they start screening people in order to get into screening queues, people are no safer due to TSA screening. But at least the planes are.
Yep, it isn’t really good security, but it is incredible theater. Just think about it, Americans have been convinced that their safety depends on letting a stranger view their naked bodies and having their genitals fondled. And the whole time their actual safety is being compromised. It’s like a multi-billion dollar performance art installation.
I can’t wait til they mandate cavity searches. ~~~EDITED IN MODERATION~~~
My popsicle stick says “HOW DO YOU KEEP A TSA WORKER BUSY? >>>OVER>>”. On both sides. :b
And you know the images are not stored how?