Click Here to Read John Whitehead's Commentary
As to the airport security we should use the Israeli system. Stop the politically correct balony. A terrorist before entering security check could have a large bomb in the carry on board luggage, take it to where the security checkpoint is located where a large gathering of people are waiting to go thru security (probably equivalent to 3 planes of passengers), blow it up. The whole airport would be shut down including airports all over the country. That is why intelligence and profiling are the best defence.
Jim H.
The government? Yes, but so is Costco!
Don't believe me?
Just try walking out without submitting to the search, and watch what happens. I *know*, because I DID.
By the time I was released I was almost in shock, I had no idea they could do that. But that was only the start. Even though I refused to ID myself, (and they eventually dropped the threat to call the polce, and finally allowed me to leave,) they somehow managed to ID me and called me at home the next day and interrogated me.
Yes, Costco.
Amazing, but true.
BTW, great website!
Dan S.
Good article. Keep writing about this subject. Freedom from das homeland security is critical. We have to loudly boycott these travesties of liberty. Stop flying to start, don't go into a court building, then don't allow them to start putting these abuses in train stations, bus stations, etc.
John E.
First, just so you know. I don't fly. My family is all within 3 days driving distance and anyway I hate to travel. In the current atmosphere, I would hesitate to fly anywhere, as I have a somewhat volatile temper, and 40 years training in martial arts. I fear I would clock some TSA pervert and end up in jail forever as a terrorist suspect. So, I'm as guilty of cowardice as the everyone else. Still.
I seem to remember that Nelson Mandela spent umteen years in jail for his opposition to apartheid; that our founders risked, quite literally their lives and fortunes in a similar disagreement with the powers that were. My greatest hero right now is the Amish guy who sells me raw dairy and who also risks, quite literally his freedom, his property and maybe even his life in so doing.
But on the TSA issue, I see all these articles on LR about the outrageous TSA transgressions. But I see no one, not one who is willing to do what I, female, age 64 with limited testosterone hesitate to do: Bring a knee to the groin of one of these goons, and take the consequence, which will, indeed be very unpleasant. Or perhaps start shouting at his fellow inmates to just overrun their assholenesses? Or maybe, for those who follow Ghandi (who I do admire), get a bunch of folks together with signs to picket the humiliation lines? Or start a complete boycott on flying.
There is none of the above!!!! Nada. Nicht. Nichevo. With the exception of that wonderful pilot who said FU to TSA and to his job, no one is standing up to these people.
My God, what have we become?
Keep writing. Maybe some kid will get inspired (revolutionaries are always young) and start unraveling this awful system we have spawned.
Best wishes,
Vilma O.
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has worked with abused men and women for years. The use of the pat down and full body scanners is traumatic not only for people who have been previously sexually victimized but for all persons. We have spent years teaching people about personal space and how to say no to unsolicited sexual advances and now our government is saying that we have to give consent for ourselves and our children to be physically and sexually molested in order to fly? This makes no sense and is a terrible violation to the emotional health of every person in our country. It is even detrimental to the people who say they are fine with it because it gives them the opportunity to be fondled; it is encouraging their sexual fantasies and acting out.
I have children and there is no way that I will subject them to doses of radiation or to the physical and sexual molestation of the TSA perverts. When my youngest daughter was 10 a TSA agent in the PHX airport ordered her behind a screen where HE was going to do a physical patdown. When I protested he became threatening and I raised my voice telling him there was no way he was taking my daughter behind a screen without my being present. His female supervisor then came over and demanded of ME as to what was going on. When I told her, she became angry at him and said "you know better than that!" It could just as easily gone the other way with my daughter violated and me in handcuffs. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. Please help to get these searches eliminated.
Clair H.
Mr. Rutherford,
Thank you for publishing the letters from women who were abused by TSA agents at lewrockwell.com. It is important that these stories get out, and that these machines be removed and the patdowns cease.
You may be interested on what I've written on my blog on the matter here:
http://samablog.robsama.com/?tag=tsa
Keep up the good fight.
All the best,
-Rob S.
The bible says do not pass by evil hide from it. 36 years ago; to fly back home I was required to tear off the gift wrapping of a music coffee grinder to my son. I have never entered an airport since. I would not enter one now at the end of a gun
M.
Dear JohnW,
Thank you for your article on the TSA measures. Thank you for naming names of bad government officials. And, thank you for telling people's stories.
There is an excellent youtube with a woman saying that she had a panic attack thinking about the search.
http://www.youtube.com/user/snowbigdeal08#p/u/6/7Ra3ov1mEZE
(She is asking Jet Blue for help. The important thing to me is what she expressed.)
-Kimberly W.
Hi John
you need a live web site where people can report anyone who works for the TSA and were they live so their neighbours can find out about them.
If I had a child porn freak living next door I would want to do something about it.
get people to report everything.
shine the light on them.
Kevin D.
HAHAHAHAHA! These people are getting what they deserve for being asleep their entire lives. Now they are pissed off but still do not know what the real problem is or what to do about it. The real problem is a government they let get too big. In this particular instance it's an aviation biz that's been sucking on the government tit for as long as it could get something. Airline companies and the public at large sold their souls for government airports, air traffic controllers and all that goes with it a long time ago. Now they are getting the jackboot that always goes with anything federal. Serves 'em right! It is unfortuante that they are so goddam dumb they won't learn a thing from this.
I would like to protest this invasion of privacy, but how?
I have fallen and I can't get up.
What are my rights? Do I even have any?
No! Gone a long time ago because you and your ilk weren't paying attention. It took someone with his hand in your crotch to finally wake your sorry ass up and now you're so stupid you don't know what to do.
W.
Dear Mr. Whitehead,
Bruce Schneier, a genuine security expert, has written several times about the war on terrorism morphing into a war on different.
There's a new front in that war - naked body scanners. The TSA trains their screeners to look for "anomalies." Not weapons, or bomb parts, but anything different. So now you can be questioned, groped, assaulted, harassed, even arrested, not because you did anything different, but because under your clothes you look different.
See
http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/ClaireWolfe/2010/11/05/tsa-porno-scanners-what-theyre-really-looking-for/
Best regards,
Steve
Dear Sir,
I would like to know why people continue to fly? If they would just refuse to fly, wouldn't the airlines then be forced to make some changes? There are a couple of trips my wife and I have quietly decided not to take because of the invasive, ridiculous scans or pat downs, but apparently I am in the minute minority. Your thoughts?
Gary H.
John: It would be interesting to do a little research on TSA hiring procedures. From watching videos of people being molested by TSA employees, it seems that most of them are uneducated, fat, black, white, Hispanic men and women. Give a person with limited education and in the lower class of the working group and you will have a group of people that will do anything that you want because they do not want to lose their jobs. I’s work for the TSA an u gonna do as I sae or I’s gonna arrest u. The TSA employees are NOT middle class Americans. They are the lower class of the working group that do not want to lose their jobs, so they will abuse their power and make life miserable for the rest of us.
tom
Mr. Whitehead, I would bet the farm that somewhere within the hollowed hall of America's security state there is an ever enlarging collection of images of notable people and celebrities as well as that of the underachieving masses who possess interesting physical attributes. And of course for the TSA foot soldiers who are so inclined, there would be images of the underaged. America's decent is proving to be rapid, the impact will be very unpleasant.
Regards,
Dennis C.
Hi,
I would like to share the following comments with you (and others who may visit your web site), but please share the following ANONYMOUSLY if you elect to post it on your website or otherwise reshare my remarks.
Enhanced Screening and How We Finally Lost the War on Terror
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Law enforcement can only succeed with the help of the public, whether we're talking about arresting violent street criminals or preventing terrorism. Law enforcement just can't do it on their own, and I am *highly* supportive of law enforcement. However, given what I'm hearing reported about the new "enhanced" screening at airports, I think we've finally LOST the war on terror.
What Bin Laden couldn't do to us, we're now doing to ourselves.
The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize, but what many may not know is that most terror actually has specific objectives: terrorist acts are meant to challenge the perception that the authorities are in control, and to _provoke_official_overreaction_. Terrorists actions, in almost every case, really aren't very significant from a big picture point of view, even if they can be terribly tragic if they happen to directly involve you or to a loved one.
For terrorists to really succeed, they need the amplification and pressure that the media provides, AND they need to convince the authorities to impose increasingly draconian and ultimately unconscienable "countermeasures" in an effort to "control" or respond to the attacks that may be taking place.
Once terrorists succeed in getting the authorities to completely overreact, the terrorists have won.
You've leveraged the virtually limitless power of the state to oppress and intimidate its own population, destroying what you are theoretically striving to protect.
I think we've passed that point when it comes to screenings at our airports.
If you're like many and regularly read the NY Times, don't miss:
"Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself,"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/business/02road.html
However, I'd suggest instead that you see the video "TSA Fondles Women and Children Refusing Airport Naked Body Scanners" at http://www.infowars.com/tsa-fondles-women-and-children-refusing-airport-naked-body-scanners/
Truly, I urge you, take a minute to view the video linked from that site.
Five key points:
1) ENHANCED SCREENING SHOULD ALWAYS BE DONE BY A PERSON OF THE SAME GENDER, IN PRIVATE, WITH THE TRAVELER HAVING THE OPTION OF HAVING A SUPERVISOR OF THE SAME GENDER PRESENT OR A VIDEO RECORD OF THE SCREENING THEY'VE RECEIVED.
There should NEVER be TSA agents of the opposite gender doing hands-on physical screenings -- what idiot decided to allow male screeners to grab the breasts and genitals of females and children? I see a sudden uptick in sex offenders all competing for these jobs ("Hey Charlie, guess what? Now they PAY ME to grope women and children all day long. Is this sweet or what, huh?")
These screenings should be done in private, and the person being screened should have the option to request that a TSA supervisor be present, or the option of having a private video record of the screening that they received so that if a screener *does* engage in inappropriate contact there will be a documented record of that fact.
2) CLEAR AND CONSPICUOUS NOTICE OF RIGHT TO OPT-OUT IS MISSING.
Travellers should be notified that they have the right to opt-out of being irradiated. Currently that right is not clearly explained to travellers. I know we're being told that this irradiation is safe, but do you remember when we were also told that fluoroscopic foot shoe measuring devices were also "safe"? In truth, we really just don't know, and empirically won't know for years. We do know that highly respected university professors have expressed serious concerns about the safety and health consequeneces of the "enhanced screening" devices -- see, for example:
http://www.npr.org/assets/news/2010/05/17/concern.pdf
It is unconscienable that TSA is not providing clear and conspicuous notice of flyers right to opt out.
If we can be given painstaking instructions on how to load our tiny travel size bottles of shampoo and mouthwash into zip lock bags, surely TSA can also let us know something as fundamental as "you have a right to request alternative screening procedures."
3) EXERCISING THE RIGHT TO OPT-OUT IS NOT JUSTIFICATION FOR HUMILATING OR INTIMIDATING A TRAVELER.
If a traveller does ask to opt out of being irradiated, he or she still deserves to be treated with respect. At a minimum, that means NOT screaming "WE'VE GOT AN OPT-OUT" as if exercising that option is kin to asking to be publicly humiliated. (I believe that sort of shouted announcement is being done in an effort to discourage others from also opting out)
4) WE NEED TO RECOGNIZE THAT ULTIMATELY THIS NEW MEASURE WILL BE INEFFECTIVE.
What's the plan when terrorists go from what they've already tried to secreting explosives in their body cavities? What's the plan then, eh?
Will TSA then whip out vaginal speculums and anal probes? Or what if a terrorist opts to have explosives implanted below their skin? (Imagine terrorist liposuction: suck a kilo of fat from a tubby terrorist, and replace that mising fat with a kilo of plastic explosive instead).
Or let's reason about this just a little more. If someone's a terrorist, they can *tell* what airports have the "enhanced scanners" and which ones don't. These things are NOT small.
They're readily visible.
So assuming the terrorist has at least the IQ of a turnip, and they wanted to avoid having a concealed IED detected, don't you think that they just *might* go to one of the OTHER airports that DOESN'T have these scanners deployed?
5) THERE ARE LESS INTRUSIVE AND MORE EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVES WHICH COULD BE USED INSTEAD.
If the worry is that people will conceal explosives on their person, there is non-invasive technology to detect
that: air "puffer" machines that can sample air from the person being screened, using that non-invasive method to detect traces of explosives. This is a well proven and accepted method that's been around for a long time. THAT'S what SHOULD be getting deployed if the worry is that people will smuggle on "underwear bombs," not the use of radiation devices or intrusive/punitive searches.
Heck, if it comes right down to it, let people opt to strip naked for visual inspection by a screener of the same gender, rather than having the Hobson's choice of being irradiated or physically molested.
6) TSA SHOULD MAKE IT EASY FOR FLIERS TO FILE COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE ENHANCED SCREENING, AND THEY SHOULD POST PUBLIC QUARTERLY SUMMARIES OF THOSE COMPLAINTS BROKEN DOWN BY AIRPORT AND GENDER
The public deserves to know if there are problems with the enhanced screening procedures, particularly at particular airports, or for particular genders. Requiring quarterly reporting would accomplish that goal.
Let me also mention that I believe that this new policy disproportionately impacts three particularly vulnerable groups:
1) Children
For those of you who are parents, I look forward to hearing how you plan to explain to your children, including pre-kindergarten age children, why its okay for random strangers to grab their genitals
*sometimes,* but not the rest of the time. Anywhere except at our airports, this sort of conduct would be grounds for arresting the perpetrator for criminal sexual molestation. (And the alternative, allowing unseen parties to take naked pictures of your children via the radiation screening devices, would amount to tolerating the creation of child pornography in any other
circumstance)
Some things are objectively wrong regardless of who's doing them, or why they're being done. This is an example of that.
2) Victims of prior sexual abuse
I would also ask you for just one small moment to put yourself in the shoes of travellers who are victims of previous sexual assaults. The process that's now being rolled out amounts to revictimizing those who have already suffered tremendously, and this is going to accomplish *nothing* except to discourage Americans from flying (and boy, now THERE'S something that will help our already struggling transportation industry).
3) Those who've had disfiguring surgery
I would also suggest that people consider those who may have had radical mastectomies or other disfiguring surgeries. In many cases that sort of thing leaves long term emotional scars. You're now asking those victims to set aside their right to privacy, their basic right to human dignity, to be intrusively screened. I can just imagine how breast cancer survivor gel implants will end up getting scrutinized, for example.
Bottom line:
I think that law enforcement risks destroying the popular support that they rely on by rolling out measures that go way too far. The "Total Information Awareness"
program was one example of that
sort of thing, and it is clear to me that this is another.
The time has come for ALL of us to say, "You know what? Enough is enough." We've entered a very dark period for our country, and this is the sort of thing that's going to end up CREATING new domestic radicals rather than preventing international terrorism. I think that's a very perilous course for our country to steer, and I urge the administration to rescind this policy or to deploy non-invasive "puffer" machines if they have an ongoing concern about passenger safety as a result of new emerging threats.
Thank you for considering these thoughts, and best of luck working to roll back this unconscienable abuse of our constitutional rights.
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