It has taken a long time, but we may have finally reached the tipping point on the erosion of our individual rights. Clearly people will put up with an awful lot, especially when it's mostly happening to others, but apparently they aren't so fond of having their children viewed naked or their own genitalia fondled by government agents while on their ways to Christmas at Grandma's house.
It seems to just be starting to get the attention of the government-allied media, but popular reaction to new policies set by the Transportation Security Agency for screening passengers at airports is so negative that it may be the spark it takes to ignite an overdue rebellion against all of the excesses of the security state since 9/11.
The new TSA procedures include offering randomly selected passengers a choice between a full body, backscatter x-ray scan and an intrusive, hands-on body search. The image produced by the new scanners involves a higher level of radiation exposure and produces an image which effectively reveals the naked contours of the subject's body. The new pat-down procedures include manipulation of the subject's genitals. Refusal to submit to either the scan or the search will at least result in missing your flight, lengthy questioning and removal from the airport. It may also result in being put on a "do not fly" list and a possible civil suit and penalty of up to $10,000. Or at least this is what TSA employees told John Tyner, a recent traveller who recorded the events surrounding his refusal to let TSA employees "touch his junk."
More and more individuals are refusing to cooperate with the new TSA procedures and it's not just regular passengers who are outraged. Both the pilots union and flight attendants union have advised their members not to submit to scans and to insist that pat-downs be done in private, but they also raise the further objection that all of these crewmembers have already gone through security background checks, so why do they need to be subjected to this level of scrutiny?
For that matter, why does anyone have to undergo this indignity within the United States? There has not been a notable increase in terrorist attacks since 9/11. Statistically we had substantially more acts of terrorism in the 1960s and 1970s than we have in the last decade. Almost no identifiable acts of terror have been stopped by heightened scrutiny of passengers, and no potential terrorists slipped through past, more reasonable levels of screening on domestic flights. There's no legitimate need for these additional security measures which will humiliate and inconvenience millions while doing nothing significant to improve passenger safety.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Alan Kurtz
One of your Article Tags is "sexual assault." Isn't that over the top, Dave? Disagreeable as it is, I'm not sure a pat-down by a trained security agent in a public place qualifies as sexual assault.
2 - Dave Nalle
Many people would disagree, Alan. I could have included several links to people who are saying exactly that, but I stuck to more factual sources.
Plus it's always fun to include a few provocative tags.
Dave
3 - Alan Kurtz
There are laws against sexual assault. If a TSA screener has sexually assaulted an airline passenger, that agent should be arrested and prosecuted, and of course suspended from work until acquitted of criminal charges. It doesn't enhance your argument, Dave, to exaggerate the most lurid and, so far as I know, entirely imaginary aspect of this situation. A provocative tag is one thing; prurient appeal is something else.
4 - Dave Nalle
It's a tag, Alan. It's not the content of the article. Get a grip.
Dave
5 - zingzing
welcome to kurtz-era blogcritics, dave. hope he gives you a handjob.
6 - zingzing
that said, the tsa was rolling back some of their more ridiculous shit for a while, but now they jack it up by ridiculous degrees. is this just technology gone bad? i'm sure we could have done this for years. meh. this shit won't last for long. mass protests are the answer. of course, then everyone is going to miss their flight...
i'm showing up early for thanksgiving, i tell you that. and i'm gonna make a puddle.
7 - pablo
Another blue moon moment for me. Dave has written an article that I actually agree with! One minor bit of criticism here though Nalle. You might have mentioned (assuming that your informed enough to know) that former head of Homeland Gestapo Michael Chertoff is and has been for some time financially tied to the implimentation of these virtual strip machines.
9/11 was an inside job!
Alex Jones is one of my heroes
Good job Dave.
8 - pablo
Allan,
Under California law, and I cite that jurisdiction because the viral video that Nalle cites in his article was made at the San Diego airport, sexual assault occurs when the genitalia is touched in a non consensual manner. This touching does not have to be for the purposes of arousal. Since the guy in the video clearly told the gestapo that if his privates were touched he would have that person arrested, he was not consenting to be touched there. So Nalle is not over the mark here, your just un-educated plain wrong as usual.
Not to mention a nitpicker as well.
9 - Doug Hunter
I can't wait till we have the shoved-a-bomb-up-my-ass-bomber, I look forward to seeing what the screening will turn into then. And you thought taking off your shoes or letting someone fondle you and take naked pictures was bad?
Bend over and spread em! What have you got to hide? Total submission and subservience is the goal. and it's 'mission accomplished'. Once the fervor dies down and we resign ourselves to being the government's bitch once again they'll add this technology at sporting events and public gatherings and your kids elementary school play. Sad.
10 - Mark
Don't just "opt out" of naked scanners only to be sexually molested, instead. Boycott Flying COMPLETELY, until sanity returns! Please join us
11 - Dave Nalle
A lot of folks are now going to their local airports and handing out flyers in opposition to the TSA policies. Some are getting arrested and I imagine video of these incidents should start surfacing today.
Dave
12 - Dan(Miller)
According to this article, The Transportation Security Administration has opened an investigation targeting John Tyner, the Oceanside man who left Lindbergh Field under duress on Saturday morning after refusing to undertake a full body scan.
Mr. Tyner is the gentleman mentioned in Dave's article as having recorded and reported events leading to his current difficulties. Sometimes, the TSA just doesn't know when to stop its foolishness.
Dan(Miller)
13 - Joey
Dan(Miller): They will target Mr. Tyner as a warning to the rest of us, what we can expect. It is not foolishness, but by design. People must be ready for this, and to decide 'many' things, not just whether they will submit to a body search.
14 - Dan(Miller)
Despite all the very reasonable upset over the new TSA "strip and grope" procedures, there has been very little about the Fourth Amendment prohibitions. For the reasons stated here, I think they plainly violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition against "unreasonable searches" of our persons.
15 - Ron Hendricks
I think it's about money, not power. Contractors have discovered a new income stream in the Homeland Security game. We're upset over scanning technologies in our airports? I have news for you. It's on the streets already. Read up on Z backscatter vans. From now on I am flying naked!
16 - Ruvy
Nice to see you finally admit IN WRITING, Dave, that you live in a Fascist state. As I've told you all many times, Fascism doesn't have to come with blackshirts goosestepping and thugs beating up reporters (though the New Black Panthers harassing vote monitors at elections comes close enough to thugs with black shirts).
And it has arrived. Take the train or the bus. Why let these fascists humiliate you?
Hi, Pablo.
17 - Alan Kurtz
Dave, I apologize. After reading today's update to the John Tyner story, I'm convinced that you were prescient in tagging your blog with "sexual assault." Indeed, far from being tangential to this issue, sexual assault is at the very heart of it. Why else would all the other commenters in this thread be so irate? It's not the principle of unreasonable search, which only one commenter mentions. It's the fear of being "sexually molested," in the words of commenter #10.
Interesting, though, that all the commenters on this thread are male. I believe women have far more experience as victims of sexual assault. They could tell us what that crime really involves. And it wouldn't be just a harmless pat-down.
It's a typical male conceit that strangers want to "touch my junk," as Tyner told the TSA agent. This case is not about over-applied technology or over-aggressive search procedures. It's about sexual vanity run amok.
18 - pablo
And of course Alex Jones being the cool dude that he is had John Tyler the guy who was harrassed, and now threatened with legal action by the homeland gestapo on his show today. :)
19 - pablo
Hi Ruvy, I have enjoyed your posts of late. :=)
20 - roger nowosielski
Cool remark, Alan. It's indeed an eye-opener to hear this outrage from a red-bloodied American male once the shoe is on the other foot.
Cindy will love you.
21 - Alan Kurtz
Cindy will never love me.
22 - Ruvy
I'm waiting for some of you Americans to finally admit that we Israelis have you beat hands down when it comes to airport security. I'm waiting for some of you to finally admit that profiling - RACIAL, ETHNIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILING - is the way to go. Now that the the TSA thugs are groping your genitals, you've actually figured out that these scum are just thugs. When are you going to figure out that real security requires several layers, and a sophisticated understanding of what you are actually looking for?
23 - Alan Kurtz
TSA thugs are groping your genitals.
Ruvy, some of us real Americans would have it no other way. It sure beats riding the bus.
24 - pablo
Oh I almost forgot Nalle. You know drudgereport.com right? It is one of the largest websites bar none in the world. Well today's main link on the top of their site is about the TSA, and is an inforwars.com (Alex Jones) link! How bout them apples bubba?
25 - Clavos
All that has to be done to resolve the whole airport/aircraft security issue is to follow the lead of El-Al airlines and Israeli security in allowing profiling.
Though there have been several shooting incidents at El-Al ticket counters outside of Israel, most recently in 2002 at Los Angeles' LAX, no one has successfully hijacked or bombed an El-Al aircraft since 1969. Industry authorities rate El-Al as the world's safest airline.
Too bad America is too "progressive" to follow their example -- Americans (the vast majority of them, anyway) would be better served if we did allow profiling, and far fewer Americans would be having their rights trampled on.