***Update 4-13-2011 7:07 PM*** Welcome Drudge readers and anyone else who’s new to the TSA Blog. Seeing that many of you have never been here before, I wanted to provide links to a couple of posts we've written on pat-downs. They will give you a better idea of why pat-downs are used and when.
Also, please note that we’re receiving many more comments than usual thanks to the Drudge link, so please bear with us as this is a moderated blog. Thanks! ***
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A video taken of one of our officers patting down a six year-old has attracted quite a bit of attention. Some folks are asking if the proper procedures were followed. Yes. TSA has reviewed the incident and the security officer in the video followed the current standard operating procedures.
With that said, you may have read recently that our Administrator is looking into ways to move past the cookie cutter approach to screening. Recognizing that terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection, TSA has been actively assessing less invasive screening methods for low-risk populations, such as younger passengers, while still maintaining a high level of security.
Also, you may have heard in the video that someone references a drug test.TSA does not test for drugs. It's possible those individuals are referring to the explosive trace detection test that can detect the smallest traces of explosives.
Blogger Bob
TSA Blog Team
If you’d like to comment on an unrelated topic you can do so in our Off Topic Comments post. You can also view our blog post archives or search our blog to find a related topic to comment in. If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact a Customer Support Manager at the airport you traveled, or will be traveling through by using Talk to TSA.
773 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 400 of 773 Newer› Newest»This TSA policy disturbs me more than any other policy issue in our society. Seeing this stories about sexual abuse in a TSA police-state is reminiscent of East Germany during the pre-Berlin wall era. Once again, I am so disturbed by the invasive TSA pat-down policy that I can hardly see straight.
I find this episode appalling. While there's some relief in the TSA agent's polite, professional behavior, that does not excuse a "random" policy that says it's OK to grope a six year old. It is NOT.
Had this been my child, I would have told the TSA that you will not touch my child and headed for the rental car counter. I don't need to fly bad enough to have my child publicly humiliated and assaulted in the name of so-called security. I've gotten groped and felt violated and I'm a 44-year-old man. I hate to think what this poor girl felt. She will not soon forget what happened to her.
This ridiculous policy doesn't make us one iota safer. Shame on you, TSA.
What a bunch of Bravo Sierra. Is that the same kind of game played by the Gubmint and TSA to create their own false narrative of some great terrorist threat (when the best they can phoney up is a firecracker and propane tank) to increase their power grab? Dave aint buying this red herring.
Sorry, chicken little, we arent buying the "sky is falling" routine any more. Its more than proven there are no credible threats here, and obvious that DHHS couldnt catch cold in a snowstorm on top of it.
the "evolution of security" is a scam narrative too, we gonna believe that we have to "evolve it" when Israel has been way past that to "successful implementation" and never, to my knowledge have had an airliner blown up, despite REAL CREDIBLE threats?
But, you just keep spinning your deluded narratives while we throw the rest of CONgress and Obama out next year (4 years)
http://second-amendment.tripod.com/d2a
oh no! not terrorists! that word makes me stop thinking!
Your would think with the money we are spending on security the TSA could investigate and/or start a program of bomb sniffing dogs like the Russian Sulimov dog which is a hybrid between a Jackel and Siberian huskies. Sulimov breed the two best sniffers in the canine world and the Jackel side of the bread makes the dog "always on" they are always sniffing. These dogs could find explosives far better then the current systems with far less impact on our freedoms.
The boarders are still wide open maybe the tsa should go protect Mexico, from the guns being smuggled in by our own government into Mexico .No they would rather try to train us to accept THE GROPING AT THE AIRPORTS like cattle.Well got news for you your backing alquida in Liba same group that you said attacked us on 911.
Bob, I have always wondered what would happen if a terrorist with a vest of C4 actually tried to get through security?
If he was a suicide bomber, wouldn't he just blow himself up on the spot once you guys found the vest taking all of us in the security line out with him?
It will be a good day for Liberty and a great day for America when the TSA no longer exists. “This conduct is in clear violation of TSA’s explicit policy not to conduct thorough pat-downs on children under the age of 13,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, of Utah, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, said in a statement Wednesday.
I think you all have underestimated the success of the TSA.
There have been many horrific and scary bottles of hand lotion, baby food, and shampoo stopped from boarding plans.
Isn't it time to actively target those who may be true terrorists and not fans of "Scooby Doo"? Try that move on one of my grandkids and I'd have you arrested on the spot! Or is a citizen's arrest rights been taken away too!!
TSA employees - you do not have the authority given by the Constitution to violate my 4th Amendment right. You have no probable cause and no judge issued search warrant. Why doesn't private airline personnel perform this duty since they are not confined to the powers given in the Constitution?
How much would we save by eliminating the TSA? $10 billion/year? How many millions of hours are wasted by standing in TSA lines?
Just have to say that due to these policies I have zero intention of going to the US and spending any money if this is what people are being subjected to. Most of the people I know feel similarly. Probably not the best economic times to be actively discouraging tourists from visiting.
How many terrorists have the TSA caught since they were formed? And how many have gotten through? I suspect it's little more than a dog and pony show. So much damage being caused just for appearances, very sad.
This is unacceptable! TSA has reached a new low! i would gladly take the risk of a bomber than put myself and my children to this. The tecnology is clearly flawed and the screening procedures waste a lot of public money that could be spent in proper intelligence.
If you look at the information we have right now on the terrorists we can see middle aged males non US citizens, I don't see why we should forget the fourth amendment and undergo this kind of procedures. If a ipotetical terroris were to "pack" a child of enough material to damage an airplane I'm sure that the kid would exibit clear signals of discomfort and I really don't see it happening.
Saying that the terrorists are constantly searching for holes in our security i think is overestimating their numbers and before 9/11 all this would never be considered appropriate and a violation of our rights.
Personally I think that all this is a fear mongering campaign promoted by the companies that make the scanners and enabled by corrupted politicians that don't give a damn about the citizens.
I traveled to Europe recently and I can say from personal experience that the people checking us were more professional than TSA agents and I didn't have to chose between a nude picture or sexual assault.
I hope that after hearing all our complaints our representative in the government do something concrete about this.
All this will only get more entertaining as TSA public workers will now have collective bargaining rights (i.e. unions). You haven't seen anything yet.
Why are tax payers putting up with this nonsense? Groping little girls (can't profile, so we must randomly subject American kids to this type of abuse) while the FAA intends to severely curtail the Block Aircraft Registration Request program thus providing any terrorist or criminal with an internet connection, real time detailed flight information on private aircraft.
The TSA professionals have a daunting job. They just need some no nonsense leadership to cut through the bull and give their folks the tools to do the job while respecting their fellow citizens.
This country is on the wrong path. I can't wait for 2012.
I can't believe this is happening in America! Doing a virtual strip-search of a little American girl is somehow going to keep us all safe? As long as the TSA and the elected leaders of this country do not have the guts to actually screen for terrorists instead of screening for weapons, we are doomed. As long the same group insists on considering everyone equally likely to be a terrorist, we are doomed. As long as they refuse to acknowledge that terrorists actually fit a PROFILE (I know they hate that word like Dracula hates the cross), then we are doomed. The TSA is good for nothing except for violating the rights of law-abiding Americans and looking the other way at obvious security threats because they are more afraid of being called racist than they are being called derelict in their stated duty.
Let's be honest, the TSA is security theater.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater
I.E. you are not, the line of defense struggling every day to keep the terrorists at bay, you're here because it used to make people feel more secure.
Now we feel violated, please cool your jets.
ah yes "the agent followed proper procedure"
I don't think your getting that the public has a problem with your procedures.
The agent followed orders well.. but following orders is never an excuse for somethings.
find anything on that 6 yr old? or on anybody?
Shame on you, TSA. Where have your standards gone? Where is your common sense? Just what, exactly, are your priorities these days? Certainly NOT the protection of Americans.
This video, and all the children and parents that it represents, makes me literally SICK. And it SHOULD likewise make TSA sick, sick to look at themselves!!
This must stop, and change must happen immediately!!
Have you ever thought of using dogs to sniff instead? I heard they are quite good at their jobs, don't cost much, are cute to look at and might even give a kiss for good luck.
The TSA is an embarrassment, but are too ignorant to even realize it. This is what happens when we rely on the government to solve these types of issues. What we end up with is little girls getting groped and the government telling us that it is ok. Insanity!
Your propaganda isn't working and we are not buying your ridiculous assertions that these procedures are proper or even keep us remotely safer. You should truly be embarrassed and Pistole should not only resign in disgrace, he should be investigated for human rights abuses.
why was the little girl SCANNED then TOUCHED then tested for explosives?
what gives you people the right?
ITS wrong what you people do
how do you sleep at night?
and btw touching with the back of your hands is still touching its sick and I will NEVER fly again because of the TSA
I'm not going to comment on this incident or any other because the Management at TSA and Homeland Security have no interest in what the citizens of this country have to say.
There will be a change of Administrations in 2012 and most of the management at TSA will be history. Thank God ( oh, yeah, I shouldn't use that word.)
Keep building the police state and eventually you will push the American people into revolution.
Anyone who can't see that was wrong needs help, lot's of help,
Bob,
How far is too far for TSA? Considering one official says that it would be proper to strip search passengers I feel government has gone too far to provide a very false sense of security and all you do is justify DHS's every move.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Guess they forgot about this
Pathetic is the only word I can politely use to describe the actions seen in this video or the puny 'defense' of it offered on this blog.
Truly pathetic.
Only a weak willed spineless generation will knowingly submit to such draconian, heavy handed meaningless invasions of privacy and dignity.
Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. My heart just breaks for this little girl and the outrageous abuse foisted on her by such a clueless government entity.
"Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them."
-- Ecclesiastes 4:1
Disband/fire/do away with the entire TSA program immediately. Disgusting.
TSA has not stopped one terrorist, passengers have done it for them.
TSA constantly fails inspections with contraband passing security.
TSA has accomplished what terrorists failed to do: changed the way we Americans live and reduced our freedom.
How many concealed weapons or bombs have you found on 6 year olds so far to date?
..seriously guys...this is quite embarassing for everyone, we expect more from you. Maybe its time that you look at the way you conduct your public service to the people who are paying your salaries. This is not helping the problem, its exasperating it.
If everyone stopped flying for 3 solid days, and I mean everyone, then this would come to a screeching halt. I guarantee this. These airlines will realize who is paying.
You want TSA to stop this? Stop flying. It will take everyone.
Personally I have stopped flying since this crap went into place and will continue to until it completely ends. I refuse to have my children touched by strangers in the airport.
I for one am not ready to give up my rights because of what a terrorist "might" do. (there are an infinite number of things that are possible for a terrorist to do)
The TSA is out of control. The law says that you don't perform such a search without establishing probable cause.
You people who are drinking the cool aid, remember - the government will always assure you that some intrusion on your liberties is in your best interests.
There are better ways. Other nations have used behavior analyses, etc. with a better rate of success.
This kind of search only serves the interests of the very terrorists we are up against. They understand us far better than we understand their tactics. Their whole game is to get us fighting ourselves knowing that we are too PC to acknowlege that searching 6 years olds is completely pointless. As has been pointed out many times on this blog, the terrorists are clearly winning. We are spending billions of dollars on ineffective security measures while also humiliating ourselves.
Anonymous said...
"Every terrorist in the world is laughing and giving each other high fives this very moment. Disgusting."
EXACTLY...because of all the foolish nonsense from the disbelievers on here! Way to go folks...way to validate them!
This is just utterly despicable. It is difficult to imagine how you could possibly condone this.
It is reprehensible.
TSORon said...
Anyone can get a pat down, no exceptions. ...The lie here is not coming from Director Pistole.
April 13, 2011 3:45 PM
http://www.ktvq.com/news/tsa-proper-procedures-followed-in-child-s-pat-down/
"Pistole ... pointed out the pat-downs are not mandatory -- passengers receive them only if they opt out of a screening with advanced imaging technology."
Who's the liar now?
I have just viewed the video of the latest child pat down and am truly horrified. I don't care whether this is part of your policy or not - this is a violation of all decency. The parents were cooperative, and they asked for an alternative which your agents refused to give them for apparently no reason. Blindly repeating "It's our policy" is not an answer, and it doesn't make it OK - it's just another way of saying, "It's what we've decided to do and we won't look beyond that." You're not keeping America safe, folks; you're just making it worse to live in.
TSA is a government agency cobbled together over panic and staffed by drop outs and managed by idiots. But the what else could you expect from this administration and The Hill paracites.
"terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection"
So . . . since the terrorists will use any hiding place they think we are too squeamish to to investigate; therefore any procedure that is particularly offensive is something we particularly need to do,
Good thinking, TSA! Unfortunately, it is easy to see where all this is going to end up
-- Otto Zeit.
As others have stated above, profiling works. Israel's airline, El Al, is the most secure airline in the world in large part due to profiling. And for you politically correct nitwits, they don't use racial profiling; they profile every single person before allowing them to board a plane. This means asking each passenger pointed questions and evaluating their answers and behavior with well-trained ears and eyes. Only one El Al flight has ever been hijacked, and that was in 1969. The 9/11 terrorists simply could not have succeeded had our domestic airlines adopted El Al's security protocols prior to 2001. Instead, the TSA continues to senselessly humiliate innocent people, including children. As the former security chief of El Al, Isaac Yeffet, has stated, the TSA's policies and procedures only serve to create the illusion of security. The TSA is a disgrace that should be abolished.
I go through Israeli security from time to time, but have never been felt-up, porno-scanned, or felt intimidated in any way. Passengers are profiled (ye gads!), interviewed by intelligent young people who know what to look for (VERY unlike the TSA's "observers"), and I feel 100% secure on flights leaving Israel.
The TSA claims that Israel is a small country with one airport and it isn't scalable for the U.S. Preposterous. You wouldn't even need as many people as you now have in the TSA (Thousands Standing Around).
This is security theater, plain and simple. It is designed to intimidate and control the sheep. Close the theater.
I saw this news story in an online edition of a UK newspaper. I live in Central Florida where our theme parks provide over 100k jobs and millions of $ of tax revenue supporting everything in this community. Children and parents from all over the world come here for a magical vacation. TSA I ask you how many parents world wide want their children groped while they visit the mouse. After reading this story, I immediately called my congressmen Mr. Webster and then my next door Congressmen Mr. Mica Chairmen of the House transportation committee. I plan to put my concerned to him in writing. We have an unemployment rate of 10.5 and this groping TSA is doing is not helping us reduce that rate. Last Oct. We spent month flying around Asia where security seemed very professional and non intrusive. When we arrived at LAX in Nov. We could not believe what TSA was putting customers of The airlines through. We have not flown since. Airlines get a clue as to what TSA is putting your through.
This blog should be number one on the government spending chop block. Talk about waste.
Great job Barry!
Hope & Che!
When was the last time that anyone used a little girl as a bomb? When is the TSA going to actually provide real security instead of this Abbot and Costello routine? Political correctness will be your undoing.
"Power tends to corrupt, and ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY"
I am a calm and proud American. I can appreciate that we are in dangerous times. HOWEVER, ask yourself when will this end? Based on all of those who are justifying these actions, there would never be an end... But you fail to see that the people determined to hurt America will always find new ways to hide their intentions.
Are all of you willing to go through a strip search to have the freedom to ride a plane? How about body cavity searches? How about a DNA swab of your mouth to get on the plane? THE POINT IS - the freedom we are giving up in the name of our protection and security is actually putting us in bondage - - - and this much is indisputable -> it will NOT END HERE -unless and until the American people finally say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!...Its past time we say that now.
At the time of its creation, I said that the TSA is nothing but a multi-billion dollar placebo, intended to give air travelers a false sense of security. Time and experience have proven me right. Until now, I have simply remained silent, but this latest story has moved me to begin actively urging my congresscritter to simply eliminate this completely useless waste of federal tax money.
What will happen the day a terrorist shoves a bunch of plastic explosives up his rectum and takes down a plane?
Will we all be subject to body cavity searches? Hopefully there is a "modified" cavity search for children?
another fine example of government abuse and tyranny of its citizens. the people are awake. this will not be tolerated.
But the republicans started this. Why are they complaining now? Where were they then? I am confused.most of you come from drudge.
The complaint is hypocrisy because the republicans under bush approved of this and now they complain because it is the other side doing this?
TSA is terrorizing tens of thousands of US citizens a day. How many people are terrorized by non federal employee terrorists daily? What happened to the Fourth Amendment of The United States Constitution?
Pistole should resign, he is an embarrassment to the United States.
If I was President he would be out on his ear!
TSA DEFENDS: Terrorists will 'manipulate societal norms'. Looks like the TSA is the one manipulating societal norms. If anyone at TSA, including John Pistole, thinks that patting down a 6 year old child is preventing terrorist acts, you're idiots. This is accomplishing nothing.
On a recent flight from Burbank to Phoenix, TSA gave me the "pat-down" -- AND I LIKED IT.
Terrorists lose!
Folks, write the White House and demand Pistole's removal from government service.
We don't need this type of person!
We have lost our common sense as a nation. I would rather live with a little more danger in a free society then have our children violated for the sake of security.
I am certainly grounding my family until these policies change.
You are not protecting us from anything with actions like this. Just another example of citizens rights being trampled by our fear mongering government. You just want to search americans and if a "terrorist" get caught, that's just good PR.
Until Janet Napolitano and the TSA comes to their senses and faces up to the fact that profiling is necessary, the DHS and TSA has no credibility.
You people sicken me. This video in no way depicts a " near sexual assault" or rubbing of genitals. You cry about not feeling safe then when the govt tries to make it so you cry about that. Do you think a terrorist would refrain from placing explosives on a child? If so you're all either naive or just plain stupid. Either way it's sad. Get real and face reality.
Why are we the only country that pats down children?
What is the evidence that this has avoided any type of terrorist attack?
As I understand it, our options as parents are:
A. Have our children go through a machine that emits radition that has not undergone long term tests?
B. Have a stranger stick their hands down our children's pants and fondle their buttocks.
Thanks so much for making us feel safer.
i am willing to die on an airplane to not have to go thru this BS... Lets save some tax dollars and shut down the TSA...
There's no excuse - none - for this "pat-down procedure" being done to a female child by a male TSA agent. None. At all. He was simply getting a free feel in the name of "protecting the masses." This is not policy, it's criminal behavior that in other settings would have resulted in the man's arrest and labeling as a sex offender. This is outrageous and needs to stop.
I hope whoever writes this blog has read "1984"
I'm glad we took our freedoms away after 9/11, because, you know, thats why they attacked us.
Terrorist win yet again.
I feel the entire TSA inspection is a scam. Experts have explained that modern explosives the size of one gram can bring down an aircraft, one grame is not detectable by a Body Scanner or a Pat Down. TSA is trying to find knives, again experts explain that a simple laptop screen can be broken and a knife created in seconds. This appears to be more about Selling Equipment and subjecting the entire population to police state tactics. It's time to disolve the TSA now-- before they are at schools, malls, train stations, and taxi stops.
Invasive patdown of a blond 6 y/o girl gets a response of "terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection."
Are you serious? Do you think no one is paying attention? Defund the whole lot.
Creating the TSA was a mistake! I used to travel all the time but got tired of being treated like a criminal. I swore an oath to defend my country, I am not a bad guy and I am sick of being treated like one!! This video just reinforces why I will never fly an airline if I can drive to my destination. I drove the family 3 days to Florida just so I wouldn't have to have TSA paw my junk or harass me for carrying a multi-tool in my pocket. I wonder how long its going to be before I have to get patted down by TSA before I can travel in my car to work. I hope everyone wakes up and refuses to fly because of this harassment.
A BILL – HR 6416
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.
What about this article?
http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2010/11/no-enhanced-pat-downs-for-kids-tsa-says/131686/1
This article from November explicitly states that children under 12 would receive "modified" pat-downs.
If that's "modified," I sure don't want to find out what an unmodified patdown would entail.
This whole thing is disgusting.
I don't care what your policy states or what directions you have been given you are violating the 4th amendment to the United States Constitution by following your policy. You know its wrong as much as I do. Read it, learn it, live by it!
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized"
Sorry TSA this is indefensible. I'm glad you intend to moderate this blog but I can't imagine you'll find any posts in support of touching children.
I have never been moved to post a comment previously but watching that video made my very angry and reinforced my perception of how idiotic is the current policy of passenger screening. Adopt the Israeli policy of profiling, it works very well and is not another stupid PC oriented failure.
And yet, the plutocracy of America get to fly around on private jets with zero screening of any kind for any of the passengers, as is widely reported, which means this treatment of regular Americans is completely useless and illogical. Thus, it's true function and meaning is something entirely different, and not the surface explanation. Perhaps this is a peak oil maneuver to reduce the consumption of rapidly declining oil? Perhaps this is training for a police state? Is this the reaction of a scared oligarchy which is projecting their guilt over the economic collapse onto the peons of America? How is anyone to know? Or else we're being consumed by a bureaucratic runaway train without the direction of rational individual human consciousness. Certainly, the behavior in the video is something that is alien, foreign, and disturbing to my American conscience and values. As I've said before, those of my ancestors from the Mayflower didn't need a pat-down as they stepped form the Atlantic Ocean. Americans will abolish this legislatively within 5 years, I predict.
After just returning home from my third tour in Iraq and seeing what I've seen. I am shocked at how my fellow Americans are responding to this. Terrorist will stop at nothing to harm or kill Americans. The TSA agent acted very professional and explained all of her actions. I was impressed with her performance. I have lost a lot of friends in Iraq. Three to a suicide bomber all of 12 years old. Terrorist will stop at nothing. Get real people. The perfect world you think we live in is not so perfect. I have three children of my own and would not object to a pat down like this.
Look I understand a lot of you are outraged, but let me tell you a story. When I was in Iraq we assumed that women were safe from being suicide bombers. Then women suicide bombers started killing us. Then if you saw a woman with a child you could safely assume she wasn't a bomber. Guess what a woman holding her child's hand blew up. Terrorists have no morals and you can make no assumptions as to what they will do. If you exempt children from searches guess what, our enemies will use that against us.
I found the video of the T.S.A. agent "patting down" the six year old child totally disgusting - BUT I found the official T.S.A. response to the incident EVEN MORE DISGUSTING!
If the pat down of a child is not sickening enough has it occurred to you people how said it is that everyone feels the need to post as "anonymous". We are becoming a nation of sheep when we put up with this from government officials.
We are what we tolerate. This has gone this far because the American people have stopped being free citizens in a Constitutional Republic. While we can blame the people we elect, we have only ourselves to hold responsible. America must be redefined by Americans. By Americans.
We get it that the search was not a violation of policy. That is the problem. Such searches should always be a violation of procedure and result in the immediate termination of all involved.
Anyone stupid enough to think that such searches are in any way useful in identifying terrorists should never be allowed to work in law enforcement in any capacity.
People are told not to leave bags unattended.
Seriously: how many parents would leave a 6-year old unattended in an airport any longer than it would take to sneeze?
TSA "reasoning" isn't.
I fly 80,000 miles a year, which on my schedule adds up to 20 treks through TSA points every year. I see so much time wasted because TSA personnel are not allowed to use common sense.
PROFILE! It works! Ask the Israelis.
Gee thanks, BloggerBob, for reassuring us that traumatizing innocent little kids for no reason is part of normal procedure. I can't tell you how comforting that is.
Bob, Tell me why did a woman do the pat down or was that just a coincidence?
All that drama and all the fuss to impress and make sensation or turn a blind eye on reality. Pedophiles, thieves, terrorists and others of that kind used imaginative ways and/or don't hesitate to use kind to achieve their goal. They have their field day with people refusing to look at reality in the face.
It is very sad for security forces to have to do that but how many of you would bet your lives or the life of love ones by saying criminals would never used kinds for criminal act?
That is the world we are leaving in people not fantasy land. Plus for the perverts , this pad down was made on open site, in front of witnesses not in a crappy place.
If fear for a little thing thing like that stay at home and pretend the world is heaven.
I am a parent, a free man leaving in a free world where good and evil are free too.
Thanks for confirming that groping 6 year old girls is SOP for TSA. Meanwhile, TSA is still an abysmal failure at detecting real threats.
Thank you for destroying the freedoms that our enemies supposedly hate us for.
Enough TSA. Disgusting. Where will it stop?
People talking about how easy we have it in America compared to other countries - shut up. We are Americans we have the Fourth Amendment. Read it my fellow Americans. It is the responsibility of government employees who work for us, the voting American public, to find a better way. A way that doesn't violate the Fourth Amendment, our dignity and self respect.
Vote them out until this changes!
Until then we will loose one Constitutional Right after another. The Founding Fathers put these Rights early in the Constitution for a reason. The government cannot be trusted to honor them. Time for an American Revolution. It is a slippery slope and they are pouring imported oil on it. No wonder we are running out.
Proud to be an American! But not blind, deaf or dumb! -JAS
why don't you get it? we don't care that you followed the correct procedure. we don't like THE PROCEDURE. How hard is this to understand? stop!
My 2 cents: If this is the MODIFIED pat-down, how is the unmodified pat-down, which is still applied to adults, legal?
All of your rules and explanations do not make it right! Put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig!
This video should be all the evidence people need to conclude that the TSA is a totally inept, perverse, over bloated, out of control government agency.
TSA hasn't caught a single terrorist with their repugnant child-groping tactics, yet they defend this "screening" of a small girl by predictably evoking the bogyman terrorist image. Its beyond me why the TSA assumes that the citizens look at the TSA as an authority on anything, especially terrorism. If anything, their stupid screening techniques only prove how inept, useless and damaging this horribly expensive agency is.
The enhanced screening and pat-downs followed years of finding practically nothing but lighters or matches, and with no attacks since 9-11 and the failed attempts coming from abroad. There was absolutely no need to start interrogating passengers who as a class have exhibited almost zero risk. It is neither cost effective or practical.
Myth: All children will receive pat-downs.
Fact: TSA officers are trained to work with parents to ensure a respectful screening process for the entire family, while providing the best possible security for all travelers. Children 12 years old and under who require extra screening will receive a modified pat down.
Finger down the waste band, really Bob was the only thing modified how hard they touched her!
Nothing seemed Modified with that little Girls Pat down Bob... So when do we as a free country have to let the Federal Government touch our Children? I assume if her parents had refused to allow her to be touched they would have been threatened with Legal Action. Since is the TSA's standard operating procedure.
This example is one of many reasons why government should have no business in transportation security. If some airlines wanted these 'measures' in place, they'd probably go out of business when people select other airlines to travel by.
And I find it intolerable and immoral that my tax dollars are going to support this inexplicable and vexatious excuse of a PR campaign to help the TSA's newly deserved negative public image.
I hope that the TSA is abolished and security returned where the interest in it lies, with the airlines.
TSA is simply doing the job that terrorist can't do.
We wouldn't allow a terrorist to rub the genitals of our children.
We rely on the TSA to do it.
Here is the problem. TSA is right the terrorists will exploit our societal norms, they already have.
Here is what it says above:
"...contain offensive terms that target specific ethnic or racial groups, or vulgar language."
Reality is that the terrorists fit into a narrow classification and nobody will acknowledge it. Hint: it isn't 6 year old white girls. Apparently "frisking" them is more palatable than offending the group who is at risk. 75 yo black woman from North Carolina, almost 100% not a terrorist. 27 yo from N.Africa or Middle East...
What other government or law enforcement agency can get away with shoving their hands into a child's pants, or feeling around their anus, or genitals?
TSA is creepy.
Clearly you remain woefully out of date with your information, TSA. You happen to be playing directly into the hands of the terrorists by contributing to an atmosphere of paranoia and casual obstructiveness that are damaging to both the credibility of the United States and to the business and well being of those that operate within that government's aegis. Such inefficiency and lack of vision on the part of your masters pushing this is inexcusable. Although, I suppose Michael Chertoff invested whatever he's making off the books in psychiatric services, too.
If any of you that don't want to subject yourselves to security measures that are intended to keep Americans safe from terrorist attacks, I think that you are terrorists. I hope that our American Security forces will take note of your posts. Honestly, I'm not sure that you shouldn't be prosecuted for sedition against the US of A.
Why can't you, and our fellow Americans, understand that terrorists do not win when they hurt or even kill us...they win when they scare us into funding the likes of YOU!
The "risk" we run of a terrorist changing societal norms and killing us via explosive children is WORTH it if it keeps a free country free, and its elected officials afraid of its people (not the other way around).
Far more threatening is our willingness to give (and your craven desire to take) our freedoms on the fiction that such safety is attainable without worse consequences.
"terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection"
Why is TSA willing to pervert societal norms to accommodate terrorists? Terrorists aren't six year old blonde children. They are radical islam extremists. If TSA can't tell the difference, then TSA should be replaced by someone that can.
It isn't the governments job to protect us it is their job to defend our freedoms. We could get rid of security all together inside an airport and there would never be a hijacking again because no american will allow it to happen. Reason 911 happened is because people waited for the government to save them and by the time they realized no rescue was gonna come it was way to late. If they had all got up and fought back in the beginning every highjacker would have been dead by the time the plane landed. That is how it will happen in the future.
What part of the below portion of the Bill of Rights is unclear?
Where is your warrant supported by probable cause to invade this little girl's privacy??
If the people don't start standing up for our Constitution, the boogeyman terrorists will win.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Where are these rights for this little girl or any of us under this fascist policy.Call your senator americans..vote out these people that vote in these policys.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to ... them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
"TSA has reviewed the incident and the security officer in the video followed the current standard operating procedures."
That's the problem.
No more explanations and excuses.
It is your policy to dehumanize, intimidate and make Americans conform and submit. Your "policy" will NOT be tolerated. You answer to the American People, not the Fascist Bureaucrats. Your taxpayer funded theatre will be shut down.
You need to naked body scan and enhance pat down the following real terrorists:
Michael Chertoff, Ben Bernanke, Jamie Dimon, Barry Soetoro, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George Bush, George H W Bush, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner, Robert Rubin, Summers, John Kerry, John McCain, Dianne Feinstein, Cass Sunstein, Joe Biden, Alan Greenspan, Dick Cheney, Goldman Sachs, Rahm Emmanuel, JP Morgan Chase, The Rockefellers, The Rothshchilds, Lloyd Blankfein, the Queen of England...
Terrorists will always exploit area's in the system to execute their vile actions.
There is no boundary to what they will do. There is however a boundary to what an agency can do to citizens, to make the chance of terrorist acts as small as possible. The pat down and nude scanning does not add additional safety, and violates rights. We have to accept the risk that terrorists will gain access to planes, and stop these traumatic actions against upstanding citizens. Especially the children.
What is next? An operation to look inside the body if someone has swallowed explosives inside?
I thought the TSA officer was supposed to touch sensitive areas with the BACK of the hand, So then why did she touch the child's breast with the palm of her hand and fingers???
U R right , U R changing societal norms.... U R the terrorist .... look up the definition!!
A message to all of you heros of the Iraq war that are making excuses for this Constitutional Violation.
Your warped perception of how Americans should act is a reflection of you blind faith to a failing corrupted Government Controlled by Banking and Corporate interests. Or did you think you were going to war to fight for our Freedoms, or for their Democracy? You have been brainwashed and used as a pawn in the Grand Chessboard that had nothing to do with terrorism, and everything to do with Western Banker Hegemony. It is your murderous contributions in Iraq and elsewhere and your invasion of a sovereign nation that perpetuates terrorism in the first place. If you really think terrorists are going to be recruiting little white girls in America, you need to get your head checked.
The truth is, the DHS/TSA is for all of us 'Domestic Terrorists", as the Superclass implodes our economy and de-industrialises our country and civil unrest comes to America.
Last thing, when did Joe Biden first draft the Patriot Act?
Years before 9/11/2001
Maybe over in the middle east, parents use their children to detonate explosive devices, but in THIS COUNTRY we DO NOT do that with OUR children. And we're NOT going to start.
Stop the pat downs of children. NOW.
"Recognizing that terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection . . . ."
They certainly are. They enjoy the full protection of political correctness at all turns. Bureaucracy in depth is not a substitute for the Israeli-style profiling which works. It merely allows a certain group, largely alien, to travel from domestic airports at the expense of our Constitutional rights.
I went through Logan soon after 9-11 and the utter contempt I had for the "security" procedures I observed then has only grown as TSA has continued down the same nonsensical path.
If I cannot avoid travel, I drive. If I cannot drive, I have to trank myself to the gills because I am an American, NOT a sheep. Thus, this is the only way I can suppress my instinct to resist your assaults on my person and dignity.
You bet the [politically incorrect terms redacted] terrorists are using - and laughing at - this vile idiocy forced on the American public.
Militant Patriot
So you are saying that if you don't abuse the children, then terrorists will. Clearly the terrorists have won. Instead of defending this insane policy, you should be hanging your head in shame.
So what your really saying is all Americans are VIEWED as terrorists, even babies in diapers. Fools.
How do you know many of us have never visited the site before? Do you track who has dropped in and how often?
"less invasive screening methods for low-risk populations", sounds like reverse profiling to me. You are finally moving in the right direction.
For the love of God, abolish the TSA! As a military officer I have sworn to defend the Constitution. The TSA is currently the biggest threat on the planet to that Constitution. And yes, I do value freedom over security .. to be an American is to recognize that it is better to die free than to live in subjugation.
This system is flawed and is going to fail. Anyone with a brain can see this. Until al Qaeda succeeds in detonating a six year old Caucasian girl, we should be focussing on the obvious. It's despicable what the TSA is doing to the "majority" just to avoid offending a minority. When suicide bombings become the norm in this country, will such a demand for racial and ethnic profiling be so outlandish? Certainly not once you've lost alove one. It's as though a segment in this country will be willing to tolerate a certain level of attacks as it will merely be "collateral damage" for the greater cause of cultural diversity.
I'm living for the day when the TSA and the the Department of Homeland "Security" is dissolved.
The TSA and DHS is not needed. They are nothing but a waste of taxpayers dollars. TSA wouldn't know what "security" or "safety" was if someone capable explained it to you.
The US has a debt problem. The TSA wastes money. Join the dots.
Far more effective security can be attained at a far cheaper price.
Replace TSA with teams from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia and the US will end up without the useless waste of security theater.
The only terrorists in America are the braindead incompetent fools working for DHS and TSA.
Saying that proper procedure was followed does not make this better - it makes it worse. That means that many other children have been inappropriately touched at airports.
Take you hands out of our pants.
You say your officer followed the correct procedure. What part of "your procedures are wrong" don't you get? Remember that "I was just following orders" is never a valid excuse for committing atrocities. The day of reckoning will come.
Wow This blog/comments is amazing & wonderful. I plan to print this blog/comments so I can send this to friends, but most importantly I am going to send it with my letter to Congressmen Mica's Chairman of the House Transportation Committee office, my Central Fla. Congressmen, every public official in the land of the Mouse, my two Fla. Senators and the management of all the theme parks in Florida plus every airline that flys into Orlando. I guess being groped by TSA has now become part of that magical experience for each child visiting Dysney!
Please stop exceeding the legal mandate for your organization. Congress specifically enabled the following: Search for guns and bombs at airports.
Nothing else
Not asking for identification at the gate, long after searching people at Security
Not building some neighborhood device for searching people randomly (not at airport)
Spreading panic (those comments at the beginning of the article)
So let's see if I understand what happened to the six year old child.
TSA first used their Whole Body Strip Search Machine so they could view the body of the six year old as if she had no clothes on. Correct?
Then not being satisfied seeing the sex year old girl naked TSA felt a need to feel up her little six year old body.
So TSA's plan for aviation security is to Strip Search children and then feel them up.
What a plan TSA!
Yea, that six year old, she looks like she was strapped with bomb packs,ready to decimate the airport.
How about using some common sense with these searches.
What actions, conduct, type of clothing was she wearing, that made you (the TSA) believe that she was concealing an explosive device.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The thing that was seized is a child's innocence,
This has got to stop we need to take back our freedoms.
First thing is no one has the right to fly. If you don't like the security measures then don't fly. Terrorist will use any means they can to kill Americans. That means they will use children. Now I have watched the video and did not see any where in it that TSA put their hands down the girls pants, so people stop exaggerating things. As for explaining it to the child the parents need to be able to teach them that this could happen when they fly, and that they would be there to watch so they are safe and okay. Kids can understand things a lot better then people give them credit for. I don't like to be searched going through the airport just like anyone else, but I realize that I have to do it for the greater good of the people. And yes I wear a military uniform most of the time I travel. I fight for our freedoms and I still get scanned, take off my shoes and what ever else they have. Some will say we are giving up our freedoms and that my be true to a point. But when you can hijack planes and kill almost 3000 people then some thing has to be done. Now the only solution I can think of is placing self destruct buttons on the plane, first hint of a hijacking and we blow up the plane. So if you want to have the freedom to fly without security measures then you need to be willing to be blown up if your plane is hijacked
Land of the free... You should be so proud!
If TSA feels a need to frisk a 6 year old girl just why does TSA not screen its employees or any other employees of the airport in the same way?
That's right, TSA does not screen any airport workers yet TSA feels compelled to put their hands on little girls!
so....what suggestions do the bloggers have to eliminate the threat posed by the Christmas Day Underwear Bomber? I'm certain that TSA would eliminate the questioned portions of the pat down, if an alternative was proposed and found to be acceptable.
please put your intellect to work finding a solution, if it exists put it out for all to see!
And as a Kentuckian, that's why I drive, not fly, when visiting Colorado.
Is the TSA considered law enforcement? If the answer is no, then how can you force anyone into these procedures? If the answer is yes, then where are your search warrants?
I am getting to the point where I am embarrassed to say that I am an American. This country is a joke. Our grandparents and great grandparents that fought to make this country free are turning in their grave right now. TSA is completely absurd.
Passengers have been the only effective tool to stop attempted terrorist attacks on aircraft. When's the last time the TSA actually stopped a bad guy? they haven't! They should be treating us as the good guys not as criminals. All the TSA is is bullys and thugs with power to feel you up! They must be stopped! Refuse the scanners! Write Congress!
Normal operating procedure to sexually assault and intimidate a small child? Give me a break! The TSA is all about expanding their assumed power and control and spitting out BS like this to justify it, and it's becoming very obvious. You absolutely would NOT have done that to my child under ANY circumstance!
The whole process is degrading and humiliating. We can either receive a jailhouse pat down or be virtually strip searched by our own government. What a choice! Our most precious and vulnerable, our kids, the handicapped, and the elderly are especially hard hit. It's disgraceful, and it does not make me feel safe at all especially when I see TSA laughing, joking, and flirting with each other while we, the American people, are forced to have to deal with this unConstitutional process.
I do not understand why so many people are upset that this child was patted down. She was not groped or sexually assaulted. While I'm not suggesting that this child's parents have ever done this, but parents have used children to smuggle drugs and shoplift so why not an explosive device. If it were my child I would not be upset as I have nothing to hide.
Will I be denied travel (or arrested, delayed, insulted, or detained) if I INSIST that my child be patted down with a NEW, CLEAN, pair of gloves? I am a physician and refuse to have my children irradiated unnecessarily.
Yet checked bags or freight can go unscreened?
Read the Consitution TSA. This is not resonable search what so ever.
Concerned Observer wrote:
"My 2 cents: If this is the MODIFIED pat-down, how is the unmodified pat-down, which is still applied to adults, legal?"
Now there is a report of an 8-year old boy getting the "up the leg" fondling to what his mother described as "into that area." (Too bad she didn't use the word "genitals".)
Care to explain that to us, Curtis?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFsMiE6S6AY
screen shot made.
TSA hasn't found anything....ever. They routinely fail audits. They're a completely reactive force.
Please stop wasting our money and time
I'm saddened that people who work for the TSA can show this video to their children and say to them that this is what they believe the United States of America stands for and this is what I support every day when I go to work.
Felony search or electonic strip search are the TSA options for me and my college aged daughters to fly on PRIVATE airlines in the U.S.?
Why is there a government TSA stopping people who contract with a private airline to buy a ticket? Is the purchase of a ticket probable cause of a crime? Get the government TSA (who has in 10 years stopped NO terrorist) out of the airport and let the local airports and/or the airlines have their own procedures.
Get the government out of airports, turn security back over to the private sector, and let the public deal with the consequences. My guess is that airline travel will pick up exponentially. Travelers are more afraid of the TSA than they are of terrorism. What's wrong with that picture? A few more years of this and we will have nothing but government run airlines at taxpayer expense, and everyone knows how that will degrade service!
I will carry out a Citizens Arrest of any / all TSA agents who even TRY to attack my family in that manner. COUNT ON IT and TRY ME.
The sarcasm sets in for a lot of people unhappy wuth the TSA patdowns. Fast-forward to the day a bomb gets smuggled onto a plane either by an adult or a children. The same people that post here will be saying, "How could this happen? Why wasn't something done?" It will be TSA's fault, again. I continue to applaud the searches and patdowns.
I think I'll just plan shorter distance vacations and drive there. Terrorists do exploit norms in society and use it against civilian populations over hard military targets. That is an absolute.
We can argue, fume, decry etc... but as the one side of this sceanario is not going away, neither is the response.
Remind me again how many aspiring terrorists the TSA has nabbed?
Trusted traveler IF i prove my innocence beforehand??? Your backward thinking, autocratic tactics will not stand in the light of the constitution.
Its called incrementalism. All this from an agency that will not protect our borders fronm drug cartels entering at will. You are more of a threat to us than the bad guys Mr Pistole.
Here we see another example of the United States destroying itself from within. We have become our own worst enemy. One can only feel pity.
TSA has spent billions of Tax Payer monies on the TSA Behavioral Detection Officer program. These people are claimed by TSA to be able to identify people on the fly that present a risk to aviation.
Why can't the BDO's be used to determine if a young child presents some sort of threat?
Since TSA is engaged in illegal Identity Document Checking why not make that person a BDO and they can right then and there determine who needs additional screening.
The BDO program does work, right TSA? That is the claim of Administrator John S. Pistole!
Or is it just another waste of money by TSA like the Explosive Trace Portals that TSA tossed in the trash can, or the new Whole Body Imagers that have, by some reports, a false positive rate as high as 75%?
If these screening protocols are John S. Pistole's best effort then it is high time to get someone competent to take over TSA.
America cannot afford the continued incompetence of John S. Pistole.
I'm a longtime Drudge reader. I appreciate his links. I also appreciate this good information, so thank you to the blog administrator.
I'm not thrilled about the idea of patting down children (different from a "grop" and I think the critics know that), but I also don't want to be BLOWN UP when flying by some terrorist nut-job, who smuggled in explosives on his child or another method.
The government isn't coming into our homes and searching us, or grabbing our kids off the streets. TSA has added layers of security to protect those of us who fly. If you don't want the pat down, go through the scanner (and learn a little bit about radiation and how much you get every year from natural sources before you criticize that).
Don't want the pat down or scanner? Then don't fly!! Take the train or drive. We don't have a constitutional right to fly. And when I go through airport security, I don't give up any freedoms whatsoever.
I want to stop terrorists (and kill them, actually) - so I personally am thankful for the efforts by our military, and federal national security and law enforcement agencies, including TSA. I realize some of the critics of this are conspiracy buffs (and believe things like the US government, or Israel, was behind the 9-11 attacks) so there isn't any reasoning with them. But to the rest of you, quit bitching about efforts to stop terrorists from killing people!
I read in my local newspaper about this 6 year old and ran directly to my computer to comment. My daughter was 5 years old and "selected" for this. Luckily the man did not pat her down. I was pretty upset about it so maybe that is why he didn't touch her. She had to take off her shoes and they checked those out. That was it. Now I read that what she experienced wasn't the norm, so I had to comment here. This is disturbing. I teach my daughters that strangers should not be touching their private parts. This policy needs to be changed. I didn't know what she experienced was not the norm.
Myth: The TSA pat-down is invasive
Fact: Only passengers who alarm a walk through metal detector or AIT machine or opt out of the AIT receive a pat-down. For this reason, it is designed to be thorough in order to detect any potential threats and keep the traveling public safe. Pat-downs are performed by same-gender officers and all passengers have the right to a private screening with a travel companion at any time.
..............
From the link posted by Blogger Bob.
Demonstrating the continued dishonesty of TSA you will note that the response does not in any way address the supposed myth.
The fact of the matter is that the "Enhanced Pat Down" as TSA first called the new version of the pat down is very invasive resulting in the TSA employee feeling the genitals of the victim.
Anything posted on this blog by a TSA employee should be considered a bald face lie!
I think the TSA does an outstanding job at protecting our great nation. I don't fly much, but when I do the TSA is very professional and security minded. Thanks for making our skies safer. Anytime you want to pad me for safety and security go for it, you have a job to do.
Melle said...
What do all these anonymous people do when they have to take their children to a peditrician?
~~
Taking a child to a pediatrician of one's choice is NOT analogous to having one's child felt up by a screener. At the doctor's office one can call a halt to any procedure at any time.
There is no choice with the TSA - it's be felt up or don't fly.
It's apparent that you can't think that through.
screen shot made
Your tyranny of fear and prisoner training will soon be at an end, and your feeble attempts at domination of this nation under a false flag of security is short lived. History will cover your rise, and fall at America's version of the Nuremburg trials, no exceptions, no ratlines, your willful and wanton sedition against free humanity will be judged by the very people you seek to dominate and break. All evil is short-lived, no matter how many goons, thugs, brainwashed, sociopaths and mentally inept you surround yourself with. There is only one place for tyrants in history and soon enough you will see that end.
First - allow me to say that you didn't need to take a shot at "Drudge Readers". You simply could have said, "Welcome to those first-timers and those who followed links to our site." You act like Drudge was the only one who posted this link. Not true.
Secondly - this screening has now become a horrible joke. I don't recall 6-year old kids flying the planes or using boxcutters on 09/11/01. This is simply an outrage that you feel the need to pat down a child who does not fit the profile of a terrorist.
Profiling works. Use it. The police profiled me once. I didn't care they did it. Oh, for the record: I am a white male.
I have not been in an airport in 10 years and do not plan to go into one anytime in the future. If more people would do this is would stop. Don't want your children sexualy assaulted don't take them to the airport. A no brainer. I don't beleive anyone needs to travel that badly. Drive, take a train or a bus.
I'd like to know, specifically, why looking at the nude images of this little girl from your scanner was not sufficient?
Do you really need to touch her as well?
All claiming for profiling, protesting the child is caucasion and blond and therefore not a terrorist: so my 3 year-old son with black hair and an arab name cán be traumatized this way? No way! No child has to go through this. But why didn;t the parents object? If someoe wanted to take my little boy from the line for a grope search, I would stand right in front of him to avoid it.
google "Kurt Haskell"...he was a eyewitness to the "Christmas Day Bombing". He is a lawyer and he is a honest man. The government lies about these "terror" events EVERYTIME!
Remember how Chertoff was ready to go out and promote the x-ray machines from HIS company on TV the next day?
This is not about security...this is about training americans to accept being ruled like subserviant slaves.
After viewing the video and reading the reports related to this story,
I now refuse to pay my Federal Income Taxes.
That is it, I am done playing along.
TRY to pry another penny out of me.
Anonymous said..."Sorry... I would rather be bombed daily by terrorists than allow this sort of BULL KRAP to go on...
If we really wanted to guard against terrorists we would have dog teams all over the airports instead of the expensive raping of our common decency we have now.
Dogs are 10,000 times better than any 10 billion dollar machine and incompetent gropers.
Using Dogs would allow us to keep our dignity and freedoms intact. PERIOD!"
and then ...How long until the complaints of bestiality, TSA dogs assaulted my crotch region and I’m scarred for life. Grow up! it’s an inspection, not a molestation. If you want to be bombed on a daily basis, this is America and you are free to leave…
So you're saying this is needed for "security"? Can you guys point to how many times a child has been used to explode a plane in the US? How many times this is happened in the history of the world?
Ok... How many times have you guys stopped this from happening? The answer is 0. No one has even TRIED this before. Can you at least show us the intelligence that indicates that somebody has even gotten to the planning stages of sticking a bomb in a 6 year old girl's pants?
On that note, how many bombs have you guys (TSA) even found since 9/11? The answer, I believe, is 0 again. (Shoe bomber, underwear bomber, were from outside the US, TSA had nothing to do with it).
Do you really feel justified fondling the public (including children, which is not legal) to protect us from such a minor threat? Blogger Bob you are on the wrong team.
The government is using the TSA to gradually nibble away at our personal space and privacy so we get more and more comfortable with its overall invasion into our lives. Just like the frog in the boiling water.
The excuse of security and referring to your policies is just a smoke screen - there is absolutely NO PRECEDENT of a bomb being smuggled in by a child. Not even Chechens are that insane. So the question is - how uninformed are you in the TSA? Secondly, if you are that uninformed to use resources to pat down a six year old child what other obvious things are you missing? I will tell you one obvious thing that you have missed. What do you think you are doing to children when you pat them down? You TERRORIZE THEM. Wasn't this the intent of the terrorists-to instill terror? You are now inadvertently being the surrogates of Al Qaeda - good job.
When are you going to learn from country's like Israel... PROFILING WORKS!!! USE IT... My infant is no threat to the people on a freaking plane...
We understand that the terrorists will find a loop hole in our systems to find a way in. The problem is that it don't matter how much security we have they will still find a way.
I have seen the lack of security in the employee sections of airports and will tell you that checking the passengers will not solve your problems.
When a employee just comes in scans his Ident card and walks right into a secure area with a weapon of some sort... You guys will be scratching your heads and going Der Der Der how'd he get in here DER??
TSA are Law Enforcement Officials and are required to obey and enforce the law.
Congress writes the laws in which they are expected to enforce.
Discretion is inherent in the duties of the Department.
Although maybe in afghanistan, a 6 year old afgan boy may be peddling explosives, but odds are great (not just possible) that this was not the case here!!
The failure of TSA is in not using proper descretion, and not recognizing the geological differences as well as citizenship differences. The cookie cutter approach DOES NOT WORK, AND IS NOT WORKING.
If the leadership of TSA insist on making the solution more painful than the problem, then maybe we as citizens and Congress need to rethink the existance of TSA!!
They can go away as quickly as they were created.
Please explain to me what you hope to feel by sticking your hands inside a 6-year-old´s pants that you could not feel when patting over that same area.
This is not about safety, it is about intimidation.
So if this is a pat down done correctly, the only difference between it any the thousands happening every day is that it was filmed, so the whole world can see your disgusting invasive practices.
It is time to stop.
This has got to stop. I'm writing anyone and everyone who will listen. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
The enhanced search procedures are not in response to successful attacks or foiled attacks from Americans. There is no evidence that airport security was inefficient prior to the new pat-downs and the back-scatter machines. The only attacks by passengers I have heard of were foiled attempts coming from outside of this country. I don't understand why the new procedures were implemented.
There is NO WAY on THIS EARTH I would EVER ALLOW a TSA employee to TOUCH MY CHILD IN THIS MANNER.
Get real people. My flying days are done.
Hey guys - the delete meter is very telling - maybe you should fix it too...
We do not want or need TSA. I wonder sometimes if this is a free country. TSA STANDS FOR totally screw americans? How many Bombs have you found?? How many Weapons have you found??!! This is a waste of time...and tax dollars.. No wonder we are the laughing stock of the world. How about you show us some production? and quit
What is TSA going to do when the terrorists decide to attack long, crowded security lines instead of aircraft?
And wouldn't using trained dogs be a more effective, less intrusive means to detect dangerous contraband on passengers than the gropes and the naked body scanners?
Lets start with the basics: We have a Bill of Rights which includes a protection of our right to privacy, the 4th amendment. It says government needs a search warrant to search anyone, and the warrant can only be issued based on probable cause. Where is the warrant to search anyone? Where is the probable cause to suspect a 6 year old girl? The heads of Homeland Security and the TSA should be fired and replaced with people who have read the constitution.
Since everyone seems to be in an uproar about TSA, why don't we just get rid of them and let people board planes without being checked? Would you feel comfortable flying knowing that people could bring whatever they wanted? Ranting on a blog isn't going to change anything. You complain about your rights, start using them. Contact your representatives. Just because there hasn't been a 9/11 since 9/11, doesn't mean there will never be another one.
I have children and because of these "necessary" procedures, refuse to fly anyone. The airline industry will lose money, all the employees at airports will lose money etc. And this is good for America? I refuse to subject myself or my children to such a federal crime, ie. touching a persons privates without their consent is a crime. Forced consent is still not consent.
I am a mother of 5 young children, four of whom have special needs. I am a political moderate. I am not someone who typically gets involved in stuff like this, and I discovered this story through a friend's facebook page, not because I listen to a lot of political commentary.
My nine year old is blind and has significant developmental disabilities. It takes five of us to be able to hold her down at the doctor's office just to be able to look in her ears, or for the dentist to see her teeth. This kind of invasive "screening" would result in a monumentally catastrophic meltdown from my daughter. There is no way I would pin my daughter down so some TSA agent could grope my daughter in the name of "security." There is no way that she would willingly *ever* let some stranger touch her like this. And then what would the TSA do--- pin down my daughter to pat her genitals, or just kick us out of the airport because obviously my multiply disabled 9 year old demonstrates she is a potential terrorist because she will not allow her body to be touched by a stranger?
Do you and your agents honestly and truly feel that you are making the US safer by your actions? When you go to sleep at night, do you derive the satisfaction of truly believing that actions like this mean your job has been well done, and that you have left the world a better, safer place?
I can fathom giving the party line because it's your job and you're being paid to say it. I cannot fathom actually believing in the justifications the TSA continually gives for this kind of behavior.
We're packing up our van in July and driving to move from CO to MA. The military would have paid for us to all fly, and I had already said "no", that I would not risk these kind of pat-downs with my children....and then I see this story. Never again will I fly with my children so long as the TSA believes in doing such things to children in the name of "security." And never in a million years did I anticipate that my husband would be deployed across the globe to protect the freedoms of American citizens, only to have his children robbed of those very freedoms because they dared to want to take an airplane. As a military family, we sacrifice enough. I draw the line at the dignity of my children.
If those of you who work for the TSA defending these policies have any shred of common sense, courtesy and an understanding of basic decency and respect, you should be feeling embarrassed and mortified. No amount of PR spin you can put on this will make it o.k. Give us a little more credit--- we are not so stupid as to actually believe what you did to this child make us all safer.
Respectfully,
Rene
As a white female executive for a major corporation. Most zippers are brass & nonmagnetic. Your underwire is steel & magnetic. This is why you would trip the scanner. Rolex? Ditch the ego.
The events of 911 were indeed horrible but lets put it in perspective. The attackers of 911 were all middle-eastern Muslim men and none of them were US citizens. Does the 6 year old girl fit that description? Do her parents? Do the vast majority of US air travelers fit the description? Why are all Americans now being treated like terrorists?
3000 people died on 911. That is awful but again lets put it in perspective: 40,000 people die every year in traffic accidents, 15,000 die by homicide unrelated to terror, more than 3000 die every year from falls, fires, and accidental poisonings, each.
According to the journal of the American Medical Association between 40,000 and 90,000 die each year from preventable medical mistakes. So you are much more likely to be killed by your doctor than by a terrorist. So why are we now being told that we have to give up our rights and submit to the indignities of a naked body scan or an invasive pat-down?
Pistole announced there would be some method of screening in place that allows air crews to move quickly through checkpoints. Children under age 12 are not subject to enhanced pat downs.
So Pistole is a liar!
These people were “just doing their job”. The orders come from the head of Homeland Security whose orders come from the President of the United States. The introduction of the Naked Scanners and the intrusive pat downs was a response of the November elections. This will not stop until we elect a new President In the White House.
All of these TSA rules are about one thing and one thing only, selling scanners, nothing more. Wake up folks, this is the most capitalist country on the planet, your rights are always going to be taken away if someone can earn a buck on it.
On the outside chance that anyone from TSA is actualy reading, let alone taking any of these comments seriously, I pose the following question.
"Recognizing that terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection,..." TSA
Does "manipulate societal norms" include somehow possessing the supernatural ability to brainwash a Caucasian Doctor and his wife into strapping explosives on their child and allowing said child to evaporate?
Convince me TSA that yes that could happen,... please.
Abolish the TSA!!!
Here's a great idea. Profile. Stop pretending we don't know who were looking for. Quit calling attention to people we know are not a threat.
Thanks for addressing this. Seems like alot of good feadback... some over the top but good none the less. Glad John is going to fix this problem.
Your behavior in groping children at checkpoints is both unnecessary and unacceptable. Anyone could look at that child's form fitting clothing and tell that she didn't have concealed explosives or weapons.
You're alienating the very population you're supposed to be protecting, and that over-reaction is precisely what terrorists want. They, themselves, are relatively powerless, except to the extent that we empower them by overreaacting.
What will be next? If a terrorist
secrets an explosive in a body cavity, will TSA move to body cavity searches for everyone?
If the risk you're worried about is non-metalic weapons, such as explosives, why aren't you deploying "sniffer" machines, or
trained bomb dogs, instead of groping little children?
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Nice job TSA! In order for you to protect freedom your job is instead to destroy it. Why don't you try to follow Israel's example and have a GREAT system of screening while protecting the integrity and the privacy of the people you are trying to defend.
The Forth Amendment of the United States constitution explicitly forbids, "unreasonable searches."
I have yet to see a legal opinion in a court of law in this land that justifies such handling of a child (which in itself violates various sexual assault laws in different circumstances) would qualify as reasonable.
I believe that if challenged in the Supreme Court, TSA's illegal practices would certainly be curtailed, and I sincerely hope that happens.
Using the specter of fear to justify these immoral and illegal actions is downright despicable. The treatment of this 6 year old child did nothing for our "safety."
How many terrorist attacks has the TSA's abusive practices stopped? Zero.
Noone is stating the obvious: profiling. Does this white blond girl traveling with her family pose a threat in any universe at all? TSA is absurd.
I just want to spam-up the comments section a little more.
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