tagged w/ pat downs
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ATLANTA (AP) — In a climate of Internet campaigns to shun airport pat-downs and veteran pilots suing over their treatment by government screeners, some airports are considering another way to show dissatisfaction: Ditching TSA agents altogether.
Federal law allows airports to opt for screeners from the private sector instead. The push is being led by a powerful Florida congressman who's a longtime critic of the Transportation Security Administration and counts among his campaign contributors some of the companies who might take the TSA's place.
Furor over airline passenger checks has grown as more airports have installed scanners that produce digital images of the body's contours, and the anger intensified when TSA added a more intrusive style of pat-down recently for those who opt out of the full-body scans. Some travelers are using the Internet to organize protests aimed at the busy travel days next week surrounding Thanksgiving.
For Republican Rep. John Mica of Florida, the way to make travelers feel more comfortable would be to kick TSA employees out of their posts at the ends of the snaking security lines. This month, he wrote letters to nation's 100 busiest airports asking that they request private security guards instead. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkv8DAy2qgKuuVCICy6HASaKlFFQ?docId=c5e727bff09845e393608ea000909811ATLANTA (AP) — In a climate of Internet campaigns to shun airport pat-downs and... more
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Congressman Ron Paul decries TSA abuses on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives 11-17-2010.Congressman Ron Paul decries TSA abuses on the floor of the U.S. House of... more
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Controversy over TSA reaching into fliers’ pants dominates web traffic, Infowars top linked
Following a top headline on the Drudge Report, the world’s single largest alternative media outlet, the shocking news story “TSA Now Putting Hands Down Fliers’ Pants“ by Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones has gone completely viral, organically reaching #1 on Alexa.com’s “Hot Pages.” Alexa is one of the leading and most trusted indicators of web traffic numbers, and an assurance that this disgusting over-reach of government power will be discussed by millions across the globe.
The controversy over TSA reaching into fliers’ pants is the latest development in an on-going backlash against the invasive measures by TSA. Radio host Owen JJ Stone, known as “OhDoctah,” appeared on the Alex Jones Show today to share his unnerving experience at an airport checkpoint. As Watson & Jones write, Stone was subjected to what other passengers also now face– TSA agents “literally putting their hands down people’s pants if they are wearing baggy clothing.”
Thanks again to our readers and supporters, as well as Drudge, for another big success in the Infowar. This is an important issue, and has currently reached the mainstream for discussion and debate.
From Alexa’s Hot Pages listing, November 16, 2010, at about 2 PM CST:
TSA Now Putting Hands Down Fliers’ Pants
http://www.infowars.com/tsa-now-putting-hands-down-fliers-pants/
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones Infowars.com November 16, 2010 | The TSA’s invasive new screening measures include officers literally putting their hands down people’s pants if they are wearing baggy clothing in a shocking new elevation of groping procedures that have stoked a nationwide revolt against privacy-busting airport security measures.
Top linked on the Drudge Report:
READ MORE: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/infowars-tsa-abuse-story-number-1.htmlControversy over TSA reaching into fliers’ pants dominates web traffic, Infowars... more
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If you plan on flying to Grandma's house this Thanksgiving, the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, is giving you an unsavory choice: let them see a naked image of your body or let them grope your chest and crotch.
Sound unreasonable? Well, it's all in the name of safety and will be the reality of air travel out of LAX and virtually every other U.S. airport in the near future.
TSA's Advance Imaging Technology (AIT), better known as full-body scanners, are capable of producing a nude image for remote security screeners using special x-ray technology that focuses on the skin.
Those wishing to opt out of the scan will face an "enhanced pat down," which includes officials using the palm-side of their hand on sensitive areas like the breasts and crotch, according to Christopher Ott, an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) spokesman in Massachusetts.
This was confirmed by a middle-aged couple flying into LAX from Norfolk, VA Monday night. "They felt all over," the woman said, running her hands over her body. When she said the search didn't make her feel uncomfortable, her spouse blurted out, "But her husband did!"
The unnamed couple said it was the last time they would fly.
While not all airports or all terminals have received the full-body scanners, technicians were installing a new scanner at LAX's Terminal 1 Monday night
Critics call the scanners a "virtual strip search," violating the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens protection from unreasonable searches that violate their dignity and personal privacy.
"This technology involves a striking and direct invasion of privacy," an ACLU backgrounder states. The graphic images produced by the scanners "amounts to a significant assault on the essential dignity of passengers."
Both the machines and the new pat downs have drawn fire from all sides.
Israeli security expert, Rafi Sela, who designs airport security systems, has claimed that he could get past the scanners with enough explosives to bring down a 747. "AIT scanners are useless," Sela said in an email. "The system is useless."
Last March, even the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported doubts that the technology would have detected the bomber last Christmas.
American Muslims might represent the social group most antagonized by the new procedures. The Fiqh Council of North America issued a statement last February saying it was, "deeply concerned about the use of nude body scanners," as Islamic teaching forbids men or women to be seen naked. The Council could not be reached for comment on the new pat downs.
Clearly, being forced to choose between a virtual strip search and a frisking that would be sexual assault in any other setting is outrageous. Without suspicion that you are breaking the law, these searches are unconstitutional.
You only have to imagine a man viewing your son or daughter naked or feeling your girlfriend up and down to grasp how flagrantly wrong this is.
Don't be afraid to get angry. Tweet it, Facebook it, and talk about it. Speaking out is the only way to reverse a security policy as demeaning and unlawful as this one.
http://www.studentvoiceonline.com/opinion/virtual-strip-search-awaits-holiday-travelers-1.2401871If you plan on flying to Grandma's house this Thanksgiving, the Transportation... more
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The new pat downs include airport security professionals running their hands over all parts of the body. This includes breasts, crotches, and buttocks. Though only female security officers will search female air travel passengers and only male officers will search the men, passengers are increasingly feeling violated.
Air TravelMuch of the outrage is coming as the TSA did not formally announce the new procedures before implementing them.
Air travel passengers are complaining that they were not prepared for such extensive searches. Some have reported being humiliated by the experience, as they get patted down publicly. http://www.netgazette.org/new-pat-down-rules-for-air-travel-spark-outrage/39979/The new pat downs include airport security professionals running their hands over all... more
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Travelers from this island making the 90-mile trip to the United States already face a gauntlet of roadblocks.
First there are the bureaucratic hurdles — a visa from the U.S. government, and permission to travel from Cuban authorities. Then there is the cost of the 45-minute flight to Miami, which, at more than $500, can feel like a galling rip-off. Hefty baggage fees further gouge Cuban wallets.
And now, as a result of new Transportation Security Administration screening policies adopted in the wake of a failed terrorist attack on Christmas Day, Cuban travelers will face pat-downs, body scans and other inspections otherwise reserved for citizens of nations whose cultural devotions do not include salsa dancing and rum drinks.
Because the U.S. State Department has designated Cuba's communist government as a "state sponsor of terror," Cuban travelers will be pulled aside for extra security checks under the TSA policy. Travelers from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen will also be subject to the added screening measures.
"No one in this country is capable of terrorism like that," said Maria del Carmen Rodriguez, referring to a 23-year-old Nigerian man's alleged attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on December 25 with explosives tucked in his underwear.
"It makes me sad that we'll be treated differently," she said, while waiting to board a Miami flight from Havana's Jose Marti International Airport.
But it wasn't clear if and when travelers like Rodriguez might face the added scrutiny. Security measures at the Havana airport had not changed as of January 5, despite the new TSA regulations for all U.S.-bound flights, according to one Cuban airport official.
"We comply with ICAO regulations and will continue to do so," the official said. "If want us to change our screening procedures, they'll have to come down here and discuss that with us."
While Cubans have been known to occasionally use their undergarments to sneak potent cigars into the United States, the island is hardly a bastion of Islamic fundamentalism. Cuba has no mosques, no Al Qaeda presence (outside the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo) and a vast state security apparatus guards against any perceived threat. Young people who want to leave the island often dream of marrying Americans, not blowing them up.
Cuba's state-controlled media promptly denounced the new measures as "anti-terrorist paranoia," as Cuban officials protested in Washington.
"Cuban territory has never been used to organize, finance or carry out an act of terrorism against the United States or any other country," said Cuban government spokesman Alberto Gonzalez, who challenged U.S. authorities to "cite a single terrorist act or attempted act that originated on Cuban soil."
Cuba has also lodged a formal complaint with the U.S.'s top diplomat in Havana.
Cuba was placed on the State Sponsor of Terrorism list in 1982, and the list's other occupants now include Iran, Syria and Sudan. The four nations are banned from receiving foreign assistance from the U.S., and are subject to financial and trade sanctions, among other penalties. They also cannot receive "dual-use" U.S. technology that could be used for military purposes.
In recent years, some U.S. lawmakers have pushed to have Cuba removed from the list, arguing that the island represents no threat to American citizens. But according to the State Department, Cuba remains on it for several reasons, including a lack of cooperation in global U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.
"Although Cuba signed and ratified all 12 international counterterrorism conventions in 2001, it has remained opposed to the U.S.-led Coalition prosecuting the war on global terrorism and has been actively critical of many associated U.S. policies and actions," a statement on the State Department web site reads.
Cuba also hosts several militants from the Basque separatist group ETA, and a number of former guerrilla fighters from the Colombian rebel groups FARC and ELN, the site says.
But critics point out that many of the ETA militants reside in Cuba as the result of an agreement with the Spanish government, and the Colombian government has asked Cuba to be a mediator in its negotiations with guerrilla forces. None of the groups purport to attack Americans in the United States.
The State Department also cites the presence of U.S. fugitives residing on the island, including several Puerto Rican separatists and black nationalists who fled to Cuba in the 1960s and 1970s and have remained there since. Castro opponents in Congress also note Cuba's diplomatic ties with Iran, which has recently expanded relations with countries in the hemisphere including Venezuela and Brazil.
Cuban authorities see hypocrisy in the American terror claims, pointing to anti-Castro militants living in the United States who are wanted on the island for alleged terrorist acts. Among them is Luis Posada Carriles, who was imprisoned in Venezuela for blowing up a Cubana airlines flight in 1976, killing all 73 passengers abroad.
Posada later escaped from prison, and now lives in Miami, where lawyers have fought his extradition to Venezuela.
Not all of the travelers at Havana's International Airport objected to the new TSA procedures, though. "I think any security measure is a good thing," said Luis, waiting to board a flight to Miami with his family. "I don't mind the inconvenience, if it'll make us safer."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60647E20100107Travelers from this island making the 90-mile trip to the United States already face a... more
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xiola
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added this
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2 years ago
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