Thanksgiving Travel Will Be Hell at Airports: More Lawsuits Against TSA for Humiliating Groping, Privacy Invasion, Includes Nuns & Disabled Passengers (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on November 17, 2010
Deception: One of hundreds of naked x-ray body span photos that DHS and TSA claimed weren't possible and wouldn't be stored, yet here one is... read the story below | Photo credit: USA Today
My family will be staying home for Thanksgiving this year — I am truly thankful for this during the tarnished Age of Obama. Don’t look for any hopenchange at the airports, patriots… it won’t be there.
For millions over next week’s Thanksgiving Day weekend, anticipate an ugly, living hell at airports across the country because of the new Orwellian security procedures, courtesy of Department of Homeland Security and TSA, that demand passengers have their groins and chests groped by TSA employees, including those disabled and in wheelchairs and even nuns, and go through full body scan devices that reveal everything.
Americans are fighting back. Hard.
CBS News: Airport Body Scans Debated
From Prison Planet, TSA Hit With Lawsuits As Revolt Explodes:
The TSA has been hit with a number of lawsuits as the revolt against Big Sis, naked body scanners, and invasive groping measures explodes, with one case involving a woman who had her blouse pulled down in full public view by TSA goons who then proceeded to laugh and joke about her exposed breasts.
Nationwide outrage against the TSA is not only bringing to light new cases of airport abuse, it’s throwing fresh attention on previous incidents that have been going on for years.
One of the most disturbing, which is subject to an ongoing lawsuit, involved a 21-year-old college student from Amarillo Texas. The woman was passing through security at Corpus Christi airport on May 29 2008 when she was subjected to “extended search procedures” by the TSA.
“As the TSA agent was frisking plaintiff, the agent pulled the plaintiff’s blouse completely down, exposing plaintiffs’ breasts to everyone in the area,” the lawsuit said. “As would be expected, plaintiff was extremely embarrassed and humiliated.”
TSA workers continued to laugh and joke about the incident “for an extended period of time,” leaving the woman distraught and needing to be consoled. After the woman re-entered the boarding area, TSA workers continued to humiliate her over the incident.
“One male TSA employee expressed to the plaintiff that he wished he would have been there when she came through the first time and that ‘he would just have to watch the video,’” the suit said.
The woman filed an administrative claim against the TSA but was forced to launch a full lawsuit after the agency failed to respond.
From The Lonely Conservative, Look What the TSA is Doing to Disabled Passengers:
This is awful. One man had his pants pulled down to his ankles. He stood there in his underwear in full view of other passengers. He has a metal knee. He’s not the only one.
From Barbados Free Press, Sublime irony: Muslim TSA guard feels Catholic nun’s genitals:
As the outcry over virtual strip searches and genital feeling by minimum wage TSA airline security guards grows, this photo from Drudge Report really says it all.
Muslim TSA security guard searches Catholic nun’s groin for bombs and weapons | Photo credit: Drudge Report
Matt Drudge captioned the photo “The Terrorists have won” and I quite agree with him.
It’s totally out of control. If you had to pick the risk factor in that photo, which person is the most likely to be a threat to commercial air travel?
That’s right, Islamic Supremacists are the risk. How do you tell them apart from normal non-threatening Muslims? I don’t know, but I do know that feeling the genitals of Catholic nuns and New York Jews on their way to Disneyland with the grandchildren is not the answer.
From Amarillo Globe-News, Lawsuit: Airport search indecent:
An Amarillo woman is suing the federal government for intentional infliction of emotional distress after Transportation Security Administration agents allegedly humiliated the woman when her breasts were publicly exposed during an “extended search” two years ago at a Corpus Christi airport.
The suit, filed earlier this year in Amarillo’s U.S. District Court, alleges the woman was singled out for “extended search procedures” while preparing to board an aircraft destined for Amarillo on May 29, 2008.
The Amarillo Globe-News has declined to identify the woman for privacy reasons.
“As the TSA agent was frisking plaintiff, the agent pulled the plaintiff’s blouse completely down, exposing plaintiffs’ breasts to everyone in the area,” the lawsuit said. “As would be expected, plaintiff was extremely embarrassed and humiliated.”
The suit said the woman filed an administrative claim against the TSA, but the agency never responded, sparking the lawsuit.
The suit also claims that other TSA employees continued to joke and laugh about the incident for an extended period of time. The woman was distraught over the incident and left the screening area so an acquaintance could console her, the suit said.
CNN: Pilot files lawsuit over TSA body scanners | November 2010
From AOL Travel News, What Happens if You Decline a Full Body Scan?:
When you ask a friend to join you for a nice weekend cruise from Miami, you don’t expect the friend to be hauled away by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents into a private room where she says she was practically strip-searched. But that’s what happened at Logan International Airport in Boston.
I breezed through security, taking off my shoes, putting my stuff on the belt and walking through the traditional metal detector machine. The process took less than five minutes.
Then I looked over to the adjacent security line and saw to my horror my red-faced friend questioning TSA officers after she was chosen at random for, and refused to go through, a full body scanner.
My pal happens to be a Boston media personality and crime reporter, Michele McPhee. She is not a shy lady. When this tough blond makes up her mind she makes up her mind. There was no way she was going to be convinced to do a body scan if she didn’t want to.
So instead, she opted for a pat down and was whisked away, barefoot, by two women – a TSA officer and her supervisor – to a private room, where McPhee says a very intrusive body search was conducted.
“They run their hands inside your leg and under your bra strap and patted the front of my breasts,” she says. “If someone had done that to me at a nightclub I’d call the cops.”
McPhee says the officers were “nice and apologetic” and seemed to feel bad they couldn’t give her her shoes back until after the search, especially when she pointed out how dirty the floor of the terminal was. The whole process took about 15 minutes.
So why did she reject the full body scan? McPhee says her big issue is privacy when it comes to the images that are taken.
“I have questions about privacy. I don’t really trust the TSA to keep these things private,” she says.
McPhee says she’d also like to know who profits from the proliferation of the body scanner machines the TSA is rolling out.
With some grass roots groups calling for a boycott of full body scanners on Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving and one of the busiest travel days of the year, McPhee says she’s all for it if it shakes things up.
“People need to know why we need body scanners,” she says. “The humiliation of walking across a crowded, dirty terminal in bare feet, escorted by two TSA agents, dragged into a room and essentially assaulted, I really did leave mad.”
From Washington Times, Big Sister’s police state – TSA’s tyrannical tactics threaten American freedoms:
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has crossed the line. As if subjecting millions of Americans to X-rated x-ray scans and public groping sessions weren’t bad enough, the agency now threatens $11,000 in fines against anyone refusing to submit to humiliation at the airport.
Oceanside, Calif., resident John Tyner found this out after he posted on YouTube a video of his degrading encounter with TSA screeners. Mr. Tyner’s catchy phrase, “If you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested,” spread quickly, thanks to attention provided by the Drudge Report. TSA was not amused, and an official announced Monday that Mr. Tyner faces punishment for leaving the airport without submitting to the high-tech or low-tech molestation options.
The term is not used lightly. Under 18 U.S. Code Section 2244, ” ‘sexual contact’ means the intentional touching, either directly or through the clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh or buttocks of any person with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade.” It’s no coincidence that TSA initiated sexual-contact pat-downs after fliers began to refuse the pornographic scanners. There can be no question that when threats of civil punishment are used to ensure compliance, those encounters with the TSA lose their status as a voluntary transaction. It’s even more outrageous that these unnecessary searches are being conducted on children.
There’s also no doubt that some rogue TSA agents seek self-gratification at the expense of passengers. In January, a TSA agent planted white powder in the bags of passengers, according to documents posted on the Smoking Gun website. Apparently, scaring members of the public into thinking they were being busted for smuggling drugs made for a good “joke.” The new screening rules open yet more opportunities for the worst elements at TSA.
From USA Today, Tech site publishes 100 ‘naked’ body scans from Fla. courthouse:
As the backlash over more intrusive airport security methods increases, the tech site Gizmodo has published 100 of 35,000 low-resolution body scans that were saved improperly during screenings at the U.S. courthouse in Orlando. Federal officials have claimed that such “advanced imaging technology” could not store images.
Gizmodo obtained the scans through a Freedom of Information Act request. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted in August that it had saved tens of thousands of images of employees and citizens who passed through the courthouse machines.
[...]
Federal officials maintain that images recorded with millimeter wave systems (used in the courthouse) and higher-resolution X-ray backscatter technology (used in airports) could not record the images. Here’s what the Transportation Security Administration says:
Advanced imaging technology cannot store, print, transmit or save the image, and the image is automatically deleted from the system after it is cleared by the remotely located security officer. Officers evaluating images are not permitted to take cameras, cell phones or photo-enabled devices into the resolution room.
This one looks “stored, printed, transmitted, and saved” to me.
One of hundreds of naked x-ray body span photos that DHS and TSA claims are impossible to store - this one looks 'stored' to me | Photo credit: USA Today
USA Today continues…
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has filed a lawsuit to halt use body scanners at U.S. airports, arguing that the program is “unlawful, invasive, and ineffective.”
In related news, the TSA is investigating a San Diego passenger who has gained notoriety for refusing to undergo a full-body scan, leaving the airport and then publicizing the pat-down he received. John “Don’t Touch My Junk” Tyner, 31, may face an $11,000 fine if the agency sues him.
From RedState, Did You Know Your Airport Can Opt Out of TSA Molestations?:
Byron York has good news for people around the country.
Your local airport can opt out of having the Transportation Safety Administration handle security at your local airport. Instead, you can contract out to the private sector. It was one of the ingenious and little noticed provisions the Republicans dropped in the post-9/11 legislation creating the TSA.
With a move to unionize the TSA and the TSA groping 3 year olds and nuns in nutty security theater, opt-ing out in favor of free market competence sounds like a great idea. Oh, and Congress will cover the payments to the TSA replacement.
Breaking… Who benefits most from the body scanners? You won’t be too surprised: billionaire socialist puppet master George Soros.
Additional reading:
Cold Fury: Anatomy of a scan
The Camp of the Saints: Is Janet Incompetano A Little ‘Touched’?
Frugal Café Blog Zone: TSA’s Airport Checkpoints Violate 4th Amendment… But Team Obama & Statist Government Doesn’t Really Care (video) and Background Info on Crying 3-Year-Old Girl Who Wouldn’t Let TSA Pat Her Down, Plus the “Don’t Touch My Junk” Man & Napolitano Says “More to Come” for Muslim Women (video) and Thanksgiving Crisis: Backlash Growing Against TSA’s Invasive Pat-Downs & Body Scanners at Airports, “Opt-Out Day” Looming, Muslim Women Exempt? (video) and DHS on the Hot Seat: Invasive Groping at Airports by TSA Employees Escalating, Pilots Revolt Against Being Scanned Because of Radiation (video)
Motor City Times: When The Government Does It, Its Called Security
The Powers That Be: The TSA: Life Imitates Airplane II
Right Network: Citizen to TSAndroid: “If you touch my junk I’ll have you arrested.”
DBKP – Death By 1000 Papercuts: Angry Over Airport Full Body Scans? On the Horizon, Red Flag Tests
Chuck DeVore, Big Government: TSA Needs to “Get a Grip”… of a Different Sort
Nice Deb: Don’t Touch My Junk Demotivator
Pundit & Pundette: Airline searches, as ineffective as they are invasive
Michelle Malkin: TSA: Touching sensitive areas
AFP: ‘Naked’ scanners at US airports may be dangerous: scientists
The Lonely Conservative: TSA Gone Wild – Pats Down Screaming 3 Year Old
Gateway Pundit: Soros & Chertoff Make a Killing On Controversial TSA Scanners and Former Top TSA Official: “Nobody Likes Having Their 4th Amendment Rights Violated… We’re Going to Have to Do It” (Video) and Awful… 3 Year-Old Girl Accosted By TSA Airport Screeners (Video)
The Jawa Report: CAIR Pushes To Exempt Muslims From Airport Body Scans AND Pat Downs
CNN: Growing backlash against TSA body scanners, pat-downs
Another Black Conservative: From groping to probing, TSA to investigate John Tyner (The Don’t Touch My Junk dude)
Washington Post: Revolt against TSA: Ban the body scanner?
Death and Taxes: Revolt Against TSA: Airline Industry Spawns New Folk Hero
Sign On San Diego: Commercial airline pilot refuses full body scan
CNS News: Muslim Group Advises Women Wearing Hijabs to Allow TSA ‘Enhanced Pat Downs’ Only on Head and Neck Area
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