IT Director for a non-profit in Washington, DC. Man About Internet.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says it can fine individuals up to $11,000 for walking away from the airport security process. But will it? People in government say the fine is mostly a deterrent so that terrorists cannot back out of a security check once it starts.
They’re not even trying to make sense at this point. (Via Paul Kafasis.)
They missed the 12-inch razor blades he forgot to take out of his bag.
A few days ago I contacted 20 TSA Transportation Security Officers (TSO) to ask their opinions of the new “enhanced” pat downs. Of the 20 I reached out to, 17 responded. All 17 who responded are at airports where the new “enhanced” pat down is in place … and the responses were all the same, that front line TSOs do not like the new pat downs and that they do not want to perform them. I expected most to not like the pat downs … but what I didn’t expect was that all 17 mentioned their morale being broken down.
Pistole on Sunday noted the alleged attempt by a Nigerian with explosives in his underwear to try to bring down an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight last Christmas. “We all wish we lived in a world where security procedures at airports weren’t necessary,” he said, “but that just isn’t the case.”
So one man from Nigeria tries to pack a bomb in his underwear last year, and now we’re all subjected to invasive naked body scans and physical pat-downs. Keep in mind that this “underwear bomber” succeeded in destroying nothing other than his own genitals, and that experts agree that even if his bomb had worked as he intended, it wouldn’t have brought down the plane.
Here’s the question for Pistole, and anyone else who argues that these new TSA procedures are an appropriate response to that incident: What happens if the next guy hides his bomb up his ass?
Harriet Baskas, reporting for MSNBC on Thomas Sawyer, a retired teacher and bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag to collect his urine:
“One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants.”
The security officer finished the pat-down, tested the gloves for any trace of explosives and then, Sawyer said, “He told me I could go. They never apologized. They never offered to help. They acted like they hadn’t seen what happened. But I know they saw it because I had a wet mark.”
Humiliated, upset and wet, Sawyer said he had to walk through the airport soaked in urine, board his plane and wait until after takeoff before he could clean up.
This is how United States government agents treat innocent citizens.
This is sick. UPDATE: Here’s the story behind the incident, from The Salt Lake Tribune.
Molly Grantham, reporting for WBTV:
A Charlotte-area flight attendant and cancer survivor contacted WBTV after she says she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.
From an email to Erick Erickson from a soldier returning from Afghanistan:
This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.
So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers.