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A Follow-up to Dakinikat’s Latest Post on the TSA Controversy

Posted: November 21, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Human Rights | Tags: , , , , , , |36 Comments

This morning, Hillary Clinton weighed in on the enhanced searches being used by the TSA during her appearances on the morning political shows.

CBS’ Bob Schieffer asked Clinton Sunday if she would submit to a pat-down by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent.

“Not if I could avoid it,” she replied. “No. I mean who would?”

On Meet the Press, she told David Gregory:

“I think everyone, including our security experts, are looking for ways to diminish the impact on the traveling public,” Clinton told NBC’s David Gregory.

“I mean obviously the vast, vast majority of people getting on these planes are law abiding citizens who are just trying to get from one place to another. But let’s not kid ourselves. The terrorists are adaptable,” she continued.

“Striking the right balance is what this is about. And I am absolutely confident that our security experts are gonna keep trying to get it better and less intrusive and more precise,” Clinton said.

Now let’s compare that with President Obama’s statement about the naked scanning machines and abusive TSA procedures, beginning with one of his patented self-referential remarks. Because everything is always about him, of course.

Responding to a request for his opinion on the matter from NBC’s Chuck Todd, President Obama opened with a confession: “I don’t go through security checks to get on planes these days, so I haven’t personally experienced some of the procedures put in place by TSA.” He then proceeded to defend this measure which he will never experience– one which everyone from Geraldo Rivera to Anderson Cooper seem taken aback by:

“I will also say that in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing, our TSA personnel are properly under enormous pressure to make sure that you don’t have somebody slipping on a plane with some sort of explosive device on their persons. And since the explosive device that was on Mr. Abdulmutallab was not detected by ordinary metal detectors, it has meant that the TSA has tried to adapt to make sure that passengers on planes on safe. Now, that’s a tough situation. One of the most frustrating aspects of this fight against terrorism is that it has created a whole security apparatus around us that causes huge inconvenience for all of us.”

Which statement is the least obnoxious? Perhaps Obama should just defer all questions to Clinton from now on.

Here’s an interesting reaction to Obama’s remarks from Huffpo:

“What I don’t like about Obama’s statement is the sense that there’s nothing to be done about the violation of civil liberties. It is as if the TSA is not accountable to anyone, which can’t be accurate. Who oversees TSA and who is responsible for setting these policies? Who are these people accountable to–Dick Cheney?”

I totally agree with that commenter!

Now check this out: Body scanner CEO accompanied Obama to India

The CEO of one of the two companies licensed to sell full body scanners to the TSA accompanied President Barack Obama to India earlier this month, a clear sign of the deep ties between Washington politicians and the companies pushing to have body scanners installed at all US airports.

Deepak Chopra, chairman and CEO of OSI Systems and no relation to the New Age spiritualist, was one of a number of CEOs who traveled with the president on his three-day trip to India, which focused primarily on expanding business ties between the US and the emerging Asian power….

That a manufacturer of body scanners accompanied the US president on a foreign trip shows the extent of the ties between the industry and the US government. With anger growing at the intrusive news screening procedures, many observers have focused attention on Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary whose consultancy, the Chertoff Group, counts OSI as a client….

“Mr. Chertoff should not be allowed to abuse the trust the public has placed in him as a former public servant to privately gain from the sale of full-body scanners under the pretense that the scanners would have detected ‘[the alleged Christmas Day bomber’s] explosive,” Kate Hanni, founder of FlyersRights.org, told the Washington Post.

If that doesn’t make your blood boil over the way innocent Americans are being treated in U.S. airports, what would? This is all about money for corporations, not about protecting Americans from terrorism.

We are now experiencing exactly what James Ridgeway predicted earlier this year:

…airport security has always been compromised by corporate interests.When it comes to high-tech screening methods, the TSA has a dismal record of enriching private corporations with failed technologies, and there are signs that the latest miracle device may just bring more of the same.

Ridgeway calls the naked body scanners a “scam.”

Known by their opponents as “digital strip search” machines, the full-body scanners use one of two technologies—millimeter wave sensors or backscatter x-rays—to see through clothing, producing ghostly images of naked passengers. Yet critics say that these, too, are highly fallible, and are incapable of revealing explosives hidden in body cavities—an age-old method for smuggling contraband. If that’s the case, a terrorist could hide the entire bomb works within his or her body, and breeze through the virtual strip search undetected. Yesterday, the London Independent reported on “authoritative claims that officials at the [UK] Department for Transport and the Home Office have already tested the scanners and were not persuaded that they would work comprehensively against terrorist threats to aviation.” A British defense-research firm reportedly found the machines unreliable in detecting “low-density” materials like plastics, chemicals, and liquids—precisely what the underwear bomber had stuffed in his briefs.

Ridgeway lists a number of powerful Washington insiders who are profiting from the Naked body imaging scam. So what if a terrorist gets through the scan with explosives hidden in a body orifice? There are even more invasive machines available.

there’s always the next generation of security equipment: the Body Orifice Security Scanner, or BOSS chair. This contraption, which has an uncomfortable resemblance to an electric chair, is used in prisons, mostly in the UK, for tracing cell phones, shivs, and other dangerous contraband that’s been swallowed or inserted into body cavities by inmates. So far, it only detects metal, but you never know.

And of course there is always the humiliating “enhanced pat-down” process for anyone who doesn’t want to appear naked to a bunch of TSA thugs.

If you are still unconvinced that the government isn’t really protecting us with their police-state tactics, consider this:

The recent public ire toward the TSA’s new pat-down and body imaging screening methods is likely to cause more people to drive automobiles and forego airline travel, say two transportation economists who have studied the issue.

As the nation readies for one of the busiest traveling holidays, Steven Horwitz, a professor of economics at St. Lawrence University, told The Hill that the probable spike in road travel, caused by adverse feelings towards the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) new screening procedures, could also lead to more car-related deaths.

“Driving is much more dangerous than flying, as you are far more likely to be killed in an automobile accident mile-for-mile than you are in an airplane,” said Horwitz. “The result will be that the new TSA procedures will kill more Americans on the highway.”

Clifford Winston, a senior fellow of economic studies at the Brookings Institute, stopped short of saying that more people could die as a result of the TSA policies, but said that the airline industry will definitely see a decline in passengers if the public’s contempt for the pat-downs and advanced-imaging technology systems continues.

It’s time to get serious about stopping terrorist attacks by using a method that actually works, instead of just focusing on further lining the the pockets of rich corporations and their CEOs.

President Obama needs to understand that he works for us. We shouldn’t have to serve as experimental subjects for his rich friends’ latest police state technological projects. We should have the right as American citizens to travel freely in our own country.

If President Obama continues to insist that we be seen naked or be groped by his TSA thugs in order to fly, then he should have to go through one of the scanning machines himself followed by an “enhanced pat-down.” And the entire humiliating process should be shown on national TV for all of us to see.

36 Comments on “A Follow-up to Dakinikat’s Latest Post on the TSA Controversy”

  1. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    November 21, 2010 at 8:18 pm

    We’ve been sold to the highest bidder. That’s all there is to it.

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      November 21, 2010 at 8:40 pm

      It sure looks that way.

    • CB's avatar CB says:
      November 21, 2010 at 10:04 pm

      Not politically correct, but because I’ve been a frequent flyer on a specific airline for years, have no criminal record, and other verifiable records that indicate I’m unlikely to be a security risk, why not funnel me through the standard screening (metal detectors/carry-on luggage x-rayed). The odds of my joining some terrorist group and participating in blowing myself up with others are rather slim.

      • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
        November 21, 2010 at 10:39 pm

        that would reduce the need to buy scanners and hire security companies … why, that common sense would break down corporate leaching off the government as we know it!!!

    • Woman Voter's avatar Woman Voter says:
      November 21, 2010 at 11:55 pm

      Even the little ones have to go through this humiliation, I want a subcontractor from former Israeli security, I don’t want the groping experience, and it doesn’t matter if it is a woman. When you go for your GYN check up they tell you what they are doing and for what purpose and they ask for your explicit permission (you can stop the exam at any point, it is YOUR BODY, IT IS YOUR RIGHT), I don’t like this ‘WE OWN YOU’ treatment. It is sickening and to think that it is about profit is even more sickening.

  2. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    November 21, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    Also, i would like to point out to President Obama that have a nude picture taken of you or having your genitals groped is not just an “inconvenience”. Huge or otherwise.

  3. NW Luna's avatar NW Luna says:
    November 21, 2010 at 9:03 pm

    Obama chumming up, on a state visit, with the head of a company making body scanners?

    Is there no end to things that keep making me say “How much worse can it get?”

  4. grayslady's avatar grayslady says:
    November 21, 2010 at 9:21 pm

    Security expert Bruce Schneier says that he still stands by what he said in 2005:

    Exactly two things have made airline travel safer since 9/11: reinforcement of cockpit doors, and passengers who now know that they may have to fight back. Everything else — Secure Flight and Trusted Traveler included — is security theater. We would all be a lot safer if, instead, we implemented enhanced baggage security — both ensuring that a passenger’s bags don’t fly unless he does, and explosives screening for all baggage — as well as background checks and increased screening for airport employees.
    Then we could take all the money we save and apply it to intelligence, investigation and emergency response.

    Schneier is also one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit to ban the body scanners: http://epic.org/privacy/body_scanners/epic_v_dhs_suspension_of_body.html#lawsuit.

    • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
      November 21, 2010 at 9:47 pm

      I’m much more worried about the freight frankly. But of course, they won’t do anything about that because it cuts into some companies’ profits and political donations.

    • Rikke's avatar Sima says:
      November 22, 2010 at 12:55 am

      I believe it’s Schneier who proposes a novel way of ‘policing’ the watchers in the modern day always-on-camera-state. Let the citizens watch the watchers. So all the cops, all the TSA, etc all have cameras on them, and we, the citizens can watch at any time. That way the playing field is level and abuse is much less likely to happen.

  5. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    November 21, 2010 at 9:26 pm

    Even if Obama stopped focusing on how powerful he is and used a more humble approach, like Hillary’s, it might help a little bit.

  6. minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
    November 21, 2010 at 9:33 pm

    Has this been posted?

    “Saturday Night Live didn’t waste any time spoofing the TSA and their new overly aggressive “junk touching” pat down procedures with an ad portraying TSA agents as sex workers.”

    http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/snl-spoofs-tsa-pat-downs

    Many comedians will probably be making fun of this TSA thing a lot. But what is sad is that I could see these “mall cop wannabes” really thinking like this, that they can really get away with fondling women, boys, girls and men…

  7. Outis's avatar Outis says:
    November 21, 2010 at 11:40 pm

    I hope this gets cross-posted all over the net. Putting the dots together like this makes it clear as day. I’m gonna go sharpen the pitchfork.

  8. TheRock's avatar TheRock says:
    November 22, 2010 at 12:18 am

    Thanks Dak and BB for the two posts about the TSA. I’m at the begginings of the belief set that the answer to every question regarding how Obumbles handles any situation can be answered with one very simple statement…

    “…FOLLOW THE MONEY…”

    And while I (as I would always, anyway) favor Hillary’s answer over his, Obumbles lack of intellectual curiosity is evident by what he isn’t asking. For example, what other detection methods are out there? How can we streamline the safety process without compromise? What indicators exist that we can point at being suspicious (in that way limiting the number of people required to submit to extra safety procedures)? And then the biggest question of all…

    “…WHERE IS THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY?…”

    Doesn’t this fall under her perview? This country is being run by a clown….

    Asshats.

    Hillary 2012

    • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
      November 22, 2010 at 12:26 am

      Janet Napolitano wants ‘Patience’

      In an editorial for USA Today, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended new airport security measures, just as pat-downs have come under attack via a viral video of a man refusing to have his “junk” (or his John Pistole, if you will) touched by TSA officers. Napolitano assured travelers that the new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) units are safe and secure, and described pat-down measures for those who refuse AIT scans.

      • TheRock's avatar TheRock says:
        November 22, 2010 at 12:59 am

        They are all in it together. But that what you get when you follow an empty suit.

        Asshats.

        Hillary 2012

      • Uppity Woman's avatar Uppity Woman says:
        November 22, 2010 at 6:28 pm

        Napolitano wants patience? Sure! And I want to see her fugly ass groped on youtube for all to see. If she has some kind of prosthesis, I want to see them force her to remove it. Perhaps some closeups of them grabbing her crotch and breasts. If she has any small children in the family anywhere, perhaps someone can film one of them screaming while they grope the child, thus giving that child a memory for life. After everybody sees the video of her, then she will have earned the right to ask everybody else for patience.

        • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
          November 22, 2010 at 6:38 pm

          This situation is really getting whacked now. A sexworker/porno star went in with see through underwear and a camera to deliberately provoke them.

        • minkoffminx's avatar Minkoff Minx says:
          November 22, 2010 at 8:58 pm

          Speaking of childhood memories, I have one…I was just thinking about this today. Childhood memories rarely fade, they stay tucked away in the back of your mind with the unimportant variety of thoughts and consciousness. With the recent TSA abusive and evasive pat-downs. that I think cross the line and venture into assault and molestation, one memory from my lost subconscious comes rushing forward today.
          When I was young, 6 years old, my Uncle and Godfather (same man BTW) was convicted of 3rd degree murder. A result of some sort of family payback and/or vengeance that is not relevant to the story I tell here. That said, my Father would take me and his mother, sister and brother to visit my Uncle at Raiford, what is now called Florida Penitentiary. When you go into a prison to visit a relative, there are some freedoms of privacy that you understandably will have to give up.
          One particular visit stands out, I remember my Uncle, who was only 2 years older than I, had a big new bag of Double Bubble bubblegum. This bag of goodies was confiscated by the oppressive guards at the gate. These thug like guards, who after the trauma of actually going to visit someone in a State Penitentiary, handed my Uncle an empty bag of bubblegum. I also remember that my Aunt, who was around age 14, was on her period…why this stands out is because when the guards searched her purse, they found a tampon. So this rather large female guard took her to the restroom, and made her remove her tampon, and put on a pad…which sadly was done with the toilet door open. (Talk about violating personal privacy.) But this does not seem as evasive to me because we were going into a Federal Penitentiary, and such a search is expected. I mean, they do not want family members bringing in files, knives or contraband into the prison…
          In recent days, reports of even more aggressive and outright assault and molestation have been reported from airline travelers who have been given the new TSA pat-downs. TSA, a government-run agency, has apparently found the dream job for deviants, perverts, and predators, which comes with a fabulous health insurance, Federal employee benefits, and dental. These TSA Officers have a government supported job that involves the exploitation of innocent children and adults.
          Recent changes in policy, which entails not only pornographic scanners, which some of these explicit photos have been leaked to the internet by TSA agents/officers, who as we have seen have such high standards of character…these agents, who in my opinion are nothing more than mall cops in latex gloves, are free to violate your personal space, molest your “junk” and strip search your children. Otherwise, cause disastrous exposure of highly embarrassing and personal matters. Without a bat of an eye, or a flick of a blue latex glove…can you hear it? That snap of latex against the skin of the wrist while the glove is being diabolically put on in anticipation of a “full cavity search” free for all assault that TSA agents have been given authority to impose on innocent people. The fact that profiling people, and IMO engaging in some common sense, is seen as some sort of incorrect politically correct gesture. These children and adults are subjected to such drastic pat-downs, and strip searches.
          What kind of disturbing memories will these kids have locked away in their subconscious? They are not going into a pit of convicted criminals, as I was so long ago. They are simply going on a trip, probably to visit family for Thanksgiving. Surely this will not be a pleasant Holiday Season for many people.

          • Rikke's avatar Sima says:
            November 22, 2010 at 9:43 pm

            I’m kind of expecting what happened to your Aunt to start happening to women at the TSA checkpoints. I mean, how can they tell, even with the front of their hands, if it’s a pad or something else up there?

            It’s insane. I know the USA has had other insanity times, McCarthy hearings and stuff earlier around the end of the 1920’s and somehow the country has always regained balance. Boy, I hope we can do it again. Treating citizens like prisoners is just literally insane.

  9. Adrienne in CA's avatar Adrienne in CA says:
    November 22, 2010 at 2:38 am

    There’s a safer high-tech scanner already in use in The Netherlands — one developed in the USA.

    Naturally, we insist on the X-ray porno cancer machines.
    *****A

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2013470008.html

    Unlike the backscatter-imaging devices that provide revealing body images and which have stoked concerns about radiation, the system at Schiphol uses radio waves to detect contraband. Woburn, Mass.-based L-3 Communications Security & Detection Systems claims on its website that the radio waves are “10,000 times lower than other commonly used radio-frequency devices.”

    If the software identifies a passenger carrying explosives, an outline of the problem body area is displayed on a generic mannequin figure instead of on the actual image of the passenger’s body. The mannequin image, which appears on the operator’s control panel, “can then be used by security personnel to direct a focused discussion or search,” the company website reads.

  10. Delphyne's avatar Delphyne says:
    November 22, 2010 at 8:53 am

    Adrienne – I get this message with your link:

    You have tried to access a page that does not exist or has been disabled. You will be automatically redirected to seattletimes.com in ten seconds, or click here.

    I’ll see if I can find the article when I get redirected.

  11. Adrienne in CA's avatar Adrienne in CA says:
    November 22, 2010 at 2:49 pm

    The link must’ve moved. This one works for the moment:
    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013470008_airportfix19.html

    or just Google
    ‘U.S. body-scan technology used by Dutch is better than ours’

    *****A

  12. jelun's avatar jelun says:
    November 22, 2010 at 6:52 pm

    Maybe we should just stop travelling and communicate with technology from our homes.

  13. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    November 22, 2010 at 9:06 pm

    Jane H at FDL put this up. It’s a real eye roller!

    Oh please:

    Sources tell ABC News that intelligence has picked up terrorists discussing the use of prosthetic or medical devices to conceal explosives. The revelation comes as the White House today acknowledged that the implementation of new security measures at airports hasn’t gone perfectly.

    Really?

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