Congressional Staffers Embarrassed by “Enhanced Pat-Down” Demonstration

Laura Rozen at Politico:

The comprehensive briefing of House staff, by a TSA deputy, covered everything – the threat from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, screening procedures, pat-downs (standard and enhanced) – “the whole works,” one House staffer who attended the briefing told POLITICO.

He said that several House staffers were uncomfortable and averted their eyes when the TSA demonstrated an enhanced pat-down in the room of 200 people.

“The dumbest part: they did two pat-down demonstrations – male on male, and female on female,” the House staffer said. And they used a young female TSA volunteer “and in front of a room of 200 people, they touched her breasts and her buttocks. People were averting their eyes. The TSA was trying to demonstrate ‘this is not so bad,’ but it made people so uncomfortable to watch, that people were averting their eyes.”

From CNN:

“I feel bad for the girl they put in front of 50 people when they were doing a pat down,” said one Republican senate staff member about the female TSA employee who was part of the demonstration, reflecting the concerns of many passengers about being touched in their private areas by security agents.

However, a Democratic staffer who was there said it was all very professional.

“I don’t think there was an emotional reaction one way or another,” the aide said. “They explained — based on what we know and what the threat is — we think this is the best way to mitigate the risks.”

Oh Great. The Democrat sounds cold and efficient, and the Republican sounds empathetic.

One Democratic aide said the TSA’s effort to boost security has become a public relations problem because images of the tough new procedures are disturbing to many people.

“It’s always tough for the government to get their side of the story out compared to how quickly someone with YouTube video, Facebook, Twitter, all those things, can. For all the things they are trying to do to get the word out, one single isolated incident gets a lot more press than all the efforts they’re trying to do,” the aide said.

Oh Gee, it’s sooooo hard for the government to get their message out, poor babies. They only have the entire corporate media at their disposal when they want to “catapult the propaganda.” If that isn’t a match for social media, we’re in a lot worse shape than I thought.

Meanwhile, very important Villager people won’t have to have their genitals groped:

Cabinet secretaries, top congressional leaders and an exclusive group of senior U.S. officials are exempt from toughened new airport screening procedures when they fly commercially with government-approved federal security details.

Aviation security officials would not name those who can skip the controversial screening, but other officials said those VIPs range from top officials like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and FBI Director Robert Mueller to congressional leaders like incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who avoided security before a recent flight from Washington’s Reagan National Airport.

Oh well, as long as it’s only the serfs who are subject to gate rape, then no problem. We wouldn’t want Tim Geithner to be humiliated by having his crotch grabbed in public, now would we?

Emptywheel tries to calculate how many of us will be groped over the Thanksgiving break.

This is an open thread.