Touching Sensitive Areas

TSA: Touching Sensitive Areas
Coming to an Airport, Train Station, Bus Stop, and Shopping Mall Near You.

Where do we begin with this potentially serious health risk, and complete invasion of our liberty and privacy?  This is obviously a large topic that dovetails in many different directions.  I'll focus on two main points, which are the Backscatter scanners (aka, Naked Body Scanners) and the 'enhanced pat down' methods (aka Gate Rape) employed by the TSA.

Let's begin with the scanners.  First, the TSA claimed they were perfectly safe.  Well, anyone with two functional brain cells refused to buy that lie.  It wasn't long before they had to admit, "“It would appear that the [radiation] emissions are 10 times higher. We understand it as a calculation error,” TSA spokesman Sarah Horowitz said in a telephone interview.  The government, however, maintains that they are perfectly safe.  Of course, maybe that's because one of the owners of the company that produces these machines, Rapiscan, is none other than our very own George Soros.  Michael Chertoff, the former head of Homeland Security was also a highly paid lobbyist and part owner who made millions off the deployment of these constitutionally nonviable and unlawful full body scanners.

Two people in this photo:  One, getting a one-time scan.  The other being exposed
over and over, day in and day out, to dangerous levels of radiation.

Unsuspecting TSA agents across the country continue to be irresponsibly exposed to enough DNA destroying radiation over and over, day in and day out, week after week, that their futures will likely be fraught with battles against various types of deadly cancer.  Unlike the Fukushima workers who have been bravely fighting to minimize the nuclear catastrophe in Japan, these agents will not go down in history as heroes, but rather victims of lies and propaganda. 

There are those who carry the, 'a little extra radiation can't hurt you,' banner.  I recommend those people read the 2005 News Release by Stanford University that, after a five year study, concluded, "Exposure to X-rays and gamma rays, even at low-dose levels, increases risk of cancer."

For the average traveler, the risk of getting fatal cancer from a single screening is minuscule, but as stated above, does increase the risk.  It's about equal to the probability of dying aboard an airplane due to a terrorist attack, claimed Peter Rez, a physics professor at Arizona State University in Tempe who did his own calculations.  He found the exposure to be about one-fiftieth to one-hundredth the amount of a standard chest X-ray. He calculated the risk of getting cancer from a single scan at about 1 in 30 million, "which puts it somewhat less than being killed by being struck by lightning in any one year," he told MSNBC. 

Wired recently ran an article that argues for a safer xray technology than the Backscatter machines.  In it, John Sedat, a biochemistry and biophysics professor, says he’s not going to get on an airplane again — at least not until the TSA rethinks its deployment of hundreds of body scanners that hit travelers with a tiny amount of radiation.  He added,

I’m not going to go through these machines. And I’m not going to be groped either,” the 68-year-old University of California, San Francisco, scientist said in a recent telephone interview. “Us older people are probably only one mutation away from melanoma. I’m not going to go through these machines and basically ask for the problem. We all know the older you get the more sensitive you are to sunlight and X-rays.

Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at the Johns Hopkins school of medicine recently told AFP that “statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays”.

“…we have a situation at the airports where people are so eager to fly that they will risk their lives in this manner,” he added.

Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, takes a pat-down instead of going through a scanner when he travels. Brawley's deputy, Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, has the same opinion.  Dr. Brawley told CNN, "I do whatever I can to avoid the scanner."

John Sedat, a University of California at San Francisco professor of biochemistry and biophysics and member of the National Academy of Sciences tells CNet that the machines have “mutagenic effects” and will increase the risk of cancer. Sedat previously sent a letter to the White House science Czar John P. Holdren, identifying the specific risk the machines pose to children and the elderly.

Despite all these, and hundreds more warnings, the Department of Homeland Security maintains that these scanners are perfectly safe. If you ask me, since the odds of getting cancer from these machines are equal to the odds of dying on an airplane from a terrorist action, I'll take my chances with the latter.  Do we really need to expose high risk individuals such as the elderly and children to 'DNA unzipping' ionic radiation to keep our airports safe?

Let's move on from the potentially hazardous effects these scanners have and move on to the contriversial images they produce, and how those images are handled. 

TSA:  Membership Has Its Privileges

Scan of random hot chick

First and foremost, let's put to bed the claim by TSA that their system cannot save, store, or transmit images.  This is completely and totally false.  In fact, that ability is required by the government.  

TSA requires AIT machines to have the capability to retain and export imagines (sic) only for testing, training, and evaluation purposes,” states a TSA letter dated February 24, 2010 and signed by Gale D. Rossides, Acting Administrator.

Just last year naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London, proof that these machines can even print images.  Additionally, Federal Marshalls were caught with tens of thousands of stored images from a courthouse scanner in Florida.  That example may not have happened at an airport, but it is the exact same technology used at almost every airport in the country, which tells your humble author that it's only a matter of time before it does.

The TSA states on their website that, "The machines have zero storage capability" to store, transmit, or print images.  However, the TSA specified in 2008 documents that the machines must have image storage and sending abilities, the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said.  In the documents, obtained by the privacy group and provided to CNN, the TSA specifies that the body scanners it purchases must have the ability to store and send images when in "test mode."

Despite the official mantra being touted by the TSA that the xray machines can do nothing with the images except display them on the screen, it only takes a few seconds on google to find examples of images taken by these machines that have been printed out.

Laminated print out of TSA xray.

Now that we know these xray images can be stored, transmitted, and printed, let's take a good look at the people who are viewing and handling these images, and being tasked with the 'enhanced pat-downs' of you, our nation's women, and our children.

Criminality of TSA Agents

Who is checking your bags, looking at your naked images,
and touching yours and your children's genitals?

TSA agents are constantly being arrested and convicted of crimes.  A partial list of perpetrated crimes committed by our 'first line of defense,' are (news articles linked): assault, theft, kidnapping, stalking, sexual harassment, rape, child molestation, pedophilia, and child-pornography.

Remember last year when a TSA agent was arrest after leaving his shift, then running around yelling, "I am in charge!  I am God!"  Who are these people and how does the TSA keep finding them?

If you read the articles linked above, you will realize that the minor breaches of the law, they are very serious crimes committed by seriously sick, demented individuals.  These are same individuals tasked with groping women and children at Airports across the country.

These incidents beg the questions, what are TSA's hiring practices and what kind of people are attracted to these jobs?  I think Steve Watson, a London based writer with a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England, may have put it best when he wrote,

The fact that the most deviant, perverted, megalomaniacal and criminally-minded dregs of society are attracted to TSA pat down jobs tells you everything you need to know about the nature of the Transportation Security Administration and how its role has nothing to do with preventing terrorism and everything to do with ritualizing the degradation and humiliation of the American people.

We've briefly covered the xray machines, the images, and the inherent criminality attracted to TSA agent positions of power.  Now, it's on to 'enhanced pat-downs,' which I guess is the same type of twisted, politically correct term as 'enhanced interrogation,' is for torture.

Enhanced Pat-Downs

Prepare to be groped.

The ACLU, who continues to receive a flood of complaints about the TSA's enhanced pat down methods, Recently they stated,

These complaints came from men, women and children who reported feeling humiliated and traumatized by these searches, and, in some cases, comparing their psychological impact to sexual assaults.

One of the more recent stories to catch my attention is that of Susie Castillo, the former Miss USA, who had declined the scanner and was subsequently "violated" and "molested."  

Former Miss USA, "violated" and "molested" during TSA 'enhanced pat-down.'

She asserts that the female TSA agent, "felt and touched my vagina," and added, "this woman [TSA agent]... she touched my vagina, four times."  Obviously mortified, she further stated, "...they're making me choose to either get molested, because that's what I feel like, or go through this machine that's completely unhealthy and dangerous."  Susie immediately created a video right there in the DFW airport where she tearfully told her story.  Watch her video below.

Another story of TSA's long list ridiculous, absurd, unlawful, and completely unnecessary searches recently hit the front pages when the image of a baby being subjected to a full body pat-down by airport security.  The image went viral on May 9th, 2011 after being uploaded to a social networking site with the caption, "TSA Looking for Poop Bombs?"

Justifiable outrage ensued as the agents were seen laughing and smiling as they checked the baby’s diaper while the infant’s mother held him in her arms.  To the TSA I say once again, a little profiling goes a long way.

The TSA addressed the incident on their official blog by stating, 

We reviewed the screening of this family, and found that the child’s stroller alarmed during explosives screening. Our officers followed proper current screening procedures by screening the family after the alarm, who by the way were very cooperative and were on the way to their gate in no time. The child in the photo was simply receiving a modified pat-down which doesn’t even come close to what the headline [“TSA Looking for Poop Bombs?”] implies.

Their statement has had little effect, however, as reactions to the incident are being posted everywhere and rightfully being described as, “sickening, appalling, oppressive, unlawful, frightening, disturbing, and disgusting.”  The most accurate of those is of course, 'unlawful.'

That story hit news stands just weeks after two other previous cases of children being groped by TSA agents.  Both children were reported by their parents as believing they had done something wrong and were being punished. 

Little girl exposed to 'enhanced pat-down' by TSA agent.

Highly trained tub-of-lard conducts full-body search of small boy

These and other incidents involving children are in clear violation of TSA's explicit policy not to conduct thorough pat-downs on children under the age of 13, yet they continue to defend their actions.

Nine year old boy gets publicly strip searched by airport security.

Beyond the enhanced pat-downs of children, the groping of breasts and genitals, there are incidents where mothers have even been forced to drink from bottles containing their own breast milk.

How egregious will we let the TSA become?  How long will We the People put up with being treated like criminals?  With having our children publicly strip searched?  With mother's of infants

There is hope, though.  A couple of  liberty loving states are asserting their rights over the Federal government.  The 'Live Free or Die' state, New Hampshire has introduced legislation, supported by both sides of the aisle, that "makes the touching or viewing with a technological device of a person’s breasts or genitals by a government security agent without probable cause a sexual assault."  Co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. Andrew Manuse said, 

Let's put their name on the sex offender registry, and maybe that will tell them New Hampshire means business.

 And, in March 2011, Texas followed suite by introducing legislation to the Texas House of Representatives that directly challenges the authority of the TSA in airports within the state, aimed at criminalizing the use of naked body scanners and enhanced pat-downs.

The bills, HB 1938 and HB 1937 would see criminal and civil penalties given to any TSA worker who was found to have violated the laws.

As Constitutional watchdog, The Texas Tenth Amendment Center noted, "Under the Tenth Amendment, airport operation falls under state jurisdiction.”

Last December, Austin’s Airport Advisory Commission approved a resolution advising the city council to oppose airport body scanners and invasive body searches.

If we are to believe the propaganda that the reason Al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11 was because they hate us for our freedom, I'd say the terrorists have won.  How far have we sunk?  How low are we willing to stoop for the illusion of safety. 

We are no safer today than before 9/11, yet the government has quadrupled in size as our freedom and liberty have whittled away.

We have traded our liberty for safety and as Ben Franklin warned, we now have neither.