The Airport Screening Madness Has to Stop

In what is possibly the most shameful act of airport security, TSA screeners in Florida forced a 95-year-old woman to remove her adult diaper in order to be patted down. The elderly woman, who has leukemia, was on her way to visit family members in Michigan. Because the TSA screeners couldn't determine if what was in her diaper was an explosive material or not, they forced her to remove the diaper. According to the woman's daughter, Jean Weber, who was traveling with her mother, the screener said that the problem was that the diaper was ""wet and firm and they couldn't check it thoroughly."

TSA says, "TSA cannot exempt any group from screening because we know from intelligence that there are terrorists out there that would then exploit that vulnerability...The TSA works with passengers to resolve any security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner. We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."

The woman was in a wheelchair and crying during the screening, which took 45 minutes, in part because it took time to remove the diaper. She did not have an extra adult diaper with her.

This is so incredibly wrong that I don't have the words to express my anger. But you know what's also bad about this and other similar TSA mess-ups? If the Transportation Security Administration does not have the imagination and intelligence to figure out a way to respect the dignity of elderly passengers, young children, people with disabilities and others during screening, then TSA does not have the imagination and intelligence to make air travel secure. TSA's inability to think is frightening, not just because it degrades our liberties, but because it shows that they can't imagine what terrorists might do. This incident shows, once again, that TSA's blind adherence to "procedure" makes them blind to who and what is around them.

Since When Is Prayer Dangerous? Aircraft Goes into "Lockdown" When Passengers Pray

There are many ways that an aircraft can be harmed, but prayer isn't one of them. And yet, an Alaska Airlines flight went into "lockdown" mode on Monday, March 14, when three passengers started doing an orthodox Jewish prayer that included wearing leather straps on their foreheads and arms. The plane was met by the FBI when it landed in Los Angeles, where the passengers were "interviewed" and released, according to MSNBC.

This isn't the first time that suspicious prayer has caused moderate panic. In November 2006, six Muslims were removed from a flight in Minneapolis in handcuffs because of suspicious activity, including prayer. In January 2010, a Jewish passenger on a flight that had left LaGuardia caused the plane to be diverted because he was engaged in ritualistic morning prayer.

What does this mean? Should visible prayer be outlawed on aircraft? Hardly.

When a passenger is praying, he or she is not trying to light a shoe, pull out a gun, detonate a bomb, rush the cockpit with box cutters or commit some other dangerous act.

I know what the flight attendants and other passengers are thinking when they report this so-called suspicious activity: They're thinking that the passenger who's praying --always in some way that's unfamiliar to the flight attendant or the other passengers-- has set some kind of bomb to explode and the clock is ticking.  If that were actually the case, then it would be too late to do anything anyway.

I'll Be Groped for Christmas

We wanted to share this holiday song about TSA. Enjoy Roxi Copland's singing and her message.



And when you've finished listening to Roxi Copeland's wonderful voice you can read about why former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura won't fly on a commercial airline as long as TSA continues to deploys its new security system, and read why these new full-body scanners probably don't work anyway.

Tomorrow Is National Opt-Out Day

Wednesday, November 24th is National Opt-Out Day. If you're selected to be scanned and you feel that you don't want to be subjected to a virtual strip search or subjected to X-ray radiation, then ask to be patted down.

The idea behind Opt-Out Day is to send a message to the government: We want you to find better ways to protect us than by forcing air travelers to be X-rayed or have our genitals touched.

Nude Protest Against Body Scanners in Germany

Americans aren't the only ones upset by whole body scanners that display your naked image. In Germany, there was a semi-nude protest against these scanners, and you can watch it here:


It's been said that these scanners aren't that revealing; that you see an unattractive image of the criminal passenger. What's not been written about much in the media is that it's easy to modify these images with off-the-shelf software and turn them into pure porn. It's wrong to subject passengers to this --or to an intimate pat-down-- every time we fly. Watch this short video about how what the TSA screener sees can easily become lurid porn.

National Opt-Out Day is Thursday.  That day is making more and more sense all the time: Just say no to TSA's new security procedures.

Good Morning: It's the Start of a Short Week - Yay!

It's going to be a bit warmer today than it was on Sunday.  Look for partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the lower 60's.

Are you flying this week? And if you are, have you decided if you're going to opt out of a full body scan if selected for one, and choose a pat-down instead? And if you're not flying, what do you want your family members who are flying to do? Having to choose between possible dangerous radiation and being groped by a TSA agent isn't a pleasant choice. As we've written about before, passengers who are disabled or who have something artificial in or on them because of a cancer, may have it the worst when it comes to being patted down. Read about what happened to a bladder cancer survivor when the TSA screener broke his urostomy bag during a pat-down.

Kids have it bad, too, as evidenced by this clandestine video which shows a little boy having to take off his shirt during a pat-down. This video makes my blood boil. 

As District of Columbia residents we don't have any voting representative in Congress to write to. But we can sure as hell opt-out on National Opt Out day.

What to Expect During Your TSA Pat-Down

If you get selected at the airport for a pat-down or you opt out of being scanned, you might have a fairly benign experience, or one that's going to be an unpleasant memory. When it comes to human-to-human interaction, especially where touching is involved, there are many factors that can influence how aggressive your pat-down is or feels. Regardless, your private body parts will be touched, as this Denver Post photo collection shows.

Things can go from bad to worse if you have an artificial body part. Read about a cancer survivor who was told by TSA to show her prosthetic breast during her screening in Charlotte, NC last August. These kind of incidents are only going to become more commonplace as more passengers are patted down.

What to do? Accept a virtual strip search that could, if you're in a backscatter machine, increase your risk of getting cancer? Be patted down by a TSA officer who's got an especially rough touch?

Remember, November 24th is National Opt Out Day. District residents may have no voting representation in Congress, but we can let TSA know how we feel.

Good Morning: How Canadians View the TSA

Thursday, mid to upper 50's and sunny with a light breeze from the west. There's not much else to say about this perfectly normal autumn day. But nobody minds uneventful weather, right?

Yesterday we reported on the unpleasantness of TSA's now "enhanced pat-downs" and the potential dangers of the whole body backscatter x-ray machines. In case you missed Dave Barry's blog, the best selling humorist recently went through a body scanner in Miami airport. The verdict: a "blurry groin." And the consequence? An "enhanced" pat-down. "Enhanced" means TSA gets to touch your groin and breasts.

Here's a Canadian take on the TSA's new security procedures:

Will You Opt-Out of Being Scanned by TSA's Body Scanners?

After watching a video about a three-year-old girl being patted down by TSA in Chattanooga, TN I concluded that these pat-downs are both invasive and unnecessary.

I'm not the only one who feels that TSA's new security procedures have crossed a line. Passengers now have two unpalatable options: a full body scan or a pat-down. Captain "Sully" Sullenberger, the pilot who landed the US Airways plane in the Hudson and saved the lives of every passenger on board, also feels that these new screening procedures are unnecessary.

I'm willing to concede that full body scanners and "enhanced pat-downs" do improve security. But lots of procedures can: Forcing passengers to completely strip before flying and not allowing passengers to have any electronics on board would also make air travel safer. But should we do these things, too?

The pat-downs that TSA screeners give passengers (some of these screeners are contractors and not actual Federal employees) involve touching private body parts, namely breasts and genitals. If it wasn't the government doing this, the word used to describe these pat-downs would be "molestation." Indeed, the San Mateo, California District Attorney said that his office will prosecute any charges of illegal touching during a security pat-down.  San Francisco's airport is in San Mateo.

Body image scanners have two problems. The first is the privacy problem: TSA's screeners can see an image of a person's naked body (thought the image is far from "Playboy" quality). The second problem is that one of the two kinds of scanners uses X-rays. TSA says that the radiation dose is safe, but then again, TSA lied when it promised the public that the scanner equipment couldn't save images so people don't have to worry about that. We shouldn't trust TSA's insistence that the radiation from the X-ray body scanners isn't harmful. The answer to that question may not come for years or decades, at which time all we'll be able to do is express regret. And, of course, machines malfunction, so chances are high that some people at some point will receive a high dose of radiation.

Before you say to yourself, "it's only a quick, little X-ray," read this letter from a team of University of Southern California scientists about the potential dangers of backscatter X-rays. It's clear that the traveling public is being used as a vast biology experiment.

Parents of young children are torn between exposing their child to unnecessary radiation or having him or her touched on the genitals by a stranger.

National Opt-Out Day is Wednesday, November 24th. By encouraging all air travelers to opt out of the body image scanners, and opt in for a pat-down instead, the movement's organizers hope to send a message to Congress that Americans "should never have to explain to your children, 'Remember that no stranger can touch or see your private area, unless it's a government employee, then it's OK.'"

Jeffrey Goldberg, writing for the Atlantic, suggests taking National Opt-Out Day one step further:  He says that all men should wear kilts -- and go commando. When the TSA screener touches your naked genitals, it's the screener who may want to opt out of the pat-down.

Airport Security Lexus Lanes Are Back

For all those frequent travelers who don't like waiting in the security line at airports, Clear is back.

Clear, in cooperation with the Transportation Security Administration, lets passengers who have opted to have their backgrounds checked, fingerprints taken, and irises scanned, slip ahead of the masses and take the fast lane through airport security.

Clear, or Fly Clear as it was sometimes called, charged its members $199 a year.  It abruptly closed down on June 22, 2009.  At the time Clear had 260,000 members. Clear is extending its previous members' memberships, and new members can join on Clear's website for $179 a year.