Here it comes....not only are body scanners popping up in courthouses around the country,I heard a story tonight that some nightclubs are already violating customers who want to enjoy a night of fun and dancing by putting them through pat-downs to enter. How soon will these intrusive pat-downs and full body scanners be popping up in all public buildings and modes of transportation?? It might be sooner than you think!!



Any other countries putting innocent citizens through this type of treatment? Heck, I don't even think communist China is doing this??



The worst thing is these scanners are not able to detect the substance used to make the undie bomb, PETN, and they can not detect items hidden in body cavities;which terrorists have already used in suicide bombers successfully in other countries. The pat-downs would not detect these items either, thus what's next full body cavity searches??!! Where does it end?!!



DHS and the TSA so far have said they are looking into less intrusive ways to provide security, but in the meantime don't expect those changes anytime soon and don't expect things to improve.



According to the TSA chief administrator, John Pistole, over the weekend, you can opt out of using the full-body scanner, but if you make that choice "you will receive a thorough pat-down by someone of the same gender. If you alarm either the metal detector or the [body scanner] , you will also receive a thorough pat-down by someone of the same gender."



Pistole says fliers can request that the pat-downs be conducted in a private room and can request that it be "witnessed by a person of your choice."



However, not all TSA agents have been properly trained and there have been a growing number of complaints and inconsistencies. Children under 12 have been pat-down,and disabled children and adults have been humiliated by being requested to remove leg braces to prosthetic bras!



See:TSA forces traveling policeman to remove his disabled four-year-old son's leg-braces

Cory Doctorow at 2:57 AM Tuesday, Feb 16, 2010 

Ryan was taking his first flight, to Walt Disney World, for his fourth birthday.

The boy is developmentally delayed, one of the effects of being born 16 weeks prematurely. His ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. In March he was just starting to walk...

The screener told them to take off the boy's braces.

The Thomases were dumbfounded. "I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.

"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "

Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.

No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.

The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary.

“[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,” Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on "Charlie Rose."

“I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?”

Napolitano’s comments were in response to the question: “What will they [terrorists] be thinking in the future?” She gave no details about how soon the public could see changes in security or about what additional safety measures the DHS was entertaining.

“The long-term [question] is, how do we get out of this having to have an ever-increasing security apparatus because of terrorists and a terrorist attack?” she said. “I think having a better understanding of what causes someone to become a terrorist will be helpful."

DHS and intelligence officials are not as far along in understanding that process as they would like, Napolitano said, adding that until that goal is reached, steps need to be put in place to ensure the public’s safety.

“We don’t know much,” she said. “If you were to try and devise a template about what connects this terrorist to this terrorist and how they were raised and what schools they went to and their socioeconomic status, or this or that, it’s all over the map. 

“I think there’s some important work that’s being done on that but … the Secretary of Homeland Security cannot wait for that.”

Therefore, the next big thing is the possibility DHS may turn to using scanners that store biometrics, which could further violate personal privacy and continue to look at everyone as a criminal rather than a customer or innocent law abiding citizen.

According to a report by GCNlive.com,

the TSA and Homeland Security authorities may be preparing a body scanner bait and switch, by proposing new devices that advocates claim do not see under clothing and do not emit dangerous radiation, yet do store a biometric record of the person using them which would grease the skids for authorities to track individuals in real time.

A video demonstration of the new body scanner proposes that it be used not just in airports, but also banks and retail establishments, apartment blocks and other transport hubs. How long before we’re forced to submit to a body scan to go shopping, cash a check, catch a bus, or simply to enter our own home? This will be the first step towards a truly frightening Minority Report-style electronic prison.

according to Iscon, the company behind the new 1000D whole body scanner. Its makers claim that the device doesn’t fire harmful radiation at the user and that the machine does not display details of naked bodies. However, since both these claims were also made by the TSA and later proven to be completely fraudulent, they should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.



The new device uses thermo-conductive infrared technology that completes a 360*scan of the human body in 30 seconds, capturing every facet of biometric data. Although the video demonstration claims that the device “does not create any privacy issues,” the fact that the government will have the blanket power to use technology designed to catch criminals on the general public is an obvious violation of privacy.

Introducing biometric scanners will only entrench the notion of Americans being guilty until proven innocent. Indeed, Iscon brags that it has already introduced such devices into U.S. prisons. Furthermore, allied with cutting edge satellite and other surveillance technology, once the government has the biometric blueprint for your whole body it greases the skids for the ultimate Orwellian nightmare, real time tracking of an individual person around the clock.

The government has a keen interest in collecting and compiling biometric data on citizens. The FBI announced a $1 billion effort to build the world’s largest computer database of peoples’ physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad, the Washington Post reported in December of 2007.

The Department of Homeland Security has collected biometrics for years, including the use of iris scans at certain airports under the guise of identity verification of travelers who have passed background checks and want to move through lines quickly. “The department is also looking to apply iris- and face-recognition techniques to other programs,” the Post added.

DENVER – USA – A full body scanner operator was caught masturbating during a scanning session by airport staff late Tuesday.
Airport officials at Denver International airport were on high alert yesterday when a full body scanner operator was caught masturbating in his booth as a team of High School netball players went through the scanner.

“The young ladies were going through the scanner one by one, and every time one went through, this guys face was getting redder and redder. His hand was moving and then he started sweating. He was then seen doing his ‘O’ face. That’s when the security dragged him out of his booth and cuffed him. He had his pants round his ankles and everybody was really disgusted,” Jeb Rather, a passenger on a flight to New York told CBS news.

Source:http://kvs.co/2asq via @RandysRight

Like Lucretia, I have been sharing &hearing multiple stories on the recent public outrage against the new TSA enhanced pat-downs and new/nude scanning requirements. I thought Lucretia summed up what this submission to the government could lead to and why it is so important for all of us not to be apathetic, but involved in ending this intrusion on our freedoms!



For those who want to dismiss these pat-downs off as non-invasive, like Gloria Allred, who says 'it's the most she's been touched in years and enjoyed it', and those who do not call these pat-downs sexual assault or harassment, I give you the definition of sexual assault as provided by the National Center for Victims of Crime:

Sexual assault takes many forms including attacks such as rape or attempted rape, as well as any unwanted sexual contact or threats. Usually a sexual assault occurs when someone touches any part of another person's body in a sexual way, even through clothes, without that person's consent. Some types of sexual acts which fall under the category of sexual assault include forced sexual intercourse (rape), sodomy (oral or anal sexual acts), child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape. Sexual assault in any form is often a devastating crime. Assailants can be strangers, acquaintances, friends, or family members. Assailants commit sexual assault by way of violence, threats, coercion, manipulation, pressure or tricks. Whatever the circumstances, no one asks or deserves to be sexually assaulted.

I've been sporadically posting accounts of recent experiences of everyday people with the new TSA security measures. Cancer survivors, persons with disabilities, children, elderly, and now as I'm finally getting caught up - someone I've had the chance to get to know. Someone who lovingly stopped and signed her book for me last winter when we were together in Nashville, despite the fact that she was in a hurry.

Someone I know, who wrote more candidly than I think I'd be able to just exactly the level of non-consensual, uninformed, public & humiliating sexual assault she'd experienced. While traveling with her infant. Alone.



And this? This is my response to that.

========================================================



An Open Letter to Americans and their Elected Representatives:



To those who use try to excuse these recent cases of blatant sexual assault and demeaning public humiliation by TSA agents?



I have heard you say so many places elsewhere ....

Wireupdate.com posted about this horror story today;which apparently took place on Friday. The Airport location is not mentioned but you can see the poor kid having to take his shirt off to appease the strip searchers! What happened to the policy of not doing pat-downs on kids under 12?? This boy looks no older than my six year old son!! How outrageous!! I am so thankful we will not and are not travelling anytime soon!

(WIREUPDATE) — A disturbing video surfaced on Friday night showing what appears to be a TSA agent strip searching a young boy, with his father standing nearby. The video, which was uploaded to Youtube by user lukemtait, was filmed while a boy was randomly selected to undergo a random security check.

The TSA agent took all of my belongings over to the table in the center of the explosive screening tables. She asked me, “Are you aware of the NEW policies for carrying liquids through security that were instated 4 years ago?” (capitalized to show the emphasis that she placed on that word.)

I replied, “Yes, I fly with him every several weeks.”

She scanned the formula, then turned to me and said, “Remove your shoes and stand on that black mat for a patdown.”

I said, “OK, what do I do with the baby?”

“You cannot be holding him.” (I am traveling alone.)

So I placed him into his stroller. She instructed me, “Spread your feet apart and hold your arms out to the side.” I obliged.

She patted my left arm, my right arm, my upper back and my lower back. She then said, “I need to reach in and feel along the inside of your waistband.”

She felt along my waistline, moved behind me, then proceeded to feel both of my buttocks. She reached from behind in the middle of my buttocks towards my vagina area.

She did not tell me that she was going to touch my buttocks, or reach forward to my vagina area.

She then moved in front of my and touched the top and underneath portions of both of my breasts.

She did not tell me that she was going to touch my breasts.

She then felt around my waist. She then moved to the bottoms of my legs.

She then felt my inner thighs and my vagina area, touching both of my labia.

She did not tell me that she was going to touch my vagina area or my labia.

She then told me that I could put my shoes on and I asked if I could pick up the baby, she replied Yes.

She then moved back to my belongings to finish scanning them with the paper discs for explosives. When she finished she said I was free to go.

I stood there holding my baby in shock. I did not move for almost a minute.

I stood there, an American citizen, a mom traveling with a baby with special needs formula, sexually assaulted by a government official. I began shaking and felt completely violated, abused and assaulted by the TSA agent. I shook for several hours, and woke up the next day shaking.

Here is why I was sexually assaulted. She never told me the new body search policy. She never told me that she was going to touch my private parts. She never told me when or where she was going to touch me. She did not inform me that a private screening was available. She did not inform me of my rights that were a part of these new enhanced patdown procedures.

When I booked my ticket, I was given no information that the TSA had changed their wand and unintrusive patdown procedures to “enhanced” patdown procedures that involved the touching of all parts of your body, including breasts and vagina on women and testicles and penis on men. I was not informed by any signs on the front side of security about the new procedures. I had not seen any media coverage about the issue, so I had no idea that this was a new government sanctioned policy.

Another important piece in this story, the Dayton airport does not have the new body scanners. I was not given any other search options. It was enhanced patdown, or nothing. (And I would have opted for the body scanner, if I were going to be subject to a sexual assault.)

I asked to speak to a supervisor immediately. I had a very unpleasant conversation with him that lasted 20 minutes. I moved to the back of the security area, made a few phone calls, including to my lawyer. He did some quick research, and learned that I had indeed been sexually assaulted because she did not follow the SOP (standard operating procedure) for the new search.