Going through security at the airport

I traveled to Indianapolis this past week. Prior to leaving, I determined how I would approach the TSA scanners and pat-downs.

Leaving Denver last Monday morning, I could see which line would run me through the so-called "naked body scanners" (actually, back-scatter X-ray imaging devices). I determined to avoid those lines and go through the usual/old-style scanners.

I made it. No problem.

Coming back from Indianapolis, however, was a different story.

There was only one line.

Now, no one in front of me was sent through the big scanner. Everyone was going through the old-style scanner.

Until me.

The TSA woman motioned for me to step into the back-scatter imager.

I said, "I'd prefer to be patted down."

She calmly and quietly spoke into the radio microphone she had hanging from her shoulder: "We have an opt-out."

She then asked me to step aside and wait for a person who could pat me down.

Very interesting what happened thereafter.

I had to wait about seven or ten minutes "extra" for the guy to come and be able to pat me down. And the pat-down itself took about a minute and a half or two minutes.

I was the only one whom he patted down in all that time.

But, it seemed, all of a sudden, that everyone else in line after me "had to" go through the full-body back-scatter scanner.

So I got to observe several--many--people going through the scanner.

And then--it blew me away--every one of them was then greeted by a TSA agent on "the other side" who proceeded to pat them down as well!

. . . I thought: "What good is the back-scatter imager if it has to be followed by a full pat-down as well? Why subject yourself to the extra radiation if you're also going to be frisked?"

I was happy I was only frisked.

Worth the risks?

I'm headed to the airport in a few hours and, if I'm unable to go through one of the standard "old-style" scanners, I intend to let the TSA grope me.

The negative medical implications of the new scanners, I believe, are too great.

Please see a letter from four staff members of the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics that explains their scientific and medical concerns over the scanners--concerns that the federal government, so far, has refused to address.

Notice that the letter was written in April.

Key section of the letter (from the second page--the first page of the attached "Letter of Concern"):

The X-ray dose from these devices has often been compared in the media to the cosmic ray exposure inherent to airplane travel or that of a chest X-ray. However, this comparison is very misleading: both the air travel cosmic ray exposure and chest X-rays have much higher X-ray energies and the health consequences are appropriately understood in terms of the whole body volume dose. In contrast, these new airport scanners [due to their low beam energies] are largely depositing their energy into the skin and immediately adjacent tissue, and since this is such a small fraction of body weight/vol, possibly by one to two orders of magnitude, the real dose to the skin is now high.

Read the full letter for more details of the professors' concerns, especially about

• Older travelers (greater than 65 years of age).
   
• Females who have defects in DNA repair mechanisms and who are, therefore, particularly prone to cancer (and who, therefore, do not receive X-ray mammograms).
   
• Immunocompromised people (HIV and cancer patients in particular).
   
• Children and adolescents.
   
• Pregnant women and their babies.
   
• The impact of these machines on
  
  • White blood cells which perfuse the skin.
     
  • Testicles and the risk of mutagenesis in sperm.
     
  • Corneas and thymuses.

Thanks, anyway.

As the professors conclude their letter:

We would like to put our current concerns into perspective. As longstanding UCSF scientists and physicians, we have witnessed critical errors in decisions that have seriously affected the health of thousands of people in the United States. These unfortunate errors were made because of the failure to recognize potential adverse outcomes of decisions made at the federal level.

Crises create a sense of urgency that frequently leads to hasty decisions where unintended consequences are not recognized. Examples include the failure of the CDC to recognize the risk of blood transfusions in the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, approval of drugs and devices by the FDA without sufficient review, and improper standards set by the EPA, to name a few. Similarly, there has not been sufficient review of the intermediate and long-term effects of radiation exposure associated with airport scanners.

There is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations. We are unanimous in believing that the potential health consequences need to be rigorously studied before these scanners are adopted. Modifications that reduce radiation exposure need to be explored as soon as possible.

TSA Body Scanning, once more

Sorry. This article was actually the first that brought the issue of the TSA naked body scans to my attention. And it bothered me. But not as much as the articles and forum posts that led to my last blog post.

I thought I should bring Mike Adams' article to your attention, however, because he highlights the behavior that TSA personnel use "no doubt . . . to attract attention (or perhaps humiliation) to those who choose to opt out of the naked body scanner." --In other words, to increase compliance with their "program."

I quoted other people who identified the same behavior. But Adams, I think, was more perceptive of the purpose.

He said that when he told the TSA agents that he wanted to opt out of the body scanner,

A TSA agent told me to step to the side and stay put. He then proceeded to shout out loudly enough for all the other travelers and TSA agents to hear, "OPT OUT! OPT OUT!" . . . I saw no purpose for this verbal alert because the same TSA agent who was yelling this ultimately was the one who patted me down anyway.

But/and, then, that is when he knew for sure what the real purpose was--i.e., to ensure higher compliance on the part of more passengers.

Adams' experience with the pat down (back on October 19th) was less invasive than the pat downs seem to have become within the last couple of weeks. On October 19th, the agent, first, explained exactly what he would do and then proceeded with the pat down "us[ing] the back of his hands to pat down the crotch and buttocks areas."

"This is probably designed to make the pat-down seem less 'personal' and more detached," Adams explains. "That way, air passengers can't complain of being felt up by TSA agents who might get carried away with the pat-down procedure."

But, of course, we now see that procedures have progressed several steps further in less than a month.

Meanwhile, Adams made the following observations:

The most fascinating part about this entire process was not the verbal broadcast of my opt out status, nor having my crotch swept by the latex-covered back hand of some anonymous TSA agent, but rather the curious fact that I was the only one opting out. Although I must have watched at least a hundred people go through this particular security checkpoint, there wasn't a single other person who opted out of the naked body scan.

They all just lined up like cattle to have their bodies scanned with ionizing radiation.

To me, that's just fascinating. That when people are given a choice to opt out of being irradiated, they will choose to just go along with the naked body scan rather than risk standing out by requesting to opt out.

You see, I'm not convinced that the TSA's naked body scanners enhance air travel security at all. Previous security tests conducted by the FAA show quite clearly that the greatest threat to airplane safety isn't from the passengers but from ground crews, where bombs and other materials can be quite easily smuggled onto planes.

But even though naked body scanners may not enhance air travel security, they do accomplish something far more intriguing: The successful completion of an experiment in human behavior. If you were to pose the question "Will people line up like cattle to be electronically undressed in front of government security officers?" The answer is now unequivocally YES!

Most people, it turns out, will simply do whatever they're told by government authorities, even if it means giving up their privacy or their freedoms. Almost anything can be sold to the public under the guise of "fighting terrorism" these days, including subjecting your body to what is essentially a low-radiation CT scan at the airport!

I don't know about you, but I don't think I should be required to subject myself to ionizing radiation as a condition of air travel security. Of course, the more technically minded readers among you might counter by saying that high-altitude travel is, all by itself, an event that subjects you to low levels of ionizing radiation (which is true). But that's all the more reason to not add the body's radiation burden any more than necessary. Americans already get far too much radiation from CT scans and other medical imaging tests (not to mention mammograms). Do we really need to dose peoples' bodies with yet more radiation every time they board an airplane?

There is much more on the subject. I encourage you to read his article.

Land of the un-free, and home of the sheeple . . .

I remember thinking how awful it was that people (you know, "people"--people-in-general) allowed the Nazis to take power in Germany or the Bolsheviks to take power in Russia.

Well, who or what is taking power in the United States right now?

I have already paid for airline tickets going out over a year into the future. And I am going to be subjected to TSA Groping?



Watch beginning at 3:57 to hear an account of the experience of a woman and her 8-year-old and 20-month-old daughters in the Denver airport about three weeks ago.

Are you ready for this kind of "treatment"? How can ordinary citizens effectively protest this kind of indignity sexual molestation?

"Oh," say some. "Don't worry. Just go through the naked body scanner."

--Except, I have been told (several personal stories on the Sonlight Curriculum forums), the body scanning "isn't enough" for many TSA personnel. They run you through the scanner and then also feel you up.

We just had friends come back from a trip. They are both FURIOUS!
They both went through the full body scan, although they really didn't like the idea. Then, they were both pulled aside and given a THOROUGH patdown.

They were NOT told that this was going to happen - that there would be a 'patdown'. My friend B kept asking the guy, "What are you doing" and he wouldn't even talk to her or look at her as her touched her. He was not just gently patting down. This was a groping. They are to touch to the point of resistance, all over the body. This was also a MAN who was "inspecting" her!

Her husband also got the patdown, and say that there was a firm cupping around certain parts of his body.

They were never told that there was anything that looked suspicious which prompted the additional screening. They are both white and in their high 40s or low 50s. He is a military officer, and not usually easily rattled. Of course you can't profile, so everyone is just as likely to get this done.

And does this make anyone safer? Really?

As the same poster went on:

Really, if someone wanted to circumvent this (scanner and patdown), body cavities would be used and the machines/groper wouldn't see into those places! People have passed objects this way many times in history. I can see that although it sounds disgusting, those who are intending to commit a terroristic act wouldn't have any problem using that method.

More stories--just to give you a good sense of what we're talking about, here:

I took a flight out of San Diego last week with my mom, and we were both subjected to the full body scan and the patdown. As far as I can tell, so was everyone.

I got through the patdown OK, but my mom has rather large hips, and they kept patting her hips and asking "Are these a part of your anatomy?" We weren't even pulled aside. This was in front of everyone.

Basically we went through the scanner while our carryons were being scanned. After going through the scanner, we had to stop for the patdown before we could get our luggage. Awful.

Someone asked whether the TSA person who pursued this examination was male or female.

I was patted down by a female, but I think everyone in our line was, even the guys. Had we been in a line with a male "patter downer", I'm sure I would have been patted down by a male.

And as for the scanners themselves:

The body scanners were vigorously promoted by people like former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and others who stood to reap a financial windfall from their implementation, despite the fact that scientists at Columbia University and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, along with other scientific bodies, have all warned that the devices increase the risk of developing cancer.

Stories about TSA officials abusing the use of the scanners have become commonplace.

44-year-old Rolando Negrin beat his supervisor with a police baton after he had cracked jokes about Negrin’s small manhood when he walked through a naked scanner as part of a training exercise at Miami International Airport. The story underscored the fact that authorities had been lying all along about the claim that the scanners did not show sensitive details of genitalia.

The aggressive campaign on behalf of governments and the media to sell the public on invasive body scanners has been accompanied by the reassurance that the devices do not show details of genitals, an obvious attempt to counter the fact that the machines represent a virtual strip search as well as violating laws against child pornography.

Despite assurances from the TSA that the scanners do not show the shape of genitalia, sample images from their own website clearly display the outline of the penis. In addition, after nearly a year of authorities lying in claiming that the technology used in airports did not allow the naked images to be saved or transmitted, it emerged that police agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, who were using the same systems, were storing naked body scanner images. The TSA’s own documents also confirmed that the machines must “allow exporting of image data in real time” and provide a mechanism for “high-speed transfer of image data over the network.”

Indian film star Shahrukh Khan told a BBC talk show that naked images of his body from the scanner were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London. Heathrow denied the claim but Khan himself never retracted the story, and had no apparent motive for making it up.

Heathrow authorities were unable to deny a later example of the scanners being abused, when it emerged that a Heathrow worker had perved over a naked image of a female colleague after she passed through one of the devices. . . .

--PrisonPlanet.com TSA Groping article

For some actual footage of people who are being abused by TSA, check this out:



But back to my original question: How would you suggest we fight this?