TSA Orders 95-Year-Old Woman To Remove Adult Diaper
Enough with the madness – this is way, way too far over the line. And the TSA is not even apologizing! From CNN:
The Transportation Security Administration stood by its security officers Sunday after a Florida woman complained that her cancer-stricken, 95-year-old mother was patted down and forced to remove her adult diaper while going through security.
Reports of the incident took hold in social media, with scores of comments on the topic and reposts appearing hourly on Twitter Sunday afternoon…
Two Men Run Wild In An Empty Terminal At Dallas Forth-Worth Airport
There has been a video floating around the internet of photographer Joe Ayala and friend Larry Chen stranded at Dallas Fort-Worth Airport after their connecting flight was canceled one night. When it appeared there was no one else in the terminal, the two decide to make the most of the situation and goof around in wheelchair races and enjoying themselves to some free beer. The incident was seen on security cameras, but no personnel seem to be in the terminal. Aviation security experts don’t believe it to be too much of a security risk because the men were ticketed passengers who had already been through TSA screenings, but not everyone agrees.
DFW airport board member Betty Culbreath says while it may have been a prank, it sent the wrong message. “It’s not funny. It’s not going to happen again as far as I’m concerned. It should not have happened because it gives the perception the airport is sitting out there unguarded and that’s why I was concerned, and am still concerned.”
TSA Considering Banning Photography Of Checkpoints
Carlos Miller writes on Pixiq:
The Transportation Security Administration is considering changing its policy on photographing security checkpoints after several videos depicting questionable incidents between passengers and TSA screeners were posted on Youtube.
News of the possible changes in policy was posted Friday on the TSA Blog, the same blog that posted that it is permissible to photograph checkpoints, even though most screeners act as if it has always been illegal.
The reason it is considering changing its policy stems from a Youtube video that was recorded in Phoenix when a woman opted-out of the metal detectors and chose to get patted down by a TSA screener.
The woman began yelling hysterically that she had been molested by the screener.
Meanwhile, the woman’s son was recording the incident and continued to do so, even though several TSA screeners told him he was breaking the law.
It is impossible to tell whether the woman was molested in…
Texas Proposes ‘Anti-Groping’ Law Against TSA, Feds Threaten To Ground All Flights
Texas has been the first state to propose a bill that will disallow TSA agents from groping passengers. The federal government stated that if the state were to approve such a bill, the TSA would be forced to ground all flights. Makes me think of something Thomas Jefferson stated, “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” Via The Raw Story:
A bill that would criminalize TSA agents who conduct airport patdown searches was scuttled Tuesday night after the federal government threatened to ground all flights out of Texas.
The proposed law would have levied misdemeanor charges against security agents who “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly [touch] the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of the other person, including touching through clothing, or touching the other person in a manner that would be offensive to a reasonable person.”
An earlier version of House Bill 1937 would have made such action a felony. [Story continues]
Fox 7 reports:
A Baby Gets a TSA Patdown (Photo)
Cynthia Newsome reports on NBC KSHB-TV
KANSAS CITY, Missouri— A photo of two Transportation Security Administration agents doing a full pat down on a baby, approximately 8 months old, has gone viral.
It happened at the Kansas City International Airport.
A passenger, Jacob Jester, captured the image on his cell phone. Since he tweeted the picture on Saturday, it has had more than 200,000 hits.
The photo shows the helpless baby being held up in the air by his mother while the TSA workers do their job. Jester has an 8-month-old son and would not want his son to be subjected to a hand search by TSA agents.
TSA Deems Complaining About TSA To Be Terrorist Indicator
The TSA’s behavior detection officers are on the lookout for “anyone who displays arrogance or expresses contempt for the screening process.” Because scientific anti-terror detection techniques reveal that getting fresh about poor treatment by airport security indicates you are most likely a terrorist.
Media Roots Radio Interview with Eyewitness to ‘Underwear Bomber’ Incident
Via Media Roots:
Abby and Robbie Martin conduct an exclusive interview with Kurt Haskell, attorney and key eyewitness to the 12/25/09 “Underwear Bomber” incident. Kurt maintains that he witnessed a well dressed man argue with security and escort Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab onto his US flight without a passport. Shortly thereafter, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to blow up flight 254 with plastic explosives hidden in his underwear, prompting the new wave of Backscatter X-ray machines in airports.
Kurt explains why he feels like the entire event was staged by the government in order to perpetrate the threat of terrorism in this country, and how being an eyewitness to a false flag attack caused him to question his entire political paradigm.
Virginia Man With 4th Amendment Written on Chest Sues Over Airport Arrest
David Kravets writes on WIRED’s Threat Level:
A 21-year-old Virginia man who wrote an abbreviated version of the Fourth Amendment on his body and stripped to his shorts at an airport security screening area is demanding $250,000 in damages for being detained on a disorderly conduct charge.
Aaron Tobey claims in a civil rights lawsuit (PDF) that in December he was handcuffed and held for about 90 minutes by the Transportation Security Administration at the Richmond International Airport after he began removing his clothing to display on his chest a magic-marker protest of airport security measures.
“Amendment 4: The right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated,” his chest and gut read.
The University of Cincinnati student didn’t want to go through the advanced imaging technology X-ray machines that are cropping up at airports nationwide. Instead, when it was his turn to be screened, he was going…
TSA Admits Radiation from Body Scanners Is 10 Times Higher Than They Initially Stated
David Kravets writes in WIRED’s Threat Level:
The Transportation Security Administration is re-analyzing the radiation levels of X-ray body scanners installed in airports nationwide, after testing produced dramatically higher-than-expected results.
The TSA, which has deployed at least 500 body scanners to at least 78 airports, said Tuesday the machines meet all safety standards and would remain in operation despite a “calculation error” in safety studies. The flawed results showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.
At least one flier group, the Association for Airline Passenger Rights, is urging the government to stop using the $180,000 machines that produce a virtual-nude image of the body until new tests are concluded in May.
“Airline passengers have enough concerns about flying — including numerous ones about how TSA conducts its haphazard security screenings — so it is TSA’s responsibility to ensure passengers are not being exposed to unhealthy amounts of radiation,” Brandon Macsata, executive director of the group,…
AT&T Commercial Spoofs TSA Suspicion
Although not many of us are laughing over TSA procedures, I do give the creators credit for effectively utilizing the issue as an opportunity to sell a product.
Have TSA Body Scanners Been Used On Trains and Even Sidewalks?
The TSA is, off course, denying this story. Andy Greenberg writes on Forbes’ FIREWALL:
Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.
The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of of new anti-terrorism technologies that EPIC believes raise serious privacy concerns. The projects range from what the DHS describes as “a walk through x-ray screening system that could be deployed at entrances to special events or other points…
Seattle Restaurant Refuses Service To TSA Workers
How do you show your dissatisfaction with the action of TSA agents? Some people decide to “opt out” of the body scanners. Some wear nothing but a bathing suit. Others decide to refuse service to TSA workers who come into their resaurant. Via The Consumerist:
Fed up with what he views as crappy treatment from the TSA, the owner of a restaurant near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has decided to put all TSA agents on his No-Eat List.
“We have posted signs on our doors basically saying that they aren’t allowed to come into our business,” one employee tells travel journalist Christopher Elliott. “We have the right to refuse service to anyone.”
She says that whenever a TSA agent attempts to dine at the restaurant, “we turn our backs and completely ignore them, and tell them to leave… Their kind aren’t welcomed in our establishment.”
The restaurant claims that 90% of its patrons are in…
Hands Off “The Body”: Jesse Ventura Sues The TSA
“The Body” wants Homeland Security and its tag team partner TSA to step into the ring. Caroline Black reports on CBS News’ Crimesider:
Jesse Ventura, former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler, sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration Monday, claiming full-body scans and pat-down at airport checkpoints violate his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Ventura who was known as “The Body” during his tenure as a wrestler is asking a federal judge in Minnesota to issue an injunction ordering officials to stop subjecting his body to “warrantless and suspicionless” scans and searches.
Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary, and John Pistole, TSA Administrator, are named as defendants in the lawsuit which argues that searches are “unwarranted and unreasonable intrusions on Governor Ventura’s personal privacy and dignity and are a justifiable cause for him to be concerned for his personal health and well-being.”
Lingerie-Clad Woman Who Protested TSA Pat-Downs At OKC Airport Banned From Flying (Video)
I say the reason she was/is banned is because it’s a frakin’ Cylon! These are not the movement of a human being.
But this time she was wearing all her clothes, so … via NewsOn6:
OKLAHOMA CITY — The woman who made national headlines for her near-naked protest at the airport in Oklahoma City is back and once again banned from flying. A YouTube video put Tammy Banovac in the national spotlight. Banovac says she went through security wearing next-to-nothing, to protest new security rules at airports nationwide. Banovac was back at the Will Rogers Airport Tuesday and once again, security says she can’t board her flight back home to Phoenix.
Rape Victim Arrested for Refusing To Be Groped By TSA at Austin Airport (Video)
Via KVUE News:
TSA Allows GIs To Carry Guns On Plane – But Not Nail Clippers
Thanks to disinformation reader Synapse for sending us this story about the TSA’s treatment of armed soldiers returning from Afghanistan, from Redstate, a portion of which is shown below:
[Update: with thanks to commenter King-gonad, the TSA says this story is false]
…This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.
So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:
TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.
Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.
TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to…
Los Alamos Scientist: TSA Scanners Shred Human DNA
Ah, the joys holiday travel, with its long lines and tissue-withering radiation. A Los Alamos scientist raises an alarm regarding TSA scanners’ long-term effect on the human body, Veterans Today reports:
Boian Alexandrov at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico recently published an abstract with colleagues, “DNA Breathing Dynamics in the Presence of a Terahertz Field ” that reveals very disturbing—even shocking—evidence that the THz waves generated by TSA scanners is significantly damaging the DNA of the people being directed through the machines, and the TSA workers that are in close proximity to the scanners throughout their workday.
In layman’s terms what Alexandrov and his team discovered is that the resonant effects of the THz waves bombarding humans unzips the double-stranded DNA molecule. This ripping apart of the twisted chain of DNA creates bubbles between the genes that can interfere with the processes of life itself:…
The TSA Let a Loaded Gun Get on an Airplane (Video)
Kevin Quinn reports for ABC KTRK-TV:
HOUSTON (KTRK) — TSA checkpoints at airports are at the front lines of preventing terrorism. When you go through security, you expect to be scanned and searched. And you expect TSA to prevent contraband from getting on planes, but as we’ve learned, that doesn’t always happen.
Houston businessman Farid Seif says it was a startling discovery. He didn’t intend to bring a loaded gun on a flight out of Houston and can’t understand how TSA screeners didn’t catch it.
Nearing the height of last year’s Christmas travel season, TSA screeners at Bush Intercontinental Airport somehow missed a loaded pistol, one that was tucked away inside a carry-on computer bag. “I mean, this is not a small gun,” Seif said. “It’s a .40 caliber gun.”
Hate TSA Body Scans? Homeland Security Is Monitoring More Than You Realize
Lisa Rab writes on the Broward-Palm Beach New Times:
If you thought intrusive body scans and airport pat downs were just a fluke in the War on Terror bureaucracy, fear not: The Department of Homeland Security has plenty of other programs that will make your skin crawl.
For instance, Big Brother is reading your tweets and Facebook status updates, searching for dangerous words and phrases such as militia, Iraq, and, ironically, body scanner.
The program is called the “Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative,” and yes, it’s as strange as it sounds. The goal is appropriately vague, “to provide situational awareness and establish a common operating picture for the federal government.” Hmmm.
Scroll to page 17 of this recent Homeland Security report and you’ll find an extremely lengthy list of the terms — posted on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and other social media sites — that will grab the attention of government search engines. They…
