6-year old "pat down" in New Orleans

This is one of the most upsetting things I've seen in awhile, and it renews my resolve to continue to speak out about the criminal organization known as the TSA. Watch for yourself:

H/T Bill Fisher

UPDATE: The original video has been taken down, but you can find at least one other person who re-posted it by searching YouTube. I've updated the link to one that's working.

The next invasion of privacy

No doubt, travelers will rejoice at the "convenience" of being allowed to keep their shoes on once the TSA develops a "Shoe Scanning Device." But will your bunion be an anomaly, triggering a close-up inspection of your foot?

Terrorists have already moved on - as if they ever were seriously trying to implement shoe-bombs. They won't use a shoe bomb and they won't target an airplane. It will be something else and we'll gladly give up our rights to prevent the last attack next time, too. (If that last sentence didn't make any sense, it's because the TSA is confused, not my English.)

Religious? Boycott flying

The airlines clearly don't value your patronage.

What does "safe" mean?

As I start this post, let me re-iterate that the primary argument against TSA scanners is that it infringes on our basic human rights, which were specifically protected in the US Constitution.

A new study is out that concludes that the radiation from TSA scanners is "trivial." What exactly does this mean?

“Trivial’’ means only six additional cancers over the lifetimes of 100 million people who represent 750 million boardings a year in the U.S.

So, very few people in the general population will get cancer from the scanners. But that's not zero. Trust me: if you are one of the people who get the "additional" cancer, this is not trivial. This argument is not new. We've seen many people say that - yes, the risk is low, but it's not zero. So using this as primary screening is irresponsible.

Furthermore, there are many caveats to this conclusion that we can also predict from statements from other scientists. A biggie:

In addition, the study’s authors note they had to rely on TSA’s claims about radiation dosage from the machines. “Alas, the TSA has not made the machines available for researchers to make direct measurements,’’ Dr. Smith-Bindman said in an email.

So, we're still just taking the TSA's word on how these machine's work. Feel safer, yet?

Another one, pointed out in the original UCSF letter of concern last spring:

But other researchers have questioned the long-term safety of the machines, suggesting that radiation doses may be more harmful than previously reported because the X-ray machines concentrate radiation on the skin rather than penetrating the whole body.

The new study likely won’t put all the questions to rest, largely because models don’t exist to calculate incidence of most cancers based on skin-concentrated doses rather than whole-body organ penetration.

 I don't mean to criticize this study. We need scientists to help bring this issue to light. They're doing the best they can with the means available.

Disgraceful treatment of an autistic man

In response to this story, a TSA rep says that "TSA's policy is to treat everybody with respect." That's balogna, but it's true that this man was treated with the same (dis)respect as all travelers are by the TSA. His rights were violated and he was humiliated. The only difference is that he is probably more sensitive to this type of (mis)treatment than many other travelers. How incredibly sad and infuriating that this happened.

Read the story or watch the video:

Why fly?

With service like this, why  give the airlines hundreds or thousands of your hard-earned cash? It will only get worse, and you are giving up your rights at the same time. Keep your dignity and boycott flying!

The problem with public policy

A Law professor from Indiana University, Fred Cate, testified before Congress last month about the scanners. While his argument is factual, the effectiveness of the scanners is purely a peripheral issue (but one that Rep Mica no doubt wants to hear). I am surprised this is coming from a lawyer, but then, law may be all about pragmatism and safe policy, not - oh, I don't know - based on written law and the classical liberal principles that this nation is based on.

Also testifying, as I noted earlier, were Alaska State Rep Cissna, who just doesn't like the pat-down, but doesn't see the TSA in general as perpetrating rights violations.


Dr. David Brenner from Columbia lambasts the health risks of the backscatter, while not acknowledging any possible risks for the millimeter wave scanners. 

Doctors on scanners

CNN finds some docs who are worried and some who aren't.

via LRC

Radiation: Japanese vs American

I couldn't have said it better myself:

There isn't a whole lot Congress can do about a wind-driven nuclear cloud that spreads over the northwest, but there is something Congress can do about the proliferation of inconclusively tested, but lucrative X-ray body scanners.

Although this comment is silly:

Not a peep about popping a potassium pill before flying, or before entering a federal building from anyone either, only more concern about inhaling radiation from thousands of miles away.

The author is referring to Potassium Iodide pills. But these only protect you from radioactive iodine, not from any other sort of radiation.

The author redeems herself in the end, pointing out Congress' culpability in this assault on our freedoms:

Congress will be derelict in its duties if it fails to demand accountability from any government agency that holds not only the public's trust, but the public's health in its hands.

Mica is annoying

Rep John Mica (R-FL) is a corrupt politician who is jumping on the anti-TSA backlash for his own gain. While he has some good rhetoric, such as in the following exchange:

"The equipment is flawed and can be subverted," House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said. "Our staff has subverted it. (TSA Administrator) Pistole said 'GAO is very clever.' Well what the hell does he think a terrorist is?"

he ultimately does not care to address or understand the fundamental problems. Check out this ignorance on display:

Additionally, it is not very hard to know where to place contraband you do not want to be found in the event of a TSA pat-down, Mica said.

"Most folks know they're not going to touch your junk," Mica said.

On the other hand, while I don't think Rep Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) is radical enough, he was sounding the alarms on the scanners long before the public was aware of the issue, and he has not let up.

The panel appeared unconvinced. Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) compared the pat-downs now being used as part of airport security screening measures to sexual assault.

"There are many of us who believe this would be deemed a sexual assault on a person," he said.

 Unlike Mica, who thinks there is no sexual assault and that private contractors using identical methods are somehow less offensive, Chaffetz realizes that this is a serious assault on individual liberty and tantamount to criminal behavior.

WikiHow feature

Thanks to Eric, a user at WikiHow, we now have step-by-step instructions on how to be a good, submissive peon. Scroll down and read the "Tips" if you really want to get your blood boiling!

How to Tolerate the TSA As a Sex Crime Victim

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit


In our modern society, certain security features are needed to make things safer for everyone. One of these features in the United States is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), best known for conducting searches in US airports.
Unfortunately, these searches have become more and more invasive in attempt to catch persons who attempt to bypass the security protocols. While understandable from a security perspective, the search methods used can be very difficult to endure for people who have experienced traumatic incidents in their lives, particularly where those incidents were of a sexual nature. Enduring the search for the greater good of societal safety must be balanced with the need to protect your sensitivity to the search methods, and this article aims to help you tolerate the procedure better.

Steps

1. Prepare yourself for the security check. Be aware that most security checks involve X-raying all of your baggage and taking the flier walk through a metal detector. Occasionally, people are randomly selected for a more thorough check. This will usually involve a full-body scan, strip search, handwanding, or using an advanced chemical analysis system that can detect traces of explosives.

TSA News Roundup

I didn't have time this week to write commentary on each of these pieces. So I'll just include them all here with a brief intro to each.

• A test of the scanners revealed that they were emitting ten times more radiation than expected. But - not to worry - they are sure it is a math error, not an actual error in the scanners. So they'll keep testing them until they get the answer they wanted. I feel safer already!

• Becky Akers had a great column on the TSA dog-training program. She really hits the nail on the head about why this is creepy.

• Suspicious package closes airport for 7 hours. Need I say more?

• A passionate letter to the editor from a father about his daughter's ordeal with her children at the airport due to inane TSA policies and general airport bullying.

• Sharon Cissna went to Washington. I was not impressed.

• Is PHL the worst airport for TSA excesses? Nope - they're all equally horrible!

• An update on Aaron Tobey - the literate college student who was detained for having the 4th Amendment written on his chest last fall (it couldn't have been because he was only wearing his skivvies, since that's what the scanners see anyway!).

Status of scanners in Eurozone

For now, it looks like the EU will not follow in the TSA's footsteps:

While TSA is committed to the widespread introduction of body-scanning machines at US airports, the EU's European Economic and Social Committeeadvised against their use at EU airports, asserting the technology is "not yet sufficiently fit for purpose and more consideration needs to be given to the alternatives."

Abel on the NH and TX bills

Jennifer Abel has another good write-up in The Guardian on the TSA scanners. This time, she focuses on the bills in NH and TX which criminalize TSA actions.

Re: And you thought this was limited to airports

Forbes writer, Andy Greenberg, follows up on the story that DHS tested scanners at a train station years ago.

When it comes to full body scanners, the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t always offer the same level of transparency that it imposes on your clothes.

Last week, I wrote about a new set of documents the Electronic Privacy and Information Center (EPIC) obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, revealing research proposals to bring full-body scanners to train stations, mass transit, and public events. Contracts included in the EPIC release showed plans to develop long-range scans that could assess what a subject carried from 30 feet away, along with studies that involved systems for x-ray scanners mounted in vans and “covert” scans of pedestrians.

When I reached the Department of Homeland Security for comment, a spokesperson offered only this immediate statement at the time: the “TSA has not tested the advanced imaging technology that is currently used at airports in mass transit environments and does not have plans to do so.”

But when I pressed for more information, the agency sent along a more thorough statement. ”None of the projects included in the documents released by EPIC are currently active – all have been terminated. The objective of the projects was to assess the technology,” the statement begins. And then the interesting bit:  ”With the exception of the Rail Security Pilot Program, which conducted limited field testing in public locations in 2006, testing for all of these projects was conducted in labs, using volunteers.”

The “exception” in that second statement seems to clearly contradict the DHS’s first comment. Did the DHS test scanners on subway and train passengers, or didn’t it? Read the rest