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New TSA pat down runs up inner thigh, new thrill for travelers
If you haven't been on a date in a while, ask for a manual search. The Transportation Security Administration is going to start getting a bit cozier with passengers who opt for this check, giving stiff competition to the likes of Plenty of Fish. According to an MSNBC report, the TSA is going to start using the fronts of their hands in their pat downs – and will include a new part of the body. Be ready to have a government official run his (or her) along the inside of your leg if you go decide to skip the body scanner.
For the first time, heightened security may actually be thrilling!
[photo by Shamanic Shift via Flickr]
Filed under: North America, United States, Airports
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris G Oct 29th 2010 9:19AM
Time to tell the wife to step up or i'll start booking more flights.
Wow. Its amazing what they do. And more so what they don't do everywhere. If these things were truly for our safety, they'd be standard and done everywhere. Kneejerk reactions by jerks who think they look good doing something even when that something is truly nothing.
Boris Seibert Nov 8th 2010 2:25AM
The issue is not limited to people that are unwilling to be X-Rayed. This new Pat Down policy applies to anyone that does not make it through the traditional metal detectors where the X-Ray machines are not running or available. If you have a metal implant which forces a secondary screening, you will then run through a secondary screening with the new Pat Down policy.
The Pat Down does involved a TSA agent touching your genitles. Their wording and actions include, "Running up your inner thigh until they meet 'resistence' with the TSA agent's hand." I found out very quickly what was meant by 'resistence'.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/10/for-the-first-time-the-tsa-meets-resistance/65390/
I know this because I personally went through TSA's new screening on November 1st, 2010 in San Jose International Airport and Burbank Bob Hope Airport. San Jose's X-Ray machine was not running when I went through security and the Burbank Bob Hope Airport does not have a X-Ray machine. Due to the medical implant in my leg from a Skiing injury, I always go through secondary screening.
Kristen Nov 10th 2010 4:49PM
Simply horrifying. I am a frequent traveler (110 segments per year) with a metal hip. I'm quite used to setting off the metal detector and getting, what I always joke about with the TSA agents, my TSA massage. Inconvenient, sure, but not a terrible experience. Yesterday I flew a day trip from DFW to AUS and had the new pat down in both airports. It was extremely invasive and embarrassing. Contrary to news reports, they DO stroke your genital area, firmly stroke your buttocks area, and stroke their hands all aound your breasts, lift each breast up and squeeze! They make you lift up your shirt to expose skin on your abdomen and back. Everyone was watching. My husband is the only person who should touch me in this way. I was very upset. This pat down is not "okay". I felt violated. Private screening is an option, but that also means you could be asked to remove clothing, and it doesn't prevent the foremost issue of the intrusiveness of the pat down. Neither checkpoint had a body scanner as an option, but even if they did, there is enough research showing potential harmful effects of the scanner that I would still opt out. That means that all US citizens with metal implants will have to undergo this demoralizing procedure every time they fly. If this isn't profiling, I don't know what is. I am all for security, but not at the cost of the right to protect my own body and my Constitutional right against unlawful search. Additionally, I teach my young children 'good touch/bad touch'. Am I now supposed to tell them 'bad touch' is okay if the toucher is wearing a uniform? This is wrong on so many levels. I wrote letters expressing my deep concerns today to my Representative, both Senators, the President, the TSA and the airline. In the end, the terrorists won. They took away my liberty.
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JH Nov 12th 2010 9:03AM
Well people do not forget one thing... This search is not unconstitutional because we do not force you to get searched, you obligate yourself to these searches once you step through the metal detector. So consider this your right to deny search before you come to the airport by finding some other means of transportation. So many dangers approach the skies, and if one person on that plane has something on them god forbid, but then its tsa at blame stating "They should've done more" so just think about your own protection so the next time you fly you dont have to wonder who is sitting in the seat next to you.
Eli Northwest Nov 16th 2010 11:55PM
JH may you burn in hell for the cavalier attitude you have towards people's civil liberties. People have a RIGHT to freedom of movement. There is nothing in the constitution that says you only get civil right if you don't use public transportation. This "it's for your own protection" stuff is crap and you know it. A security bomb sniffing dog would be both cheaper and more effective, but the TSA wants its thrills and to line the pockets of their cronies.
LC Nov 18th 2010 9:32AM
@ Eli,
JH is right. All americans go on about freedom of .... something - until the sh*t hit's the fan. you have the option to choose to travel some other way.
this is for safety of more than just you. Times change bad guyes are smart too and the stakes are raised.. so i would rather fly with an airport/carrier that helps to assure my safety and those on the flight.
be it body scan or pat down - i stand, even my son volunteers to be patted down when we're in the queue and i let him, because he will learn from an early age that to fly means to be searched/patted so don't try anything. ... you may think it weird... no american kid will ever "do anything" -- wrong. how many think drugs are easy!!! so this will help with that too.
happy - save flying.
Rwolf Nov 25th 2010 1:46AM
Could TSA Black Ball Americans Using All Forms Of Public Transportation?
A song titled, TSA Boots Are Going To Walk All Over You, might make a great sequel to Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Going To Walk All Over You.”
TSA’s mistreatment, humiliation and general abrasive handling of Americans at airports, may be a portent to Americans (next) getting a Boot in their face if they refuse to be stripped searched, molested or x-rayed before boarding—any form of public transportation; bus, train, cruse ship. It is obvious TSA intends to extend its reach beyond airports; that TSA will blackball Americans from using other forms of public transportation, including preventing Citizens from driving beyond highway checkpoints, for alleged security reasons. TSA appears headed toward shutting down Americans' Right To Travel Freely in their own Country.
The Nazis used national emergency as a premise to repeatedly target, search and detain Germans boarding or taking trains considered political dissidents or morally unfit; Citizens were intentionally delayed by police/military so they would be late or miss work. As a result many Citizens lost there jobs and could not survive.
TSA’s physical searches of air passengers’ private body parts, is intimidating passengers to submit to x-rays scans. Continued Low Radiation Exposure is Accumulative and believed to cause Cancer. Americans need to draw a line in the sand, Boycott airlines: that would get TSA's attention and stockholders of airlines. Meanwhile, not just pilots and flight attendants, “ordinary air passengers” should also be afforded privacy when physically searched at public airports.
The government intends to invade your bedroom. The government purchased hundreds’ of X-Ray Vans that will travel our streets without warrants, x-ray scan, see Americans naked when walking, standing, riding their bike and may—retain your scan-photos.
Government/police will use x-ray vans to peer though Citizens’ homes and vehicles, exposing Americans and their families to radiation; government will view Citizens in their bedrooms. Americans need to ask Obama if independent studies were conducted to determine if Citizens could develop Cancer, if (repeatedly bombarded) by police X-ray scans. It is expected government/police with or without a warrant, will repeatedly X-ray scan a person of interest, in his or her home.
Obama’s X-Ray Vans can ALSO be used by the military or police to secure perimeters to control civil unrest and instances of revolt, to screen and stop Citizens carrying guns, cameras; any item. Does Obama expect Americans to revolt?
RobertMfromLI Nov 24th 2010 4:00PM
JH works for the TSA. Read his comment... "WE do not force you to get search, you obligate..." So, there's a TSA shill. LC seems like one also.
Sorry to both of you idiotic losers, but there is NO LAW that allows molestation on these grounds. How much do you both get paid to shill for the TSA?