Thread: TSA: Carcinogenic Petting Zoo

The TSA is effectively an unconstitutional, carcinogenic petting zoo. Deep down, we all feel that the airport security system is an FDA-approved rubdown and radiation parlor. But we are busy, rushing to catch flights, and we tell ourselves it is for our “safety.” So, like sheep, we comply.

Unconstitutional

The TSA security process is in violation of the law of the land, specifically the Fourth Amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Let’s be honest, when I “opt” for a pat-down over a blast of cancer-inducing radiation, it is not a choice—it is a preference for the lesser of two fixed evils. A pat- down is a clear violation of my “person;” there is no probable cause warranting random government agents to feel me up for weapons.

The pat-down system also violates my right to be secure in my “papers and effects.” Every time I get a pat-down, my personal property is subject to theft. The TSA pat-down process does nothing to prevent an unconscionable person (going through the scanner) from taking advantage of the fact that I’m helplessly standing behind waiting for a pat-down—unable to monitor my luggage.

Because, here is what normally happens: I inform the TSA agent, “I’m opting out.” The agent then calls for a “female assist” and asks me to step aside. I wait (occasionally up to 10 minutes) for a pat-down. Meanwhile my luggage—including my purse, iPhone, MacBook Pro and other valuables—travel the conveyer belt and idle on the other side of the X-ray machine where anyone could easily walk off with them.

Carcinogenic

On a recent flight out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, a female TSA agent (who was openly annoyed at the prospect of doing her job and giving me a pat-down while oddly assuming that I yearned for her to touch me) said: “Well, if you ask for one, we have to give you one. So, are you just doing this for the free massage we give you?” I wanted to respond: “No way, pervert.” But, since I wanted to make my flight, I replied: “No. I just don’t want the radiation.”

3,778 service calls were made between May of 2010 and May of 2011 to address mechanical issues in backscatter X-ray machines, according to a TSA report.

The New York Times writes: “The machines move a focused beam of high-intensity radiation very quickly across the body, and David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center, says he worries about mechanical malfunctions that could cause the beam to stop in one place for even a few seconds, resulting in greater radiation exposure.” The Times reports further: “A recent study reported that radiation from the machines can reach organs through the skin. In another report, researchers estimated that 1 billion X-ray backscatter scans per year could lead to perhaps 100 radiation-induced cancers in the future.”

Many independent researchers concur that the safety and radiation levels are still unknown because the TSA has actively kept its research in the dark and has redacted public reports.

The next time you fly, opt for the pat-down as a form of healthy protest. For now, it’s better than getting cancer from supposedly “fail-safe” body scanners. And if enough Americans congest airport traffic by choosing pat-downs, perhaps the TSA will eliminate its unconstitutional rubdown and radiation parlor.

Petting Zoo

Pat-downs do not keep us safe. They merely serve to treat Americans like animals. I may have long hair but I’m not a fuzzy tarantula or a furry bunny rabbit. I wear earrings in my ears, not bombs. Yet every time I get a pat-down, it starts with a TSA agent tugging down on my hair with clingy plastic gloves.

Last September, a Dallas woman named Isis Brantley (wearing a large afro hairstyle) cleared the checkpoint at Atlanta’s international airport as she had for the previous 20 years. Brantley had made it to the escalator when two TSA officers changed their minds and decided she was a terror suspect—perhaps imagining she used her hair to disguise a diminutive flamethrower. The agents chased her down the escalator shouting: “Stop—the lady with the hair, you!” They began parting through her hair on-the-spot without offering her a private screening area.

The TSA treats humans far worse than animals. For, petting zoo owners do not grope their cows, de-shoe their ponies and pluck their chickens before letting them into the barn. We are rational beings, not sheeple, and our bodies are our private property. It is time we speak up against the unconstitutional, carcinogenic petting zoo known as the TSA.


TSA: Carcinogenic Petting Zoo - Katie Kieffer - Page 1

TSA 'chat-downs' investigated at Boston's Logan airport
By Bart Jansen, USA TODAY


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WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security is investigating complaints from airport security officers that the "chat-down" program at Boston's Logan airport has become a magnet for racial profiling.

A Massachusetts state trooper keeps watch as travelers make their way through Logan International Airport in Boston.

By Elise Amendola, 2006 AP file photo

A Massachusetts state trooper keeps watch as travelers make their way through Logan International Airport in Boston.

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By Elise Amendola, 2006 AP file photo

A Massachusetts state trooper keeps watch as travelers make their way through Logan International Airport in Boston.
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The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that the department's inspector general will examine the complaints that Middle Easterners, Hispanics and blacks have been targeted in the program. The New York Times reported Sunday that 32 TSA officers at Logan made the complaints.

The chat-down program at Boston and Detroit airports is at the fore of TSA's effort to focus security on the riskiest passengers, rather than treating all travelers the same.

Under the year-old program, officers pose casual questions to all passengers before they screen their carry-on bags to look for deception or hostility that could lead to more interrogation.

The Times reported that officers say their co-workers were targeting minorities, thinking that the stops would lead to the discovery of drugs, outstanding arrest warrants and immigration problems in response to pressure from managers.

"If any of these claims prove accurate, we will take immediate and decisive action to ensure there are consequences to such activity," the TSA said in a statement. "Profiling is not only discriminatory, but it is also an ineffective way to identify someone intent on doing harm."

Chat-downs, as opposed to physical pat-downs of passengers, grew from TSA's behavioral-detection program, which fields 3,000 officers to look for suspicious people at airports nationwide.

Chat-down questions — Are you traveling alone? Where did you stay when you were here? — may seem innocuous, but the TSA says its goal is to detect behavior such as lack of eye contact or fidgeting that could signal a possible terrorist or criminal. If a passenger refuses to answer the questions, TSA will search their carry-on bags.

The TSA says its programs are designed to comply with civil rights policies of the departments of Justice and Homeland Security. The agency says officers "are trained and audited to ensure referrals for additional screening that are based only on observable behaviors and not race or ethnicity."

Critics in Congress such as Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., who chairs the Transportation Committee, have been skeptical that security officers can be trained to spot such subtle behavior, however, and some have urged an end to the program.

Rep. Bill Keating of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee's oversight subcommittee, called for a hearing to investigate the complaints.

"There is no place for racial or ethnic profiling in our security policies, period," Keating says. "These are serious accusations that urgently need to be investigated."
For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

TSA 'chat-downs' investigated at Boston's Logan airport - USATODAY.com



I guess I would rather have a chat down than a feel up, or a radiation treatment...

The TSA Admits Its Security System Has Been Breached

Written by Gary North on August 16, 2012




The pat-downs, the “your wife has a nice butt” scanning machines, the metal detectors, the long lines — they all rested on one assumption: people’s driver’s licenses are valid.
Now it turns out that a small company in China has been cranking out perfect replicas of driver’s licenses for years. The TSA’s machines could not identify the fakes as fakes.
The words “Made in China” did not appear on any of the fake American drivers’ licenses produced by ID Chief company. This violated an American law. If you make anything in China, the item has to say so.
Can you imagine the level of deception that these people will resort to? Fake ID’s that do not say “Made in China”? It comes as no surprise to me. The Chinese are sly. Wily. Inscrutable. Clouded in oriental mystery.
The fake IDs were used by teenagers to buy cigarettes, booze, and condoms.
The IDs were also used by terrorists.
One such terrorist used a fake ID in his plan to blow up Bulgarians. He blew up seven of them. He also blew up himself. His fake ID went with him. But we are assured by the head of the Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License that his ID was fake. It is not clear how he used it, but authorities are sure that he used it.
If he could do this, what security does America have?
I admit that I had not heard of the Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License before I read about the Bulgarian suicide bomber. But I learned fast.
I went to its site: http://www.secure-license.org. There, I learned of a breakthrough. The American government complained to China’s government about ID Chief. Three days later, ID Chief was out of business. Officially. Forever. Make no mistake about this.
Alert researchers at the Coalition found out about this before other media sites picked up the story. This report is from the Coalition.

Employees at the Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License noticed Friday afternoon that the homepage of the popular IDchief.ph website displayed only a “closed for business” announcement.
“We are stopping the website and novelty ID service,” the post said. “We do not like criminals and do not think we are bad people . . . we just try to help the poor student have fun.”
On Monday, Illinois Sens. Mark Steven Kirk and Richard J. Durbin sent a letter along with Iowa Sens. Charles E. Grassley and Tom Harkin to Zhang Yesui, China’s ambassador to the United States. The letter asked China to shut down companies selling fake IDs, saying lawmakers are concerned that the fraudulent documents “will get into the hands of terrorists that can use them to circumvent our security infrastructure in their plot to harm our country.”
Brian Zimmer, president of the nonprofit Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License, said in a written statement Friday that the senators took the right step in seeking the help of the Chinese ambassador.
“It is clear that action soon followed in China leading to an abrupt end to the menace of hundreds of thousands of counterfeit IDs flooding this country,” Zimmer said.
Fake IDs coming from China are often as high-tech as the real thing, containing holograms and markings visible under black light. Government Accountability Office director Stephen M. Lord warned this summer that fake IDs from China are increasingly realistic and easy to come by.
Officials from the Transportation Security Administration have told Congress in recent months that they worry about the accuracy of the visual checks currently used to verify the authenticity of IDs at airport checkpoints and have started piloting machines to read identification documents.

Think about this. The entire TSA security system has been based on the driver’s license. It turns out that its system was easily breached by a company in China that was selling a fake ID so that American teenagers could buy booze and condoms for the sake of a little fun.
The company is gone. We know this because it said so on its website. But there is an outside possibility that a rival firm exists. It may have a website. The TSA did not find out about ID Chief. It took a Senator’s office — or a tip to a Senator’s office — to use ultra-sophisticated technology — Google — to discover the firm’s existence and its nefarious plan to undermine the security of the West.
It is not clear what key words the researcher used to find the firm. But he did find it, and then put two and two together.
Teenagers having fun. What do the Chinese take us for? Complete idiots? This would imply that the designers of the TSA, which has a budget of $16 billion a year, are nincompoops. We need to nip this in the bud.
Continue Reading on secure-license.org


http://teapartyeconomist.com/2012/08...been-breached/