Thread: Family Misses Flight after TSA Gives Pat-Down to 7-Year-Old — with Cerebral Palsy!

Family Misses Flight after TSA Gives Pat-Down to 7-Year-Old — with Cerebral Palsy!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012
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The TransportationSecurity Administration is once again the subject of national scrutiny, this time after aggressively screening a 7-year-old female passenger with cerebral palsy which caused her family to miss their flight.

The girl, identified as Dina Frank in a report by The Daily, was waiting with her family on Monday to board a flight departing from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York headed to Florida.

Since Dina walks with the aid of leg braces and crutches, she cannot pass through airport metal detectors, and must instead submit to a pat-down by TSA agents.

Dina, who is also reportedly developmentally disabled, is usually frightened by the procedure. Her family reportedly requests that agents on hand take the time to introduce themselves to her.

However, the agents on duty at the time began to handle her aggressively instead.


Post Continues on washington.cbslocal.com
Family Misses Flight After TSA Gives Pat-Down To Girl With Cerebral Palsy « CBS DC



Family Misses Flight after TSA Gives Pat-Down to 7-Year-Old — with Cerebral Palsy! – Patriot Update

The TSA's mission creep is making the US a police state

The out-of-control Transportation Security Administration is past patdowns at airports � now it's checkpoints and roadblocks

by Jennifer Abel
The Guardian

Ever since 2010, when the Transportation Security Administration started requiring that travelers in American airports submit to sexually intrusive gropings based on the apparent anti-terrorism principle that "If we can't feel your nipples, they must be a bomb", the agency's craven apologists have shouted down all constitutional or human rights objections with the mantra "If you don't like it, don't fly!"

This callous disregard for travelers' rights merely paraphrases the words of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano, who shares, with the president, ultimate responsibility for all TSA travesties since 2009. In November 2010, with the groping policy only a few weeks old, Napolitano dismissed complaints by saying "people [who] want to travel by some other means" have that right. (In other words: if you don't like it, don't fly.)

But now TSA is invading travel by other means, too. No surprise, really: as soon as she established groping in airports, Napolitano expressed her desire to expand TSA jurisdiction over all forms of mass transit. In the past year, TSA's snakelike VIPR (Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have been slithering into more and more bus and train stations � and even running checkpoints on highways � never in response to actual threats, but apparently more in an attempt to live up to the inspirational motto displayed at the TSA's air marshal training center since the agency's inception: "Dominate. Intimidate. Control."

Anyone who rode the bus in Houston, Texas during the 2-10pm shift last Friday faced random bag checks and sweeps by both drug-sniffing dogs and bomb-sniffing dogs (the latter being only canines necessary if "preventing terrorism" were the actual intent of these raids), all courtesy of a joint effort between TSA VIPR nests and three different local and county-level police departments. The new Napolitano doctrine, then: "Show us your papers, show us everything you've got, justify yourself or you're not allowed to go about your everyday business."

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee praised these violations of her constituents' rights with an explanation asinine even by congressional standards:

"We're looking to make sure that the lady I saw walking with a cane � knows that Metro cares as much about her as we do about building the light rail."

See, if you don't support the random harassment of ordinary people riding the bus to work, you're a callous bastard who doesn't care about little old ladies.

No specific threats or reasons were cited for the raids, as the government no longer even pretends to need any. Vipers bite you just because they can. TSA spokesman Jim Fotenos confirmed this a few days before the Houston raids, when VIPR teams and local police did the same thing to travelers catching trains out of the Amtrak station in Alton, Illinois. Fotenos confirmed that "It was not in response to a specific threat," and bragged that VIPR teams conduct "thousands" of these operations each year.

Still, apologists can pretend that's all good, pretend constitutional and human rights somehow don't apply to mass transit, and twist their minds into the Mobius pretzel shapes necessary to find random searches of everyday travelers compatible with any notion that America is a free country. "Don't like the new rules for mass transit? Then drive."

Except even that doesn't work anymore. Earlier this month, the VIPRs came out again in Virginia and infested the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, also known as the stretch of Interstate 64 connecting the cities of Hampton and Norfolk. Spokesmen admitted again that the exercise was a "routine sweep", not a response to any specific threat. Official news outlets admitted the checkpoint caused a delay (further exacerbated by a couple of accidents), but didn't say for how long. Local commenters at the Travel Underground forums reported delays of 90 minutes.

Read more here
The TSA's mission creep is making the US a police state | Jennifer Abel | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Mission creep is when a they say that the TSA was created as a
'counter-terror' organization, but then it evolves into an unruly
force aimed at the people it was supposedly created to protect.

The pilot program of undercover TSA agents on Houston METRO buses
was not related to any specific terror threat. It had NOTHING to do
with terrorism whatsoever.

The TSA has fewer rules to follow than a domestic police force
does, specifically because it wasn't being sold to us as a new
domestic police force. And yet, here we are.

If you know anyone that still thinks the TSA is a
'counter-terrorism' organization, please see to it that this story
reaches them.

Video:

TSA passenger abuse: Controversy over undercover TSA on buses

Goodman Green
- Brasscheck

P.S. Please share Brasscheck TV e-mails and
videos with friends and colleagues.

That's how we grow. Thanks.

Isn't molesting our children and grandchildren enough. These criminal child molesters need to stop now when will we say enough is enough.



TSA defends pat-down of 4-year-old at Kansas airport

Published April 25, 2012

Associated Press

WICHITA, Kansas – The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport says security agents forced her to undergo a pat-down, and even yelled at the child and called her an uncooperative suspect.

The incident has been attracting increasing media and online attention since the child's mother, Michelle Brademeyer of Montana, detailed the ordeal in a public Facebook post last week. The Transportation Security Administration says its agents followed proper screening procedures.

The child's grandmother, Lori Croft, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that mother and daughter initially passed through security at Wichita's airport without incident. But then the child ran to briefly hug Croft, who was awaiting a pat-down after tripping the alarm.

That's when TSA agents insisted the child undergo a physical pat-down.

Read more: TSA defends pat-down of 4-year-old at Kansas airport | Fox News


More here

TSA Defends Pat-Down of 4-Year-Old at Kan. Airport
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By ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. April 26, 2012 (AP)

The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport said Wednesday that the child was forced to undergo a pat-down after hugging her, with security agents yelling and calling the crying girl an uncooperative suspect.

The incident has been garnering increasing media and online attention since the child's mother, Michelle Brademeyer of Montana, detailed the ordeal in a public Facebook post last week. The Transportation Security Administration is defending its agents, despite new procedures aimed at reducing pat-downs of children.

The child's grandmother, Lori Croft, told The Associated Press that Brademeyer and her daughter, Isabella, initially passed through security at the Wichita airport without incident. The girl then ran over to briefly hug Croft, who was awaiting a pat-down after tripping the alarm, and that's when TSA agents insisted the girl undergo a physical pat-down.

Isabella had just learned about "stranger danger" at school, her grandmother said, adding that the girl was afraid and unsure about what was going on.

"She started to cry, saying 'No I don't want to,' and when we tried talking to her she ran," Croft said. "They yelled, 'We are going to shut down the airport if you don't grab her.'"
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AP
This April 14, 2012 photo provided by Lori... View Full Caption

But she said the family's main concern was the lack of understanding from TSA agents that they were dealing with a 4-year-old child, not a terror suspect.

"There was no common sense and there was no compassion," Croft said. "That was our biggest fault with the whole thing — not that they are following security procedures, because I understand that they have to do that."

Brademeyer, of Missoula, Mont., wrote a public Facebook post last week about the April 15 incident, claiming TSA treated her daughter "no better than if she had been a terrorist." The posting was taken down Wednesday. Another post said the family had filed formal complaints with the TSA and the airport.

The TSA released a statement Tuesday saying it explained to the family why additional security procedures were necessary and that agents didn't suspect or suggest the child was carrying a firearm.

"TSA has reviewed the incident and determined that our officers followed proper screening procedures in conducting a modified pat-down on the child," the agency said.

The statement noted that the agency recently implemented modified screening procedures for children age 12 and younger to further reduce the need for pat-downs of children, such as multiple passes through a metal detector and advanced imaging technology.

"These changes in protocol will ultimately reduce — though not eliminate — pat-downs of children," the statement said. "In this case, however, the child had completed screening but had contact with another member of her family who had not completed the screening process."

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, pressed the TSA for more information Wednesday. Tester, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he was concerned the TSA went too far.

"I am a staunch advocate for effective transportation security, but I'm also a strong advocate for common sense and the freedoms we enjoy as Americans," Tester wrote to TSA Administrator John Pistole. "Any report of abuse of the power entrusted to officers of the TSA is especially concerning — especially if it involves children."

TSA Defends Pat-Down of 4-Year-Old at Kan. Airport
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WICHITA, Kan. April 26, 2012 (AP)

In a phone interview from her home in Fountain Valley, Calif., Croft said Brademeyer tried to no avail to get TSA agents to use a wand on the frightened girl or allow her to walk through the metal detector again. She also said TSA agents wanted to screen her granddaughter alone in a separate room.

"She was kicking and screaming and fighting and in hysterics," Croft said. "At that point my daughter ran up to her against TSA's orders because she said, 'My daughter is terrified, I can't leave her.'"

The incident went on for maybe 10 minutes, until a manager came in and allowed agents to pat the girl down while she was screaming but being held by her mother. The family was then allowed to go to their next gate with a TSA agent following them.

Croft said that for the first few nights after coming home, Isabelle had nightmares and talked about kidnappers. She said TSA agents had shouted at the girl, telling her to calm down and saying the suspect wasn't cooperating.

"To a 4-year-old's perspective that's what it was to her because they didn't explain anything and she did not know what was going on," Croft said. "She saw people grabbing at her and raising their voices. To her, someone was trying to kidnap her or harm her in some way."

TSA Defends Pat-Down of 4-Year-Old at Kan. Airport - ABC News

"She started to cry, saying 'No I don't want to,' and when we tried talking to her she ran," Croft said. "They yelled, 'We are going to shut down the airport if you don't grab her.'"

Oh gee like that would work with me..I would have told them shut it down!!!!! Now does anyone wonder what else they would have done shot her or threaten as well????

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/t...2#.T5mintmepNK

Video at link below



Former TSA boss: Resentment of agency ‘dangerous to security’
Published: 2:55 PM 04/26/2012


By Grae Stafford - The Daily Caller


Former Transportation Security Administration Administrator Kip Hawley told The Daily Caller that the threat of terrorism “is not going away” and that widespread public mistrust of TSA agents is “dangerous.”

“The fracture between the common traveller and the people providing the services is broken,” said Hawley, “and I’ve used the term ‘toxic,’ and I think that is dangerous to security when neither side are particularly listening to the other and I think that is what needs to be fixed.”

Hawley was speaking at an event at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., to mark the launch of his new book, “Permanent Emergency,” which was cleared for publication by national security agencies including the FBI and the CIA.

At the event Hawley voiced his support for current TSA Administrator John Pistole. Hawley said that criticisms of the nation’s security apparatus included in his book are systemic, and do not target his successor.

“I’m actually a John Pistole fan,” he quipped.

The TSA has come under attack regularly in the press and from members of Congress. This week alone there have been two high profile news stories of children being subjected to pat downs. The first was of four-year-old Isabella Brademeyer who was accused of having a gun and declared a “high security threat” because she hugged her grandmother in the security line at Wichita Airport in Kansas.

The second was Dana Frank, who was flying through JFK Airport in New York. Dana, seven years old, is handicapped due to Cerebral Palsy and was unable to walk through the scanners without the aid of her crutches and orthotics. Her family was delayed due to the lengthy pat down of their daughter and missed a flight to Florida.


There have also been high profile incidents involving members of Congress who have run afoul of the TSA’s unpopular security procedures. Notably, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul was detained by TSA agents in January for refusing a pat down. Texas Republican Rep. Francisco Canseco claimed this week that he was sexually assaulted by airport agents.

Speaking exclusively to TheDC, Hawley defended the airport security officials.

“I think TSA gets all the abuse for frustration about a system, that was created in 2001 with the full support of both parties of the United States, that no longer works as well as it did in 2001 and needs to be significantly changed and it is not the fault of the officers at the front line who are following their instructions,” he said. “It is the policy that needs to be changed and that is what I argue.”

Videography by Grae Stafford

Read more: TSA | Airport Security | Dangerous | The Daily Caller


Oh my I didn't know they were looking for box cutters in these little girls underware or person, in a wheel chair bound person, or a senior citizen, or a beautiful young girl....but but not in an arab that is fully garbed with burka and all oh my!!!!Don't fly, they are abusers,wake up,

April 18, 2012 at 8:27 am
Seniors get the TSA runaround, lose $300



Marney Rich Keenan
Omer Petti and Madge Woodward expected the alarms to go off at the airport security's metal detector when they were flying home to Detroit after visiting family recently near San Diego.

After all, Petti, who is 95 years old, has two artificial knees and Woodward, at 85, has had her hip replaced. But they sure didn't expect to be subjected to accusations, extreme pat-downs, and most importantly, to be missing $300 in cash.

"Can you imagine an 85-year-old lady and 95-year-old retired Air Force Major in wheelchairs being treated like terrorists?" Petti asked recently sitting in the kitchen of the Bloomfield Township home he shares with Woodward.

On March 29 Petti and Woodward arrived at the San Diego International airport at 10 a.m. for a flight scheduled to leave at 11:36 a.m. As usual, Petti and Woodward removed their shoes, jackets and sweaters and put these along with their other belongings — belt buckles, carry on bags, purse and jewelry, including Petti's money clip — into a total of four rubber bins.

Petti says a security officer asked him to remove Kleenex and $300 in folded bills that he had in his pocket and send it through the detector. "I hesitated and said: 'You really want me to put my bills in there?' " Petti said. The officer said yes, so Petti put the cash into a fifth bin. Then he and Woodward proceeded through the metal detector.

After both set off alarms, they were patted down. Then, a security officer did a litmus test on Petti's clothing, which tested positive for nitrates. Petti explained that he carries nitroglycerin pills for his heart. Nonetheless, Petti was taken to a private room for yet another pat-down by a different officer while the same security officer emptied their carry-on bags and rifled through every item.

"When I was patted down, I've never before been touched in every part of my body before," Woodward said.

As the search went on, the couple — both widowed who met a few years ago at a bridge game and fell in love — became increasingly concerned about missing their flight.

Finally, they were released and told to retrieve their belongings. But only four bins were handed over to them. When Petti inquired about his $300, a senior security official was called over. Petti says this officer insinuated that they were mistaken about the missing cash, instructing the two to take off their shoes again, check their pockets again. "When I told him we were going to miss our flight he asked me if I was objecting or refusing his request." Petti says. "I said: 'No, I'd do anything I was asked, I would just like to know where my $300 went.' "

Finally, Petti says the officer promised they would check their video cameras to see what happened to the fifth bin and he would advise the Transportation Security Administration manager in Detroit so that they could briefed when they arrived. Then came the mad dash for the plane. "The wheel chair attendant literally ran the two of us by himself with both wheel chairs down to the gate, endangering us and anybody who got in our way," says Petti.

"I think I was scammed," Petti says. "I would like my money back, but money doesn't pay for all the stress and humiliation."

In the weeks since, Petti has filed a police report with the San Diego Harbor Police. He's written a lengthy letter addressed to the airport federal security director in San Diego and he's copied politicians: local and national, including President Obama. And he is in the process of filling out a four-page "Tort Claim Package" as required by the TSA.

Nobody, he says, is giving him a straight answer. "The police said they went and reviewed the videotapes but they were too blurry," Petti says. Petti's son Bill, who is helping his father, doubts that. "You can bet if my father were a terrorist, those videos would not be too blurry."

For their part, the San Diego Harbor Police declined to comment on Petti's case. Jim Fostenos, a spokesman in the TSA's Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs said only: "They are looking into the case in San Diego. That's all I have for you."

Says Bill Petti: "The bottom line is my dad's money went missing. Someone in the TSA or the next passenger took it. Either way, treating a 95-year-old like that is inexcusable."

mkeenan@detnews.com

(313) 222-2515

From The Detroit News: Seniors get the TSA runaround, lose $300 | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com


From The Detroit News: Seniors get the TSA runaround, lose $300 | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com

Video at link below



Houstonians Revolt Over TSA On Buses!
Friday, April 27, 2012 6:35


“It was used as a pretext to harass people”

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com

Friday, April 27, 2012
Dozens of outraged residents attended a Houston METRO board meeting yesterday to express their disgust at how TSA workers were used to interrogate passengers on buses during a so-called “anti-terror” exercise last week.


Complaining of how their fourth amendment rights were violated, residents were joined by several prominent lawyers in an extraordinary backlash against the federal agency and local authorities.
The meeting was dominated by more denials on behalf of METRO that warrantless bag searches had occurred during the drill, labeled BusSafe, which was billed as a counter-terror exercise yet only managed to snag alleged prostitutes and drug users.
Despite the fact that the METRO’s official website stated after the exercise that “Law officials performed random bag checks,” in addition to a press release before the exercise that stated bag checks would take place, METRO officials continued to deny that any bag searches had occurred besides those where the passenger had been coerced into giving permission.
“On April 13, the METRO Police Department invited TSA to be a part of its bus-safe exercise. METRO said then and repeated for days afterwards there would be random searches of bus and train passengers’ bags,” reports ABC 13.
What definitely did take place was police officers and TSA agents interrogating passengers about their behavior and journey details.
“METRO and TSA were going onto the buses and questioning people about their normal routes and their normal behavior, and it just kind of creates an atmosphere of fear,” said METRO rider Derrick Broze.
“I don’t feel like by purchasing a ticket or riding a bus that I have to forfeit my Constitutional rights and my protections and be subject to search or seizure,” Broze told METRO board members. “We don’t plan on letting this issue die if the TSA stays in our city.”

Before It's News

Saturday, April 28, 2012
So much for security: airport employees allowed to work without TSA background checks
Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post

If the continued Transportation Security Administration (TSA) abuses, which just seem to get worse as time goes by; the ludicrously costly, potentially dangerous and ineffective “naked body scanners;” and the completely bloated Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were not enough reason to be infuriated by the ever-expanding agency which looks ever more like Hitler’s SA, here is yet another one to add to that list.

Recently the TSA confirmed that they have been allowing new employees to be hired without completed background checks.

It is unclear if this includes TSA agents themselves or just airport employees, as the statements from TSA officials and the relevant documents are far from clear on the matter.

These background checks have been piling up and now there is a backlog so massive that they have simply decided to continue hiring people without even finding out if they have a criminal history.

Once again I want to highlight the fact that it is not clear if they are hiring agents without background checks or if this only affects other employers of airport personnel, despite somewhat misleading articles which make it seem as though they are definitely hiring agents without security clearances.

The TSA claims that they are processing the background checks as quickly as possible and that they will complete the checks on applicants who are already accepted at a later date, which essentially defeats the entire purpose of the checks.


Even if they are not hiring agents without conducting the proper security checks, they are still allowing questionable individuals into a supposedly “secure” environment, thus making the entire TSA theater utterly pointless.

WBSTV of Atlanta, Georgia obtained an internal security memo (embedded below) from Hartsfield-Jackson International airport which details the new TSA policy, although this is a nationwide shift not restricted to just Hartsfield-Jackson.

Before the policy was changed, individuals had to undergo a criminal background check conducted by the TSA as well as a security threat analysis, but now new hires are allowed access to highly sensitive areas without any check whatsoever.

While I have make the point time and time again that terrorism is not actually the megalithic threat the government makes it out to be, http://endthelie.com/2011/09/09/home...#axzz1tIRRBOM1 if the TSA actually is there to keep us safe, why would they allow such a clearly flawed and dangerous policy to be in place?

“The TSA was recently made aware that a newly implemented change to the system used to process airline and airport employee background checks resulted in a delay for requests submitted through the American Association of Airport Executives,” said TSA spokesman Jon Allen. “The cause of the issue was quickly identified, and TSA and AAAE have worked together to implement a solution.”

Allen said that the TSA has given airport employers what he called “interim regulatory relief,” which is a nice way of saying that they are allowing them to hire people without the background checks.

This is what makes me believe that this might actually not extend to agents, but just to airport employers like food vendors, retailers, airline employees, etc.

That being said, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the TSA indeed hired people without conducting a background check.

Allen claims that this never actually presented a risk to security, although that makes little to no sense whatsoever and it is quite obvious why someone in Allen’s position would attempt to cover for the agency’s actions. After all, that is precisely what his job is all about.

“At no time was security at risk, and all new employees will still undergo identity verification and be subject to watchlist matching,” Allen claimed.

Of course that has absolutely nothing to do with criminal background checks in the slightest as watchlists and identity verification are entirely different matters.

Representative Paul Broun, a Georgia Republican, was shown the TSA memo and he did not seem pleased at all with what he saw.

“This is a joke,” said Broun. “This letter shows the incompetence of TSA. It shows that they cannot and are not doing their job they were instructed to do through the law.”

Brent Brown, a security expert with Chesley-Brown Security seems to feel somewhat similar and he believes that this policy change could actually pose a threat to the security of airports.

“You can’t put unsecured people or people that you haven’t checked in a secured environment,” Brown pointed out.

“By that very definition, you’ve breached security,” he added.

“TSA has worked closely with the AAAE and the Atlanta Airport to address the delays in processing airport and airline employee background checks. Currently, all requests have been processed and no backlog remains,” a TSA official claimed, referring to the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.

However, the absurdity of this policy is still quite blatant and clearing the backlog does nothing to change the fact that they clearly have no interest in security.

This just goes to show that as individuals like myself in the alternative media have repeatedly been pointing out for quite some time now, terrorism is nowhere near the threat the government and agencies like the TSA make it out to be.

In reality, “homeland security” is not about thwarting terrorism but instead whittling away our most essential liberties, acclimating the American people to a police state atmosphere, all while providing job security and massive profits for the insiders at the expense of the taxpayer.

I’d love to hear your opinion, take a look at your story tips, and even your original writing if you would like to get it published. Please email me at Admin@EndtheLie.com

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This article first appeared at End the Lie.

Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on Orion Talk Radio from 8 pm -- 10 pm Pacific, which you can find HERE. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com

Activist Post: So much for security: airport employees allowed to work without TSA background checks