Thread: Introducing TSAComment.com. The TSA Won’t Take our Comments, So We’ll do it for them.

Introducing TSAComment.com. The TSA Won’t Take our Comments, So We’ll do it for them.

September 10, 2012 By George Donnelly 2 Comments

Summary: The TSA illegally and in violation of court order refuses to hold a mandatory public comment period on their use of airport body scanners. We’ll take our own comments and deliver them once we reach 10,000 (or December 1st, 2012). Participate now! Comment and share the website TSAComment.com. Here is a press release.

I Want the TSA to Take my Comment! At TSAComment.com

When a federal agency makes a new regulation, such as the decision to deploy x-ray and millimeter wave body scanners to airport checkpoints nationwide, it is supposed to notify the public and hold a public comment period. The agency is legally obligated to give the public a chance to influence its pending decision. When the TSA suddenly rolled body scanners out to American airport checkpoints in 2010, they neglected to observe these legal “formalities,” opting to jump straight to the implementation phase. This is one reason why the new scope-or-grope regimen caught so many people by surprise and provoked such a strenuous resistance.
Fast forward to today and the TSA, despite a court order, refuses to hold this public comment period. Their latest word, after considerable legal finagling, is that they’ll try to hold some open forums by the end of February 2013. Will it happen? Will it happen on time? How many people will be permitted to participate? These are questions that no one has any good answer for.
Our patience here at We Won’t Fly is exhausted. If the TSA can’t or won’t take our comments about the security, health and privacy concerns related to their use of body scanners at US airport checkpoints, well we’re just going to do it for them!
TSAComment.com

With your moral and financial support, we have launched TSAComment.com, a website where you can share your comment on the TSA’s decision to deploy body scanning technology to dozens of American airports as a primary screening method.
Please take advantage of this unique opportunity to voice your security, health and privacy related concerns. You may have other concerns as well. Vote up those comments you feel add value to this global conversation on security, human rights and dignity.
When we reach 10,000 comments or December 1, 2012, whichever comes first, we will send your comments to TSA administrator John Pistole, Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano and we will release them to the media and the public in a machine-readable format (XML). We will first strip out any identifying information. Please note however that your comments, with your name and possibly other identifying information, will remain available to the world indefinitely at TSAComment.com.
Your Role

We Won’t Fly is not an institutionalized non-profit organization. We don’t have corporate sponsors. We’re just two working dads who are concerned about the future that’s taking shape for our kids. Perhaps you have similar concerns or reasons for being involved in this struggle.
In any case, we can’t do this by ourselves. You need your help. You need to participate if you want to see something happen. And it doesn’t require anything more than a trivial amount of time or effort.

• Educate yourself. Don’t take our word for it, do your own research. Help others learn as well, hopefully in a non-confrontational manner.
• Comment. Make your voice heard.
• Stop flying.
• Organize. Coordinate with other individuals locally and on the national level for effective resistance.
• Donate. We need funding (not a lot) in order to continue this work.
• Stay on top of the news via our email list (subscribe above), Facebook page and/or blog (subscribe via RSS or email).

Made Possible by You

This project is made possible by you, the 40 fine folks who have donated to our fundraising plan so far. Keep the funds coming and we will be able to afford to do more projects and raise more hell in defense of our human rights and dignity.
No one else that I am aware of comes close to our level of effectiveness on this issue in the sphere of direct action. We Won’t Fly is the most radical and the only uncompromising voice on the issue of human rights and dignity in the transportation sector. If, like us, you value these things then it makes sense to support us in whatever way you can – while you still can.
Comment Now

TSAComment.com: I Want the TSA to Take my Comment!
Press Release

Here is a press release for folks in the media. Please send it to your media contacts.
External Links

TSAComment.com: I Want the TSA to Take my Comment!
Wired: Court Demands TSA Explain Why It Is Defying Nude Body Scanner Order
RT: TSA to take 19 months before following nude scanner court order

Introducing TSAComment.com. The TSA Won’t Take our Comments, So We’ll do it for them. | We Won't Fly


[Video Announcement] TSA Blinks, Opt Out Day More Successful than Expected

[Video Announcement] TSA Blinks, Opt Out Day More Successful than Expected | We Won't Fly

Video: TSA detains woman over her 'attitude'

Agent admits decision to bar her from flight was 'retaliatory'

Published: 24 hours ago by Drew Zahn


A video has been posted on YouTube showing a Transportation Security Administration official admitting he detained a passenger purely in retaliation over her “attitude.”








“Wait, let me get this straight: This is retaliatory for my attitude?” the woman asked the TSA agent. “This is not making the airways safer, this is retaliatory?”

“Pretty much, yes,” the official responded.

The video, which has already been seen by tens of thousands of viewers, only lasts 22 seconds, but the person who posted asserts, “It was a little satisfying to get that statement on video.”

“This was inside the terminal at the Houston airport,” the posters’ description of the video states. “I was not allowed to board a plane (even though I had already been through airport security), because I drank my water instead of letting the TSA ‘test’ it.

“The TSA agent finally admitted that it wasn’t because they thought I was a security risk,” the description continues, “it was because the TSA agent, Louis Godeaux, was mad at me!”

The poster explains she was able to get on the next flight out of Houston and thanks United for an upgrade.

“I know this is not really news (it seems like the TSA is retaliating all the time against people),” she claims, “but it was a little satisfying to get that statement on video.”

Though the sound on the video is somewhat garbled, the captured conversation begins with the passenger asking, “Do you think I’m honestly a threat? Do you think that?”

“No, no, no,” the agent responds, “but with your attitude …”

“Wait, let me get this straight, this is retaliatory for my attitude?” she asks. “This is not making the airways safer, this is retaliatory?”

“Pretty much, yes,” he responds.

“Is that legal?” she asks.

“Yes it is.”

Apparently, the passenger had been protesting the TSA’s efforts to chemically test her drink, a practice TSA has had in place since 2007 but made new the news only last week when another video, reportedly from the Columbus, Ohio, airport was also posted on YouTube:
TSA agent admits detaining people is not really about airline safety - YouTube

Second half of this post below

TSA liquid testing inside terminal at Columbus OH Airport


ABC News reports the TSA blog explains: “The test involves a test strip and a dropper containing a nontoxic solution. In case you’re wondering, our officers don’t place the test strips in your beverages/liquids.

TSA also told ABC News that in regards to the woman in Houston, “In our initial review, we concluded that this individual was screened in accordance with standard procedures.”

As WND has reported, the fight over invasive TSA procedures has been raging for several years. In addition to testing passengers’ drinks post-security, the government agency has implemented “enhanced” security screenings that present two options: an X-ray that is a virtual strip search of a passenger and a pat-down that critics have likened to sexual assault in public.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, earlier proposed a change in the law that would specify that screeners are “not immune from any U.S. law regarding physical contact with another person, making images of another person, or causing physical harm through the use of radiation-emitting machinery on another person.”

“It means they are not above the laws the rest of us must obey,” he wrote at the time.

Also, officials with the Libertarian Party of Florida formally have asked sheriffs across the state to start arresting TSA agents in the 67 counties for sexual battery.

“As sheriff, you have the absolute duty to enforce the law uniformly and without prejudice. You are, at best, engaged in selective enforcement by choosing to further ignore these flagrant violations of federal and state law. At worst, you are complicit,” said a message to the 67 sheriffs from the party signed by chairman Adrian Wyllie.

“If you have TSA agents within your county that are violating the law, then you must act. Warn the TSA agents that they are subject to arrest if they continue to violate the law. Should they continue, then you must begin making arrests,” the letter said. “We urge you to remember the oath you took to support, protect and defend the Constitution of both the state of Florida and the United States of America. On behalf of all Floridians, the Libertarian Party of Florida calls on you to do exactly that.”

On the state level, Texas fell narrowly short of moving forward with a bill that would have required “probable cause” for agents to act against a passenger. While the plan was under consideration, the federal government threatened to close down air traffic to and from the state.
U.S. Attorney John E. Murphy asserted that federal agents must be allowed to touch people when and how they want.

“The proposed [Texas] legislation would make it unlawful for a federal agent such as a TSO to perform certain specified searches for the purpose of granting access to a publicly accessible building or form of transportation,” he told Texans at the time. “That provision would thus criminalize searches that are required under federal regulations in order to ensure the safety of the American public.”

Perhaps among the most dramatic expressions of concern came from Miss USA Susie Castillo, who was reduced to tears by federal agents ensuring she was not a terrorist.

Castillo produced a viral video describing her experience at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

“I mean, she actually… touched my vagina,” Castillo said through her tears. “They’re making me … choose to either get molested … or go through this machine that’s completely unhealthy and dangerous. I don’t want to go through it, and here I am crying.”

The director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, a think tank dedicated “to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace,” has also launched a petition drive to force the Transportation Security Administration to follow the law.

Video: TSA detains woman over her ‘attitude’

TSA Retaliation: Agent Admits Detaining People IS NOT Really About Airline Safety

September 8, 2012
in Front Page, Government, Texas


TSA just deployed its staff to test beverages purchased by travelers after they were screened at the security checkpoint . Below you will find the video and comments of a customer who refused to go under the new testing procedure. Once more it is shown what TSA is really about.

This was inside the terminal at the Houston airport. I was not allowed to board a plane (even though I had already been through airport security) because I drank my water instead of letting the TSA “test” it. The TSA agent finally admitted that it wasn’t because they thought I was a security risk-it was because the TSA agent, Louis Godeaux, was mad at me!
I was able to get on the very next flight out of houston-and even managed an upgrade! (thanks United)
Sorry for crappy phone video-but the audio is what I wanted to post.
I know this is not really news (it seems like the TSA is retaliating all the time against people), but it was a little satisfying to get that statement on video.



TSA Retaliation: Agent Admits Detaining People IS NOT Really About Airline Safety

The TSA agent finally admitted that it wasn’t because they thought I was a security risk-it was because the TSA agent, Louis Godeaux, was mad at me!

Are we awake yet??????