Virtual Strip Searching
from DailyMail.com
Airport admits 'strip search' body scanners WILL show people naked
By Richard Shears
New 'strip search' full body scanners being trialled in Australia will show people's private parts, officials have admitted.
But to spare their blushes, the faces of passengers will be blurred.
Domestic travelers leaving Melbourne airport over the next six weeks will be asked to test the new security scanners that can see through clothing.
The X-ray backscatter body scanner has been described by critics as a "virtual strip search."
The scanner is similar to one that was trialled at Paddington station in London in 2006 in direct response to the tube bombings in July 2005.
Similar systems have also been tested at Gatwick airport.
The new scanner
The new scanner is designed to show people concealing weapons - but it will show a lot more than that, airport chiefs have admitted
Cheryl Johnson, general manager of the Office of Transport Security, said:' It will show the private parts of people, but what we've decided is that we're not going to blur those out, because it severely limits the detection capabilities. '
'It is possible to see genitals and breasts while they're going through the machine, though,' she admitted
However, Ms Johnson said there were a number of measures in place to tackle concerns about privacy.
"The faces are automatically blurred and ... it's only a chalk-style outline, it's not as invasive as some of the other equipment that we've got," she said.
The scanner uses a low energy X-ray to reveal any objects, metal or otherwise, under a person's clothing, including body features.
The testing will be entirely voluntary during the trial, which is being undertaken to test how the new scanners would affect the flow of passengers through the security point.
"It does see through clothing, but it's not a photographic image, it's a low-energy X-ray that reflects off the skin," added Ms Johnson.
"The security officer that's looking at it is located away from the screening lane, so there's no comparison of the person walking through and the image.
'The images are not saved, you literally walk through, the screener hits a button to say clear and the image goes."
The new scanners will be tested at Melbourne Airport alongside 'next generation' baggage X-ray machines that can detect explosives in luggage.
Hand-held scanners that can detect explosives in liquids are also being tested.
Ms Johnson said these were a direct response to an alleged terrorist plot in 2006 to detonate liquid explosives on-board airliners.
She added all the scanners had tested well in laboratory conditions, but information was needed on how they would impact on passenger amenity.
The trial runs until the end of the November, and the results will be analysed before the technology is rolled out for real, possibly at domestic and international terminals.
from Rumor Mill.Com
Denying Basic Rights Is Just Another Day at the Office
By Emily Feder, AlterNet. Posted August 18, 2008.
I was recently stopped by Homeland Security as I was returning from a trip to Syria. What I saw in the hours that followed shocked and disturbed me.
I arrived at JFK Airport two weeks ago after a short vacation to Syria and presented my American passport for re-entry to the United States.
After 28 hours of traveling, I had settled into a hazy awareness that this was the last, most familiar leg of a long journey. I exchanged friendly words with the Homeland Security official who was recording my name in his computer. He scrolled through my passport, and when his thumb rested on my Syrian visa, he paused. Jerking toward the door of his glass-enclosed booth, he slid my passport into a dingy green plastic folder and walked down the hallway, motioning for me to follow with a flick of his wrist. Where was he taking me, I asked him. "You'll find
out," he said.
We got to an enclosed holding area in the arrivals section of the
airport. He shoved the folder into my hand and gestured toward four sets of Homeland Security guards sitting at large desks. Attached to each desk were metal poles capped with red, white and blue siren lights. I approached two guards carrying weapons and wearing uniforms similar to New York City police officers, but they shook their heads, laughed and said, "Over there," pointing in the direction of four overflowing holding pens. I approached different desks until I found an official who
nodded and shoved my green folder in a crowded metal file holder. When I asked him why I was there, he glared at me, took a sip from his water bottle, bit into a sandwich, and began to dig between his molars with his forefinger. I found a seat next to a man who looked about my age -- in his late 20s -- and waited.
Omar (not his real name) finished his fifth year in biomedical
engineering at City College in June. He had just arrived from Beirut, where he visited his family and was waiting to go home to the apartment he shared with his brother in Harlem. Despite his near-perfect English and designer jeans, Omar looked scared. He rubbed his hands and rocked softly in his seat. He had been waiting for hours already, and, as he and people holding sobbing babies -- had too. There were approximately 70 people detained in our cordoned-off section: All were Arab (with the exception
of me and the friend I traveled with), and almost all had arrived from Dubai, Amman or Damascus. Many were U.S. citizens.
We were in the front row, sitting a few feet from two guards' desks. They sneered at each bewildered arrival, told jokes in whispers, swiveled in their office chairs and greeted passing guards who stopped to talk -- guards who had a habit of looping their fingers into their holsters. One asked his friend how many nationalities were represented in the room. "About 20. Some of everything today."
No one who had been detained knew precisely why they were there. A few people were led into private rooms; others were questioned out in the open at desks a few feet from the crowd and then allowed to pass through customs. Some were sent to another section of the holding area with large computer screens and cameras, and then brought back. The uninformed consensus among the detainees was that some people would be fingerprinted, have their irises scanned and be sent back to the countries from which they had disembarked, regardless of citizenship status; others would be fingerprinted and allowed to stay; and the
unlucky ones would be detained indefinitely and moved to a more
permanent facility.
There was one British tourist in the group. Paul (also not his real name) was traveling with three friends who had passed through customs soon after their plane landed and were waiting for him on the other side of the metal barrier; he suspected he had been detained because of his dark skin. When he asked if he could go to the bathroom, one of the guards said, "I wouldn't." "What if someone has to?" I asked. "They will just have to hold it," the guard responded with a smile. Paul began to
cry. I watched as he, over the course of four hours, went from feeling exuberant about his trip to New York to despising the entire country. "I speak the Queen's English," he said to me. "I'm third-generation British. I came to America because I've always wanted to come here, and now they've got me so scared that all I want to do is go home. We're paying for your stupid war anyway."
To be powerless and mocked at the same time makes one feel ashamed, which leads quickly to rage. Within a few hours of my arrival, I saw at least 10 people denied the right to use the bathroom or buy food and water. I watched my traveling companion duck under a barrier, run to the bathroom and slip back into the holding section -- which, of course, someone of another ethnicity in a state of panic would be very reluctant to do.
The United States is good at naming enemies, but apparently we
are even better at making them, especially of individuals. I don't knowif it's worse for national security -- and more embarrassing for Americans -- that this is the first experience tourists have of our country, or that some U.S. citizens get treated this way upon entering their own country.
The guard who had been picking his molars for hours quietly
mispronounced the names of people whose turn it was to be questioned, muttering each surname three times and then moving on. When he called Omar from City College to his desk, I moved closer to hear the interview. "Where did you go?" the officer asked. "What is your address in the United States? Is your brother here illegally? Do you support Hezbollah? What do you think of Hezbollah in general? How do you pay for your life here? How many people live with you? Are you sure it's just
you and your brother? Who are your friends?" Omar answered respectfully and emphatically; he was then asked to wait by the side of the desk,from which he was ushered toward one of the rooms.
After four hours, I finally demanded to speak to the guards'
supervisor, and he was called down. I asked if the detainees could file a formal complaint. He said there were complaint forms (which, in English and Spanish, direct one to the Department of Homeland Security's Web site, where one must enter extensive personal information in order to file a "Trip Summary") but initially refused to hand them out or to give me
his telephone number. "The Department of Homeland Security is understaffed, underfunded, and I have men here who are doing 14-hour days." He tried to intimidate me when I wrote down his name -- "So, you're writing down our names. Well, we have more on you" -- and asked me questions about my address and my profession in front of the rest of the people detained. I
pointed out a few of the families who had missed their flights and had been waiting seven hours. His voice barely controlled, his lip curled into a smirk, he explained slowly, condescendingly, that they need only go to the ticket counter at Jet Blue and reschedule so they could fly out in an hour. One mother responded with what he must have already known: Jet Blue goes to most destinations only once or twice a day and
her whole family would have to sleep in the airport.
A large crowd began to gather. Everyone wanted to voice complaints. I explained to the supervisor that his guards had been making people afraid. He flipped through the green files, tossing the American passports to the front of the pile. "You should have gone first, before these people. American citizens first -- that's how it should be." In the face of dozens of requests and questions, he turned and left.
The guards processed me then, ignoring the order of arrivals, if there ever had been one. They refused to distribute more complaint forms or call the supervisor back down at the request of Arab families. One officer threatened, "I'm talking politely to you now. If you don't sit down, I won't be talking politely to you anymore." One announced that because "the American girl" had gotten angry, the families would have to wait a few more hours. "The supervisor is not coming back."
I reassured my Homeland Security interrogator that I did not make any connections with Hezbollah or with anyone I knew to be associated with such an organization. I am not a member of any terrorist group. In fact, my visit to Syria had been so apolitical and touristy that I felt an embarrassing affinity with the pastel-shirted families waiting by the Air France baggage carousels in the distance, whom I knew I would
eventually join.
As I walked out of the enclosure, some people thanked me, squeezing my arm and putting their hands on my shoulders. It was shocking that briefly standing up to someone overseeing an abuse of civil rights -- in JFK airport, in the United States, where we supposedly have laws and a democratic judicial system -- could be perceived as heroic. I had nothing to lose, but the other people being detained had everything to lose.
In the past five years I have worked for human rights and refugee
advocacy organizations in Serbia, Russia and Croatia, including the International Rescue Committee and USAID. I have traveled to many different places, some supposedly repressive, and have never seen people treated with the kind of animosity that Homeland Security showed that night. In Syria, border control officers were stern but polite. At other borders there have been bureaucracies to contend with -- excruciating
for both Americans and other foreign nationals. I've met Russian
officials with dead, suspicious looks in their eyes and arms tired from stamping so many visas, but in America, the Homeland Security officials I encountered were very much alive -- like vultures waiting to eat.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AND ALL THIS BECAUSE OF SOME PHONY DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER BUILDINGS, AND THE EQUALLY PHONY "WAR ON TERRORISM".
O.K. --- WHAT SAY YOU ???
YERS TROOLY,
Bob H.
Denying Basic Rights Is Just Another Day at the Office
By Emily Feder, AlterNet. Posted August 18, 2008.
I was recently stopped by Homeland Security as I was returning from a trip to Syria. What I saw in the hours that followed shocked and disturbed me.
I arrived at JFK Airport two weeks ago after a short vacation to Syria and presented my American passport for re-entry to the United States.
After 28 hours of traveling, I had settled into a hazy awareness that this was the last, most familiar leg of a long journey. I exchanged friendly words with the Homeland Security official who was recording my name in his computer. He scrolled through my passport, and when his thumb rested on my Syrian visa, he paused. Jerking toward the door of his glass-enclosed booth, he slid my passport into a dingy green plastic folder and walked down the hallway, motioning for me to follow with a flick of his wrist. Where was he taking me, I asked him. "You'll find
out," he said.
We got to an enclosed holding area in the arrivals section of the
airport. He shoved the folder into my hand and gestured toward four sets of Homeland Security guards sitting at large desks. Attached to each desk were metal poles capped with red, white and blue siren lights. I approached two guards carrying weapons and wearing uniforms similar to New York City police officers, but they shook their heads, laughed and said, "Over there," pointing in the direction of four overflowing holding pens. I approached different desks until I found an official who
nodded and shoved my green folder in a crowded metal file holder. When I asked him why I was there, he glared at me, took a sip from his water bottle, bit into a sandwich, and began to dig between his molars with his forefinger. I found a seat next to a man who looked about my age -- in his late 20s -- and waited.
Omar (not his real name) finished his fifth year in biomedical
engineering at City College in June. He had just arrived from Beirut, where he visited his family and was waiting to go home to the apartment he shared with his brother in Harlem. Despite his near-perfect English and designer jeans, Omar looked scared. He rubbed his hands and rocked softly in his seat. He had been waiting for hours already, and, as he and people holding sobbing babies -- had too. There were approximately 70 people detained in our cordoned-off section: All were Arab (with the exception
of me and the friend I traveled with), and almost all had arrived from Dubai, Amman or Damascus. Many were U.S. citizens.
We were in the front row, sitting a few feet from two guards' desks. They sneered at each bewildered arrival, told jokes in whispers, swiveled in their office chairs and greeted passing guards who stopped to talk -- guards who had a habit of looping their fingers into their holsters. One asked his friend how many nationalities were represented in the room. "About 20. Some of everything today."
No one who had been detained knew precisely why they were there. A few people were led into private rooms; others were questioned out in the open at desks a few feet from the crowd and then allowed to pass through customs. Some were sent to another section of the holding area with large computer screens and cameras, and then brought back. The uninformed consensus among the detainees was that some people would be fingerprinted, have their irises scanned and be sent back to the countries from which they had disembarked, regardless of citizenship status; others would be fingerprinted and allowed to stay; and the
unlucky ones would be detained indefinitely and moved to a more
permanent facility.
There was one British tourist in the group. Paul (also not his real name) was traveling with three friends who had passed through customs soon after their plane landed and were waiting for him on the other side of the metal barrier; he suspected he had been detained because of his dark skin. When he asked if he could go to the bathroom, one of the guards said, "I wouldn't." "What if someone has to?" I asked. "They will just have to hold it," the guard responded with a smile. Paul began to
cry. I watched as he, over the course of four hours, went from feeling exuberant about his trip to New York to despising the entire country. "I speak the Queen's English," he said to me. "I'm third-generation British. I came to America because I've always wanted to come here, and now they've got me so scared that all I want to do is go home. We're paying for your stupid war anyway."
To be powerless and mocked at the same time makes one feel ashamed, which leads quickly to rage. Within a few hours of my arrival, I saw at least 10 people denied the right to use the bathroom or buy food and water. I watched my traveling companion duck under a barrier, run to the bathroom and slip back into the holding section -- which, of course, someone of another ethnicity in a state of panic would be very reluctant to do.
The United States is good at naming enemies, but apparently we
are even better at making them, especially of individuals. I don't knowif it's worse for national security -- and more embarrassing for Americans -- that this is the first experience tourists have of our country, or that some U.S. citizens get treated this way upon entering their own country.
The guard who had been picking his molars for hours quietly
mispronounced the names of people whose turn it was to be questioned, muttering each surname three times and then moving on. When he called Omar from City College to his desk, I moved closer to hear the interview. "Where did you go?" the officer asked. "What is your address in the United States? Is your brother here illegally? Do you support Hezbollah? What do you think of Hezbollah in general? How do you pay for your life here? How many people live with you? Are you sure it's just
you and your brother? Who are your friends?" Omar answered respectfully and emphatically; he was then asked to wait by the side of the desk,from which he was ushered toward one of the rooms.
After four hours, I finally demanded to speak to the guards'
supervisor, and he was called down. I asked if the detainees could file a formal complaint. He said there were complaint forms (which, in English and Spanish, direct one to the Department of Homeland Security's Web site, where one must enter extensive personal information in order to file a "Trip Summary") but initially refused to hand them out or to give me
his telephone number. "The Department of Homeland Security is understaffed, underfunded, and I have men here who are doing 14-hour days." He tried to intimidate me when I wrote down his name -- "So, you're writing down our names. Well, we have more on you" -- and asked me questions about my address and my profession in front of the rest of the people detained. I
pointed out a few of the families who had missed their flights and had been waiting seven hours. His voice barely controlled, his lip curled into a smirk, he explained slowly, condescendingly, that they need only go to the ticket counter at Jet Blue and reschedule so they could fly out in an hour. One mother responded with what he must have already known: Jet Blue goes to most destinations only once or twice a day and
her whole family would have to sleep in the airport.
A large crowd began to gather. Everyone wanted to voice complaints. I explained to the supervisor that his guards had been making people afraid. He flipped through the green files, tossing the American passports to the front of the pile. "You should have gone first, before these people. American citizens first -- that's how it should be." In the face of dozens of requests and questions, he turned and left.
The guards processed me then, ignoring the order of arrivals, if there ever had been one. They refused to distribute more complaint forms or call the supervisor back down at the request of Arab families. One officer threatened, "I'm talking politely to you now. If you don't sit down, I won't be talking politely to you anymore." One announced that because "the American girl" had gotten angry, the families would have to wait a few more hours. "The supervisor is not coming back."
I reassured my Homeland Security interrogator that I did not make any connections with Hezbollah or with anyone I knew to be associated with such an organization. I am not a member of any terrorist group. In fact, my visit to Syria had been so apolitical and touristy that I felt an embarrassing affinity with the pastel-shirted families waiting by the Air France baggage carousels in the distance, whom I knew I would
eventually join.
As I walked out of the enclosure, some people thanked me, squeezing my arm and putting their hands on my shoulders. It was shocking that briefly standing up to someone overseeing an abuse of civil rights -- in JFK airport, in the United States, where we supposedly have laws and a democratic judicial system -- could be perceived as heroic. I had nothing to lose, but the other people being detained had everything to lose.
In the past five years I have worked for human rights and refugee
advocacy organizations in Serbia, Russia and Croatia, including the International Rescue Committee and USAID. I have traveled to many different places, some supposedly repressive, and have never seen people treated with the kind of animosity that Homeland Security showed that night. In Syria, border control officers were stern but polite. At other borders there have been bureaucracies to contend with -- excruciating
for both Americans and other foreign nationals. I've met Russian
officials with dead, suspicious looks in their eyes and arms tired from stamping so many visas, but in America, the Homeland Security officials I encountered were very much alive -- like vultures waiting to eat.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AND ALL THIS BECAUSE OF SOME PHONY DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER BUILDINGS, AND THE EQUALLY PHONY "WAR ON TERRORISM".
O.K. --- WHAT SAY YOU ???
YERS TROOLY,
Bob H.
via Democractic Underground.com
Government can seize your laptop at the border for no reason at all
Friday, August 1, 2008; Page A01
Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.
... The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/20...
The Customs policy can be viewed at: http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/travel/admissabilit...
Government can seize your laptop at the border for no reason at all
Friday, August 1, 2008; Page A01
Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.
... The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/content/article/20...
The Customs policy can be viewed at: http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/travel/admissabilit...
The TSA Is Undoubtedly A Terrorist Organization
07-23-2008 www.roguegovernment.com
Lee Rogers
The Transportation Security Administration continues to show the American people that they are one of the most evil terrorist organizations on the face of the planet. This diabolical terrorist group claims that they are keeping people safe from non-existent threats by continually violating the Fourth Amendment rights of airline passengers. Body scanners are being deployed in airports that reveal the naked bodies of airline
passengers and now there are additional complaints of Nazi TSA agents conducting x-rated searches and assaulting airline passengers without any sort of just cause. There simply is no need for this terrorist organization to exist. In fact, the TSA along with the Department of Homeland Security should be abolished immediately. They serve no useful purpose and they don’t provide any sort of meaningful security function. Instead, these organizations serve the purposes of terrorizing and enslaving the American people as they help facilitate the continued agenda of the elite’s plan for the implementation of a planetary control grid. All of these people who work for the TSA shouldn’t have jobs, and they should be forced to make their way to the unemployment lines. This is because engaging in terrorist acts against the American people is not a legitimate form of employment.
The following blurb is taken from a CBS News report on the recent acts of terrorism that this organization has recently been involved in.
When travelers go to the airport, they know what kind of security to expect: luggage searches, metal detectors and shoe inspections.
It's all part of our post 9-11 reality enforced by the Transportation Security Administration. But as CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman reports, thousands of travelers have complained that some of these screenings can become abusive and even x-rated.
For arguing with a TSA agent, Robin Kassner wound up being slammed to the floor. She's filed a lawsuit.
"I kept begging them over and over again get off of me ... and they wouldn't stop," Kassner said.
And it wasn't enough for another woman to show TSA agents nipple rings that set off a metal detector. The agents forced her to take them out.
Mandi Hamlin said, "I had to get pliers and pull it apart."
In Chicago, people like Robert Perry are subjected to exhaustive security checks. He was patted down, his wheel chair was examined and his hands were swabbed, all in public view in a see-through room at the security checkpoint. Perry, 71, is not alone
"It's humiliation," Perry said.
These TSA terrorists are assaulting airline passengers for asking questions, strip searching disabled old men and performing other assorted x-rated searches. As outrageous as all of this is, it would be one thing if these security procedures were actually serving a real purpose but the fact that the Government Accountability Office was actually able to sneak bomb parts past these so called security checkpoints, shows what a joke the whole process is. Airline passengers are being forced to give up their Fourth Amendment rights in exchange for the false illusion of security.
Furthermore, the official story of 9/11 as well as the so called terror war is now a provable fraud. There is no need for these unconstitutional Nazi-like internal checkpoints at airports. It is time to abolish the TSA and the DHS. Airline companies should be tasked with providing security for the people that use their services. If people don’t like the security procedures of a particular airline, they can choose another airline. Unfortunately, it looks as if the only way that the TSA will ever be abolished is if customers decide to stop flying. If more and more people stop flying citing the TSA terrorists as the main reason why they have stopped flying, than maybe the airline industry will finally lobby to abolish this insane system.
Obviously, the powers that be have setup the TSA and the DHS to terrorize and enslave the American people. Those who believe that the government gives a shit about your safety are sorely mistaken. These bastards in the modern day priest class killed over 3,000 Americans on 9/11, have killed thousands conservatively in the Middle East using 9/11 as an excuse, are not taking care of wounded U.S. military personnel adequately when they come back home and are involved in implementing all sorts of dark-eugenics and depopulation programs on free humanity. The TSA is not there for your safety and as anecdotal evidence and common sense indicates, it is a terrorist organization.
07-23-2008 www.roguegovernment.com
Lee Rogers
The Transportation Security Administration continues to show the American people that they are one of the most evil terrorist organizations on the face of the planet. This diabolical terrorist group claims that they are keeping people safe from non-existent threats by continually violating the Fourth Amendment rights of airline passengers. Body scanners are being deployed in airports that reveal the naked bodies of airline
passengers and now there are additional complaints of Nazi TSA agents conducting x-rated searches and assaulting airline passengers without any sort of just cause. There simply is no need for this terrorist organization to exist. In fact, the TSA along with the Department of Homeland Security should be abolished immediately. They serve no useful purpose and they don’t provide any sort of meaningful security function. Instead, these organizations serve the purposes of terrorizing and enslaving the American people as they help facilitate the continued agenda of the elite’s plan for the implementation of a planetary control grid. All of these people who work for the TSA shouldn’t have jobs, and they should be forced to make their way to the unemployment lines. This is because engaging in terrorist acts against the American people is not a legitimate form of employment.
The following blurb is taken from a CBS News report on the recent acts of terrorism that this organization has recently been involved in.
When travelers go to the airport, they know what kind of security to expect: luggage searches, metal detectors and shoe inspections.
It's all part of our post 9-11 reality enforced by the Transportation Security Administration. But as CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman reports, thousands of travelers have complained that some of these screenings can become abusive and even x-rated.
For arguing with a TSA agent, Robin Kassner wound up being slammed to the floor. She's filed a lawsuit.
"I kept begging them over and over again get off of me ... and they wouldn't stop," Kassner said.
And it wasn't enough for another woman to show TSA agents nipple rings that set off a metal detector. The agents forced her to take them out.
Mandi Hamlin said, "I had to get pliers and pull it apart."
In Chicago, people like Robert Perry are subjected to exhaustive security checks. He was patted down, his wheel chair was examined and his hands were swabbed, all in public view in a see-through room at the security checkpoint. Perry, 71, is not alone
"It's humiliation," Perry said.
These TSA terrorists are assaulting airline passengers for asking questions, strip searching disabled old men and performing other assorted x-rated searches. As outrageous as all of this is, it would be one thing if these security procedures were actually serving a real purpose but the fact that the Government Accountability Office was actually able to sneak bomb parts past these so called security checkpoints, shows what a joke the whole process is. Airline passengers are being forced to give up their Fourth Amendment rights in exchange for the false illusion of security.
Furthermore, the official story of 9/11 as well as the so called terror war is now a provable fraud. There is no need for these unconstitutional Nazi-like internal checkpoints at airports. It is time to abolish the TSA and the DHS. Airline companies should be tasked with providing security for the people that use their services. If people don’t like the security procedures of a particular airline, they can choose another airline. Unfortunately, it looks as if the only way that the TSA will ever be abolished is if customers decide to stop flying. If more and more people stop flying citing the TSA terrorists as the main reason why they have stopped flying, than maybe the airline industry will finally lobby to abolish this insane system.
Obviously, the powers that be have setup the TSA and the DHS to terrorize and enslave the American people. Those who believe that the government gives a shit about your safety are sorely mistaken. These bastards in the modern day priest class killed over 3,000 Americans on 9/11, have killed thousands conservatively in the Middle East using 9/11 as an excuse, are not taking care of wounded U.S. military personnel adequately when they come back home and are involved in implementing all sorts of dark-eugenics and depopulation programs on free humanity. The TSA is not there for your safety and as anecdotal evidence and common sense indicates, it is a terrorist organization.
From CBS2-Chhicago
Fliers Complain About X-Rated Security Screenings
TSA Agents Forced Woman To Remove Nipple Rings, Pulled Pants Off Disabled Man
Reporting
Pam Zekman
When travelers go to the airport, they know what kind of security to expect: luggage searches, metal detectors and shoe inspections.
It's all part of our post 9-11 reality enforced by the Transportation Security Adminstration. But as CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman reports, thousands of travelers have complained that some of these screenings can become abusive and even x-rated.
For arguing with a TSA agent, Robin Kassner wound up being slammed to the floor. She's filed a lawsuit.
"I kept begging them over and over again get off of me ... and they wouldn't stop," Kassner said.
And it wasn't enough for another woman to show TSA agents nipple rings that set off a metal detector. The agents forced her to take them out.
Mandi Hamlin said, "I had to get pliers and pull it apart."
In Chicago, people like Robert Perry are subjected to exhaustive security checks. He was patted down, his wheel chair was examined and his hands were swabbed, all in public view in a see-through room at the security checkpoint. Perry, 71, is not alone
"It's humiliation," Perry said.
Perry was also taken to a see-through room by a TSA agent when his artificial knee set off the metal detector.
"He yelled at me to get the belt off. 'I told you to get the belt off.' So I took the belt off. He ran his hands down over and pulled the pants down, they went down around my ankle," Perry said.
At that point, Perry was standing in his underwear in public view. He asked to see a supervisor. That made things worse.
"She was yelling 'I have power, I have power, I have power," Perry said. The power to stop him from flying to Florida with his wife that day to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
"It makes you feel like you have no rights," Perry said.
Perry said he always alerts TSA agents about his metal knee and wonders why they can't just check his leg.
"If somebody told me that I would save the people on the airplane by taking my pants off out in public out there, I wouldn't mind doing it, but this was not necessary," Perry said.
TSA officials said that when the metal detectors go off, their agents must resolve what caused the alarm. But experts have said it's important to use common sense when balancing security and customer service.
Carlos Villarreal, former director of security for the Sears Tower, said proper training is crucial. "When you're wanding somebody and you can identify which part of the body set of the alarm, that should be sufficient to clear a person," Villarreal said.
But all too often, it's not enough for 16-year old Michael Angone. She frequently flies as a member of the Chicago Children's Choir.
"I've had to completely take my pants off and show them like my entire leg," Angone said.
As a baby, Angone was diagnosed with cancer. Her parents, both Chicago police officers, had to have her leg amputated. She said she always warns TSA security agents that her prosthetic leg will set off the metal detector, but many insist on doing an embarrassing full body pat-down.
"I feel like I'm being felt up in public," Angone said.
Her father Bob Angone wanted to know, "What's the reason for all the feeling up, you know the groping at the back of the neck, the chest, underneath the bra, all the groping on her body, her buttocks?"
CBS 2 News asked the TSA those questions, but got no answers.
"The key word here is reasonable, and they have gone off the track. They are not reasonable," Bob Angone said.
The TSA declined to comment on the Angone and Perry cases, but the agency has announced that soon, passengers who set off an alarm that cannot be resolved will have a choice: Agree to a physical pat-down or what some believe is an even worse invasion of privacy.
This fall, O'Hare International Airport will get its first advanced digital x-ray machine. It allows TSA agents to see through clothes and discover any hidden weapons. Critics have likened it to a virtual strip search.
A spokesman said that out of 2 billion passengers screened nationwide since 9-11, there have been only 110,000 abuse complaints.
As for the nipple ring case, TSA did change its procedures regarding body piercings.
Fliers Complain About X-Rated Security Screenings
TSA Agents Forced Woman To Remove Nipple Rings, Pulled Pants Off Disabled Man
Reporting
Pam Zekman
When travelers go to the airport, they know what kind of security to expect: luggage searches, metal detectors and shoe inspections.
It's all part of our post 9-11 reality enforced by the Transportation Security Adminstration. But as CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman reports, thousands of travelers have complained that some of these screenings can become abusive and even x-rated.
For arguing with a TSA agent, Robin Kassner wound up being slammed to the floor. She's filed a lawsuit.
"I kept begging them over and over again get off of me ... and they wouldn't stop," Kassner said.
And it wasn't enough for another woman to show TSA agents nipple rings that set off a metal detector. The agents forced her to take them out.
Mandi Hamlin said, "I had to get pliers and pull it apart."
In Chicago, people like Robert Perry are subjected to exhaustive security checks. He was patted down, his wheel chair was examined and his hands were swabbed, all in public view in a see-through room at the security checkpoint. Perry, 71, is not alone
"It's humiliation," Perry said.
Perry was also taken to a see-through room by a TSA agent when his artificial knee set off the metal detector.
"He yelled at me to get the belt off. 'I told you to get the belt off.' So I took the belt off. He ran his hands down over and pulled the pants down, they went down around my ankle," Perry said.
At that point, Perry was standing in his underwear in public view. He asked to see a supervisor. That made things worse.
"She was yelling 'I have power, I have power, I have power," Perry said. The power to stop him from flying to Florida with his wife that day to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
"It makes you feel like you have no rights," Perry said.
Perry said he always alerts TSA agents about his metal knee and wonders why they can't just check his leg.
"If somebody told me that I would save the people on the airplane by taking my pants off out in public out there, I wouldn't mind doing it, but this was not necessary," Perry said.
TSA officials said that when the metal detectors go off, their agents must resolve what caused the alarm. But experts have said it's important to use common sense when balancing security and customer service.
Carlos Villarreal, former director of security for the Sears Tower, said proper training is crucial. "When you're wanding somebody and you can identify which part of the body set of the alarm, that should be sufficient to clear a person," Villarreal said.
But all too often, it's not enough for 16-year old Michael Angone. She frequently flies as a member of the Chicago Children's Choir.
"I've had to completely take my pants off and show them like my entire leg," Angone said.
As a baby, Angone was diagnosed with cancer. Her parents, both Chicago police officers, had to have her leg amputated. She said she always warns TSA security agents that her prosthetic leg will set off the metal detector, but many insist on doing an embarrassing full body pat-down.
"I feel like I'm being felt up in public," Angone said.
Her father Bob Angone wanted to know, "What's the reason for all the feeling up, you know the groping at the back of the neck, the chest, underneath the bra, all the groping on her body, her buttocks?"
CBS 2 News asked the TSA those questions, but got no answers.
"The key word here is reasonable, and they have gone off the track. They are not reasonable," Bob Angone said.
The TSA declined to comment on the Angone and Perry cases, but the agency has announced that soon, passengers who set off an alarm that cannot be resolved will have a choice: Agree to a physical pat-down or what some believe is an even worse invasion of privacy.
This fall, O'Hare International Airport will get its first advanced digital x-ray machine. It allows TSA agents to see through clothes and discover any hidden weapons. Critics have likened it to a virtual strip search.
A spokesman said that out of 2 billion passengers screened nationwide since 9-11, there have been only 110,000 abuse complaints.
As for the nipple ring case, TSA did change its procedures regarding body piercings.
From CBC News:
Passengers virtually stripped naked by 3-D airport scanner
The airport in Kelowna, B.C., will be the first in Canada to test a new type of passenger scanner that creates a three-dimensional image of people's bodies.
The new body imager unveiled on Thursday uses high frequency electromagnetic waves known as millimetre waves to create a detailed 3-D image of what a person looks like underneath their clothes.
The security guard operating the machine only sees a simplified image on a computer screen that indicates where ceramic weapons and plastic explosives or other suspicious items might be concealed.
But in a separate, private room, another officer sees the full detailed black and white image of the person's body. read
Passengers virtually stripped naked by 3-D airport scanner
The airport in Kelowna, B.C., will be the first in Canada to test a new type of passenger scanner that creates a three-dimensional image of people's bodies.
The new body imager unveiled on Thursday uses high frequency electromagnetic waves known as millimetre waves to create a detailed 3-D image of what a person looks like underneath their clothes.
The security guard operating the machine only sees a simplified image on a computer screen that indicates where ceramic weapons and plastic explosives or other suspicious items might be concealed.
But in a separate, private room, another officer sees the full detailed black and white image of the person's body. read
German Papers Say 'Many Have Lost Faith in America' Because of Bush
By E&P Staff
Published: June 13, 2008 11:27 AM ET
NEW YORK With George W. Bush visiting Germany and other parts of Europe this week, German newspapers have been slamming the U.S. president in language stronger than most American dailies use.
The Der Spiegel publication compiled some of the comments, which are quoted below.
-- Berliner Zeitung: "Rarely has an American president been less popular in this country. And rarely has one embodied the arrogance of power more convincingly than Bush.
"It is unforgotten how he humiliated the United Nations, how he went to war against Iraq with a 'Coalition of the Willing,' how his closest aides portrayed France and Germany as wimps. Bush discredited values which had brought United States worldwide respect. Many have lost faith in America because of the false reasons given for the war, the unlawful imprisonment of terror suspects in Guantanamo, or the photos of Abu Ghraib." read
By E&P Staff
Published: June 13, 2008 11:27 AM ET
NEW YORK With George W. Bush visiting Germany and other parts of Europe this week, German newspapers have been slamming the U.S. president in language stronger than most American dailies use.
The Der Spiegel publication compiled some of the comments, which are quoted below.
-- Berliner Zeitung: "Rarely has an American president been less popular in this country. And rarely has one embodied the arrogance of power more convincingly than Bush.
"It is unforgotten how he humiliated the United Nations, how he went to war against Iraq with a 'Coalition of the Willing,' how his closest aides portrayed France and Germany as wimps. Bush discredited values which had brought United States worldwide respect. Many have lost faith in America because of the false reasons given for the war, the unlawful imprisonment of terror suspects in Guantanamo, or the photos of Abu Ghraib." read
From Rense.Com
Biometrics Identification To Enhance National Security
Big Brother Presidential Directive
By Michel Chossudovsky 6-12-8
The latest Big Brother police state measure emanating from the Bush administration, with virtually no press coverage, is NSPD 59 (HSPD 24) entitled http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080605-8.html
Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance National Security [Complete text of NSPD 59 (HSPD 24) in Annex below]
NSPD is directed against US citizens.
It is adopted without public or Congression debate. Its relevant procedures have far-reaching implications.
NSPD 59 goes far beyond the issue of biometric identification, it recommends the collection and storage of "associated biographic" information, meaning information on the private lives of US citizens, in minute detail, all of which will be "accomplished within the law":
"The contextual data that accompanies biometric data includes information on date and place of birth, citizenship, current address and address history, current employment and employment history, current phone numbers and phone number history, use of government services and tax filings. Other contextual data may include bank account and credit card histories, plus criminal database records on a local, state and federal level. The database also could include legal judgments or other public records documenting involvement in legal disputes, child custody records and marriage or divorce records."(See Jerome Corsi, June 2008)
The directive uses 9/11 as a all encompassing justification to wage its witch hunt against dissenting citizens, establishing at the same time an atmosphere of fear and intimidation across the land. read
Biometrics Identification To Enhance National Security
Big Brother Presidential Directive
By Michel Chossudovsky 6-12-8
The latest Big Brother police state measure emanating from the Bush administration, with virtually no press coverage, is NSPD 59 (HSPD 24) entitled http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080605-8.html
Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance National Security [Complete text of NSPD 59 (HSPD 24) in Annex below]
NSPD is directed against US citizens.
It is adopted without public or Congression debate. Its relevant procedures have far-reaching implications.
NSPD 59 goes far beyond the issue of biometric identification, it recommends the collection and storage of "associated biographic" information, meaning information on the private lives of US citizens, in minute detail, all of which will be "accomplished within the law":
"The contextual data that accompanies biometric data includes information on date and place of birth, citizenship, current address and address history, current employment and employment history, current phone numbers and phone number history, use of government services and tax filings. Other contextual data may include bank account and credit card histories, plus criminal database records on a local, state and federal level. The database also could include legal judgments or other public records documenting involvement in legal disputes, child custody records and marriage or divorce records."(
The directive uses 9/11 as a all encompassing justification to wage its witch hunt against dissenting citizens, establishing at the same time an atmosphere of fear and intimidation across the land. read
Scanners that see through clothing installed in US airports
From AFP:
NEW YORK (AFP) - Tue Jun 10, 5:11 PM ET
Security scanners which can see through passengers' clothing and reveal details of their body underneath are being installed in 10 US airports, the US Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.
A random selection of travellers getting ready to board airplanes in Washington, New York's Kennedy, Los Angeles and other key hubs will be shut in the glass booths while a three-dimensional image is made of their body beneath their clothes.
The booths close around the passenger and emit "millimeter waves" that go through cloth to identify metal, plastics, ceramics, chemical materials and explosives, according to the TSA.
While it allows the security screeners -- looking at the images in a separate room -- to clearly see the passenger's sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger's face is blurred, TSA said in a statement on its website.
The scan only takes seconds and is to replace the physical pat-downs of people that is currently widespread in airports.
TSA began introducing the body scanners in airports in April, first in the Phoenix, Arizona terminal.
The installation is picking up this month, with machines in place or planned for airports in Washington (Reagan National and Baltimore-Washington International), Dallas, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Miami and Detroit.
But the new machines have provoked worries among passengers and rights activists.
"People have no idea how graphic the images are," Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union, told AFP.
The ACLU said in a statement that passengers expecting privacy underneath their clothing "should not be required to display highly personal details of their bodies such as evidence of mastectomies, colostomy appliances, penile implants, catheter tubes and the size of their breasts or genitals as a pre-requisite to boarding a plane."
Besides masking their faces, the TSA says on its website, the images made "will not be printed stored or transmitted."
"Once the transportation security officer has viewed the image and resolved anomalies, the image is erased from the screen permanently. The officer is unable to print, export, store or transmit the image."
Lara Uselding, a TSA spokeswoman, added that passengers are not obliged to accept the new machines.
"The passengers can choose between the body imaging and the pat-down," she told AFP.
TSA foresees 30 of the machines installed across the country by the end of 2008. In Europe, Amsterdam's Schipol airport is already using the scanners.
From AFP:
NEW YORK (AFP) - Tue Jun 10, 5:11 PM ET
Security scanners which can see through passengers' clothing and reveal details of their body underneath are being installed in 10 US airports, the US Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.
A random selection of travellers getting ready to board airplanes in Washington, New York's Kennedy, Los Angeles and other key hubs will be shut in the glass booths while a three-dimensional image is made of their body beneath their clothes.
The booths close around the passenger and emit "millimeter waves" that go through cloth to identify metal, plastics, ceramics, chemical materials and explosives, according to the TSA.
While it allows the security screeners -- looking at the images in a separate room -- to clearly see the passenger's sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger's face is blurred, TSA said in a statement on its website.
The scan only takes seconds and is to replace the physical pat-downs of people that is currently widespread in airports.
TSA began introducing the body scanners in airports in April, first in the Phoenix, Arizona terminal.
The installation is picking up this month, with machines in place or planned for airports in Washington (Reagan National and Baltimore-Washington International), Dallas, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Miami and Detroit.
But the new machines have provoked worries among passengers and rights activists.
"People have no idea how graphic the images are," Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union, told AFP.
The ACLU said in a statement that passengers expecting privacy underneath their clothing "should not be required to display highly personal details of their bodies such as evidence of mastectomies, colostomy appliances, penile implants, catheter tubes and the size of their breasts or genitals as a pre-requisite to boarding a plane."
Besides masking their faces, the TSA says on its website, the images made "will not be printed stored or transmitted."
"Once the transportation security officer has viewed the image and resolved anomalies, the image is erased from the screen permanently. The officer is unable to print, export, store or transmit the image."
Lara Uselding, a TSA spokeswoman, added that passengers are not obliged to accept the new machines.
"The passengers can choose between the body imaging and the pat-down," she told AFP.
TSA foresees 30 of the machines installed across the country by the end of 2008. In Europe, Amsterdam's Schipol airport is already using the scanners.
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