Janet Napolitano tells pilots scans and patdowns will continue-What About Muslims?

Well the TSA and Janet Napolitano are hanging tough….guess the protest on November 24th National Opt Out day  and threats from citizens not flying anymore will have to continue to stop this nonsense.

“Mr. Michael Chertoff should not be allowed to abuse the trust the public has placed in him as a former public servant to privately gain from the sale of full-body scanners under the pretense that the scanners would have detected this particular type of explosive”

Kate Hanni, FlyersRights

Group slams Michael Chertoff on scanner promotion

In February, the Figh Council of North America, a group of Islamic scholars, issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that full-body scanners violate Islamic law.

CAIR said Muslims who object to full-body scans for religious reasons should know their rights if they are required to undergo a pat-down, including asking for the procedure to be done in a private place. In addition, CAIR offered a “special recommendation” for Muslim women who wear a hijab, telling them they should tell the TSA officer that they may be searched only around the head and neck.

The body scanners would not even have stopped underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding Flight 253 on Christmas Day.

Also check out our latest article on this:

TSA is Attempting to Put a Chilling Effect on Full Body Scan Backlash

Janet Napolitano tells pilot, tourism representatives scans and patdowns will continue

In a hastily-called emergency meeting at the White House today, DHS director Janet Napolitano told representatives from the most powerful pilot’s union as well as the travel & tourism lobbies that despite the backlash of concerns about airport security, TSA’s use of invasive body scanners and humiliating patdowns, including the groping of passenger’s breasts and genitals, would continue. The frustrated executives were anything but satisfied by her statements.

The ramped up security measures have set off what Geoff Freeman, Executive Vice President says are hundreds of calls from travelers threatening not to fly. A whole range of interconnected tourism industries are concerned about the detrimental effect of security on business and travel. The airlines estimate that they’ve lost $9.4 billion in revenue due to “avoided” travel. Further, a 2008 survey found that 41 million potential fliers stayed home due to concerns about a “broken” or badly impaired system.

“You can’t talk on the one hand about creating jobs in this country and getting this economy back on track and on the other hand discourage millions of Americans from flying, which is the gateway to commerce,” Freeman railed.

However, Napolitano made clear that TSA’s operations would not only continue but expand as new technology is rolled out. “Trusted Traveler” programs have been scheduled for implementation, and would utilize biometric data such as retinal scanning for identification.

Travel-related industries are particularly concerned that the onset of a ‘travel revolt’ and a flurry of news coverage about groping and molestation occurrences at check points have come right before the holidays, the heaviest travel season of the year. Citizen groups have advocated either not flying or refusing to go through the body scanners. A “National Opt Out Day” protest has been coordinated on Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest single day for air travel of the entire year.

John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, objected to the unnecessary scrutiny of airline pilots and flight attendants, who, unlike TSA’s own employees, have already undergone background checks and who have been cleared to enter the cockpit. Pilots have already been trusted to operate the most dangerous potential “weapon” aboard any aircraft– the plane itself. What contraband could they could possibly conceal on their person that would be of greater concern?

“Pilots are not the terrorist threat,” Prater commented. “Seeing scarce security resources being used on pilots makes absolutely no sense.”

Also challenging security policy, Capt. Mike Cleary, president of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, wrote a letter this week advising pilots not to subject themselves to body scanners (i.e. Advanced Imaging Technology) due to health concerns about the radiation as well as concerns about the intrusiveness and behavior of TSA agents.

In truth, the security measures have not been put in place to curb terrorism—major media outlets have reported on the fact that in TSA’s nine year history, it has failed to stop even one terrorist.

Instead, the economic and privacy costs of security are shifted directly into the private security complex. Michael Chertoff authorized contracts for the body scanners and other security technology during his reign as head of Homeland Security, only to benefit directly from multi-billion dollar contracts as an industry representative and lobbyist for the body scanners after leaving the Bush Administration.

Infowars

UPDATED:World’s Pilots Reject Naked Body Scanners Over Radiation Danger, Privacy Breach

Well it’s finally starting to hit the fan with the TSA’s new pat down procedure if you opt out of the ‘virtual strip search’ at the airports.

The largest union of airline pilots in the world is urging its members to boycott body imaging machines currently being rolled out in airports all over the globe, citing dangers of excessive exposure to harmful levels of radiation during the screening process.

The president of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents 11,500 pilots, many of whom work for American Airlines, has urged members of the union to revolt against the devices.

Infowars

With the Electronic Privacy Information Center already engaged in a lawsuit challenging the legality of naked body scanners, the ACLU has also opened a web page inviting members of the public to submit reports of TSA abuse in the interests of future action.

The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg was told by a TSA agent directly that pat downs were made increasingly invasive not for any genuine security reason, but to make the experience so uncomfortable for the traveler that they would prefer to use the body scanner (just as I previously said…now validated-MD), despite the fact that scientists at Columbia University and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, along with other scientific bodies, have all warned that the devices increase the risk of developing cancer.

A citizens group has also organized a national body scanner opt out day set for November 24 aimed at sending a message to lawmakers demanding change.

American Airlines has now joined in on the TSA intrusion of privacy.

It’s safe to say that most of the APA leadership shares my view that no pilot at American Airlines should subject themselves to the needless privacy invasion and potential health risks caused by the AIT body scanners.

Here’s just one pilot’s account of what happened to him while attempting to report for work in the Memphis, Tn airport recently. It appears it cost him his job. I’m also including a link to the comments on this one.

Protect Yourself and Your Family Against TSA Tyranny

November 6, 2010 by Michael S. Roberts

Letter submitted to USA Today on Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 1:46 PM; rejected for publication at 2:35 PM:

For those who may still be unfamiliar, please allow me to briefly explain what’s happening in the U.S.A. today. When a law abiding citizen wishes to travel out of any major airport in the country where the latest air transportation security procedures have been implemented, he or she will now be subjected to what can only be truthfully described as a virtual strip search. The federal government is using funds raised through the Recovery Act to stimulate the economy by installing expensive new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) systems at airport security checkpoints throughout the nation. These devices enable screeners to see beneath travelers’ clothing to an extremely invasive level of detail. For example, the images are graphic enough to enable agents to determine whether a man has been circumcised, or whether a woman is menstruating.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is quick to point out that this program is optional. Individuals who decline this indignity, or “opt out”, will instead be physically frisked, which entails a federal security agent’s hands passing over the entire body, including the buttocks, breasts, hair, and genitals. The agent will explain the procedure beforehand, and the traveler is expected to consent and comply or else opt back into the AIT scanner. Otherwise, he or she will not be admitted to the secured side of the facility or allowed to board an aircraft.

On October 15, I was turned away from the security screening checkpoint at Memphis International Airport when I declined both AIT screening and the secondary “enhanced pat-down” procedure. I was attempting to enter the facility for my commute to Houston, where I’m based as a pilot for ExpressJet Airlines, doing business as Continental Express. I did, however, pass through a standard impulse induction metal detector without triggering an alarm, just as I have done approximately once per week at that same checkpoint (which happens to be in Terminal C – hence, “Checkpoint Charlie”) for the past four and a half years.

TSA announced the new screening policies last July. When we learned about the changes, many of my coworkers and I were deeply disturbed, especially as we discovered that this mistreatment was being mandated for crew members as well as passengers – even children! We discussed the various ways in which we might express our rejection of the new rules. Unfortunately, there had been no proposal published, and no opportunity for the public to comment. TSA had simply issued its decree, and it was already on the books. Because we didn’t want an incident like mine to be the first indication of our dissent, our initial concern at the time was to notify the company that we do not consent to having images of our nude bodies produced as a matter of course in performing the routine duties of our profession.

“Neither,” we wrote last August in a letter to our managers, “can we abide being stopped daily by government agents and physically molested,” as a reasonable alternative.

We also wrote: “While we take airline security very seriously, we do not believe the dubious benefits of these invasive measures justify the trade off in employee and passenger privacy and other rights and liberties. It is our view that reasonable levels of security within the air transportation system can and must be achieved without producing images of travelers’ naked bodies or subjecting them without cause to… unwelcome touching at the hands of federally employed airport security guards.”

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution states:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

I specifically draw the reader’s attention to the first eight words. Our nation’s founders clearly affirmed “the right of the people to be secure”. It’s equally clear that they saw the kind of wholesale, unprovoked assault against persons and privacy that is being committed within our borders today as a serious threat to that security – serious enough, in fact, to write it down in the Bill of Rights.

What is happening in the U.S.A. today is not safe. The things our government is doing do not make us secure or protect us. On the contrary, it is now necessary for us to protect ourselves from our supposed protectors. My wife and I teach our children to defend their bodies, and not to allow anyone to touch them in certain ways – not even friends or relatives. But if we wish to travel by air as a family, we must now deliver our children over to such abuse at the hands of strangers and tell them it’s okay because these are security guards who work for the government and wear uniforms with shiny badges. We will not. It is not okay. And we urgently implore our neighbors everywhere to protect themselves and their families as well.

Click here to read our letter to ExpressJet Airlines Management.

Click here to read my same-day account of the incident at Memphis International Airport.

61 Comments

Fedup Flyers.org

TSA to phase in new pat-down procedures at airports nationwide

I decided I’m going to post an article about the TSA’s  “enhanced” pat downs (gropings)  being begun, I suspect because many people are probably refusing the “full body scans” and requesting pat downs. So I suspect in response to that, the TSA is making the “pat downs” more intrusive because of the dissent on the “full body scans”. I could be wrong, but it appears that way to me. This was announced before the incident this week. Israel Transportation minister hinted state knew about mail terror plot before it was publicly revealed Friday. ‘Since Thursday Israeli representatives have been securing shipments to Israel from airports worldwide,’ he says. The PC crowd has kept them from ‘profiling’ like they should be doing instead of harassing ‘innocent people’ with no probable cause from that person.

The body scanners were vigorously promoted by people like former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and others who stood to reap a financial windfall from their implementation, despite the fact that scientists at Columbia University and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, along with other scientific bodies, have all warned that the devices increase the risk of developing cancer.

The body scanners would not even have stopped underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding Flight 253 on Christmas Day.

See the new UPDATE here:

Airport Body Scanners Under Pressure: Experts Now Warn X-ray Devices “could give you cancer”

As we wrote in our newsletter this week: scanners and backscatter devices are under pressure from all sides.  Despite the best efforts of Michael Chertoff and the TSA, word is out that Backscatter X-ray scanner technology that is being used in airports is exceedingly harmful, along with being an invasion of privacy.

An increasing number of people are becoming informed and are deciding to opt-out of the radiation and the X-rated detail of you and your family.  Naturally, this has forced the TSA to threaten more invasive physical searches, as they try to coerce people into taking the “easier” option.

This Daily Mail article on the subject is another nail in the coffin for X-ray scanning technology. Even if you don’t care about privacy issues, the fact that experts are now saying that “radiation from the scanners has been underestimated,” and that “because the beam concentrates on the skin — one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the human body — that (the) dose may be up to 20 times higher than first estimated,” should sound the final alarm.

G. Edward Griffin and Idaho state representative, Phil Hart, have made a strong case that the states have jurisdiction over this Federal program, which has yet to be approved by Congress.

The battle almost has been won before it began; with public support of proposed state legislation, we will see these machines sent to the waste bin where they belong.

Activist Post.com

TSA to phase in new pat-down procedures at airports nationwide

Airline passengers can expect to see as well as feel new pat-down procedures at U.S. airports over the coming weeks in an effort to provide another layer of security for travelers, the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday.

“Pat-downs are one important tool to help TSA detect hidden and dangerous items such as explosives,” according to a TSA statement sent to CNN.

But it’s the hands-on procedures that have at least one traveler concerned that the TSA may be going too far.

Rosemary Fitzpatrick, a CNN employee, said she was subjected to a pat-down at the Orlando, Florida, airport on Wednesday night after her underwire bra set off a magnetometer. She said she was taken to a private area and searched, with transportation screening officers telling her the pat-down was a new procedure.

According to Fitzpatrick, a female screener ran her hands around her breasts, over her stomach, buttocks and her inner thighs, and briefly touched her crotch.

“I felt helpless, I felt violated, and I felt humiliated,” Fitzpatrick said, adding that she was reduced to tears at the checkpoint. She particularly objected to the fact that travelers were not warned about the new procedures.

Fitzpatrick sent an e-mail complaint about her experience to the TSA that said the agency needs to get the word out so that travelers know their rights.

The TSA employees “conducted themselves in a professional manner, so my complaint is not about them professionally,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

She told the TSA the agency needs to get the word out so the travelers know their rights.

“I am appalled and disgusted at the new search procedures and the fact that passengers have not been made aware of the new invasive steps prior to entering the security area,” Fitzpatrick wrote. “It appears once you enter the security area, passengers forfeit their rights. There were no signs, video information, etc. at the entrance of the security area the airport. Why?”

She added: “As an experienced traveler for work who was in tears for most of the search process, I have never experienced a more traumatic and invasive travel event!”

CNN

We Cannot Quietly Submit

by Michael Rozeff, LewRockwell.com

I’ve been thinking about the horrid situation at airports for weeks, and before that for even more months

Flyers now have the option enforced against them of either being scanned or groped. What a choice!

I haven’t flown in an airplane for years now. The last time was when I attended a conference at the Mises Institute in Alabama. I have been lucky. I didn’t need to fly or want to fly, but I still may feel I have to, and I am still deeply troubled by the scanning and groping. Both are despicable.

What I wish is that all flyers would organize and boycott all flying, or organize sit-down strikes at all the airports on a given day and hour, or organize some sort of widespread protest action or actions at specific times so as to make known their true inner feelings.

What I wish is that all flyers would organize and boycott all flying, or organize sit-down strikes at all the airports on a given day and hour, or organize some sort of widespread protest action or actions at specific times so as to make known their true inner feelings.

This hope banks on the notion that people now put up with the scanning and groping because they feel they have no alternative as individuals. I may be wrong. They may support it or feel it’s in their safety interest. I don’t know, but I can only express my own personal distaste for what air travel has come to and hope that someone better equipped to organize protests than I will do so. Such protests should be accompanied by publicized demands to end this travesty.

Stop it! Stop it now! Stop searching every traveler! Stop searching innocent people!

Stop searches that have no reasonable basis. Stop searches that are based only on one criterion: that the person is a traveler. What kind of reasonable basis for a search is that? None whatsoever! It is totally unreasonable to suspect everyone! It is totally unreasonable to suspect everyone who is a traveler. It’s unreasonable for the obvious reason that we all know that not one person in sixty million is a terrorist, and not one in six hundred million is at the point of trying to board a plane with an explosive device hidden on his person.

Groping and scanning are both searches. Both are equally vile. Both are unreasonable searches. Both need to be rejected

Where’s the probable cause? Where’s the reasonable basis to grope me, frisk me, x-ray me, or otherwise invade my person or property? There is none.

Where’s the warrant obtained from a judge? There is none.

It’s totally ridiculous to be searching me. I won’t stand for it. I am being assumed to be a criminal suspect for no good reason whatsoever. The people engaging in the criminal behavior are the searchers in this case, not the searchees.

I speak personally, but of course the same is true of millions upon millions of other people. What have they done to merit a search? Absolutely nothing. Nada.

There is such a thing as a U.S. Constitution, although adherence to it is zilch. It once meant something, and the government still claims it means something. What a bunch of liars and hypocrites they are. They deserve no respect. They deserve nothing but scorn. How can they conduct such searches of millions of innocent people in the face of the constitutional language?

The Fourth Amendment reads

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

There is no ambiguity here. The right to be secure in my person shall not be violated. Period. It doesn’t say that airports are an exception. Or that public roads are an exception. Or that public spaces are an exception. There are no exceptions listed.

If exceptions are allowed, such as supposedly to create safe air travel, then similar exceptions can be allowed for rail, bus, auto, and pedestrian traffic anywhere, anytime, and at virtually any place. Police state, folks. That’s what we’re talking about. Police state. We’ve got it. Now. Here and now. Don’t look now, it’s here already.

I demand the termination of these unreasonable searches and I urge you to demand the same. Boycott air travel, or else dream up some better manner of protest than I can think of. But don’t sit still for this. It’s not right, and you know it’s not right. It’s not lawful, and you know it’s not lawful. It’s mass insanity, and you know it’s mass insanity.

Tenth Amendment Center