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Are new security screenings affecting your decision to fly?
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Stepped-up security screening at airports in the wake of foiled terrorism plots has provoked an outcry from airline pilots and travelers, including parents of children who say they are too intrusive.
Industry officials, travelers and pilots have complained bitterly to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about new full-body scanners and more rigorous patdown checks begun recent weeks.
Security officials have defended the measures as necessary after foiled plots by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has tried to hide bombs in clothing and parcels that have made it aboard a U.S. passenger airliner and two cargo planes.
With the busiest holiday travel season nearing, fliers face long security lines and new rigorous patdown checks aimed at discovering hidden explosives. As a result, some travelers are questioning whether to fly at all.
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My wife will not travel when she has to have this kind of pat down. She went through a terrible incident about five years ago when pregnant. Woman insisted on feeling her breasts to stomach. It was way over the top. She was holding my then less than two year old son. I was told to stay back. She could not stand being touched. What they did not know is she was once sexually assaulted, and this just brought it back. Nobody wanted to hear any of this. She had a physical reflex action to block this search. You would if you had been through what she went through. So the tsa needs to back the F off. They are getting way over the top. I travel two or three times monthly. I could care less about pat downs or the machines personally. My wife cannot stand the idea of traveling NOW.
Has anyone publicly claimed violation of religious freedom from this abomination?
How about violation of my Fourth Amendment Rights?
Love to know how the Thousands Standing Around (waiting to feel our privates) would respond to these statements.
I’ve sworn off flying long before this latest humiliating attack on the customers’ privacy. I used to fly several times a year, but the security has just ruined it. I’ll drive 1,500 miles now before I’ll get on a plane, and would only fly in case of a last-minute emergency. I tired of being treated like a criminal a long time ago.
I have already cancelled my vacation plans to Orlando for a Disney vacation. That was a significant amount of money. No flight, no money going to Florida. Thinking about driving to Canada where I have more freedom. I’ll spend my deflated money up there.
I will find other means to reach my destinations from now on or as long as this intrusion into We The People’s freedoms are being trampled on. This is past stupidity. The people need take a stand and say enough is enough, and good bye to obama and his henchmen. What a joke he and his administration is. I too will vote repubilican from now on or anothe party with common sense, who is proud of America, loves the country and what it stands for.
I have posted my feedback to both the TSA https://contact.tsa.dhs.gov/DynaForm.asp x?FormID=10
and to my frequent flier mileage carrier AA.
Unfortunately this is no joking issue. Reminds one of the early days of Socialist NAZI Germany… TSA employees need to be held accountable so they weed out the inappropriate ones, off task and on their own agenda.
They should put these full body scanners and obtrusive pat downs on the streets of Chicago. Maybe they will cut down the number of murders there, and in Detroit and maybe parts of the border with Mexico…
We the passengers have often come to the aid of the flight crew in assisting with unruly passengers as well as those intent on destroying the aircraft.
Redeploy these scanners to the Border crossing with Mexico and the Streets of our murder capital cities…
Otherwise, keep these jack booted, NAZI thugs from twisting the nipples of 12 year old young ladies…
IMHO
In the five and a half hours it takes me to drive from my house to the airport, park my car and go through security, I can drive comfortably in my car between 300 and 350 miles. I can stop and stretch, bring snacks or stop at a restaurant. In order to fly from my house in northern NM to Corpus Christi, TX, I have the 5.5 pre-flight and then have to fly W to Phoenix before flying east to Dallas and then S to CC. That’s two plane changes and the possibility of being stuffed in a seat next to the fat lady in the circus or someone sneezing and coughing or perhaps a mother with a small child on their lap, whining and crying.
Thanks, I’ll take two leisurely days enjoying the scenery in my own car.
I like to travel to Mexico and when I do that, I take the bus. It is far more comfortable than the airplane.
Once I heard about the scanners, I decided then and there that I would not fly anymore for any reason. The “enhanced pat down” has simply “enhanced” that decision! If my elderly father (90) who lives in Florida became ill tomorrow, I would not be able to go to see him, or if he passed away, I would not be able to go to his funeral. I will not subject myself to radiation or a grope!
I have written to Senators Boxer and Feinstein about this, demanding action be taken.
A little earlier, I checked out a video and blog by John who was at the San Diego airport just yesterday and had a serious run-in with TSA when he opted out of the scanner. Yesterday, I listened to Alex Jones interview one of his own employees who had been detained and handcuffed to a chair when she refused for herself and her two young daughters (20 mos., and 8 yrs) to be groped at a Florida airport. They tore up her ticket right in front of her!
Refuse to fly, people! The airlines will respond when their profits take a dive. And I support 100% anyone who is brave enough to stand up to these nut-case TSA employees. How do they sleep at night???!?
Hey TSA,
How about if your children are subjected to this? If, you think it’s OK? Social Services needs to know about you!
CitizenJohnDoe
Yes indeed I will travel by car or rail and avoid getting scoped and groped! We need to eliminate the terrorist problem at it’s source, we are crazy to put up with these people any longer! Enough already!
The terrorists have won.
You all missed the point completely!
You learned nothing from the Holocaust! The Nazis hearded 6 million Jews in an orderly line into GAS CHAMBERS!
The terrorist teams are going to go to the front of the line and back of the line and and blow all you sheeps to the slaughter; currently scheduled for right after “Dont ask Dont Tell” is repealed so there will be no “gay” deferment when Obama implements the DRAFT!…and the government knows it; all you need is dogs at the airport entry doors to sniff for two seconds!
Do not take my word for it that this war is only a scripted weapons deal; listen President Eisenhower the supreme commander of the allied forces in weapons deal two (aka: WW2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBR tY
The USA stabbed the Shah of Iran in the back and brought in the dictators that parade as religious to keep Iranian oil substantially off the market; same with Iraq: invade, create civil war, but keep Iraqi oil off the market at all cost…high oil price = money for weapons sales to OPEC; then send in the KGB types to stir up a “nice long lasting war and sell lots of weapons! (C 1991: long war)
That gulf oil spill kicked 50,000 bbl/day and there are 4500 wells in the US sector of the gulf! You have been had; Madoff has nothing on this keep the oil off the market con!
And that is a better explanation than you received from Bush/Obama/: two/three peas in a pod…
And if you want more proof of just how dumb down and brainwashed you are, listen to Yuri Andropov, Vladimr Putin’s mentor had to say about you in the early 1980s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7dplJP1E 6I
We take our grandkids on vacation twice a year. We will continue to do so, but not by commercial air. It is one thing for the government to want to play around with my crotch. But it will be cold day in hell before I let one of them molest my grandkids. They can spin it any way they want, but is it sexual molestation of a minor.
If your driving time is less than eight hours, you’d be better off driving than flying. Unlimted food stops, restroom breaks at your convenience, no molestation, no groping of your genitals, no chance a pissed off pilot of nose diving into ground, …etc
Yes, alternative plans will be made before I or my family subit to our governments version of 1930′s Germany. Bush started it and Obama and his band of merry men/women are making it even more dispicable.
I would like to see all of our senators, representatives, Supreme Court, and the bureaucrats in line with us commoners. Again the royal government in DC is above us. But we keep voting them in.
I need to make a business trip across country in a few weeks, and I’ve decided to drive instead of fly for only this reason. I will not allow the government irradiate me, no matter how small. It’s not a health thing, it’s principle. And there is no way they are going to give me a pat down. NO WAY.
Liberty isn’t taken away all at once. It is gnawed and removed piece by tiny piece until we’re stripped of it.
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” -Ben Franklin 1775
I have been through security screening at Ben Gurion airport which by far is more effective and far less intrusive. Israeli security agents are young inquisitive college graduates. They are trained to ask probing questions. There are no pat downs or porno machines. The proof is in the pudding. Their security is the best in the world. Our government could have saved billions of dollars by rejecting the machine approach and accepting intelligent profiling as practiced by Israel. The TSA high school dropouts are no match for the creative determined terrorists we face today.
Janet is a dunce. She is a confirmed idiot who thinks she can make us safe with radiation and pat downs. She is a sex pervert as is the TSA staff who agree to implement such procedures.
Time to abolish the Department of Homeland Security when she saids the Borders are safe and the air is free of terrorist. She ought to know: She is one.
There is this mythical country that the same people that are trying to blow up our aircraft are trying to blow up theirs. They have been handling this threat for over 40 years with no problems. You know what they do? The TALK to the passengers they THINK would be the most likely to be terrorists. Isn’t that AMAZING! And thin is the best part, the government personal that are conducting these interviews aren’t union, is this a fantasy or what!?
The mythical country is Israel. Maybe we should have had a talk with them before creating this band of badge happy morons the TSA. Kind of like talking to the Dutch when it comes to holding back the sea.
you poor sheeple, you will do anything the government says to do. Remember it was the German citizens who were the hands of Hitler, they were told they need to do all the horrible things they did for their own security. What are you willing to do to get a pat on your empty little head from the government? Just about anything?
Just profile. You know that is how to mitigate the risk but we can’t be politically correct, so we will pay the price. They win by making us follow our insane PC procedures. We will change only after enduring alot of incidents.
Look, TSA can’t even perform the x-ray inspection of our carry-ons adequately. On October 12 I took an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Houston. During the flight a small, elderly, frail Asian man made his way down the aisle to the galley area. He put down his canvas briefcase/tote in the empty seat next to us and fumbled with the plastic wrap on a noodle bowl. Failing to tear it off, he took a 2-inch, wide-bladed, pocket knife out and proceeded to cut off the plastic. I stared at the knife in shock and nudged my husband. “He has a knife! How did he get a knife through security???”
We don’t have the AIT scanners yet in Seattle, but unfortunately they do have them in Lihue, Hawaii, where I had planned to spend a week in our timeshare this coming February. I REFUSE to subject myself to either the irradiation/virtual strip-search or the sexual-assault “pat down”. I have probably flown for the last time, unless I can put trips together that go through the small out-of-the-way airports.
Used to fly a lot. Now we ONLY fly if we have to go more than one time zone, and sometimes even then, we drive. Basically, we’re down to flying only to leave for another continent, like our trips to South America. At least going there, we only have to be humiliated on this end – on the other end, where it should count more since we’re heading back to US airspace, it is routine procedures at best. Add to that, our bags are usually manhandled and entered, our flights are rarely on time, there is no food, the seats are too small for comfort of any type, there are never any pillows or blankets, the food, if served, is horrible, and well, you got the picture. If they did this downgrade of service on the trains, it would be like going from a first class sleeper, to being tied on the rails!!
You bet I’ll make alternative plans. I will not have my spouse and children sexually assaulted by the societal losers who are now TSA government employees when they let Muslims go through the line with no screening, but stop and frisk an 80 year-old grandmother.
If we really want to stop terrorism on aircraft, we need to borrow a page from the Israelis and get serious about interviews and profiles. Sadly, the average TSA employee cannot speak good English, knows nothing about profiles, and may not even be an American citizens.
I knew Jane Napolitano would be a horrible Homeland Security Secretary, and she has lived up to expectations.
If we’re not going to get serious about airport and airline security, and trade TSA fools for good security people, then the airline industry in the United States will be permanently crippled, along with the business sector.
AmendmentIV to the US Constitution “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 of affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The TSA works under contract with the U.S.Government and is directly violating our IVth Amendment right as guarantied by the U.S.Constitution.
As a company owner from Canada I deal with US companies and sometimes have to travel down there. Not any more. I refuse to have my wife or me be sexually assaulted just for the privilege of ordering goods made in the US. Last week I cancelled a $5.3 million contract because of this stupidity and I let the companies I deal with know why. I know that my business purchases may not seem like much for some of the larger companies there, but I know of at least 4 others company owners who have or are in the process of doing the same. The US’s foolishness is Korea’s gain in this case.
Many years ago, I used to fly more legs in a year than most commercial pilots. In the last few years my flying has been limited to 4-5 trips per year and I wonder how the heavy travelers put up with the crap. My last few flights have convinced me that I will never fly again. I have made one trip that I would normally use a commercial flight and early next month will be my 2nd driving trip instead of flying. The trip will be to the LA area from Alabama and will cost much more than airline travel plus the many hours of driving. I have driven this before but it was a sight seeing vacation type trip with some business at the other end. The air lines will not miss my few dollars but I am not flying any more commercial air lines. If companies like Jet Suite serviced this area and 4 of us could get together then a charter might be another option to driving. More money than most might want to spent – but at least it is an option
This enhanced pat down/full body scanners is nuts! If is all so safe and not sexual assault then why don’t US federal officials go through the indignity of TSA searches? Why don’t we see Sec. Napolitano sujected to these searches? (OK so instinctivelythe TSA would not have the power on or squeeze Sec. N’s ‘junk’… it would be sham) …why aren’t Washington’s elected officials and other bureaucrats sujected to this? Oh is it because they never actually fly with normal people .. the little people that pay their salaries? They are too important to fly commercial aviation? Let’s watch Mrs. Obama or Nancy Pelosi be groped by a TSA official and see if there is a policy change….How is it that El Al doesn’t have to use these stupid techniques? Maybe TSA should talk to them …no better yet, hire El Al to run the US security system!!!
I am excited and eager to join the class action lawsuit against DHS, TSA, Sec. Napolitano, Sec. Chernoff, etc … and then wwatch the dramatic increase in cancer resulting from this fraud just about the time Obama Care kicks in (there go the predicted medical savings) as these useless Bush/Obama Wars celebrate their Golden Anniversary as we are still engaged in conflict against the boogie man! Wake up people … this is a hoax….
The real solution to the security problem is simply too politically incorrect to even consider: Allow passengers to arm themselves against any would-be terrorists. No, no! Guns are dangerous! Yes, they are, and especially to the bad guys!!!
I will not be subject to unnecessary x-rays and will not stand for anyone touching me that is not my husband. I think everyone male and female should dress in female Muslim garb and just express your religious rights to only be fondled on your head and neck and there you have it, personal freedom. Just don’t take off your outfit until you get off the plane. Better yet someone should open up a spot next to the car rental spot in the airport where you can rent Muslim wear and turn it back in at the other end of your flight.
Ms Napolitano, you are a public employee. Appointed, not elected. As such, you have never had to ‘prove your worthiness” to have such a position. As titular head of TSA, you are the one whose face the public places on TSA.
Your article in USA Today speaks of the ‘safety’ of the AIT systems. As an engineer with experience with X-ray systems (E.G.&G. Astrophysics, Los Alamos Labs), I can state that your information is absolutely incorrect. Ionizing radiation is to be avoided at all costs, and the effects are cumulative.
You state “The imaging technology that we use cannot store, export, print or transmit images.” That is a blatant lie. Those functions are built in, originally intended for system diagnostics, they none-the-less are active and functional at all times.
“commitment to be one step ahead of those who seek to do us harm.” This is a lie. It is a knee-jerk reaction, not a pro-active solution. Anyone familiar with pyrotechnics technology would tell you that there are easier, faster, more efficient and less invasive techniques for PREVENTING ‘nasty’ devices from getting into airports, much less on board aircraft.
M. Napolitano, you have repeatedly demonstrated your lack of understanding of the basic situation, preferring to build a cadre of poorly-trained, inept, and often criminal employees rather than adopting the proven techniques and technologies that provide Israel with the safest air travel in the world. In short, Madame, your pandering to your group of pedophiles and perverts, calling them ‘professionals,’ only makes you look, well, like a Madame, of the lowest caliber.
Pity. One would have hoped more for you. Are your parents proud?
After going through all the security, I can grab a bagel to eat on the plane….along with the THICKEST, SHARPEST PLASTIC KNIFE I’ve ever seen to spread my cream cheese. I could sooooo easily slash a throat with it; and I calmly, in plain view, carry it onto the plane with a big smile on my face.
TSA is a joke, airplane security is a joke. And if Muslim women are going to get a pass from this pat down, while we Americans are treated like the terrorists TSA should be PROFILING, well, will someone please bomb someone and get this war started!!!!!!!
This is a expensive an unnecessary intrusion. Use the Israeli method of physcological profiling people waiting in line.
The 4th Amendment 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.
THE TSA IS UNREASOONABLE IN THEIR SEARCHES. IF THEY WON’T PROFILE – WON’T USE THERMAL SCANNERS THEN I WON’T FLY.
I cherish(ed) my Premier Executive status with United in bypassing the lines. But now add government mandated strip searches and its agents copping a feel every time?
No thanks. Sorry United. It’s not your fault.
Only after liquid explosives were attempted to be used did TSA ban liquids. A year after the underwear bomber, they decide on patdowns. It’s all reactive non security.
Explosives can be cast into a lot of items that pass through security. Detonation electronics can be disguised in electronics. Explosives can be hidden inside body cavities. Finally, explosives could be injected into plastic containers inside the abdomen, etc.
Extrapolate to the future using this reactive approach. No carry on. Full body cavity searches. Pre flight CT scans…
THe better method ignored by Homeland Security.- the Israeli Method
http://securitysolutions.com/news/securi ty_expos ing_hostile_intent/
“Called behavior pattern recognition or BPR, the program has trained more than 100 state police troopers who provide security inside and around the airport. “Our troopers are in a proactive mode, using their skills and training to observe passenger behavior,” says State Police Major Thomas Robbins, director of aviation security for the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), which owns and operates Logan.
Troopers look for people behaving in unusual ways. For example, troopers would question a person buttoned up in a trench coat on a 100-degree day. Troopers would also approach a person with no baggage buying a ticket at the international travel counter. “There may be nothing wrong, but this behavior would attract our attention,” Robbins says.
Troopers interview people who catch their attention. Questions include the purpose of the person’s visit to Boston and his or her destination. Along the way, troopers ask for identification and check the person’s ticket and passport. Troopers are trained to handle interviews in a friendly manner, designed both to avoid giving offense and to put interviewees at ease and off guard. “
For many years I flew commercial 1-3 times a week, sometimes more. In 2003 I changed jobs and stopped flying because 1. airline customer service was declining and 2. the TSA security process had gotten way out of control. I have not considered traveling by air for either business or pleasure since that time. I drive everywhere now. I live in the SE US. If I can’t get get to a destination by car, train, or boat I don’t go. The TSA has grown to be an insatiable administrative monster. I do believe in the shot time it has been alive it has become more of a burden to the taxpaying public than the IRS.
Retired American Airlines Captain. Retired January of 2007 and haven’t been to the Airport since! I refuse to participate in the security charade. Of course it would help a lot if the Terrorists were actually afraid of Barry the Bafoon.
TSA cost American $450 this Thanksgiving because my Mom’s driving 7 hours instead. And that was before the guy in San Diego.
I had plans to fly cross country for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I have cancelled both trips due to this crap.
Seems like our government is more afraid of its own citizens then any would be terrorists. Personally, I am more afraid of our government than terrorists.
Remember, TSA received the directive straight form the top: Mr Barry Soetoro, AKA: OBAMA. “We The Poeple” better wake up, band and resist or we will be picked off one at a time.
Watch what he says, not what he does.
As a medical professional, my biggest concern is adults and children who may have a history of sexual abuse/molestation, this touching may be perceived as an assault and compound individual issues. This is an invitation to every sicko to apply for the fun job of molesting women, men and children, or getting their kicks watching virtual strip searches. The radiation is also a concern. I have been radiated many times during my life and feel additional radiation is unwarranted. The lawsuits should start ASAP. Travelers and companions should keep their cell cameras ready to record any unnecessary touching or inappropriate behavior.
Any TSA personnel who touches me where the sun doesn’t shine will be subject to a knee to the groin or will draw back a stump!
Janet Napolitano flies ButchBaby Airlines, and doesn’t ever go commercial. She is unwilling to go through the same pain WE go through on every flight.
Obama is the worst President in our history. Of course, he and his Marie Anoinette wife fly on our tax dollars are their 747s with dozens of servants all over the world.
I will not fly except for business, and then I only fly when I have to.
TSA, and American Airlines, have ruined the once-exciting adventure of flying.
The time to push back and stop this is NOW!Or soon you wont be able to take a train, bus or drive long distance without being subjected to the same kinds of checks. Their “logic” will be the same: it’s for your safety. Where’s the ACLU in all this?
Are you kidding? I have reordered my life to avoid flying altogether. Obama and company have transformed Amerika into a communist, totalitarian state which makes the former Soviet Union look like a Utopian wet dream. Obama stands shoulder to shoulder with foreign leaders to condemn and then sue US border states which choose to defend their borders rather than be overrun by armed political insurgents while you and I are subjected to the most extraordinary physical searches on the planet. What’s wrong with this picture?
The main thing keeping me from flying is the cost. Having traveled around the world I have endure much worse.
I had the worst experience in Tampa last year. I politely refused to go into the scanner. I was immediately treated like a criminal. They separated me from my two young children and yelled at me when I stepped out of the glass booth to reassure them. I was yelled at, belittled and left humiliated. My children were scared and I was left in tears. I now try to avoid flying whenever possible.