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JohnyCanuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-12-10 10:50 PM
Original message
TSA screener accosts a very unhappy 3 year old.
 
Run time: 03:06
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TCHSGvNwRY
 
Posted on YouTube: January 23, 2009
By YouTube Member: TheIntelligencer
Views on YouTube: 29924
 
Posted on DU: November 13, 2010
By DU Member: JohnyCanuck
Views on DU: 2153
 

The Not So Gradual Degradation Of A Nation

Tuesday, 9. November 2010

Paying To Be Raped

Every single day millions of us are being subjected to the shameful processes of being searched, screened and viewed naked, patted, groped, fondled, poked and stroked by badge-wearing strangers- police under a different name. Every single day. Millions of us, Americans. Being violated. Being degraded. You know exactly what I am talking about. I am taking about me, you, your mother, her brother, his brother’s wife and toddler son, their grandmothers. I am talking about the systematic degradation of our people. I am talking about being raped of our dignity, privacy, and decency. I am talking about a daily systematic rape we actually pay to be subjected to. I am talking about severe violations we elect people to bring upon us. Yes, I am talking about traveling, TSA police, and being reduced to naked and helpless subjects of government police practices.

Considering its short tenure, the motherland police force, aka Department of Homeland Security, has had a one of a kind success. In less than a decade it is now the third largest cabinet police department. It has around 200,000 employees, and that’s without counting contract employees – which exceed this number. Now remember, we still have the FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA…plus all the other state and local police forces from before. TSA makes up over 60,000 of DHS employees. This 60,000 federal police force oversees 450 airports, so that makes it around 133 police per airport. And that’s in addition to local airport police.

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2010/11/09/the-not-so-gradual-degradation-of-a-nation/


The Things He Carried

Airport security in America is a sham—“security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease.

If I were a terrorist, and I’m not, but if I were a terrorist—a frosty, tough-like-Chuck-Norris terrorist, say a C-title jihadist with Hezbollah or, more likely, a donkey-work operative with the Judean People’s Front—I would not do what I did in the bathroom of the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport, which was to place myself in front of a sink in open view of the male American flying public and ostentatiously rip up a sheaf of counterfeit boarding passes that had been created for me by a frenetic and acerbic security expert named Bruce Schnei­er. He had made these boarding passes in his sophisticated underground forgery works, which consists of a Sony Vaio laptop and an HP LaserJet printer, in order to prove that the Transportation Security Administration, which is meant to protect American aviation from al-Qaeda, represents an egregious waste of tax dollars, dollars that could otherwise be used to catch terrorists before they arrive at the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport, by which time it is, generally speaking, too late.

SNIP

The ID triangle: before a passenger boards a commercial flight, he interacts with his airline or the government three times—when he purchases his ticket; when he passes through airport security; and finally at the gate, when he presents his boarding pass to an airline agent. It is at the first point of contact, when the ticket is purchased, that a passenger’s name is checked against the government’s no-fly list. It is not checked again, and for this reason, Schnei­er argued, the process is merely another form of security theater.

“The goal is to make sure that this ID triangle represents one person,” he explained. “Here’s how you get around it. Let’s assume you’re a terrorist and you believe your name is on the watch list.” It’s easy for a terrorist to check whether the government has cottoned on to his existence, Schnei­er said; he simply has to submit his name online to the new, privately run CLEAR program, which is meant to fast-pass approved travelers through security. If the terrorist is rejected, then he knows he’s on the watch list.

To slip through the only check against the no-fly list, the terrorist uses a stolen credit card to buy a ticket under a fake name. “Then you print a fake boarding pass with your real name on it and go to the airport. You give your real ID, and the fake boarding pass with your real name on it, to security. They’re checking the documents against each other. They’re not checking your name against the no-fly list—that was done on the airline’s computers. Once you’re through security, you rip up the fake boarding pass, and use the real boarding pass that has the name from the stolen credit card. Then you board the plane, because they’re not checking your name against your ID at boarding.”

SNIP

I couldn’t believe that what Schneier was saying was true—in the national debate over the no-fly list, it is seldom, if ever, mentioned that the no-fly list doesn’t work. “It’s true,” he said. “The gap blows the whole system out of the water.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/the-things-he-carried/7057/2/
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MrMickeysMom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-12-10 11:07 PM
Response to Original message
1. ...
:popcorn:
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rocktivity Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-12-10 11:13 PM
Response to Original message
2. One of my nieces did the same thing when she was three
My sister said she threw a fit when they took her doll and put her on the conveyor belt. After they went through the detector, she got to see her doll come toward her on the belt, which calmed her down.

:headbang:
rocktivity
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grasswire Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Nov-12-10 11:30 PM
Response to Original message
3. at any point do they check the identity against the NCIC?
That seems another vulnerability, if they don't.
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vaberella Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 12:02 AM
Response to Original message
4. Not a big deal to be honest. Like the guy said...
"You try to do the best you can..."
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Stinky The Clown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 12:06 AM
Response to Original message
5. I have no use whatsoever for the TSA. The whole agency is just plain creepy.
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LibDemAlways Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 01:02 AM
Response to Reply #5
11. Guess who lobbies on behalf of Rapiscan - the company that makes the
nude-o-scopes that invade people's privacy at the airport? None other than Skeletor, aka Michael Chertoff. These guys sure know how to make a buck off the stupid sheeple, don't they?
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JohnyCanuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 12:27 PM
Response to Reply #11
17. Dear Mr. Chertoff:
Dear Mr. Chertoff:

You should be ashamed of yourself for shilling for a technology that has not been tested enough to prove its safety and that is so extremely invasive. I can only hope that you suffer through the humiliation and indignity of being screened while being doused with radiation on a regular basis as well. If I had to guess, though, you and most of your lobbyist buddies and fear mongers make enough money from your selling out the Fourth Amendment that you fly privately on a regular basis.

Thanks for profiting off your illustrious position as the head of the ultra-fascist DHS. I recently returned from serving in the US Army in Kuwait but I cannot say I am proud to have served a country that no longer values our fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. I am fairly certain that Patrick Henry did not utter “Give me a false-sense of security or give me death!”

Sincerely,

Eric S. Morris

http://stoptsascanners.blogspot.com/2010/11/dear-mr-chertoff.html
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SheilaT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 12:06 AM
Response to Original message
6. For one thing, the TSA agent
is touching that child in all the places we normally teach kids that it is NOT okay to be touched.
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alittlelark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 12:11 AM
Response to Original message
7. My 16 year old was 12 when she had to go through it.
As we went through the screening she was singled out. She was told to step aside (away from me). She had that deer in the headlights look. I was told that she needed to stay in taped in zone. I was not allowed to enter the zone. 3 female TSA ppl proceeded to try to pat her down as she panicked. One of them was nice - the other two were NOT. I asked to enter the 'zone' a few times and was rudely rebuffed by the 2 rude ones.

She started crying, she could not stop even after they passed her through. I got her calmed down enough to stop crying for awhile, but once the plane was in the air she started crying again. It took 10+ minutes to stop her silent sobbing.

It was a nasty, ugly situation.

WTF is wrong with some of these people?

When a NORMAL human being sees a child in distress they try to help, not make it worse.

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seabeyond Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 11:02 AM
Response to Reply #7
15. i would be so angry. that is what turned me off... the greatest
when they targeted 4 and 6 yr old to intimidate, because they had issue with me. it was soon enough after the whole 911 that i was able to slide into the seat next to my youngest and tease and jest with him, to bring fear level down. but to not be able to help child is sickening.
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 12:19 AM
Response to Original message
8. It's IMPOSSIBLE to hide a weapon or bomb on a child

Besides, that's where the cocaine goes:

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/08/03/Cocaine-found-hidden-in-babys-diaper/UPI-14621249311337/

Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A woman arrested at an airport in the Netherlands allegedly had more than 2 pounds of cocaine stashed in her body and in her baby's diaper, police said.
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alittlelark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 12:25 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. Quick find... yeah... It seems that the vast majority
was swallowed with a little bit in a diaper....


Lets get real.
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LibDemAlways Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 12:46 AM
Response to Original message
10. It's all bullshit. Good thing people are
starting to wake up and fight back. The goons are getting a ton of negative publicity. When the bottom line starts suffering as a result of people not flying, the airlines will be pressuring the politicians to do something about this stupid ass agency run amok. IMO if Congress wants to cut part of the federal budget, they could start right at the airport by getting rid of this army of morons.

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2Design Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 01:29 AM
Response to Original message
12. this is forced molestation and WRONG
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MrModerate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:25 AM
Response to Original message
13. Bottom line: Too many morons wearing TSA uniforms.
Even the crankiest of adults will probably admit that something like the TSA is necessary to provide reasonable risk reduction to air travelers. But from inception the TSA has earned a reputation for hamhandedness, pointless practices, useless aggravation, and -- frankly -- slovenliness and stupidity.

That reputation seems to be supported by the facts.

When teabaggers complain that government is incapable of functioning properly, they need look no further than TSA.

As progressives (excuse me labeling you so if you don't consider yourself to be so), we have an investment in a TSA that is smart, efficient, and effective. And not just so we can travel without undue hassle ourselves.
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LibDemAlways Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 10:17 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. The TSA personnel I've come in contact with aren't qualified to
cook fries at McDonalds. Mickey D has stringent standards compared to what TSA routinely hires. They are definitely the employer of last resort for the otherwise unemployable.

Why not take the money currently being wasted on this dog and pony show that does little more than piss people off and invest in Israeli-type security? Put intelligent, well-trained people to work in our airports who are capable of ferreting out real threats while eliminating the humiliation and harassment that have clearly gotten out of hand. "Smart, efficient, effective" - what a welcome change that would be.
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JohnyCanuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 11:37 AM
Response to Original message
16. Submitted online at jetblue.com by James Rich:
My concern is that I will never submit myself, my wife or my kids to radiation exposure and porn pics or to be felt up and sexually assaulted by TSA Gestapo squads and we will never fly on an airplane again.

Jet Blue's response:


Dear Mr. Rich,

Thank you for contacting JetBlue Airways regarding security practices in place by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

JetBlue complies with all all security regulations in place by the TSA. If you would like more
5nformation regarding body scanning technology, please feel free to follow the link below:

http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/ait/index.shtm

If you are unable to click on this link, please paste it into your browser)

You can also email your comments and concerns to the TSA at www.tsa.gov.

We appreciate you as a JetBlue customer and we hope to welcome your family onboard JetBlue in the
future.

Sincerely,

Stephenia
Customer Commitment Crew
JetBlue Airways
Crewmember 38967

And James' rejoinder <edited for language>:

Thanks but my family will never, ever be subjected to porno scanners and
sexual assaults. You have lost a customer for life. Put that in your pipe
and smoke it a*****e. I can drive to Florida twice a year and I will happily pay for
the fuel and a room each way. Thanks but I'm all set with your sick
perverted schemes for me and my family. You can deal with the TSA, I have no
lobbyists but I have my ability to lobby you with my non-use of your
company. Thanks, James

http://stoptsascanners.blogspot.com/2010/11/short-and-to-point-jet-blue.html#more
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 12:43 PM
Response to Reply #16
18. What does JetBlue have to do with it?

What a spiteful little man.

Sounds like the same kind of guy that yells at the mailman about the price of stamps.
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JohnyCanuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 03:54 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. People are pissed off at the airlines (not just jet blue)
because the airlines appear to be going along without objection to this unwarranted abrogation of air travelers civil right by the TSA irradiator and grope and feel squads and appear unsympathetic to their complaints.

While it's true the airlines have no authority or control over the TSA, it is the airline industry (as well as the individual passengers of course) that supposedly is being protected by these new, more intrusive search procedures, so if the airlines don't raise their corporate voices in objection more and more people are apparently letting them know that they resent their implicit support of the over the top TSA procedures and will cease, or at least minimize, using their services because the security clearance hassles of traveling by air have become too much of an imposition.
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 05:47 PM
Response to Reply #19
20. Blaming the airlines is abject stupidity
Edited on Sat Nov-13-10 05:48 PM by jberryhill

Honestly, that's simply juvenile
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JohnyCanuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 06:47 PM
Response to Reply #20
21. Apparently not everyone sees it that way.

It's hard to believe.

The TSA believes that it is allowed to do ANYTHING without limit related to "passenger screening." That is their official position.

There's a simple solution to all this:

1. Stop flying

2. Stop subjecting your children and other people you are responsible for to groping, molestation and sexual assault by TSA employees

3. Let the airline CEO cowards know why you are not flying

4. If you have to fly the day before Thanksgiving, follow the lead of the air stewards union and opt-out

Go here and shut this program of harassment and public humiliation down now: http://www.wewontfly.com

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/973.html
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 08:41 PM
Response to Reply #21
22. Yes, there is no shortage of stupidity

And if you think calling a customer rep for an airline an "asshole" is a productive thing to do, I wish you great success.
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JohnyCanuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 09:27 PM
Response to Reply #22
23. No, would not have done that myself (called the airline rep an ahole)
but I do agree with telling the airline(s) that as long as this forced submission to these intrusive new searches and having private parts felt up and groped is a requirement to get on an airplane, then I will not travel by air at all, or at least minimize my use of air travel as much as possible from now on.

The airline(s) are then free to decide whether to ignore me as one of a few solitary kooks and not a threat to their profits or to get alarmed at the number of people with similar views, which would mean profitability and revenue streams are threatened, and bring their corporate influence to bear accordingly.

The no-flyers are also suggesting that those who strongly object to these searches and wish to see the power of the TSA reigned in, write to resorts like Disneyworld or cities who make a lot of money from tourism, e.g. Orlando Fla, NYC etc. and inform them that they will not be able to visit or bring their families to visit these attractions and cities because the intrusive search procedures required to board an aircraft keeps them from traveling.

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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Nov-13-10 10:57 PM
Response to Reply #20
24. Letting the airlines know that they're LOSING BUSINESS
because of national security state bullshit...

Is the BEST tactic there is...

The airlines and other major corporations OWN the fucking politicians in the Corporate States of America...

And the best way to get their attention is to tell them why you're withholding your money from them...

What's juvenile is being unable to connect the dots or understand the reality of the situation...
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-14-10 12:12 AM
Response to Reply #24
25. Okay, Einstein

I have a meeting in South America next month.

You wanna drive me there?

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jb5150 Donating Member (213 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-14-10 03:24 AM
Response to Reply #25
26. It's in a month...
can you get there by boat?
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-14-10 11:59 AM
Response to Reply #26
27. Do you have an occupation?

Yeah, that's a real practical idea, lol.
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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-14-10 12:33 PM
Response to Reply #25
28. Setting up a Strawman....
Edited on Sun Nov-14-10 12:34 PM by ProudDad
shows your ignorance...
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-14-10 12:42 PM
Response to Reply #28
29. A strawman?

I beg your pardon, but I had a conference last month in Geneva, and one next month in Colombia.

WTF is the "strawman"?

You are suggesting I walk?
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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-14-10 12:59 PM
Response to Reply #29
30. "You are suggesting I walk?"
Edited on Sun Nov-14-10 01:04 PM by ProudDad
THAT is a strawman...

Your silly statement is based on nothing I said or suggested and you made it in order to deflect the argument into a silly irrelevant dead end...

And then you just did it again:

"but I had a conference last month in Geneva, and one next month in Colombia."

That you're doing your best to riddle the stratosphere with greenhouse gasses in order to help render the Earth uninhabitable still has no bearing on the fact that the National Security State in the "Permanent War Economy(tm)" of the USAmerikan Empire is fucking out of control...

That's a strawman...

On edit:

http://www.one.org/us/issues/

If that's what you're working on with these trips, at least something good's coming out of it. It's important to work on the symptoms until the disease is conquered...
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-14-10 01:12 PM
Response to Reply #30
31. Lol

So, uh, before the TSA pat down procedure, it was okay to fly (and buy carbon offsets); and I'm apparently promoting US imperialism by flying Lufthansa to a UN event.

Alrighty, thanks for teaching me what a strawman is.
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ProudDad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-14-10 01:23 PM
Response to Reply #31
32. "it was okay to fly (and buy carbon offsets)..."
Edited on Sun Nov-14-10 01:24 PM by ProudDad
That's a different logic error...

I don't have time to look up the name right now...

We're all caught up in the cognitive disconnect of an unsustainable "system"...

Have a good flight... :hi:
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-14-10 01:29 PM
Response to Reply #32
33. The thread is about boycotting flying over TSA procedures

If your problem is with flying generally, then the TSA procedures have nothing to do with your objection to flying.
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KansDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-15-10 11:28 AM
Response to Original message
34. The TSA screener had more privacy than the 3-year-old girl!
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