Re: TSA gropings and pat downs - Am I the only one noticing that

[truedelphi]

After hundreds of thousands of man hours of pat downs, TSA has yet to announce that they have foiled even a single terrorist!

Meanwhile, people have been arrested for small amounts of weed. Recently, there was a woman in Austin TX who was arrested and DRAGGED away for not wanting to be humiliated and inappropriately groped. Another unfortunate soul had his body respond inappropriately to the pat downs, and after his orgasm, he too was arrested.

And now these masters of terrorist detection and their scanning machinery will be set up at hotels and shopping malls all across this land of freedom!


But you have to admit the people running the company holding the patent on the scanning machinery are probably socking away a small fortune.

[Ohio Joe]

1. What?

"And now these masters of terrorist detection and their scanning machinery will be set up at hotels and shopping malls all across this land of freedom!"

What did I miss? When is this happening?

[truedelphi]

2. It was discussed just a lil while ago here on DU and

Here is the link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4673768

And a link for how efficiently the Scanners can detect even small amounts of weed in plastic baggies, another DU link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4673768

And I feel badly for the guy who was overly excited by the TSA gropings, and then arrested for that "perversion." With today's spophisticated anti-depression drugs, some people are inadvertently over stimulated sexually. Zoloft can have that effect on some people.

So it may be the fault of the guy's prescription meds, and not his "impure thoughts" or poor self control.

[Ohio Joe]

3. Neither of those links says that.

I'll panic about scanners at hotels and shopping malls when they might actually put them there.

[ixion]

6. then go ahead and start worrying...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4673768

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, December 26th, 2010 -- 6:40 pm
WASHINGTON – The United States is stepping up security at "soft targets" like hotels and shopping malls, as well as trains and ports, as it counters the evolving Al-Qaeda threat, a top official said Sunday.

[Ohio Joe]

47. Why?

That is the same link that says nothing about scanners.

[ixion]

54. If the scanners are the only thing that bothers you about the TSA

then there's no sense in discussing this further.

[Ohio Joe]

55. Since the TSA was not the discussion, that may be for the best

I was talking about the made up non-sense that homeland security was going to install body scanners in hotels and malls. I have no idea why you are bringing the TSA into this.

[Occulus]

15. ...which will be FAR too late for anything to be done about them. n/t

[Ohio Joe]

48. Perhaps but....

I don't buy for a second they are going to be putting body scanners in hotels or malls. I also think trying to make this into something where they are is silly.

[Incitatus]

25. Wasn't that one about the orgasm satire?

Do you have a link to that story?

[crikkett]

35. That's what I thought, too.

But it could happen, couldn't it?

[LisaL]

42. The orgasm story was a joke.

But the woman who got arrested for refusing a pat down (she asked TSA to not pat down of her breasts) is real.

[lostnfound]

20. I was at a hotel in New York about 3 months ago and was shocked by a sign

stating that suitcases and baggage might be subjected to Xray screening or inspection blah,blah,blah. It really creeped me out.

[notesdev]

4. They did catch a small baggie of pot

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

[fasttense]

5. My sister, who only flies 1st class, says she has never been groped or X-rayed.

She travels everywhere and often. But she has never been scanned by the nude x-ray machines nor has she been groped. Is this an anomaly? Have other 1st class passengers been subjected to this crap?

I suspect the rich don't have to endure this humiliation. Probably because we all know rich people aren't terrorists and terrorists can't buy 1st class tickets.

[2Design]

12. just been lucky so far the new procedures went in place dec 1

[whathehell]

13. I've flown coach twice since the "new rules" and it's not happened to me...at least yet. n/t

[leveymg]

17. Your sister may be mistaken.

She may not have noticed any difference going through the scanners from the old metal detectors. I know I didn't in November when I traveled on business, except TSA asked me to raise my hands.

[treestar]

24. Well the 911 hijackers had first or business class seats

So there is no excuse for the TSA not checking them out!

[CreekDog]

30. TSA is far too busy scrutinizing people with medical issues and devices

so busy that they can't scan much more than a fraction of everybody else.

if you think that's effective...

[high density]

34. Depends on the airports and the terminals she has visited

Some airports do not yet have the strip search machines, and depending on the layout of the airport, you may only be subjected to the machines at certain terminals. (Fly Delta, get strip searched; fly Continental and blow right through-- makes a lot of sense, yes?) Plus, after the outrage last month it seems the TSA has silently backed down a bit on using them.

[shanti]

38. it's only certain airports

i flew from sacramento to orange county during thanksgiving. no patdowns, no xray machines in either of those airports (yet). however...if i had taken san francisco to LA or san diego (where the machines are in use), it would have been a different story.

[Vinca]

7. Yesterday I heard a report that they spotted something on a little old lady

and singled her out for a search, but somehow she slipped away from them. A little old lady! It delayed all kinds of flights, too. Grandma probably had a hidden cache of Pepto Bismal.

[LisaL]

31. They saw "something suspicious" on a body scanner.

But elderly lady got away despite the "manhunt" through the entire airport. It would have been funny if it wasn't so sad.
"TSA described the slip-up as a minor error, although it sparked a manhunt throughout the entire airport. Security agents mobilized the command post. Officers searched terminals for the women, whose photos were given to gate agents."
http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=13741290

[pecwae]

8. Nope, you're not alone.

You'd think TSA would be crowing about all the terrorist attacks they've thwarted by confiscating shampoo and inappropriate touching. This is all about enriching the already rich and keeping the sheep tranquilized by repeating the "we're making you safer" meme.

[Pholus]

9. Now careful here -- remember that dissatisfaction with the TSA is playing into the RW's hands.

Or so I've been told...

[katnapped]

28. And showing you have something to hide!

If you're not bending over you're OBVIOUSLY working for Al Qaeda.

NOW SPREAD EM!

[BlueIris]

52. And trashing the president for just giving his opinion!!

Who says it has to be a valid opinion??!!

[baldguy]

10. They're not there to catch terrorists.

They're there to instill fear.

[mercuryblues]

11. satire

http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/patdown.asp


http://www.deadseriousnews.com/?page_id=2

Percy Cummings, who was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a TSA agent during a pat-down last month, was Twitter’s top Tweet for 2010, according to a company spokesperson.
<snip>
Cummings and his partner, Sergio Armani, have been in seclusion since his release from Federal custody. Calls and emails to their residence have not been returned

[TBF]

14. The scanning machinery - bingo. It is always about the profit with capitalism, no matter what the

topic.

[Angry Dragon]

16. They plan to have 500 machines in place by the end of the year

and to have 1000 machines by the end of 2011

[DemReadingDU]

19. appx $150,000 per machine

Somebody definitely is getting rich


edit to add link

The machines cost about $150,000 each.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/business/27road.html

[LisaL]

23. Follow the money.

[walldude]

39. Michael Chertoff.. Set the whole thing up while he was

in Homeland Security, and just happens to own part of the company supplying the machines.

[astral]

18. The reasons for TSA's is to discourage airline travel. Period.

Part of the re-arranging of America plan is to get people to stop with this idea that they can freely travel around. We know now Agenda 21 exists, we know we are 're-wilding' America, and part of that plan is getting population centers more concentrated in certain areas and cleaning the humans out of other areas. Then it will simply be more difficult to travel because of the layout of the highways, checkpoints, cost of gas, and huge boundaries on areas that they dont' want people to go.

We are already in the position of being told no, we can't fly, and we don't have to be told why we can't fly. They got away with that, they get away with X-Raying us at airports, sticking their hands down our pants, getting arrested for just trying to back out of getting on a plane to avoid the gropings.

Are we still in America, people? Anybody out there still think so?

They are having their way with us. Jobs being exported out, food being genetically manipulated into something that even hungry animals refuse to eat, cameras and face scanners 'everywhere' (getting there), putting health food stores and farmers markets out of business, taking over the educational system so all our kids think the way they want us to think. Most of us are already the product of that system.

We see discussed here alot of Americans getting a one way ticket out of here. Those of us left behind will be nothing but serfs who will do whatever is in front of us to get a meal in our gut and a roof over our head. They don't 'need' us and the de-population plan applies to our country as well, we are 90% down the road of where they are taking us already.

I started hearing about this stuff long before I ever had a computer, or even believed I would ever want one. This is the sad part, I can not look around me and not believe what I see even if I wished I could.

"We'll show them! We'll just refuse to fly!"

Yep. We'll show them.

[MedicalAdmin]

26. Count us among those leaving.

My wife and I are starting the paperwork to leave and emigrate to canada . We are also looking at south Africa.

The reasons are purely financial. Overall lower tax/fees and cost of living, better and more affordable education, and a much higher quality of life. Plus neither country is spending itself into the ground on military and corporate welfare.

The USA is done. The only questions are only how many will die while it flushes down the crapper and what will be left, if anything, in the aftermath.

[Ikonoklast]

33. So long.

Better try for SA, for if the U.S. fails, so will Canada.

This country is Canada's largest trading partner, we stop buying, Canada fails.

[MedicalAdmin]

49. Canada is the usa's biggest trading partner.

Most canadiens realize the problems with being tied too closely to the USA and it is country that is relatively debt free and swiftly changing its trading habits and diversifying at a stunning rate.

If the USA falls Canada will suffer bit not asuch as you would think. Given that their exports are highly desirable they will not lack in customers. Compared to that what has the USA to offer?

Don't get memwrong I love the USA and I love Americans but we are on a one way trip down. For myself and my families future we have decided to invest in our future in a country that is still investing in it's own future. Investing in it's future is something the USA stopped doing over 30 years ago. How much longer can we coast on past investment?

I hope I'm wrong. But I'm not.

[Desertrose]

27. Pretty hard to deny the evidence right in front of you (us)...

isn't it??

Once your eyes are opened, you wonder why everyone else can't see it too.

[felix_numinous]

21. This is not a fun country anymore.

What ever happened to "Nothing to fear but fear itself?" and 'Party on!?"

There's too much money in the insecurity business.

[LisaL]

22. Give me liberty or give me death.

What should the slogan be now?

[katnapped]

29. Bend over and cough? n/t

[felix_numinous]

32. Anything from George Orwell would suffice

Homeland Security should just go ahead and carve him on Mt. Rushmore and get it over with.

[glitch]

40. Give us the security of a living death. nt

[and-justice-for-all]

36. I went through two airports on my way to Amsterdam...

no one touched me or my partner, it was quick and easy...

[truedelphi]

44. Yep. And chances are, had there been a terrorist in your midst,

The Security Personnel would have been detecting the small but perhaps perceptible tell tale signs regarding that passenger, rather than focusing most of their attention on some poor woman with her post-rape trauma issues.

[shanti]

37. orgasm???

wtf? :wow:

[Matariki]

41. Hotels? Are you sure about that?

The idea of having hotel staff viewing you naked in order to stay there seems far fetched, but hell, the way things are going these days little can surprise me.

Do you have any links for the 'hotels and shopping malls' thing?

[RC]

43. Not gonna happen

The places that can afford the equipment are not going to offend their clientele in the first place.
The places that can't afford the equipment are not going to drive away their customers by treating them as common criminals by groping them.

[GoneOffShore]

50. Saw TSA at 30th St Station in Philly recently

Being their ever so officious selves.

The "abundance of caution" meme is starting to catch on, and shopping malls and such just love to control the people who come in.

It will come unless we make noise and object now.

And the airlines appear to be bowing to the "security consultants" and driving away customers by allowing the TSA to treat all travelers like common criminals.

[onenote]

45. hard to take an OP seriously when it can't distinguish satire from fact

sorry, anyone who falls for the orgasm story deserves an award for gullibility.

[truedelphi]

46. LOL. I received at least four emails from folks about the orgasm story -

And I confess to laughing so hard at the end of this part of the tale of one of the emails:

In Cummings’ defense, there are signs all over the airport that say you’re not allowed to bring liquids past the checkpoint. The TSA screener, who now goes by the nickname, "Squirt," could not by reached for comment. I assume he was too busy having a brand new mother arrested for spilling milk on him.

That I failed to research more thoroughly.

[truedelphi]

51. Oh, and look at how accountable TSA has been -

They spent some thirty million bucks on "puffers" that would shoot blasts of air on you, and somehow this woud help them determine if you recently had been assembling explosives.

Except it didn't end up working that well.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/20/AR2010122005599.html

From the article:
The Transportation Security Administration spent about $30 million on devices that puffed air on travelers to "sniff" them out for explosives residue. Those machines ended up in warehouses, removed from airports, abandoned as impractical.

[BlueIris]

53. The concept of accountability is a foreign one to TSA. nt