The Terrorists Have Won

It's funny in a sad way that we've got a President who reserves the right to have American citizens assassinated without due process, the election which got him into office featured a paucity of talk about the two wars our country is engaged in, and we've been subject to warrantless wiretapping for years yet most people barely bat an eye at these things. But now some people are fighting back against the government's war on civil liberties, namely, the right of TSA agents to grope and take pictures of you and your children at the airport.

A lot of incidents are garnering national attention. First is this video, which I gather is a year or more old, of a TSA screener groping a three year-old girl.



A pilot named Michael Roberts refused to allow government lackeys take naked pictures of him or be groped. Now he's suing for breach of his Fourth Amendment rights.





The latest media story is about John Tyner who refused to be scanned and groped. But, when he tried to leave San Diego International Airport, he was told that he was not allowed to do so and threatened with a fine and jail time. You can read his version of the events and watch footage of his encounter with the TSA that he shot on his cell phone here.

I began to make my way to the stairs to exit the airport, when I was approached by another man in slacks and a sport coat. He was accompanied by the officer that had escorted me to the ticketing area and Mr. Silva. He informed me that I could not leave the airport. He said that once I start the screening in the secure area, I could not leave until it was completed. Having left the area, he stated, I would be subject to a civil suit and a $10,000 fine.

And to top it all off, there are worries about the safety of the scanners.

My money says that this wave of resentment will subside come the new year and most people will have come to accept being scanned and/or groped. And the same will happen when these scanners are on every street. I just don't see enough of a backlash for the scanners to go away. Besides, a lot of folks with influence in Washington are lobbying on behalf of the companies that make these things. Indeed, Bush's Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security is on the payroll of one of those companies.

Finally, check out this post by someone claiming to be a former TSA employee. A couple highlights:

The body scanners are just what they are called – body scanners. They will scan your entire body and produce a pretty detailed naked picture of you on the screen. Will some TSA employees point and laugh behind the scenes, YES! Will some call their buddies over for a really good looking or well-endowed male or female passenger they just screened, YES! Will some TSA employees make fun of any oddities they see, YES! Is it unprofessional, YES!

The new pat down procedure is nothing more than a tactic to get passengers to walk through the body scanner. It is not a necessity it is terror tactic. The majority of people do not want someone feeling all over them even for security purposes…I have talked to several current TSA employees and they are all in agreement that this new invasive technique has nothing to do with better detection and everything to do with making passengers walk through the full body scanner.